Thursday and Friday I was away at English Camp with the junior high schoolers from a super global high school that puts a strong emphasis on English. We went near Mt. Akagi at the National Akagi Youth Friendship Center. It was quite pretty, nestled among some colorful trees and the woods. I had to catch the train really early to be able to arrive in Shin-Maebashi to get the bus that would take us over to the school where we would switch buses again to drive to the camp. About twenty high school ALTs went. The building itself was super cold as the sun disappeared. I was really glad that I brought gloves, wool socks, and my full winter jacket for the evening performances in the gym.

I really had a lot of fun playing games, and watching the skits the students performed. Such creativity and they worked really hard. The cafeteria food was interesting. The first day was the least appetizing, but there was always rice for every meal. And potatoes, all the carbs. The signs were in Japanese so I had to just try a little bit of everything to see what it was and if I’d like it. One mealtime we managed to talk with the students, but they were also very shy and liked to stick with their friends.

At night, we had the whole public baths to ourselves. The other teachers had bathed earlier so I managed to take some photos before we all got naked in the water. In the morning of the second day, I was using the bathroom on our floor with all these cute, little 7th and 8th graders. They were really impressed by me putting on foundation since they aren’t allowed to wear makeup. Then I let down my wet-ish, curly hair and there was more oohs. Ah, the little things, ha. We had some free time in the morning so we went on a little hike through the woods. We ended up circling the building into the campground area. I would love to have actually done some camping!

I had lunch with a discussion group and we managed to chat a bit after. They invited their favorite teacher to sit with us and another teacher followed so I got to meet them. The one guy teacher was a master origami maker and could make a dragon! As we were leaving on the bus, the two teachers were running around looking for me. He had made me a dragon! It was stunning! I’m crushed that as we were getting off the bus, I forgot him on a little shelf :( Again, you can see how amazingly kind the people here are.