Meet your memories

Hakodate - the town where you can meet your memories

Another busy/tiring week that included judo (I still can't do walking handstands but my backward rolls are improving), a primary school visit, hiking up Mt. Hakodate again (this time very Lost-esque) , and dinner with Murata-sensei from Yale..

Ii otenki desu ne!

So after class Tuesday we visited a nearby primary school; I don't think I've smiled this much or had this much fun in a long time. We were first ushered into the gym, where we played games, learned the Hakodate squid dance, and sang - they sang "It's a small world" in Japanese and we sang "When you're happy and you know it" (the HIFer leading the song decided to add "slap your behind" to the list of things you do when you're happy and you know it).

A jan-ken-pon match up; tug of war

Afterwards we I was assigned to a second grade class and we played duck duck goose (except it was changed to "neko neko inu" aka "cat cat dog") and musical chairs. The kids were adorable! They made us all colorful name tags to wear around our necks. They even asked for our autographs - apparently being tall turned us all into pseudo celebrities.

Rowdy 2nd graders; my name tag

Class is still going very slowly and the role plays are starting to become repetitive. Yesterday we learned another way of making a polite request. The most ridiculous one roughly translates into: "would you perhaps be kind enough to allow me to receive permission from you to do X?"

My JR station, Nanaehama!

It's 8:37. I'm aiming for a 9pm bedtime tonight. Oyasumi!