On a lighter note...

Since everyone seems to be in the not-too-happy mode right now, I'm going to post something joyous and loving about Japan. Starting with today's excellent adventure to a Japanese elementary school!

So, in true PII fashion, we found out this Monday that today we would be expected to entertain small Japanese children for 40 minutes. Though this was short notice, I did manage to put together something about World Heritage Sites in America (seriously, kids? This was really what you wanted to talk about?) for my group of 27 fourth graders. Yeah, that's right. 27. I was petrified as I went in.

Turns out, there was little to be concerned about. It was a little awkward sometimes, as I had no clue what to do for most of it and Japanese people are shockingly intense about taking care of their guests. Like, grabbed a flag out of my hands so that I wouldn't have to hold it. However, they were all ridiculously cute. I got to sit through 27 self-introductions (my name is...Chizuko? I like baseball. My bahssday is....May?), which was interesting. My favorites were the kids who said things like "I like summer". The funniest thing was how obsessed they seemed to be with me. There were three in particular who wanted to be as close to me as possible pretty much all the time. One was this miniature boy who was squirming in his seat the whole time and whose eyes popped every time I said something in Japanese. Another was a girl whose father is Australian, who spoke a little English. Her comprehension was really good, and her accent was definitely the best in the class, but she wasn't pera-pera (fluent) as far as I could tell. It was adorable when the kids had to ask me questions, because they would all come running up to her and ask her to tell them how to say things in English. Those suckers were brave, too...I definitely would not have been able to talk that much to a foreign person when I was in fourth grade. Anyway, the third one who was obsessed with me was this adorable miniature girl who was one of the ones who came to bring me to the classroom. On the way there, she held my hand. Once we got there, she was almost always standing next to me. She constantly informed me things in Japanese, 90% of which I couldn't understand. When we finished, she and the half-Australian girl got next to me in a picture and both held my hands. She then escorted me back out...it was beyond cute. At one point I got overwhelmed by it and patted her on the head...I think that might have been too much, but oh well.

We also played a game with them, which involved lots of jumping out of chairs and running around. At one point I fought with one of them over a chair briefly before giving in. They all found that hilarious. They then presented me with a box (that they had decorated) full of origami they had made. My present was def the best out of all of them. SO CUTE! I really want to find out if there's a way I can get them a postcard or an email or something to thank them again. I'm honestly in love.

Tomorrow is 4th of July here, but we had to celebrate early (aka yesterday) because one of our friends is going to Tokyo for the weekend. However, that is not to say that there will not be much fun to be had, as I am going to go climb a mountain. Also, I don't believe I said anything about last weekend's trip to Osaka and Hiroshima. Or about next weekend's planned trip to Tokyo Disneyland. Yeah, Japan is pretty sweet!