Day 17: Musical Play and Family Fun

I woke up extra early today to prepare breakfast for everyone. In my part of the house I have my own food, so I wanted to eat as much of it as possible. It was not a bad meal: yogurt, apples, bananas, American cherries, toast, pastries, and orange juice. I also had to wrap the gifts for the Nagasaku Family before I left their house. Mrs. Nagasaku loves taking a lot of pictures, so she took some pictures of my family before we all went our separate ways. Mrs. Nagasaku and I loaded up my suitcase and headed to Notre Dame Elementary. Unfortunately, I was late to school for the first time due to a traffic accident. It took two hours to make the normally one hour drive!

Once at school I only had time to make sure my PowerPoint will work for tomorrow’s lesson for all of the second graders. We had an early lunch and then went on a field trip to a musical play. Imagine taking 120 students through the subway system of a major city…that is what we did. Life in Japan is quite different from what I am used to in the United States. The musical play was put on by a famous group called Shiki. The choreography of the show was impressive. The play was in Japanese, but the story was rather easy to follow.

After the play I met up with my family again for a few more hours of fun. We grabbed some Starbucks to liven us up and then tried our hand at the infamous Japanese game Pachinko. None of use really knew how to play or what we were doing, but one thing was clear: the money we put in would not be coming back out. At least we can say we played Pachinko. The game is so loud that my ears were ringing when we stepped outside. The people who sit in there all day must be completely deaf by now.

The last hoorah was a fun karaoke experience. The place was not the best, but the tunes were still good. We took turns choosing songs, and playing the tambourine that I found in the room. We originally requested one hour in the karaoke room, but ended up adding another hour or so. It was too much fun to just quit. The best was the Humpty Dance by Digital Underground. The fun couldn’t last forever, though. The Hotta Family invited me to their house for the night, so we had to get moving on to dinner. Casey requested okonomiyaki, since it is my favorite. We found a small okonomiyaki restaurant and ordered a few different kinds to try. Let's just say the restaurant had a lot of character. What matters most, though, is that the food was good. I still love okonomiyaki! After dinner we walked to Kyoto Station and said our goodbyes there. There was a bit of emptiness getting on the subway alone, but I was happy regardless. Yuko Hotta picked me up at the school at about 9:45pm. Junpei was in the back of the car sleeping with the Wisconsin Badger football I gave him. It is nice to be back at the Hotta’s again.