Wednesday, July 13th: Fruit for lunch? YES!

First off, a BIG THANK YOU for the prayers!  Today was much better than Monday and Tuesday and I'm so thankful for that!  Our day started with a trip to the post office to get more yen (a very important thing in a country where credit cards are practically useless).  Once we got back, we ate salty soy sauce flavored crackers as a morning snack with the kids.  Then there was a switch in the schedule and our usual Kids Club activities (aka Who's the King of the Jungle song) were done in the morning!  That was a wonderful change because we actually had energy instead of pounding headaches!!

Morning snack time with smiles!

Little Miss Chatty-Kathy

Seriously, this girl is the kid at school who has a story for EVERYTHING!  Sadly, I can't understand ANYTHING.  Sigh.

I secretly love this kid.

All he says is "NO!" to me because our first one-on-one interaction was me telling him "NO!" for doing something bad (he hangs out with the "too-cool-for-you" crowd).  But since then he's started behaving really well and the "NO!" thing is more of a game.  He's adorable :)  And his hair feels like a puppy.

Lin Sensei to Emely Sensei
(Madelyn and Emily)

Today's lunch was actually almost 100% agreeable with my stomach!  There was some unknown canned meat mixed in with the rice and the veggies I think will forever be something to be swallowed with as little chewing and tasting as possible.  But the soup wasn't too bad, a familiar onion base to the broth.  And the best part...APPLES, BANANAS, AND ORANGES!  I love fruit salad :)  I love fruit!

Today's lunch buddies with their
little boxed "obento" lunches



This girl is just too cute for words!

 As she was packing up her box after finishing lunch, a moth/butterfly landed on her arm and she threw the box across the room and freaked out until I brushed it off.  So funny!  (yes, for all who really know me, I'm sure you are thinking "that's exactly what Ems would have done"....I agree.  But it was still funny!)

Next was nap time:

How precious is this??
I love sleeping children!

Check out advanced Japanese
fine-motor skills!
I was SO impressed.

After craft time, the kids left to play a game and Madelyn and I got on our hand and knees and scrubbed the floor.  The Japanese student-teacher that joined us went around in the famous squat position, of course.  My knees won't let me be Japanese.  Following cleaning, we joined the kids in their game of Fruit Basket Upset, a game I haven't played since youth group days :)
Once work was done, Minako took us to the mall area to do some real quick shopping for a specific souvenier for Madelyn's man and super fast grocery shopping.  We thought were going to be dropped off for a couple hours to do more shopping...but ah, the joys of miscommunications.  Those happen so often, we're learning to pick our battles in trying to make ourselves more clear.
The most exciting part of my day:  DINNER!

A super delicious, oishii (yummy)
apple, chicken, and cucumber salad!
...with rice as a side, of course :)

Tonight I'm going to review some Hirigana characters, write some postcards, and maybe doing some reading to provide background for our historical trip to Kyoto (the ancient capital of Japan) which happens Sunday to Monday.  So good!

So yeah, thanks for the prayers everybody!  I really appreciate it :)  There's a reason I'm here, I know there has to be one....God just hasn't shared it with me yet.  So I keep praying!

Love to you all :)