More Kindergarten, the Beach and the Festival

Wednesday was my last day at Kindergarten (and also 7/7, which is the Tanabata festival). The teachers put on a cute Tanabata play for all the kids. When I had to leave, my teacher put together an adorable booklet with 2 pictures of me and our class and drawings of my by all the kids :) It was sad to leave, but I kind of appreciate not being a jungle gym anymore. After school, my host Mom, Dad and I went to a revolving belt sushi restaurant. I thought it was cute that when you specifically order food, it quickly arrives on a cute little train. I some melon just so I could see the train XD  On Thursday, my host Mom went to the beach. We saw a lot of surfers, who are usually shy apparently according to her, I thought that was pretty funny. The water was pretty nice, we played in the sand and I found a cute crab :) After, we got ice cream at a different shop. I got "森の木の実" & "塩"  (Tree nut flavor and sea salt flavor". So yummy! Friday night was the local festival, I rode there (on a flat tire haha) with my friend Yuma. We met 3 of her other friends and we walked around. I saw a lot of friends from school. Some happened to cancel their English lessons with my host Mom to go to the festival. One of the girls showed me a picture of her Filipino boyfriend that doesn't speak any Japanese...? My friends caught little fish and ate lots of interesting festival foods, like frozen fruit, weird fish pancakes, candied strawberries, etc. We all decided to walk to a game/karaoke/bowling center to take purikura too. On the way back, we walked around a little more and by then it was time to go home. Today is Saturday and we're going to have a pizza party with some of my high school friends tonight. In a little while I'm going to go buy fireworks (I can do it by myself since there is no age limit!). Tomorrow we might go to a different beach if it doesn't rain and on Monday I'm going to be on the radio!! (I'm nervous!). Tuesday is a meeting with the Elementary School principal for an hour or so because on W/Th/F I'm going to be going to the Elementary School from about 9-12. Next weekend is a swim date with my Kindergarten teacher and her daughter then we leave for Kyoto and Kobe. The week after that I leave (the 22nd) :( It's all gone by so fast!

Kids decorating the bamboo stalks

One of my classes

The other one

Tanabata play

Outside on the playground (waiting for swings)

The beach

More beach

Sushi

My friends catching fish

More friends

Festival food

Crepes

Temple entrance

Weird stuff around town + Ine + Kindergarten (part one)

Today, I went to Kindergarten for 3 hours (I'm going tomorrow also). Let's just say they liked me. I got mobbed, stared at, grabbed and dragged every where to go play :) They were so cute! First, they placed outside in the sand, on the monkey bars etc. They called me mostly "eigo no sensei" (English teacher) and "onee-san" (big sister). :3 I talked to a woman who knew quite a bit of English, which was nice. After, everyone went to a little stage area where I introduced myself, taught everyone "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" in English and answered questions. They asked me stuff like what my favorite color was, how many people were in my family and if I had a boyfriend...XD After, I went up to my teacher's class room and we sang a "ohaiyo/good morning" song, I read an English childrens' book and we made lantern decorations for the Tanabata festival that starts tomorrow. My only complaint is that they all tried to look up my skirt (I was wearing my pink flower dress). I kept telling them to stop, and stopped most of them, but they wouldn't listen (I even said it in Japanese)! One girl yelled "pinku!" (can you figure out what that means...?). So besides being grabbed all over and man-handled by 4 year olds, it was a pretty good day. I'm definitely wearing jeans tomorrow. After lunch, Yukari and I went to the small fishing village/town of Ine. We looked around the ocean and neighborhood and stuck our feet in the water. It was so pretty! It made me want to go back to the beach, hopefully we will go this weekend. This Friday is also a small festival, and I was invited to go with a 3rd year student in Middle school (she's 15), her name is Yuma. Yukari said that she didn't even mention asking me, it was all the girl's idea! That made me happy :) I also took some pics of funny stuff in my town.

He's the Boss.

"Joshin" electronics store.

Don Don Down on Wednesday (resale clothes)

"Old American Clothing Store" lol

TV is weird.

They secretly pull out the kids that arn't super genki. (energetic)

Sugar flowers

"Men-o-Pause" gentlemens' club XD this made my trip. Nothing sexier than menopause

Kindergarten class

Craft time

lanterns

more kids

The water was so clear!

Oyster beds

Boats

Houses with boat garages

Pretty

Lots of sea urchins (Yukari said "konnichiwa, to my mouth", she loves to eat them XD )

Camping in the moutains.

Winding roads, lots of absolutely beautiful forests, foggy views, and lots and lots of rain. We stayed there with 4 other moms and 6 kids (maybe?) in two cabins for one night. The cabins were pretty nice, full ofuro/bathrooms, nice bunk-bed style sleeping areas and a little kitchenette. We played games with all the girls, ate lots of snacks and I even cooked pumpkin. We stayed up too late playing cards and freaking out when we heard bugs crash against the window XD Apparently they know of Freddy Kruger. Again, it was raining non-stop but we all stopped caring about getting wet after a while. When we returned, I decided to say sayounara to my gold tennis shoes. They were wet and smelly and dirty and could not be helped. :)

This was on Saturday and Sunday. Today (Tuesday) I went to a Kindergarten...more about that later! We also saw summer fireworks on the fourth, coincidentally. I celebrated America's birthday with a Coke from the vending machine on the corner :)

A bit about my town.

Just got back from camping in the mountains and I'm a little too tired to talk about that so I'm going to talk about the places around town I frequently go to by bike.

Mine: 4 floors, basically the town's mall. 1st floor is a grocery store and a few other restaurants and retail shops. 2nd floor is mostly clothes shopping, a book store and a 100 yen store (equivalent to that of an American dollar store which much more interesting stuff). The 3rd floor is parking and the 4th floor is an arcade. A lot of kids hang out here after school to eat, shop and take purikura. I usually spend time in the book store, 100 yen store, cute school supplies/accessory store and wander around some of the clothing stores.

Recycle Shop: Next to Mine, sells second hand and new items, everything from clothes to electronics to house wares to accessories to guitars to fishing gear to school supplies, super cheap! They also play a lot of American music, like new KeSha, Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry and older music including songs from Eminem and "This is Why I'm Hot". I have to resist the urge to sing along to some of the music, cause it's in English :P On a side not, the second store of the building, above the Recycle shop is an internet and manga cafe. I walked around for a second, but I really have no use for it.

GEO: Discount manga/movie rentals/video games/music on one side and a Big Lot's type deal on the other side. They have a kinda creepy mascot guy.

100 Yen store: heaven.

Don Don Down on Wednesday: A second-hand clothing and accessory store, with a cute fruit and vegetable tag system that indicates the price of the item. For example, suika/watermelon tagged items are 100 yen, wile kinoko/mushroom ones are 300 yen and so on. The building is bright yellow and has a black guy's face on it (who I assume is their mascot; Don). On Wednesday, all the prices are a little cheaper. I've shopped there a few times and one of the clerks gave me a points card. It gets stamped with every 100yen/dollar I spend and if I spend 5000 yen/$50 I will get 500 yen/$5 off, I don't think I'm going to spend that much there though. I thought it was kind of amusing how she gave me one even though it was probably clear I didn't really know what she was saying.

Ice Cream shop: I don't remember the name of it, but it is a small, organic ice cream shop started by local house wives. It is very cute, and I tried sea salt ice cream there. It was really yummy, the owner and creator of all the flavors said it is their most popular flavor.

The Mall (Mine) and the Recycle Shop

Down the street past the mall

Udon Shop

Pachinko

Ice Cream Shop

Interesting collection of statues at this shop.

Biking on the way to Mine

More of the street and the GEO Mascot

Pretty much the scariest thing I have ever seen. And they are all over the town. I think it's *supposed* to be a raccoon/tanuki and bring in good luck and can be seen outside of restaurants. This one just happens to be 5 feet tall.