Shine!

Last night was our annual party event for this area, Shine. It is the first since the organizer, Brian, moved back to Japan. It was sad without Brian, no one can throw a party quite like him. Anyways, it turned out really well and bonus that I got to bring Greg with me!



Here are some photos!









The event was held to raise money for the coast, and there was a charity raffle. Guess who won? Greg Simpson.

Here are his winnings [bottle of sake, shirt, cakes and stickers] :







Today is going to be a lazy Sunday. I love brunch!

Greg's First day in Kitakata:

We got up on Saturday and went to my school's sports festival.







And then he tried Kitakata Ramen! [and saw a cool car he got excited about...]




It's a really pretty day. I am so excited about Shine tonight!

G Dinner and karaoke

Friday evening after school [after a nap- 6 classes wears you out!] we had some people over. After a brief Rock Band session we headed to G for dinner. It was delicious and fun to introduce Marie and Greg to my friends here.

Afterwards we did some karaoke:












This morning, bright and early, I took Marie to the train station. She should be in the air now. It was SO good having her here and I can't wait till the reunion in October! : )

Kitakata First Elementary School

On Friday both Greg and Marie came to Issho, Kitakata First Elementary School. We taught 6 classes about American Football! Greg taught them to hold the ball and Marie threw it around with them. The kids adored both of them!







At recess we passed the football around and the little ones took turns showing Greg and Marie how well they could do flips on the monkey bars:









It was a really great day and I was so happy to share them with my school :)

Marie in Japan 2

The rest of the week with Marie has been great!


We went to a fancy dinner with my kiwi friend, Cheryl:



And I showed her what a tanuki is:


On Thursday we took a train to Koriyama and met with Greg!





And on Friday she came to elementary school with me!

Marie in Japan

While I admit that I am missing a ton of great photos from my mom's recent trip to Japan, I wanted to show some of the latest ones of Marie at my middle school.

Please give a round of applause for my friend, Marie!


Her self-introduction:




A 7th grade class about numbers and working in groups:






The game I led:


And some fun pictures at the end:






It's been great having her at middle school with me!