Week 9 in Japan: Class trip to Iwate Prefecture

       Week 9 has was here and now gone in Japan. It's hard to believe it is already almost December but at the same time when I look at what I've done in the last two months I can see that it has been full of a lot of great experiences. This week I went on a class trip to Iwate prefecture for "Multicultural Communication Training". Just over 30 students from Akita University went. I left for this class trip on Saturday at 7am and got back Sunday night. The drive took about 3 hours each way but it included some really great scenery, I had friends to talk to and also the bus was nice so it wasn't so bad. We stayed at the "National Iwatesan Youth Friendship Center" along with students from Hirosaki University and Iwate University. Over the two days there were various events that we did all together but usually we split into small groups. One of the things that was a big deal for me was that Marina(from last weeks blog) and I gave a presentation on Akita University to everybody at the camp (over 100 students). We had prepared a power point presentation over the previous weeks with information about Akita Unversity. We basically both would say the same thing but I would say it in English for people at the camp who didn't understand Japanese. Just a couple minutes before we went up to do the presentation I talked to Marina and told her we should do something to make the crowd happy and laugh right from the start of the presentation. Making your audience laugh will make them more comfortable and interested, plus it will make you more relaxed which will make the whole thing turn out better. I told her we could start with me saying my name and hello in Japanese (Konnichiwa) and her saying hello in English. After saying "hello" I had the idea for us to simutaniously wink and put one arm out with the peace sign. I was surpised and happy that she decided to go along with my idea. To my relief and surprise the crowd clapped, cheered, and laughed! From there everything was smooth sailing. The food at the camp was good Japanese style food and it was also a buffet too so I enjoyed that a lot. The camp was located in a great location so my only real complaint for the trip is that there were no activities outside. I would have loved to go for a hike or spend more time enjoying the view of the mountain while I was there.

       I'm going to keep this weeks blog short and sweet. As always thanks for reading! Please come back next week for my next blog and feel free to leave me a comment below.

 I might look kinda tired because Friday night I slept about an hour and Saturday night I got about 4 hours. All things considered though I still felt pretty great. This was Sunday.

 Here is a picture I found on a friends Facebook. This was on Sunday just before we left. Look carefully and you will see that I'm in the picture.

 Here is a picutre of just the group of students from Akita University. I actually notice now when looking at it that it is not everybody from our class though. Also we took a picture with everybody from the camp together but I don't know how I'm supposed to find it. I'll probably have it for next weeks blog though.

 On Friday I went again to teach in Yurihonjo to a class of pre-schoolers. They surprised me with some pictures they had taken of me from the first time I taught there. It actually really was a surprise because I didn't even know they took pictures of me to begin with. Again I don't have access to a scanner at the moment so you are left with photos of photos. Inception.

 Playing a game to learn Englsih. These kids are all so unique and smart. I haven't been around them much but I could already tell you a little about each kid.