Friday, August 28, 2009 –

A new day at Bato High and I’m still laughing at my luck. I found out I am the latest foreign exchange student to the school in the past 10 years, so they’re kind of winging my schedule and how my day plays out. As before the English teachers have been so helpful, coming to my homeroom classes in order to translate the day's news and so forth. Today I had two hours of fish biology and anatomy followed by craft design (I get to make a cool Japanese style clay plate set). Then English 1 in which I helped lead the class in forming simple introductions.

My last two classes of the day were spent in Cooking class.

I learned to make あんみつ – 餡蜜 basically it's a syrup covered bean jam dessert with fresh fruit and ice cream on top. It was fun even though I was completely lost as to what was going on. The syrup proved to be so sweet I couldn’t even finish the whole dessert, but the fresh fruit on top was delicious.

After school I went to the soccer club and played with the “team," aka 6 people. Despite that fact, a couple of the guys were quite good and we had a fun time taking shots and playing 3 v. 3 until I had to head back to Sasayaso. Dinner back at the inn was delicious. I had the famous Nakagawa Ayu sweetfish for the first time.

They prepared it whole with a salty coating covering the skin. The meat itself was superb, yet the fact that the fish’s bones and skin and insides were also involved was a bit of a turn off. They told me also to eat the head but I couldn’t handle the sour flavor and hard skull bones inside. Sorry if that was too much information but I figured I ought to be thorough on my first Ayu experience : ) The rest of the meal was great, Tendon tempura and rice with the top covered in a great sauce. The flavors were new and tangy and full. I didn't want to take a picture of the old man who I think owns the inn, and with whom I've eaten most of my meals. So instead I took a picture of this mask I found in a bathroom that looks IDENTICAL to him! It made me laugh out loud when I found it.

Mr. Blackburn sent me an invitation to take part in a traditional rice harvesting celebration this October. It ought to be a lot of fun and I’m going to see if the other inbounds want to join me. But right now I’m wiped out from all the fresh air and bike riding. It’s only 9 o’clock but I’m ready to crash. I can’t believe right now (9 o’clock Friday night) marks one week from when I landed in Narita. I feel like I’ve done so much already, it really is exhausting. Good ni..g...h….t…(yawn)….Zzzzz