Japanese kids have such curious minds...

Today was the day I go to school... Ly's school, that is. You see, Ly works as an ESL teacher for a public primary school (Grades 1 to 6) and the last couple of days, she took days off to tour me around. Now, it was time to experience what Japanese schooling is like. At the same time, I was still thinking about BLUE...

	I wondered what this car was... my guess would have to be either a Lambourghini or a Ferrari.
	At the East Corner Elementary School. We were somewhat late on arrival because it was snowing in the morning (but then again, most of the faculty were late as well); thus, traffic was pretty slow. Luckily, Ly's class doesn't start until 45 minutes after our late arrival. Anyways, she is writing notes to prepare for today's lesson. Today, she would be teaching four sets of classes - two Grade 1 classes and two Grade 3 classes.
	The school's slogan. Don't ask me what the words translate to.
	The English classroom. To the left, you will see a gas heater - there's no central heating system in the school; thus, this room has to rely on gas.
	A group of Grade 1 students ready to NOT listen to Kimura-sensei; rather, they were curious of the foreign stranger taking a picture of them.
	An old picture of Ly back in Victoria with some friends - hey Brian T, Quinn, and others - recognize yourselves in this picture?
	Some of the faculty members of the school. A couple of quick facts here: 1) The man closest to the picture on the left side is a "strange man" (Ly said it) - honestly, he's a nice guy; 2) Everyday, the cafeteria people prepare the lunches for ALL - students and teachers. Free lunch is all good (as long as it's not curry for me)!
	Grade 3 kids ready and willing to have their pictures taken.
	You are NOT dreaming this up - these kids actually asked for MY autograph! I'm a celebrity!

Going through a Japanese primary school is a pretty neat experience. There were a number of things I've learned and experienced while I was there...

• Japanese kids can be a very curious bunch. One of the Grade 3 classes surrounded me before class began and just stared at me with curiousity - apparently, Japanese kids don't really see too many foreign strangers. Then again, it did give me a little reassurance that the majority of Japanese know that I am not Japanese. :P
• Japanese kids are quite open-minded. They will ask questions such as:
  • "What's your favourite colour?"
  • "What sport do you play?"
  • "What's your favourite flower?" For some stupid reason, I said rose... I think that was the only flower that I could have thought of at the time.
  • "Do you have a girlfriend/Is there someone you like?" I had to lie and said that I have a girlfriend back in Canada... :P
  • "Do you have a boyfriend?" No. Some mischievious Japanese boy asked me that.
• I can't dance too well to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"... in fact, my pathetic dancing skills made the kids laugh...
• The school has a special room dedicated to learning Japanese Tea Ceremony and other traditional Japanese arts - the room has the tatami straw mats and sliding screens... it was pretty unique.
• Beware of kancho. It's simply translated as a Japanese wedgie, where little boys will form a pointer with their two hands and stick it up your ass. (Side Note: On Ly's pocket dictionary, kancho is translated as enema: a liquid that is put into a person's rectum in order to clean out the bowels. Interesting. Anyways, I learned kancho the hard way when little boys continuosly tried jamming their fingers up my ass... I really hope they could handle the power of my shit smell - it ain't my fault if they suffer from intoxication. :P

We decided to sneak out of school early - Ly was done with her classes and she could have participated in a school meeting, but she didn't want to go through it that day and she didn't want me to wait for an hour and a half before we could officially leave. Personally, I wouldn't care too much if I had to wait for that long - also, I didn't feel like going to a nearby shopping area. But hey, it's been a long while since I've sneaked out of school... :P

We were to meet up with one of Ly's friends, Rick - he's also a Canadian ESL teacher and he's been in Japan for 5 years. We went to Kyoto to get some dinner - we ate okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese egg pancake, but it's ANOTHER great Japanese dish! Damn, typing this down is making me dying for some more okonomiyaki!

After okonomiyaki and dessert (good ol' chocolate parfait again! ;-) ), Ly, Rick and I went out for some karaoke. Finally, I get to test my singing skills after all that practice at home with Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3! Here's a breakdown:

• I can't sing (despite all that practice back home)
• I can't scream (I tried singing some Linkin Park songs... there's no way in hell I can match Chester's screaming abilities)
• Ly's a pretty solid singer
• Rick's not bad - better than me, that's for sure
• "Matsuken Samba" by Ken Matsudaira is the most whacked out song I've heard in a longtime... basically, Matsudaira-san was once a tough samurai actor who now sings a song in the beat of samba. When he's on stage performing this song, he dresses up in a really flashy man kimono stitched with shiny speckles and wears make-up. There will be ladies in the background dressed up in kimono and make-up as well, and they all go with the samba beat with moments of "OLE!" coming in key times... for a North American like me, it was just flat out WRONG. BUT, this song was apparently the most popular song in Japan in 2004 - it just ate up popular boy bands such as SMAP.

Well, here's a few pics pertaining to the after school moments...

	Now this is pretty cool - you can go to a vending machine and purchase a big ass bottle of Asahi beer (the selection is on the bottom left).
	Crossing over a bridge to go to Kyoto city.
	Time to warm up our vocal chords - it's karaoke time!
	Rick and Ly belting their lungs out.

After all of that was done, we decided to head back to Ly's place to end the day. Now, I had one more spare day to play with - however, Ly will need to work and Kei has to work each day. Therefore, I had options:

• I can go revisit Kyoto one more time and see a few more shrines and temples,
• I can visit another old capital in Nara, where it also houses famous shrines and temples, or
• I can go back to Osaka and spend a lot of Yen on BLUE...

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