Another Day, Another Good One

Wednesday has passed here in lovely Naga, Japan and with it, another eventful day at the high school. For me personally, today was a long one--a few bumps along the way--but in the end, definitely a good one. I'm exhausted and ready for an eventful night of some Japanese baseball and more snoring by my host (we've already made our daily trip to the hardware store...literally, we went to get keys made...that's 4 trips since I've been here. Today though, the students were certainly busy. The day started with everyone visiting some English classes, then a quick Japanese lesson, and finally lunch. Following a quick meal (which is usually packed nicely for each student by their host parents), our afternoon was filled with a few hours testing our skills at traditional hand-painted calligraphy...I for one, was pretty pitiful at it. After the end of the school day, our class was invited to attend a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. We sat for about an hour on our knees (unbelievably painful), ate things we weren't quite sure about, drank some grass-like frothy tea, and did our best to follow the strict customs of the ceremony. We were even joined by the principal of Naga high...definitely a big honor.

Tomorrow, we are off on a field trip to Mt. Koya, a shrine/temple about 2 hours away in the mountains...should be interesting