The Howl & Moon: English Day

The Jinryo Elementary school, where Nik did his workshop, organized an English Day for the kids to practice. Their teacher is just crazy about it and speaks it quite well. So all of us in the residency, as well as our other neighbors Becky and her teacher husband Brandon, were invited to come hear what the kids love about Kamiyama and a few of their favorite things.

We were welcomed in like a football team, introduced one by one into the gymnasium, going down their line-up giving high-5's, all Hello! and Good Morning!. Seriously, that's what it must feel like to be a star athlete. They had been practicing little skits for weeks and their anticipation was palpable.

After introducing ourselves, saying our names and where we're from, we played a few ice-breaker games, which to be honest, made some of the kids quite uneasy. Imagine being 11 years old and asked to touch toes with strange foreign adults and make prolonged direct eye contact. But it was all in good fun and we were soon asked to spread out and watch their skits.

We heard about various Kamiyama tidbits, like the 400 year old Gingko tree, the pilgrimage, and the onsen, as well as what sports they like to play. We were even made to try some local delicacies such as ume bashi (sour plums which are salivary gland missiles) and various little sweets. They made posters and had little accessories to help tell their tales. And afterwards we all had to give 5-10 minute presentations of where we're from.

Nik had the kids in stitches talking about windmills and piles and bikes being pulled out of the canals. I spoke about Indiana in a 4th grade Indiana History way, you know state bird, state flower, amber waves of grain and all that jazz. (And in my "research" I found that the very first professional baseball game was played in Indiana, who knew?) But Becky and Brandon hit the nail, they've done this before and knew that the kids just want to hear about snack foods and where you can buy manga in America.

After all the stress was over, we were invited to join them in their classrooms for lunch and what a treat it was. The lunch was amazing, no prison-contractor lunch here. We had freshly made rice, sardines, a sort of seaweed veggie melange dish, and a potato salad dish. I mean wow, it was perfect brain food and had I been offered that in 5th grade, surely would have winced with displeasure and gone hungry. But they ate like champs, some going back for seconds. And just as they had divided into task groups and served up the trays, they cleaned up without so much as a nod.

Everyone, kids included, was incredibly gracious. The teacher even gave Hopper some of her own kids' old English baby books... And yet another extraordinary day to make us feel special and welcome.

PS. And I would like to add that I had anticipated we would not stay for the entire 3 hours as it might be too much for Mr Squirmy Toddler Pants, but he was quiet when he needed to be and played by himself on the gym mats stacked in the corner. He even ate some seaweed and rice and sardine. He was the star for me.