Ninja camp part 4-our favorite part

Ninja houses were so much fun! Our favorite room had the floor tipped at a 45* angle. It spent much time trying to run up it and then sliding down it. I had a huge advantage because I didn't have socks on so I could get to the top much easier than Jon or Naomi, but it was still hard!


The crazy part is I am standing up straight!


Jon is standing up straight too! The drum was just hanging from the ceiling...straight down! We liked this ninja room because it was full of toys to try and play with while trying to balance!

Like this really cool contraption! When you set the ball on the top track it would actually go UP the ramp! It was awesome! We, like the six year old kids that were in the room with us, thought it was a cool science experiment! (Taking this one back to my classroom!)


Ok...hopefully the view works but here I am trying to climb the floor. I had more trouble going down than up because I didn't have socks on. However, it was not easy to walk down that floor! The video of Jon and Naomi is much more fun because they have socks on but I don't know if any of them will work! There is a crashing sound at the end of my video...that is a woman falling down the stairs. Just an FYI-she was ok.

Me walking up the floor:

Jon and Naomi walking up the floor:

Ninja camp part 3

Before we could go into the shrine we had to purify ourselves. You have to use your left hand to pick up the ladle with your left hand and pour over your right hand. Then switch hands, pour over your left hand. Then pour some water into your left hand, put into your mouth and spit it out. Now you are ready to enter the shrine.


It was a long hike to the top but there were many beautiful views and small shrines along the way.


We hiked a lot of stairs for that view!


And just after we made it to the top...more!


After all those stairs...we had a beautiful shrine and a beautiful view!

Ninja camp part 2

After a great day at ninja camp we hiked to a beautiful shrine. Here is the entrance. There were many smaller shrines along the way. The path was tree lined with super tall trees. It was beautiful!

See...REALLY tall trees!


I need to brush up on my shintoism because I don't actually know what this is called. I would call this the entrance but I could be wrong. Either way, it is the gate to path that leads up to the temples. It is also guarded by creatures. It is beautiful. See the trees lining the path threw the entrance.


Trees even big enough for us to sit in!


Here is the shine at the top of the path. It was beautiful!

Ninja camp part 1

Over our 3 day weekend, Naomi, Jon and I headed down to Nagano for ninja training. It was really just a childrens' camp but we had a blast. Here is our adventure:

We drove down there on Saturday (which was about 5 hours) and so we started with the first camp. We sat in the car all morning and we are totally ready to go:

On the camp grounds was a ninja wall. It would have helped to have been about 2 feet shorter to do this but we made it around the wall!



I was way too tall for this...the ropes were not easy and the little pieces of wood spun around so it was tough!


There was also many balance activities too. Naomi and I are prepping to battle on the tightrope!

We also threw ninja stars here. We got warmed up here and we perfected our ninja star skills!

Japanisms

There are lots of Engrish-isms around in Japan that make giggle all the time. Sometimes because there are not certain sounds in the Japanese language for English sounds they get a little mixed up. The following is a picture of an electrical company's van. Thought you would enjoy them too:

It is very popular to wear clothing with English on it. However, they aren't always right or appropriate English! I went shopping last week at a used clothing store and found this hat on the shelf and I thought it was wonderful!

Only 1000 Yen!!! I think it would go perfect with my 1st grade students' t-shirts that have the playboy bunny and pot leaves on them!

Expanding my food horizon everyday

One thing I love about my friend Ben is his honesty. When we talked last week he made the comment: "I cannot believe you said you were liking the food there." "Why?" I asked. He responded with, "Well, you are just such a picky eater!" It isn't a lie. I will admit that I am a picky eater. However, as Japanese culture would have it, it is considered rude to leave food on your plate. Therefore, I am just learning to eat whatever is put in front of me. Often just putting on a face that I do like it, but sometimes not. As a result...I am learning that there are a lot of foods that I actually do like!
I have had more fun in the past months trying new foods...many I like (like Mr. Donuts!) and many I hope to not eat again (such as crab brains!). Here are some of the foods I did try:

The picture above is of deep fried whale meat. It was so tender and delicious!

But if we were going to eat deep fried whale, of course we had to have the raw whale too! Above is raw whale meat. Yes, I know I swore off raw red meat after the horse but I couldn't not try it!

See...I just cannot resist!

We went out for Mexican and decided to try dessert! This is what is, aparently, a Mexican dessert. It is tortillas filled with a little fruit jam, little sugar and lots of cream cheese. Then grilled. Whip cream on the side and you've got a "Mexican Pizza!" It was a little strange but oddly good! However, I don't think I will ever need to eat it again!

Mr. Donuts is a famous donuts place here in Japan. Above is a picture of their most famous donut-pan de choco. It is fluffy and amazing. I will say that it is not as good as a Krispy Kreme but I would be happy to go back!

i heart elementary school

My favorite place in the world is elementary school! I do not have very elementary school days but they are the ones that I live for! Elementary school is so much fun and I love the students. The students are loud and crazy but super eager to learn English. Unlike my Junior High School students, they actually want me around. We have lots of fun playing tag during recess and they love "English time." Below are some pictures from my favorite school-Kuzutsuka Higashi.


Here I am introducing myself to one of the 2nd grade classes. They were given three choices and had to figure out which one is true about me. It was a great game that got the kids moving around and I had fun teasing them!

This is all the great things I shared about me. Some of them aren't true but it is just easier to have specific hobbies and favorites. You can see my favorite animal is an elephant, food is spagehetti and I am a pro snowboarder. Family-notice the awesome and huge pictures of you!

Here I am teaching the same class about fruit after introducing myself. Notice the Minnesota flag that I am using for a pointer. We spent lots of time sticking our tongues out and practicing making the "L" sound.


I also give lessons to the teachers once every time I go to the school. Here I was teaching pronunciation and games that the teachers can play with their students when practicing English.



Just because we are grown ups doesn't mean we don't love to play games too! Here we are play Karuta. It is a race game that students and teachers alike love!