AGE: Nozawa Onsen Elementary School

Today we had an incredible experience attending a few different classes at the Nozawa Onsen Elementary School. We went to participate in some of their lessons and to teach the students a little bit about us. It was mostly an excuse to have some fun and play games with the kids. The first class we went to was a sixth grade class. They sang to us a couple of songs and then we played card games with them.I still don't know how the game works, but I'm pretty sure I was in the lead for a while! We also played a game of "rock, paper, scissors" to decide who would draw first. I guess the really important games are known throughout the world!

We next went to a science class. The students were doing a fun lab that involved using very cold salt water to make fresh water freeze. Joey worked hard to ensure that his group did the best.If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice that the boy in red is actually wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt! I was so excited that I started rattling off all the Japanese players who have played for the Sox: "Dice-K Matsuzaka? Hideki Okajima? Tomokazi Oh-ka!" The boy just blankly stared at me with a tinge of horror on his face and then ran away. I guess that while most students wear clothing with English writing, they rarely know what it means. Oh well. Before class ended, Tom challenged one of the students to an arm wrestling match. Tom claims that he let him win. We still sent him to the back of the class for letting things deteriorate so much.

The last class we attended was physical education. We started the class with a powerpoint presentation about ourselves.
And then we taught them a few different games we play in the United States. Here's one of the Japanese students playing Duck-Duck-Goose.

Even though our time in classes had ended, we saved the best for last. We stayed at the school a little longer so we could eat lunch with the students. We were each seated separately at different tables in the lunch room and served a standard Japanese school lunch. It consisted of fried tofu nuggets, seaweed soup, salad, bread with marmalade, and milk. The most interesting portion of the meal was the salad. It seemed like a pretty normal salad until you noticed that the things that looked like bean sprouts were actually tiny, whole fish. We had read that it is rude to not finish your entire meal, so I had only one option. Over the lips, past the gums, look out stomach, here she comes!During lunch I tried communicating with the students but it was difficult since they know about ten words in English and I know even less in Japanese. It ended up becoming a game of charades to try to explain that I liked baseball and basketball (I couldn't think of the motion for sailing). I felt like Kevin Costner in "Dances with Wolves." "Tatonka! Tatonka!"

As I sat there at lunch taking it all in, I was overwhelmed by the experience. I realized that I would never again be in this situation and that I would enjoy it while I could. As Jack London said, "I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."