Fun Afternoon

Today was Sunday, so I was at church in the morning. Afterwards Taylor and I stayed at the church for 2 hours until one of my students came to pick us up for the afternoon. While we were waiting we started talking to one of the other people in the kitchen, Yabutana sensei. It turns out that he teaches English at a local high school. I mentioned that sometime I would like to visit a Japanese high school, and he got really excited. He invited me and Taylor to come to his class any time, plus we have an official invitation to join any of the school clubs. It is just like being in high school, but without the homework. Attend class when you want, and feel free to do the fun stuff with the kids. Yes! We are going for the first time this Thursday at about 2:00 and staying for about an hour. After this time we will probably decide how involved we want to be with the English club, Yabutani sensei's classes, and other clubs. I am so excited! There really aren't many people my age around, so I think this is a great opportunity to make some new friends. I was actually just wondering the other day how I could arrange to visit a high school, and here it is. Super blessing. Plus, the high school is only about a 15 minute bike ride away from my home stay house. Yay!!!!!

We were supposed to go up in the mountains with Noriko to watch the fireflies after church, but it was really pouring. We went to Noriko's house for dinner (curry, vegetable gratin, fruit jelly, and chocolate mousse). Then we played some games. First we played this card game using lords, ladies, and fools (as far as I could tell). There was a huge stack of cards, and everyone took a turn turning one card over. If it was a lord, you kept the card. If it was a fool, you had to discard all of the cards you accumulated. If it was a lady, you got to pick up the discard stack. It was fun and easy to play. We also played a matching game, and I beat everyone soundly. 12 matches to 5 or 6 apiece.

I forgot to mention earlier, but while we were talking, I accidentally used Kansai ben. Oops! Noriko started laughing and said that it sounds so cute when I use it. Haha. oops. Seriously though, Noriko speaks with the strongest accent I've ever heard, so it is a little hard not to speak in a similar way.

We went up in the mountains for a bit, but we only saw one firefly. It actually flew into one person, so he caught it and showed it to everyone. Afterward we drove back to Kishiwada to the Yukimoto's house.