Day 35: Saku
(09/02/06)

Another good night's sleep at the ramen shop. Kazuko made a good show of grumbling at Chay again. "Ah, Chay eats so slowly. Chay doesn't like fish. Here, have some more toast. Do you like tempura?" Hard to tell if she's actually put out or just likes giving him a hard time. There seems to be some real affection there.

Then it was off to the Usuda-Machi Garbage Center for some fun with trash. We met a group of fifth-graders there and got a tour of the facilities. The center only deals with vegetable waste and turns it into mulch in a forty-day process after collecting it from schools, retirement homes, and the like. Not a bad goal, but it would be great if the schools would do composting themselves without any of the unnecessary high tech machinery at the center.

(Maya - 3rd Grade & Mai - 5th Grade)

Afterwards we cycled to the Kirihara Shogakko to do some environmental games with the kids. Then came the picnic--tempura, homemade soba, veggies, even beer was all thrown our way. Safe to say it was the first time I'd ever had alcohol at an elementary school. Better than the food though, was playing with the kids. I was roped into a game of tag by Mai and Maya, the daughters of the soba-maker, and was later shown the forest hideout by Saki, a fun tomboyish girl with a fondness for horror films. On the way up into the forest a little first grade boy I hadn't even talked to before, walked up next to me and took my hand, leading me. It was a touching display of trust by this small kid towards a foreign stranger. At the end, Saki even came up to me and gave me a few good hugs. Without a doubt, this has been the best school visit of the trip.

After all the group photos, we met Anri Hayashi, one of Chay's former students and our home stay sister for the night. She was a good kid. Bright and inquisitive, she was the most polite, considerate, and mature Japanese kids I've met. Her parents are both Nisei, Japanese born in Brazil, and obviously cared about teaching her how to act around people (something many Japanese parents leave for the junior highs to teach). Dinner that night was full on comfort food centering around a cheesy potato gratin. Delicious. To cap the night, Chay and I demonstrated both our stubbornness and ineptitude at chess by dragging out an obvious stalemate for nearly an hour.