Time is going by way too fast! Or maybe its just that quite a lot seems to happen in a couple weeks. Anyway, I have a lot to catch up on again! First, I’ll talk about the ‘Sports Day’ at my school. Basically it a day where the whole school gets together to do various replay races, tug of war, etc. Every student has to take part in at least one activity and I think some of them don’t really like it so much. Right now I’m doing a lesson on ‘Blues music’ for my classes and I have them get up and do a little Blues song where each group if kids pretends to be a band and says their name, where they are from and what kind of ‘Blues’ they have! (I think I mentioned this already) One group said they had the ‘Sports Day’ Blues! Pretty funny. I have to admit I didn’t get too into Sports Day. Some of the events were a bit more fun or creative, but in general I was just happy I didn’t have to participate!It started with a routine from the cheerleaders, which is really the same as poms. I gotta say, there’s not much to their routines. A lot of hopping around and looking cute- no tosses, no splits, no lifts, no tumbling, etc. So be proud America! If survival comes down to cheerleading, we’ve got the Japanese beat! *snicker*

Ugh, its raining today. I tried out the umbrella holder on my bike for the first time and it worked pretty well. We’ve been lucky in Nara prefecture, not too much rain considering it’s the middle of typhoon season and the islands southwest and north of us have had to deal with a lot of damage. There’s a typhoon around Japan nearly every week.

Steve and I started Japanese lessons. I’m slowly improving. I still can’t get the R’s right, though. They’re really not R’s- they’re more like a combination of an r, l, and d sound. We might think its funny that many people from Asia say our L’s and R’s the way they do, but it’s just as hard to get the Japanese ‘R’ correct. For one, (here comes your language lesson! *L*) your tongue is in a totally different place when you pronounce it. For an English R, you sort of suspend your tongue in the middle of your mouth and for L’s and D’s, you put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind the teeth, (where the roof is flat). With a Japanese R, however, you have to move your tongue back, so the tip hits the ridge where the flat part ends and the arch of your mouth begins. Try it, it’s a really rounded, soft sound. Then try doing pronouncing something like “Ryokan” (r-yo-ka-n). Not that easy.

More later! I’ll be posting all about the lunch Steve and I had with our Japanese pal Keiko and her friend Mika and also have some pics of my fav snacks in Japan and our trips to shrines over the weekend!



For now I'll leave you with another sunset from my window.

Mata ne!
Erin