Day 5 Nakano Elementary School

By Sam

Last night, after we arrived home from the Daruma factory, my host family took me to the 100-yen store. It was interesting seeing how different yet how similar it was to a dollar store in the US. After we were done there, we went to the house of a friend of my host mother. There we saw an incredible model train set! For dinner, we had a nice bowl of soup and rice.

Today I got up early and ate a quick breakfast so that I could make it to the elementary school by 8:00. Soon after I arrived, Sensei ushered us inside for a school assembly where we gave a presentation about Eau Claire. The children did a dance called Soran and we all loved it. We taught them the Chicken Dance. Afterwards we split up into 3 groups. My group got to go to gym first where we played a rhythm  game and a jumping game. Next we went to a 3rd grade classroom where we played musical chairs and charades. After that, we made paper cranes with the 4th graders for the tsunami affected zone. We then had recess where we played dodgeball. The rules were different from what we normally play.

In another 3rd grade class, we made spinners. We had school lunch which was very yummy. It consisted of a hard-boiled egg, soup, veggies, and rice. After lunch, we played some more dodgeball. We went back inside for gym class with the 4th graders and jumped rope. 

A big thanks to Mr. Takamura. He took over 100 pictures at elementary school.
Here is the picture site<https://plus.google.com/photos/105463634903475138815/albums/5889412024937363377>
Our day at school was over around 3:00, so we met our host families and went home.

My host mother had other plans though. We again went to visit the house of one of her friends. I had met them the other day and they invited us over. They were a Pakistani family who have lived in Japan for 5 years because the father runs a car business. They had an 18 year old son who spoke pretty good English because he lived in England as a child. We talked for about 2 hours about life in Japan and other matters. I had a Pakistani meal there too. It was a salad with some slightly spicy but flavorful chicken. It was a lot of fun. We had to leave so that we could go grocery shopping. It was a fun day!