Monday, July 25th: Shion Camp

Today was Shion Camp so my schedule was a little bit different.  The morning consisted of skyping, writing journals, laundry, and kumon homework.  Work didn't start until 2pm! All the 5 and six year olds arrived and camp began.  There was a beginning ceremony and then they divided into the three separate classes and went to different stations.

Japanese teachers rocking their adorable
little "cook" outfits!

 Station 1 was taking a class picture with Lin Sensei and Emely Sensei followed by "cooking" parfaits.

Posing with parfaits

 Station 2 was sports...how fun.

The other team.

My team would run to the other side, find a person, do "jon ken poy" or rock paper scissors, the winner remained on that side while the loser ran to the other side, repeat.

Second game made life interesting...

 We paired off, did "jon ken poy", and the loser had to crawl under the winners legs, and find a new partner.  It was a fun game to watch the kids play, but participating was tricky when I lost and had to crawl through a hole that's so itty-bitty!  I almost took a kid out with my bun...oops.

Flip the spot!  Go aka team!

 The third game was better.  We split into teams and had 30 seconds to flip as many blue spots to red (or red to blue depending on your team) and watch out for the other team flipping the spots back to blue.  It was fun and the kids loved it :)
Station 3 was "Gospel Choir" which was kids "singing" (screaming).  It was funny to watch although painful to hear.

Holding up the lyrics...in Japanese.
But now that I know hiragana, I can
sing along with most of it!

 But I got in some good chill time with the always adorable Gachi chan :)

Yeah, he totally climbed on
my lap of us own initiative!

 Next was dinner...kids brought their own, teachers got asian chicken something, but Minako had ordered us steak :)

Yummy dinner :)
It has my name on it.  Literally.

This is Gachi chan's dinner.  Look
at the detail that goes into it!

 After dinner, the 3 classes performed their songs for each other, we taught the King of the Jungle song, and the teachers put on a magic show and fireworks.  It was cute!

The teacher is "levitating"

Oh just setting the playground on fire.
No big deal.

 

Parents arrived for the closing ceremony

  A long, but good day.  Tomorrow should be normal-ish.  But we'll see :)  Goodnight, Monday!

Sunday, July 24th: Communicating with our hearts

Today was nice, surprisingly enough!  Madelyn and I found a wonderful discount clothes store at the mall by the church that we'll have to hit up more next Sunday so that was a nice start :)  At church, we taught our Who is the King of the Jungle song since Minako asked us to and you never say no here (except for once when I said no to Minako when she asked if maybe I'd want to sing a song at church).  After church began the adventure.
Earlier in the week we were told that a couple from the church had invited us over to their house for lunch after church.  So today after church we met the couple and went to their house for lunch.  Here's the real kicker: they don't know any English.  Like none.  Which is the same amount of Japanese Madelyn and I know...other than random "useful" terms like dog, cat, flower, temple, moon, house, monkey, etc.  So yeah.
When Mrs. Nishimura introduced us to the Tans and explained to Madelyn and I that they didn't speak English, she told us we'd "communicate with our hearts".

Random patch of corn growing in the
city on the way to the Tan's house.

Random sunflowers growing in the city.
I love sunflowers!
They're such friendly flowers!
(although not as friendly as daisies)

 When we arrived at the Tan's traditional Japanese home, we were seated on the tatami mat floor next to the traditional low table.  While Mr. Tan cooked the tempura (fried shrimp and veggies), Madelyn and I made gyoza (pot sticker dumpling things) with Mrs. Tan.  There was already made sushi on the table for us to snack on, too.

Mrs. Tan and Madelyn making gyoza



Gyoza filling...we used up most of it

You put a pile of filling on
the little circle of
noodle/dough/pastry thing

Then you wrap it around the filing
and pinch it together in 7 little pleats



YAY GYOZA!



This was our full lunch spread.

So much food!  We had the sushi, gyoza, a egg/pasta salad thing, homemade french fries, and tempura (shrimp, sweet potato, mushroom, green pepper, pumpkin tempura).

Me and the food...the door to the kitchen
behind me slides...totally authentic.

The Tan's son and his family
joined us...isn't she cute?

Dessert was some delicious
YELLOW watermelon.

After we got back from lunch, the day had warmed up but wasn't too warm yet.  So Madelyn and I decided it was a good time to finish the giraffes!

All done!
Look at our good work :)

We decided to leave our mark...

A heart shaped spot :)

YAY GIRAFFES!  Next was grocery shopping, learning a line dance in our room, made dinner, did kumon, and made origami.  A very nice evening :) One month anniversary with Japan.