Friday, August 5th: Goodbye summer school

Yet another good day :) But it might be partially because it was our last day with this group of kids and in 7 days I will be in MICHIGAN!!!!!!!!!!!  The day began with lots of play time.

Look it! We made 3 foam blocks!

Which can also be worn as hats?
"Boushi" is hat in Japanese

Or used as jack-in-the-box things?
I don't know "jack-in-the-box" in Japanese



Isn't she a cutie?



Yeah, we built a tower.

Shouting some songs.

 So in Japan, teacher have to go to University for 4 years to get their teaching license which is similar to America.  However, they can only get certified to teach one age, be it kindergarten, elementary, middle school, or high school.  Among the normal education classes for teachers wanting to be certified for kindergarten, are a bunch of piano classes as the teachers must be highly proficient on the piano in order to certify.  That surprised me, but it makes sense after watching the teachers here hop on a piano and play whatever with ease and without looking.  Very impressive.  Except for a few of them who must not have gained an ear for music despite the numerous piano courses as some will play with their hands in two different keys.  It's like nails on a chalk board to me, but the kids aren't bothered by it.
After play time, came the goodbye ceremony with the nursery babies!  They're all so precious!

Check out these boys eyebrows!
They always look surprised, it just
cracks me up every time I see them!

Me and my favorite little fish-face
kissy boy, Toshiya kun!

Me, Madelyn, and the cuties!
I just love them!!

Ririka chan :) My favoritest little girl!

Toshiya kun looking so adorable!

 That little boy makes me smile :)  If I could take him with me, I would!  Today I was dressing him after shower time and as he hung on to my neck for balance he planted the most tiniest, gentlest, sweetest, little kisses on my head and ear!  So precious!  It made me laugh and I told him "arigato" (thank you) and he gave me another one!  The process continued on repeat until he was all clothed :)  I wanna take him home with me!

Lin Sensei being a good teacher by
reading 2 books at once...
And both are in Japanese!

Me and the adorable Ririka chan!

Okay this little girl is less than
two years old and has the face
of a 60 year old woman,
minus the wrinkles.
It's the strangest thing!

Madelyn being used for gymnastics

Then came our last school lunch (hallelujah!) followed by nap time, the first room check, our final Kumon class, and then more hanging out with the kiddos!

Kotoro kun and I built a 2 story
high foam box.  We're legit.

Mizuki chan and Lin Sensei
listening to directions on
how to make a origami airplane

 After work, Madelyn and I biked to the convenience store and saw this:

A BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW!

 The usual chicken/apple/cucumber salad and rice for dinner, but as we finished The Aristocats last night we started The Wizard of Oz tonight :)

Mmm pretty sunset!

A pretty low key Friday night.  Our last Friday night in Japan.  We found out a little more information about our final day here:
- Leave the Kindergarten at 9am.
- Get a ride from some Nishimura person to Chiba New Town, the next train station over from us so about a 15 minute drive
- They will drop us off at a bus station (a final going away party will happen the night before with all of the Nishimura family) and Madelyn and I will get on a bus with all our millions of suitcases
- About 2 hours later we'll arrive at the Narita Airport's departure termanal, plenty early to catch our flight
- At 3:35pm we should be taking off from Japan and heading to AMERICA!
- We arrive in LA around noon (CA time, so around 3pm MI time) and hopefully we'll make our connecting flight which will take off within the hour for Detroit!!
- Arrive in Detroit around 5 or 6pm and see my family and eat American food!  [Hannah, you promised to bring me oatmeal choclate chip cookies and peanut butter...don't let me down!] :)