Wednesday, April 21 & Thursday, April 22, 2010-

A day of sun and a day of rain, the elements are as varied as my calendar.

In only two days I’ve not only:

Gone to class,

Biked through the Japanese countryside,

Helped establish a school of Argentinean Pejerrey fish, and

Folded firework origami

(you know, the “typical” schedule)...

...but I’ve also

Farmed/Gardened,

Served food to a noticeably confused banquet of senior citizens at the soba restaurant,

Toured two visiting American students around Bato High School, and

Even saved a poor cat stuck in the river.

Success!!

Allie and Sam are from Horseheads, NY, the sister city to Bato. Interesting fact, in Japanese the literal name of Bato means "Horse Head"

The garden behind my host family's soba restaurant. I helped cut all the bamboo for those bean poles you see there

The river flowing behind the restaurant. The sakura petals are starting to fall, floating down the river until they get stuck in neat, pink lines along the dark moss of an oblivious rock

You can see the back of the restaurant there to your right. It's a peaceful place to spend a lazy afternoon

My homeroom teacher, Yoshida-Sensei took our class, along with Allie and Sam, out to Hanami yesterday afternoon. We ate lunch and played under the cherry blossoms. It was a great day, well over 70-80 degrees.

Today = Somewhere around 40...Cold!

Sekiguchi-Sensei and some of my classmates

Gotta love the fact that the Japanese still have plenty of dangerous playground equipment, no new "child friendly" replacements here

And please, no one mention the Defeat of Jesse James Days Gravitron after seeing this. I still get sick just thinking about it! =P