November 11th: School and Soba

Today we woke up on the later side, chilled for a bit, I did laundry, and we headed off for school!!

The beauty seen from the school.

We were to teach the 3rd year students and the 6th year students at the nearby elementary school. We took the b-e-a-utiful walk from Dan’s place to the nearby elementary school that he works at. We were stars! As we got closer, we started eyeing kids from the road...and then they saw us! It was on.

As we walked up to the school, the few kids that were outside ran up to us and started with the inquisition. “Who’s this?”, “is he a friend?”, “Which of you is taller?”, “Oh wow! You speak Japanese? Amazing!”. As we walked through the halls on the way into school (after taking off my shoes, and putting VERY small school slippers on), kids ran toward and away from us, and every word out of their mouth that I could hear was about Dan and his foreign friend.

Made our way to the teachers’ lounge, got introduced to Dan’s fellow teachers, and killed some time before class. 3rd year kids are very similar to their counterparts in the US. Hyper, emotional, curious, and awesome. The 6th graders were much the same, and both classes were a blast…lotsa fun.

After school, we made our way home for a brief period, and then went to eat dinner with the lady who had previously planned our social schedules. It was a feast befitting a king (or like 5 or 6 kings). It consisted of nabe with all kinds of veggies, mushrooms, and more; Apple turnovers; persimmon; chicken; cabbage; and plenty of beverages. We overate, to say the least.

Then off to soba club. Soba is an entire culture and would take up its own post, needless to say, it was a lot of fun :-).

After we made the soba, we sat, ate soba, chatted, and drank lots of sake…it was a good day.