So this week was fun. But the only thing really worthy of note is what happened on Wednesday.

You see, a long time ago (like a month or so ago) I translated a children's book from English to Japanese. I was going to enter a speech competition and read the book for people. However, something went wrong with the entering, and they were either already full or it took me too long to sign up. So I couldn't enter. I was a little bummed, but my Japanese tutor introduced me to someone who wanted me to read a book in Koryo which is a little town nearby Izumo. I said sure.

A month later, (or Wednesday) I mee this lady at 9:00 and we headed over to a preschool. I thought it was going to be an elementary school, but it turned out to be a preschool. I figured, it would be fine. So they bring me in, give me the necessary 'politeness tea' and then they took me into a large room and introduced me to the children. They were 3-5 year olds and VERY lively.

They sat me in a giant, throne-like chair and then all the children kowtowed to me. You know kowtow...thats when people and on the ground and bow so low that they touch their foreheads to the ground. It was kinda freaky...and ego inflating. *wink*

Anyways, so I read the book no problem. They had me read it in both Japanese and English. It was kinda cool to actually read and book and have the children understand what was going on. I could ask them questions and try to get them to guess what was going on. It's been awhile since I have been able to read a book to the kids like that. Cool!

After the book, it because Question Time!! (質問タイム！！) The question I got were (my answers are in read):

• Where are you from? America, Georgia shyuu
• It's my birthday! Uh...happy birthday! (then we all sang Happy Birthday in English and gave the little girl a hug)
• How can I learn English? Long, boring explanation that totally went over the 5 year old's head
• Why is America so big? To fit all of the people!
• WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
  
• What is your favorite fruit? Peach
  
• What is your favorite Japanese food? Okonomiyaki! Hiroshima style, of course
  

Most of the kids kept forgetting their questions, so they stopped after the favorite food question. After that, it was game time! I taught them Rock, Paper, Scissors in English and then we played "Janken Densha" which is Japanese for "Rock, Paper, Scissors train". For this game, they played a little song and we marched, skipped, walked, and cried around the room and when the music, we stopped and played Janken and the winner became the front of the train and the loser had to hold onto the winners shoulder and they made a train. We kept doing this until their was only one train and one winner. It was really fun.

The next game we played was a trip. We played...Musical Chairs!! However, there are no chairs in the entire preschool. So...how do you play musical chairs without chairs?? Easy! Make half of the students be the 'chair'. I was a chair for the first two rounds, so this meant I had to sit on my knees with my feet folded under me for a very, very long time. I still have some bruises on the tops of my feet from it. It was a fun game though. Unfortunately, you know how sometimes there are some...over zealous kids who play musical chairs and they grab and fight over the chairs? Yeah...they did that in this game, too. So some little kids kinda got womped when being the chair.

On the third game of Musical Chairs, the teachers got the oh-so-brilliant idea of having ME being the chair. On man. Can you imagine the terror on some three year old's face of seeing my big bum come swinging down to sit on their lap? Yeah...it was kinda funny, though I quickly figured out how to sit on my knees in front of the kid to make it seem like I was sitting in their laps. Heh...it was weird. I got out prety quickly because I didn't like the feeling of squishing tiny Japaneses children. Also, it made me feel a bit like a gorilla because I was so much bigger.

Anyways, after I sat down when I got out, the kids all crowded around me and I wound up with three kids in my lap, one on my back, and other pressed against me. Bleh, I hate being touched. But the kids didn't mean anything by it, I was just really interesting. The girls would play with my hair and my skirt. Oh, didn't I mention? I decided to where a skirt because I thought I would just be reading a book and not rolling around on the floor with kids. Ooops.

The kids were precocious monsters though. They would ask about my hair and eyes. One girl even grabbed my boob and said 'oppai!' which just means breast. I was able to shoo them away. During the train densha game though, I had some little kid who hung on to my butt when we trundled around as a train. It was...awkward and I made sure that the other kids hung onto my skirt instead. Kids!

I stayed at the preschool all the way up until lunch. I decided to eat lunch there. They brought out these tables that I had to sit and eat at. Now, these tables, I swear to you, were less than 1 foot off the ground. They were miserably short and packed into a room. So I had to squish between two students and sit on my knees and try to eat without making a mess. It was very difficult and uncomfortable.

The lunch was...interesting. I normally don't have to eat school lunch so I don't get to see the kinda crap they feed the students. I had an egg/tofu quiche thing, macaroni salad that was pretty good, a big piece of pineapple that was delicious, a bowl of some sort of vegetable soup, and sandwiches. There was a half of a strawberry jam sandwich, a half of a chocolate spread sandwich, and two halves of a butter sandwich. Very, very odd. The strawberry sandwich was, by far, the best sandwich they had.

So that was that, after lunch I left with my ride and promised to come back sometime next month (I have a hard time saying 'no'.) I am kinda looking forward to it. It should be fun!

Nothing else really interesting happened this week. On Saturday, yesterday, I watched a Japanese movie in English with my students. It was difficult for them, but most of them had seen the movie many times so they enjoyed it anyways.

People ask me about the weather and I always forget to mention it! Winter has finally made it here. It was really mild for the longest time, and then, all of a sudden, it got really cold! You see, last Monday, we had terrible storms and with the storms came the gray. Winter time in Izumo is really really gray. We have thick gray clouds that cover the sky the majority of the time, which keeps it really cold and damp feeling. We got out the heaters yesterday and last night a slept with two futons/blankets on the bed to keep warm. Stupid winter. I'm a little depressed that its going to be winter and gray until about the middle of May. Boo...thats like 6 months from now! Oh well...

I hope everything is well with you!