'Round the 'Hood

What a day I have had... I visited two of my many Elementary schools to meet with teachers whose classrooms I will take over next week for English practice. First I met with three fourth grade teachers, and in broken Japanese, discussed what songs we'll be singing and what new language we'll be practicing. That went pretty well, and I just need to fax over what game I will prepare for learning the days of the week... now just to come up with something.

After finishing at that school, I got a call on my cell from another school that I'll be visiting. In completely broken "Engrish," I arranged that for me be picked up from a neighboring train station by someone, since the school is too far to walk to from the Station itself. The Vice-Principal came and happily drove me to meet with three First Grade teachers. I attracted the attention of "Kocho Sensei," The Principal, and had a little chat with him along the way. I usually don't get to talk to the Principal because he is normally held up in his huge office doing what looks like "hanging out." (Seems the Vice Principals do everything here!) Anyway, the principal talked to me about Arnold Schwarzenegger being our Governor and a little of this and that. Everyone is very interested in us here, more so that anywhere in Japan I've ever been! It's really something!

Here are a few random pics from the last couple of weeks that I'd like to share:

No, that's not me. It's my friend Patty making Tempura at our place. She wanted me to show here a few Vegetarian friendly Japanese dishes. I showed off what Kunie taught me a couple of months back. yes!! We also made "Kinpira Gobo," my favorite, as well as a Spring noodle Cucumber salad. Mmmm.
We were sooo completely ready to chow down at this point... but wait, let me snap a quick photo!
Manju is ultra cute on a daily basis. He really likes our shower and bath... he was the first to sit in the tub! He also loves to drink fresh shower water puddles. (And speaking of the tub, it's getting chilly here at night, so I officially filled it for the first time this evening, and I'm nice and warmed up... aah but I do miss the summer already.)

This was taken right before Forrest's visit about a week ago. Kuni offered to replace our Shoji paper since we had so many ugly holes all over from previous tenants. It didn't take so long, and I helped out occasionally, and also got in the way for part of the work. Kunie is on the left, and Mitsuko San is on the right.

It was relatively easy to replace the paper. Just wet the old glue, and remove the old paper, and then we used a really simple glue to stick the new paper on. Getting the measurements and cutting right was the tough part. But I was lucky to have experts showing me how to do it...

I'm hoping I can start taking some photos in class at my Elementary schools... I will try next week, and show you what Elementary schools are like here!