Marukanso Higashimatsushima

... short story or small piece of literature, something of the like from their textbooks,memorize, and recite it. The other section is the actual "speech" section, where the students write their own speech (usually about something deep like a life-experience or their dream, etc), then recite it from memory as well.

Now, obviously, anyone can just memorize a bunch of words, so most of the emphasis is put on whether or not the speech-giver/reciter can make it ...

... up and put everything back for it to be picked up again by the food-delivery company.

Kids are also responsible for cleaning the school, DAILY. At the end of every day theres "cleaning time" in which kids have rotating responsibilities for different types of cleaning, but they all clean the entire school, by themselves. Kids come into the teachers staff room and sweep the floor, take out the trash, and I see kids in the halls on their knees scrubbing the ...

... the next one walked backwards over him, laid down, etc, all staying connected, with their legs on either side of the person infront of them. Once they all got down finally, they did some quick little leg calisthenics in the air, then, the person at the very back (with no one behind him) got up and took off as fast as he can, which pulled up the person infront of him who was holding onto his pants, who started running, which pulled up the next person, etc etc, as a chain reaction. Pretty ...

... We walked around the lake area and stumbled onto some people having a bbq and playing some music. We sat down in the area to sort of listen, and they came over and offered us beer, and then invited us over, so we chatted for a little bit but we had to get going soon after. I also accepted the beer, which means that I wasn't driving back (I realized this shortly after making this mistake), since the legal BAC in Japan is about ...

... of taking them quickly, and everything was behind glass).

Next few months will be some other local Manga/Anime writers that I don't think I've heard of, then after that will be another famous (famous to Americans at least) manga and anime writer who penned Akira, which is pretty well known in America. I'll be visiting again for that exhibit.

Between seeing some old cool stuff, and taking care not to bump my head into all the small-japanese old buildings, very fun stuff!!!

... with smooth jazz/cafe music playing in the background. Most of the menu is also a bit more western style, with plenty of steak orders or chicken sandwiches and the like. I ordered the latter and it was quite tasty. But the real gem is the coffee and cheesecake. Although I love the cheesecake back at Mozart's cafe in Austin, this place is pretty good, and the coffee is outstanding. They make it using a siphon (which I hear is starting to pop up in the New York ...

... DON'T use the sensei, as they do on occasionan to sound less formal. I'm glad they're being friendly with me, but it just sounds sooo cooooool....

(Also, if you didn't know, sorry, but Sensei means "teacher." In Japan its very custom to call people with they name and then their title, if they have one, like "Chiba-sensei" or "Ito-kachyou," which means "section chief." Often times they're just called by their title, like the principal and viceprinciples. So ...

... set aside object.

Although, on that part:

My Japanese is often OVER estimated. Something I feel happens as a combination of the surprise of the fact that I speak Japanese, along with that I perhaps do not sound as typical "american" with my pronounciation (I try to work on it often!). So, the fact that I can say some common and easy phrases with some relative ease off the tongue, I think gives me a few too MANY bonus points. Mr. Ito likes to talk to me with a bunch of ...

... went to a very good sushi place where the chef was actually known for cutting up bamboo leaves into some pretty artsy things, from swans, to samurai. After we ate (and drank, as I was finding out would be the start of much of this), the chef even came over and sliced some up just for me. It was pretty impressive actually, and he did it very quick. Imagine how you make snowflakes as a kid with folded up paper, except he used a knife, on a leaf, and was making some awesome ...

Dans la vallee ohohoh, de Tono, lolilololooo Dans la vallee ohohoh, on a chante sur nos velos... La vallee de Tono n'est pas forcement un lieu tres touristique, mais elle valait le detour. Elle est renommee pour ses legendes sur des esprits malicieux des eaux (les kappas), des enfants kidnappes, des personnes agees abandonnees dans les ...