First week, first Friday. Mochi, sushi and trees. =)

10/12/10 - School, 8.15am

Yes, I am at school before 8.30. Don't get any ideas, Dad.
Anyways, at the start and end of each day, everybody (well, almost everybody. Some students are lazy =P) bows at the gate, in the general direction of a shrine/memorial thing to theYasuda students who died in the A-bomb.
Oh, and there's a sakura tree near to the gate that survived the A-bomb, even though it's less than 2.5km from where the bomb was dropped.
Speaking of trees, we arrived here on Tuesday to find that there were about 4 trees all wrapped up in dried flax-grass type stuff. Apparently, it's to keep them warm/alive during the winter. Who knew?

Later - in the car, after lunch

We finished school early today, coz it's exam time, so Masato took me and Rika to a kaiten-zushi restaurant for lunch - it's one of the awesome sushi-on-a-conveyor places =) Oh, and I ripped open a crab and ate its legs.It tasted good, but it was really hairy... and kinda scary. I was afraid that it was going to wake up and attack me!
It seems that everyone here is obsessed with wet hand towels. Don't get me wrong, they have their uses, but I never know where to put them when I'm finished with them!
At school today, we went to the primary school again, to teach the third graders. We've met half the school now =)
Then, after that, we went to the kindergarten to make mochi! It's basically pounded, mushed up steamed rice. Once it's steamed, it gets put into a giant nortar and pestle thingamy, and gets all beaten up to a... paste, I guess you'd say. Ah, it's too hard for me to explain. Look here: click. Anyway, it's really yummy, and it was really fun to make.

So, you know how I went to aerobics the other day? Well, now my legs (especially the left one) are so sore, that straightening them is actually really difficult. BUT the aerobics instructor, who is Masumi's friend, dave both me and Rika a box of delicious German chocolate each. I'm in heaven.

Right, 'nuff said from me for now. Disney Channel calls!

おやすみなさい！(Goodnight)
Anna x