I've found that my house makes me feel bummed out, so I am doing everything I can to stay out of it til it's time to sleep. I've asked for more hours, so Ms. Mihoko is letting me switch off with Ms. Julpha with the Saturday classes. That'll be fun.
A few days ago we had a pajama day, and oh my goodness my students had the CUTEST PJ's. Some of them were outfits you'd find in America, but there were just as many that were thoroughly Japanese. SO CUTE on those little guys and girls!! I searched for a photo for an example but couldn't find one.
Today we had a field trip at the モリコロパーク Morikoro Park. We met up with the students at the Park. It was interesting to see the parents with their video cameras and such. They were very nice and polite and...observant. Morikoro Park is on the grounds of a HUGE area which held the world expo in 2005. It's a HUGE area. We saw lots of bikers parking their cars so they could bike there. Man, I'd love to do that.
There is a ton of forest on the south and east sides of this photo.
And I was told that if you felt like making the long walk, you would find the house from My Neighbor Totoro. It's in the lower right corner.
I'll go back there if/when I see the movie.
Anyways, since it was a party of 25 preschoolers, we weren't going anywhere too far. We went the building in the upper right hand corner. Here's a close-up.
It was an amazingly fun, educational place for kids to play. We made some clay towers, we ran around, and we went on a word treasure hunt. The kids loved it. The parents don't come in with us on the field trips. But strangely enough, as we were walking back to the area where they'd meet to pick their kids up, I saw 4-5 of them faraway, filming us. Checking to see if we were being good teachers no doubt. Still....kind of creepy.
When we got back to school, we worked til closing. Then Ms. Jakka, Mr. John, and I had our first Japanese lesson. Ms. Mihoko is helping us for free. It's so nice of her!!! It's good to be in that position, because it helps me be more understanding when my own students hesitate while trying to create a sentence. It went well. It's nice to have some conversational practice with someone I can ask questions to. We 3 are at different learning levels, but we all have something to learn from what Ms. Mihoko is teaching. Ms. Jakka needs to work on her writing, I need to work on my speaking, and Mr. John has to work on both.
Afterwards, I got an AMAZING surprise. Ms. Minori has friends from Korea visiting right now, and she's invited us to go to Kyoto with them on Sunday!!!!! YAY YAY YAY!!! When I asked where in Kyoto, they couldn't have said a better spot. Kinkakuji and Arashiyama. On my loooong list of reasons to return to Kyoto, those were the top 2!!
BRRRRING IT
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