The Past Few Days

If I were to write about my experiences in Japan everyday, I still don't think I'd have enough time. So while I haven't written anything in a while and I have pictures and hopefully Blogger will work with me and let me put up more than just one photo... I'll start barraging you with the latest.

My week (and one day) of going to Japanese elementary school always began with this lady's face and a healthy dose of a loud 'OHAYOU GOZAIMASU!' (GOOD MORNING!) I was always fumbling for my digital camera to snap a picture of her, but this one was conveniently taken on my last day (Thursday) on the way back from school. Which was incredibly lucky, because she is, disappointingly, never there after school.

Thursday I happened to head back to the elementary school for my truly last day since my middle school at the time were having tests. It was incredibly fun! The kids organized an impromptu 'George and Recreation' day and to top it all off we did some more dancing when a group from Zimbabwe came tot he school to play music and make us dance. At first, the crowd of Japanese kids were predictably meek, but that soon changed when the dancers came around and started dancing with everyone. I have embarassing video footage of my futile attempts at trying to keep up with the energetic kids, but I'll spare you (and myself).

My motto - pictures tell a thousand words (that I don't feel like totally narrating right now):

Ah I love elementary school. At the end I got a little farewell plaque with messages from all of the kids and a kite made by the teacher.

The next day was my last day of middle school and while I will have spent the least amount of time there, the kids were still very cool about having me. Except maybe, more aggressive hounding compared to the adorable elementary school kids. I've never been smiled/stared/squealed etc. etc. at so much before. I don't expect it to get much better when I start high school tommorow, but I can confidently say I've been thoroughly conditioned. Now I know why Hollywood stars hate the paparazzi so much.

Anyway, I wasn't have too good of a day on my last day of middle school which kind of sucks because it was my... last day. But at the end of the day, the kids presented me with an orgami-crane necklace/lei. It was amusing and also really nice, after only four days of getting to know some of the kids. But thankfully, I did make quite a bit of friends and my host mom wants me to stay away from one particular girl who wants to 'hang out' over the summer vacation. Honestly, truly funny.

And some pictures from my days at the middle school:

'Kengaku' (or sitting and observing) for Judo:

Yesterday the family decided to go out for a little bit... which turned into basically an all-day affair. After futile attempts at getting my debit card to work at two different ATM locations, we went to JUSCO (a shopping mall chain), got McDonald's (which tastes absolutely the same...) and when the afternoon came around we headed to downtown Toyohashi.

This made me very happy because while I love Toyohashi for being a nice and quiet town, I also missed the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. And it was only worse because the other YFU students were only there for a day. While of course, nothing can really top Tokyo, the city-ish feel was pretty amazing. After being asked a million times what I would like, after foisting through a million Japanese food terms in my trusty (Lonely Planet Phrasebook w/ a horrible 2,000 word dictionary included) I stumbled upon agemono. Which is basically... Japanese fried food. And boy was it good!!!

I appropriately end with one of Ryotaro's ridiculous faces. Because my host mom spent a ridiculous amoutn of money filling his stomach with agemono, hahah. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I'll try to update as much as possible so I can spare you and myself long entries like this!