November's 12 on 12

Well, I wasn't expecting to have much luck with today's 12 on 12 assignment. Life has been feeling fairly routine. But I dutifully brought my camera along with me today and I was glad I did!

Photos 1, 2 and 3. The 9th graders have been tasked with doing speeches in English to introduce traditional Japanese things to me. It's been quite interesting. Today was the the third class' turn and I took photos of each group. Here are the most interesting of the eight presentations.


The abacus. How it works is still a mystery to me. The teacher asked them to demonstrate 1 +2. Hello, we have ten fingers, just count it out!!


The clever boy on the left took photos of his grandmother's living room which is very traditional. In the photos were a household Buddhist altar, a set of dolls which are a traditional wedding present (the dolls are old people, so it's a wish to grow old together), a folding screen, and tatami mats.For some reason, every class has shown me these little bean bags that kids juggle. And there is always one kid in the class who is a really good juggler.

Photos 4 and 5. This week, the 8th graders are doing Trial Week. Businesses in the community host the students this week as they try being clerks and waitresses and gas station attendants and so on.

The 8th grade English teacher took me to lunch where these two students were working. They were so cute and full of nervous giggles as they served their English teachers lunch (more on lunch in later photos!).Other students are spending Trial Week doing community service projects at nursing homes or at this orphanage. (These students are in their gym uniforms)

Photos 6 and 7. Just when I thought that spaghetti is a fairly safe option when presented with a menu completely in Japanese script, they decide to add deep fried (or maybe dried) minnows to the spaghetti. I don't want to elaborate, lunch was traumatic enough.

Photo 8. A family cemetary in a bamboo grove. (It started raining at this point, so that was the end of the today's photography. These last photos are ones I've taken earlier.)

Photo 9. Vending machine containing large bottles of alcohol!

Photo 10. This is ingenuous! You know how kids always love to climb UP the slide? Well, look at this - handles on the slide so the kids can do just that!

Photo 11. Couldn't pass up taking a photo of this McDonalds. It just looks so homey. Did I tell you about the time I went into the McDonalds and just pointed to the photos of Coke and fries. Apparently I pointed to the "super size" of both. I was sooo happy with my mistake!

Photo 12. An elementary school practicing for Sports Day. Here they are practicing tug of war, one class against another. Except for the practice, they don't have a rope! This was soo funny to watch - the kids pretended to pick up the rope, heave and take a little step back. Then the other side would do the same!