The villagers for the JD38 session arrived this afternoon, have checked in, had dinner, and then went on a tour of the village.  Photos are now up on the pictures page (the link “JD38 Photos” above)!  Check back tomorrow for more.

Just added some photos from our second day here at Mori no Ike!  The weather is gorgeous here – 75 and sunny!  The kids have been busy learning Japanese songs, Japanese fencing, and trying new and exciting Japanese foods.

Just uploaded some photos taken during our fourth day together!  The kids took in various clubs today (they have been rotating through various clubs in order to give them a wide taste of Japanese culture), and Taiko was among them.  For our evening program, we experienced a tea ceremony as well as what it might be like to be a student in a Japanese school (there are no custodians — kids clean the school!)

We have come to the conclusion of our one week session this evening.  We had a great day today, and ended it with a Japanese style summer festival.  Strangely, the temperature plunged suddenly to 58 degrees, so it didn’t really feel all that summer-like.  The kids took it all in stride, though, and enjoyed a number of tradtional Japanese festival games and foods.  See the pictures section for JD38 for the photographic details.

The closing program starts tomorrow (Saturday, August 29th) promptly at 10:00 am.  We look forward to seeing you all there!

Michael Ryuuma Rubida
Dean

Welcome to Mori no Ike 2010!  Our dean Haru-sensei’s blog and staff pictures will be posted soon, and pictures from daily life in our village will follow!

All the sensei are 首を長くして待っています (kubi o nagaku shite matte imasu)–”making their necks long” (waiting impatiently) for the villagers’ arrival!

Meet the sensei (teachers/counselors), kitchen staff, and healthcare staff for first half (June/early July) 2010 by clicking on the “More” link!  We are looking forward to seeing you!

Here are some pictures from our dinner tonight!  We had toriniku no karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken) with soosu (sauce),  gohan (rice), sarada (salad), and painappuru (pineapple), with mizu to gyuunyuu (water and milk), and burauniizu (brownies!) from our awesome kitchen staff! (Be sure to click “read more” to see all the photos!)

For tonight’s yorupuro (evening program), each cabin visited various places around Mori no Ike to learn more about life in the village.

The villagers learned Japanese in their language learning classes this morning.
The students were divided into three different language groups and did activities with two counselors.
One class learned the different places of the camp site, another class practiced looking at Japanese words.

Today’s sentences that the villagers are practicing are:

*Namae wa nanndesuka? なまえはなんですか。
(What is your name)

*Doko kara kimashitaka?　どこからきましたか。
(Where are you from?)