Yattah! I'm in Japan!

I overslept today. Oops. I had a bad dream that I was back in America and my daddy told me we were only gonna eat rice. It was bad. Please, daddy? No rice for a while, okay? :) Today began similarily to yesterday. Play time, culture class instead of Kumon class, new kids assembly, outside play, and lunch.

Making some Japanese mud pies

Lunch was a challenge today. The kids ate in the classrooms instead of the large hall where they normally eat. So I was the only one eating school lunch, since my kids pay by day they have to bring lunch. They were lucky. Lunch today was some mysterious thing covered in KETCHUP!! AHH!! I don't like ketchup. At all. I never thought I'd be faced with my least favorite American condiment in Japan. Ketchup? Really? I couldn't eat it. I tried it and could barely keep it down. Even after taking a bite I couldn't tell you what was underneath the ketchup. But after returning the dishes (I ate the rice, cucumber noodles, and soup just not the ketchup thing), I saw that I was not the only one unable to finish lunch which is really rare for these kids! When a kid is done eating they must show their dishes to a teacher for approval. If the teacher thinks the few scattered noodles in the bowl need to be eaten, the teacher gathers them up and uses their own chopsticks to feed the kid. At first I thought it odd that they are so paranoid about germs that they occasionally wear masks, but then they will share chopsticks...but now very little surprises me. I'm not in America, so yeah, life is different :)
Nap time was spent in our air conditioned room! Hallelujah for a break! I wrote a journal for my Japan class :) YAY BEING PRODUCTIVE! After nap time came snack time of osenbei (soy sauce flavored rice cracker) and the super yummy pretzel m&ms.

Girl on right: posing like a monkey with
the always delicious pretzel m&ms
Girl on left: wondering why the other
girl is so weird
Me: laughing hysterically at both cuties!

Then came water games! Since today was not incredibly hot, just super humid, I chose not to remove my apron so I the kids knew not to spray me. Instead, I took pictures!

Welcome to water games!
(sorry for any naked children in the
background, but that's how some roll)

The other "dry" people

Check out the cutie attacking the
leader of the "cool boys" point blank.
I laughed.

Apparently they weren't getting wet enough?

Since the kids have to sing our English song at the incoming students assembly in the morning, we didn't have to teach English today. So after everybody was dried off and changed, it was play time and I made origami with the kids.

We split a piece of origami paper and
I taught her how to make a bow :)

Then she wanted to put them in her pigtails
Sidenote: her name is Emi chan
pronounced "Emmy" chan :)
so we basically have the same name

Okay look at this kid.
How hilarious is he?
I thought he looked like
a little boy ballerina in
tight tights. So adorable!

This evening was also productive with kumon homework, dinner, and reading letters I got in the mail (Thanks mom and Aunt Donna!) After doing dinner dishes, I got on my computer, pulled up some chord sheets to some songs, and snuck into one of the classrooms that connects to our kitchen. A few days ago, I noticed that the classroom I work in has a piano! Like a real upright, only slightly out of tune, legit piano! So yeah, I snuck into it and jammed for a while. It was fun, although a little scary since it's pitch black outside by 7pm and the emergency exit lights glow an eerie green in the otherwise dark, empty classrooms across campus. But once I got on the piano, I was fine :) It was wonderful to have that time to be alone with my music. Overall, a pretty good day. Tomorrow night is a goodbye dinner with the teachers!
Should be interesting, I've been asked to bring the pictures I brought of my family, friends, and especially my good looking boyfriend (the teacher's words, not mine! I promise!) It made me laugh but I'm happy to show my pictures because apprently it's a meaningful and respectful action to open up like that. I like it.
Goodnight to my Wednesday!

Today was a not too bad kind of day. Nothing crazy good about it, but not too bad. The temp wasn't too bad although definitely more humid and hot than last week. We didn't spend much time with the kids at all which was strange, but definitely less exhausting! We did spend a bit of the morning with them before heading off to the assembly of incoming students and their mothers. Madelyn and I danced and sang and read a book...all in English, of course because having native English speaking teachers is a great thing to advertise! Afterwards was a bit more time with the summer kids, followed by lunch, followed by office work which consisted of stamping instead of nap time, followed by a break for prep, followed by outside snack time, followed by English Kids Club, followed by playing on the playground, and that was that!