Full Day at Ikueikan

Today we spent the whole day at Ikueikan going to and teaching classes. Our first class was P.E. in which we played basketball with the high schoolers. Next we went to an english class with Mr. Nagomina and we did listening comprehension skills worksheets. We had a great lunch.  You must watch the gadget spoon video below!  The students clean the school, so no custodians.  It:s amazing how it looks so good for such an old building.

We also went to a calligraphy class where we learned to write in Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji.  It is very difficult to do.  We practiced using the pen at first (that:s why the crazy pics), then wrote Mountain, River, Love, Heart and our names.  Lastly we went to an origami class where we worked with students who were very excited to have us in class. After school, we walked up to Josei High School to watch Karate practice. They are the ranked the Number 1 High School Karate team in all of Japan, all while the Dance Club practiced next door!  It was very interesting to Karate - Check out the videos below!

                                                      Music to Clean by!  He is good!

Karate!

Pottery Village and English Classes

      Today we went and visited the Pottery Village and got to make our own pottery, which is called Kuro Satsuma. This area is famous for their Satsuma Pottery. In contrast to the white pottery which was exclusively for the upper class, the black style, Kuro Satsuma, was widely cherished among common people. Items such as tea pots, tea cups, and such which are commonly found in Kuro Satsuma, are items deeply rooted to the people`s daily lives. Mrs.Fenley made a Mickey Mouse clock and the rest of us made plates. This year, we got to paint the insides of our plates, which no other group has done before.
      After arriving back at the school, we ate lunch in the cafeteria (only one choice for all), then went to a class and participated in a game with some of the High School Juniors from the school. The game was very interesting, even though we could barely understand the other students. In one game, the Japanese students read something in Japanese, converted it to English, and then asked us if it was a real English term. The other games were riddles where we had to figure out what he was describing, working on reading comprehension. We also had to figure out who lived in which house from a worksheet, judging by how he described their home.
                         -Emma Ward

Ibuski School Trip ~ Wednesday

Hi you guys!!! Today was very interesting. We went to a geothermal power plant. It uses energy from Mt. Kaimondake Volcano to power the city. You dont really find that in America so it was something new.
   After we toured the power plant we watched a little anime movie about how the power was made. It was really cute^.^ Lol
     After the movie we boarded the buses and made our way to a zoo/flower garden. They had several different kinds of animals there. Species that you wouldnt see in America or a normal zoo. They had dogs, exotic monkeys, exotic birds, sloths, ect. The monkeys were very friendly and tried to touch you :) One monkey grabbed my finger :D ~ It was cute^.^ LOL ~ After the zoo we went to a store with a small aquarium, anime, and samarai gear!^.^ It was pretty cool. Afterwards we finally returned to school and chilled in the media room:) Overall it was a good day and we made new friends since it was an entire school field trip :) ^.^ Teeheehee^.^


                                        Love,
                                   Brittiny Williams!!!!^.^

                                                                          Host students

Day 2 At Ikueikan

Today as we arrived at school we prepared to teach a few classes during 2nd and 4th periods. We were given some computer time to contact home and do what we need to do. We then moved into the Ikueikan music room where we had a class of juniors in highschool to teach the basics of our group games to. Tyler and I taught three groups a wordsearch where I held a picture and he would say the word and explain the importance of each item in the pictures. When we got to group 2, which was a group composed of mostly boys, we split them up into two teams to make the wordsearch interesting for our older students. Later in the day we went to the Hatono farm, where our farm guides and their translator Wendy served us Japanese barbecue and Yakisoba for lunch, which was fried noodles with grilled pork and chicken, along with potatoes and carrots. After lunch we made butter out of one ounce of cream and an equal amount of milk. Our guides prepared the ingredients for us and we had to shake the bottles for about five minutes. We then spread it on brown rice crackers, which were amazing. They also had a cow drawing contest followed by Brittiny and the very nice lady playing Sakura, Brittiny on the flute and the lady on the harmonica.  It was a great cultural experience!
Javen