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!] :)

Thursday, August 4th: Girls Night Out

So today was another day of cleaning.  We finished off the room area by sweeping the stairs and then scrubbed down the kitchen and shower room.  Once you add in a few breaks for ice cream and air conditioning, it adds up to be a pretty good day :)

So this is how we dry our sheets here...
or maybe it's just an excuse to build a fort?

After we finished cleaning, we cleaned ourselves up and went out with some of the teachers.  11 Japanese women + 2 American girls = 1 fun night of bowling and laughter!

Japanese bowling shoes.
Way better than American ones.

Taiko drumming arcade game?

Check out my form! Or maybe
I was trying to convince the
ball to not go in the gutter?

Yay being bad at bowling!
Yay still having fun!



My team!
Sawako Sensei, Iwasaki Sensei, & Emely Sensei
The losing team of the night, but we had fun!



I'm the score on top.  Yup.
45 for the first game.

An ICE CREAM vending machine!
Madelyn's found her new love :)



My scores on top again.
I at least out bowled myself with a 68.
Check out frame 5!



All the teams after our 2 games

Even though few of them spoke much English, it was still a really fun night.  Thank goodness laughter and facial expressions are universal :)  Japanese women, at least the single kindergarten teachers I work with, are SUPER giggly and totally cute!  Like when one of the teachers on my team got a gutter ball, she'd walk back with a discouraged smile and kinda walked in a way that reminded me of a feminine, cute Dopey from Snow White.  Their "Asian cute" is something that puzzles me.  They can get away with acting so immature at times and it's just considered "kawaii" which would totally not work in America.  And their fashion sense is something else.  It's hilarious.  The "fashionable" women in their 20s and 30s either dress in clothes that are 4,500 sizes too big or 4,500 sizes too small.  Again, something that I'd never be able to pull off and still look cute.  It's impressive.

After turning in our shoes,
we got warm cloths to wash
our hands after bowling.

The losing team had to buy
the winning team drinks...
I bought Nakahito Sensei a tea :)

  After bowling, we went to the food court in the mall and got some dinner. 

Shion C Sensei and me :)

Kaname Sensei, me, and Pretty-Hair Sensei

(The Japanese names are really hard to catch unless we hear it lots or see it written down, so Madelyn and I have made up nicknames for a few of them)

Zaru (cold soba noodles)

It ended up being a really fun night!  I was so thankful that it could be just us ladies relaxing and bonding despite the language barrier.  They are all so thoughtful, paying for our bowling, helping us find out our bowling shoe size in cm, helping me order dinner at the food court, giving us goodbye gifts, and driving us to and from the mall.  We thanked them to the best of our ability and said goodbye to most of them since tomorrow is the last day of school for them.  It's crazy to think only 8 more wake-ups in Japan!  I'll be home 1 week and 1 day and a 13 hour airplane ride from today :)