Another Lively Friday in Kyoto

On Friday the 14th, I went to a local grade school again. This time I was at Inae-Higashi, which was considerably farther than the last school I went to; Kawase. Unlike the visit to Kawase, I spent considerably more time with the children than in the principals’ office. I was again ushered into the office upon our arrival, and tea was served. Yire, Andrew, and Braden were much better than the students were over the summer, and the three of them engaged the staff in Japanese unlike the summer group. The principal offered us Japanese sweets and then we went over to the gymnasium to meet the children.
Over seventy-five first-graders were waiting for us. A song from the children greeted our entrance; some played cymbals, recorders, and triangles while some formed a choir. After the song, we played games with the children and then made some crafts. The children all seemed pleased to see us; I had a few children holding each of my hands. Before we left, the class played dodge ball; and I had a blast. There is something great about dodge ball that I cannot really explain; but the kids loved to play. If you were hit, you went behind the other team and then if you were able to catch an errant ball you could strike at the opposing team from behind and get back in. I always had a group of students surrounding me, running and jumping out of the way of the flying red balls. The children never threw at the JCMU students, but we attacked each other and the hit I scored on Andrew drew a great cheer from my team of first-graders.

After a brief rest back at JCMU, I set out with my friends to Kyoto. The Koka Women’s University, a private Buddhist college, had invited JCMU to send students to Kyoto for a party. The Koka people had sent ahead vouchers for the taxi fares, and once we arrived at the university, our contact at Koka gave us gift certificates for ¥3000 to cover the ¥2000 train fare. In short, Koka University paid to attend a party thrown for us where the Koka University fed well and entertained by the members of the English Speaking Society of the university. After eating Domino’s pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a plateful of sushi, we played bingo and a few other social games before the party ended. Taxis drove us back to Kyoto Station where Adam, Kevin, and I set out for dinner. After a nice walk through the eastern part of Kyoto, we met Yui and Kelly and made for an izakaya: a Japanese restaurant style, which serves every types of Japanese food and even some foreign foods. The few izakaya, which I have been, are generally large affairs, occupying a few floors of a building. Usually my group has eaten at a section of a long table, our portion of the table marked by curtains hung for privacy. Yui ordered us raw horse, which was delicious. After a few beers at the riverfront, I caught the last train back to Hikone.