Countdown...

Lessons today were more interesting than normal, for some reason. Maybe it's Yoshimatsu-sensei, who is hilarious. We call her squirrel, and she's always prentending to be shot in the chest and falling backwards. Or maybe it was the comprehension we did in the afternoon: we had to write an introduction about ourselves by answering questions. It's fun writing in Japanese, especially using kanji: it looks really cool. I think though, that because we were studying giving and receiving, it was all the chocolates they brought in for us!

Drummond and I went into the English gardens after classes and before Linden Hall. He'd brought his guitar to play songs with the first years, and we brought it long, so we played some stuff next to the lake. He's really good, but totally modest and so will never admit to it. It started to rain however so we went to Linden Hall early.

An hour and a half early, it turned out. We didn't think we were that early, and the nurse came out trying to explain to us that the class didn't start until 5 o'clock (she doesn't speak much English). We went downstairs and sat in the cantine. More guitar playing and some Japanese learning. The nurse gave us some of the vegetable juice and a cookie that the children were going to have. Despite it's name, the juice was quite tasty, though Drummond said the cookie was horrible, so I didn't even try it.

The kids came downstairs eventually. They were really cute though as they all had to put their hands together and say “Arigatou gozaimasu. Itatakimasu”, which means “Thank you” followed by something a bit like grace, but without the religious connotations.

Had the second years today, all three of them. Keisuke wasn't there so Ryo behaved, as did Mariko and Mayu. We played Countdown which they seemed to enjoy, well, they were interested at least. I think if you make it competitive they'll enjoy anything out of a sheer desire to win. In fact, there were whole 30 second periods of very enjoyable silence!