ok so lets get right into it... my second day in obama was such a blast. what a memorable experience! maybe the kids in america are similar and i'm really freaking out over nothing, but the kids in japan were just exceptionally fun. maybe i should start hanging out with more elementary schoolers?

we showed up and went through the same schpiel as the day before at the middle school. morning meeting, introduction to the principals and important teachers. this time, they got extra stoked on me being from boston though. one of the more animated teachers asked me all about the red sox and dice-k, like "do you know him?" of course i do! and then he wanted to know about ichiro and matsui too and i was like, "no i don't like the yankees! NO WAY EW!" and he thought that was funny. he probably doesn't know about the rivalry, but i wasn't gonna say i liked matsui just because i was in japan. then they asked me if i knew obama, as in barack obama. tesni's town has been getting a lot of international coverage because of its name, and so they assume every american, or even foreigner, is in town because of him. not really, but ok. they asked me if i was going to vote for him, and as an american i was kind of taken back. no one discusses politics in the workplace in america! not with a complete stranger anyway, but since i have nothing to hide, i'm like -- "actually, no but..." and they're like "ohh you like mccain?" NO, i didn't say that. i tried to explain in simple english that i had voted for clinton in the primary, but i would support obama if he became the democratic candidate. it felt kind of weird trying to explain that, and i'm not sure they even understood what i was saying, but i just finished it off with "but i love obama, japan!" and that got a good reception.

once the morning meetings were done, we just waited for one of the kids to come and get us. again, it might be like this in america too, but i just don't recall my elementary years being so lax... a couple little girls (7-8 yrs old) came to bring us to the classroom and they just waltzed into the teachers lounge. i was like, are they allowed to just come in here? wow. walking into the classroom was fun because the kids' eyes just get as big as saucers and they are like, a real american girl! oh my god, so cool! tesni and i started in on our same presentation, just a little simpler than the one we'd given the middle schoolers. "my name is kelsey" repeat "hello kelsey" "i am 26" how old? 26. etc. and "i am from america! i live in richmond, virginia" richmondu, bar-ginia. i showed where virginia is on a map of america and got to write on the chalkboard, i felt like a real teacher.

after that, the teacher suggested i introduce myself to each child separately. that was really nice because i got to go around and shake their little hands and use each of their names. they had nametags on so we could call them by their names and it made it feel extra special. some of them were very shy, but when i would say "it's very nice to meet you kaito" i could tell that they thought it was nice to meet me too.

after that, the kids wanted to play games and show us some traditional japanese games. the teacher was like, this one is a special string game. and after watching the kids for a couple second, i'm like "no way, this is called cat's cradle and i can do this too! watch!" and i blew so many minds.

and then tesni and i taught them some american games, miss mary mack style. then we let some of the kids come up and play with us, that got a little messy, but it was fun! then they just kind of let loose and got buck wild, jump roping and juggling all over the place. waving the american flag, asking to play cat's cradle with me again, etc. elementary school is so much fun!

after that, we went to another classroom and met some more kids. this time we did a shorter presentation, and played more games. the kids didn't get as crazy until i pulled out my camera, and then they ALL wanted pictures. tesni's favorite little girl, ayana, was in this class and (sorry to the others!) we totally favored her, but how could you not? she is the cutest thing ever. they walked us all back to the teacher's lounge and before long, we were off to have lunch before i was supposed to take the train --


we ate a super quick lunch at mos burger, and i experience my first fried burdock, sesame seed, carrot burger with rice buns. insanely delicious, but i barely got to enjoy it because we were so rushed! i got on the train with my 120 yen ticket, which technically should have taken me one single stop. instead, i played the ignorant american (sorry mom, i am not a bad person!) and rode the whole way to kyoto on that same ticket. i saved myself about $42 by doing that, so whatever. tough times call for serious actions! i got off the train, and thanks to tesni's extra cell phone, i found nicole with little to no hassle. it makes me really wonder how we did it before cell phones! pathetic, but true. we walked a couple blocks to our j-hoppers hostel and got settled in. nicole had told me that a friend of hers from her prefecture was also going to be in kyoto and that we were going to go out to dinner with him, and she's like "you are REALLY going to like him!" oh yeah? ok, cool... so at 6pm, we head down to meet said friend and its --

ADAM!

i already mentioned it in a previous post, and its pretty self-explanitory (best friend showed up in japan!) but seriously, i think it was the biggest surprise that has ever been pulled on me. what a good one! and so after the initial shock wore off, we jumped on a city bus to find one of the vegan spots listen in nicole's vegan japan magazine. we looked for about two hours, up and down the cutest little streets in kyoto. it was a nice night, and we got to see the real kyoto searching for this place, but we finally had to give up. the local police didn't even know where it was, and after calling, nicole found out that they were closed on tuesdays. WHAT! so instead we hit up a decent indian place and got to rest our feet a bit.

during spring in kyoto, the gion district is all lit up from 7-10pm and so we walked all around. it was totally gorgeous, and i kept thinking how lucky people are to have a neighborhood like this in their city. it seemed like a lot of people were taking advantage too, beautiful trees, temples, shrines, bamboo gardens, pathways, etc... all lit up like christmas. except, way less tacky! i tried to spot a geisha, but no luck. its ok, i will get to watch "memoirs of a geisha" this week and be able to spot all the local gion sights like a pro!

after the long search for the vegan place and walking around gion, we were exhausted so we just got some juice and hagen-dazs from the combini and called it a night. looking back on this post, i can't believe i did all of that in one single day! it makes me feel like i need to be more productive here at home. whew! no wonder i was so tired...