Visiting a Japanese Elementary School

I got a chance to chaperone my son's field trip to Jogaku Elementary in Naha, Okinawa.  It was such a neat experience.  We started off walking in circles and when the music stopped we would introduce ourselves to the person in front of us.  We all tried to do it in Japanese, while they tried in English.

Then they taught us some Eisa dancing. I was NOT coordinated enough to do it correctly, but I tried! :)

Then we all had a lunch of curry, corn dogs and salad.  Once lunch was over we got a quick tour of the school before we had to hop back on the bus.  I had chance to chat with one of the Japanese moms and she told me that the kids all clean the school. They put them in groups and each group cleans a certain part or does a certain "duty" as she called it.  They even clean the bathrooms!  Out of respect I'm not posting any photos with the kids' faces in them. So there are only a few photos and I also only had my son's point & shoot, so the photo quality is pretty sub par, but atleast the compositions look good! ;)

Super Sexy Green Slippers

Cubbies full of slippers.

Drums they used to teach us Eisa dancing.

My partner's legs & drum.

Super tiny bathroom slippers. Look out! It's BIG FOOT!!!

A classroom.

My son thought it was really cool that at his school they have a Japanese classroom and at this school they have an English classroom! :)

And last but not least my son getting ready to Eisa dance! :)

Heading Home

Soon our tour of Okinawa will be ending. It has been a great 5 years and we hope to return again someday.  This is pretty much home to our kids. They have grown up here. B was born here and is confused when I say that we are going "home", I mean this IS her home.  Although we are sad to leave, we are excited to be moving back closer to home and our family.  Anyway, I just found a photo of our 1st Easter in Okinawa, we had been here a mere 7 months and the boys were so little.  I just had to post a before and after shot of how much the kids have grown since we moved here. 

April 2006

June 2010

and little Miss who was born here. :)

(photo taken Aug 2010)

Glass Blowing in Okinawa

This was a really cool experience. Ryukyu glass began after the war when they used tossed out alcohol/beer bottle from the US base to recycle into new glassware.  We went on a tour and were able to each blow our own glass to take home. We each got a turn to blow our molten glass orb and then shape it into a drinking glass. What an amazing afternoon.

C

T

C's finished glass

T's finished glass

Big C's' finished glass

Finished glasses

If you get the chance I highly recommend this tour! :)