Minshuku Kaminoie Higashimatsushima

... mostly for time, and volume-check), we went inside and the whole thing started. In usual Japanese form, it started with a very formal opening ceremony, with a few speeches by some key figures in the local education scene, lots of bowing to get onto the stage, speech, bowing to get off, etc. Then, finally, first up were the recitations!

Now, for some reason, 80% of these recitations are very sad, morbid, or just depressing stories. Theres one in there about ...

... a really random, and in my opinion, dumb thing. But, its their way of doing things, and I can't just go and say its wrong...

Anyways, I don't want to make this too long, so thats my first cultural update! I'm sure I missed a bunch of things, since this was just off the top of my head. I plan to do this regularly, and some will be in depth and deep like this, and some will just be random little things I notice!

Thanks for reading. A real update is coming next :p

... in the club relay. Our squad was running against the "A" group (track team, basketball team, tennis, and something else) members, and in our squad two of the other teachers are pretty fit and fast, and the other is above average. They also designated me as starter, claiming that "no one but you can do it," to me. I guess they thought I was pretty fast since I beat the other teacher in a 100 meter dash. But...the kicker is that about 4 days beforehand I pulled my hamstring in my ...

Back again with another update. I've still got plenty of catching up to do, but I'm laying it out bit by bit so I don't run out of material!

So around now I've just been going to school and doing my usual summer thing, which is hanging around, some times doing speech practice with a few kids, and sometimes helping out with club activities, like the ekiden (long distance relay) or things like that. Its been a pretty decent ...

... and his exhibit. On the other half of the place they have their every-few-month-changing other Anime/Manga section, which is, until october 10th, Gundam!

Gundam is huge over here, and its decently big in America as well, making its first big splash with Gundam Wing back in my, what, junior high days maybe? Not only the anime, but model figurines are insanely popular (and often times insanely expensive!). From the pictures you can see tons of them (sorry for the bad quality, I was ...

... take a third year, along with a prize for winning three years in a row. But, no so oddly, our rivals are Nakada, where the course actually is. But we're looking pretty confident. We have some seriously fast runners. One kid I helped time ran 3.3 kilometers in 11:24, if I remember right, which is about 2.05 miles. Thats around a 5:45 mile each, which is pretty fast for. But this kid apparently isn't even our fastest runner. Hes about a minute or so behind our fastest for ...

... But some of them have also been pretty friendly as far as waving and saying "hello" goes.

I've also been trying to be prety involved with the students, like with clubs!
Japanese clubs are basically mandatory, and their life outside of school (At least in middle school). So even though its summer, most of the kids are at school every day at about 8ish, until about 2 or 3. Also, each of the teachers are incharge of a sport at the school, so when they ...

... pay.

We sung some more Karaoke, etc, and eventually went home.

The next day was pretty low key, which was fine. That day Mr. Ito took me to the sea, out about 30 minutes, and an old shut down school he used to teach at. That night he then took me to a "reunion" sort of dinner with a bunch of old co-workers of his from when he was a teacher 30 some-odd years ago. I got to talk to a few of them, and, befitting of teachers, they were very warm, friendly, and very eager to ...

... br>
The next day I was driven to the BOE Mr. Ito went to work, and sat in a desk for a while. At about 9, a bell chimmed off and everyone stood up, went to somewhat attention, waited for an official looking man to stand up with a clipboard, along with the superintendent. The whole office then bowed in a very official "Ohayoo gozaimasu" (good morning), and then proceeded to stand while the days schedule and order of business was read out. Afterwards, from what I can figure ...

... fermes typiques, les kappas et les temples dedies a la fertilite ou encore a l'amour eternel (pour une femme qui reussit a accrocher avec seulement la main gauche un ruban rouge ou le nom de son bien aime est ecrit). Encore une fois les velos lourds a 1 vitesse n'etaient pas toujours facile a faire avancer, surtout avec le vent a contre-sens.