We went to a school yesterday.

It was Kawagoe Elementary School.  Partially because this was required and partially because I wanted to see a real Japanese public school, I went despite my strong dislike for children.  It was actually lots of fun, but it's not changing my opinion on kids or anything.



Here's the view from the front door.  See the bell tower?  I can see the bell tower.  I know exactly where it is, but have no idea where this school was.

They gave me my very own shoe locker!  They got my name wrong, but at least they tried.

Here's the sink area.  In Japan, there are rooms like this in all the schools so you can wash off after gym or get some water.

Here's a hallway.

They made us all a name tag with some artwork representing Kawagoe on the back.  Mine was of mid-level artistry compared to the others, because some of them were very good and some of them were very lazy.

Here's the waiting room, just so you can see what a classroom looks like.  Any pictures with kids in them aren't legally uploadable, so if you want the pictures from the rest of the day for some reason, ask me and I can send them.  After waiting a bit, we were all brought into the gym and seated on the stage after walking through a gauntlet of children clapping and cheering.  It was bizarre.  The ceremony consisted of singing, dancing, and brief introductions to some stores in Kawagoe (all done by the children).

This was the school lunch.  You'll notice that pizza, french fries, or burritos are nowhere to be found.  It was some kind of very balanced soup, a melon slice, tuna, some bread, and some milk.  Not especially filling, but  it's pretty obvious that they actually make an effort to feed their kids healthfully.
Lunch was odd because children would all constantly ask things like "EXCUSE ME WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL" and asked for my autograph.  All the questions were very childish (as expected), but for about an hour I knew what it was to be a Teletubby.
As we left the school, children ran out from all the doors as we walked by to wave at us, as if we had just saved the school from an evil landlord.

This is the river on the way back from the school, only because I wanted  a picture of it post-typhoon.  It was pretty flooded.

We went back to school to see some of our Japanese friends.  Here are Natsuko and TakaHERO being themselves.

We left with two Japanese students and Lucas, Sam, and Kevin to go see Thermae Romae, which is a movie about a Roman man that gets sucked into present-day Japan and uses the bathing technology he finds to build the best public baths in Rome.  It was great.

Wesley played a game after the movie where you try and operate a bullet train.  It didn't work out very well.

The sky looked neat.

Here is everyone (minus Kevin) eating.

And I had this for dessert.  It was okay.  GOOD TIMES WERE HAD.