I have checked on all family and friends in Japan and Hawai’i and they are all fine.

But, not all is over. We will know soon enough if the Fukushima reactors are fine or not. Japan needs us now, but will needs us later as well. In the meantime, please consider participating in From Japan with Love if you are a blogger, Bento4Japan if you are a bento-er, and Reaching out to Japan if you are a Girl Scout (or even if you aren’t!).

An online version is also available at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries page.

Here’s the breakdown of what I need:
Kindergarten (5) [20 kids]
First (3) [27 kids]
Second (5) [4 for 27 students, and one activity for 13]
Third (4) [19 kids]
Fourth (4) [12 kids]
Fifth/Sixth (3) [14 kids]

I’m the art teacher, so I need to have… art activities.
I want them to make a scrapbook, which I can display at the end of the program, each day their art goes inside. I don’t know if I will make this a ‘bound’ book or if I will just make a file folder to hold everything that they can decorate and tie closed with ribbon.

Here’s where I’ll be at:

View Larger Map

edit: I solved my problem! I mapped out the art classes, reusing some crafts and just changing the difficulty of them.

Kindergarten: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Calendars, Weaving & Bookmarks, Illustrate a Story, Sponge Painting, Picture Frames, Tissue Paper Flowers
First Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Mosaics, Calendars, Weaving & Bookmarks
Second Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Mosaics, Calendars, Tissue Paper Flowers, Paper garlands, Picture Frames, Yarn Paintings, Weaving & Bookmarks
Third Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Mosaics, Calendars, Puppets, Tissue Paper Flowers, Picture Frames
Fourth Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Collages, Mosaics, Calendars, Picture Frames & Bookmarks
Fifth/Sixth Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Calendars, Top Hats

-Nikstere

It is 12:37 am here and I should really be doing my homework because I have to wake up at about 6 am tomorrow so I can take a shower and talk to you! I just made 2 short movies for everyone that is a compilation of videos and movies I took on 6/23 (Saturday) and 6/24 (Sunday). I’m hoping to catch up really quickly, and maybe make a compilation of a few days where I have less pictures into one movie. I’m so picky about the music I choose to go with it, I shouldn’t really care.

Sorry its taking so long for me to contact you! I don’t like the internet café’s keyboard, so I’m going to just type my emails here and copy and paste into the café’s PC until I get my internet connection. It will also be cheaper that way too because its like $2 or something for just a few minutes!

I’ve found that transportation here is really expensive. Once you get into the city, all the lines are JR (japan rail), but I live far from Tokyo, so I have to take Tokyu ( 東急) to Tokyo. The characters mean east and fasts, so its like an express metro to Tokyo. So, any travel I do outside of my school’s stop, I have to pay for, even if I go to a stop that’s on the way to school/dorm. It’s about $2 to one stop, $1.30 being the cheapest ticket you can buy and when you get to the next stop you have to pay the difference which ranges from 90 cents to two dollars and 90 cents. I kinda like the train system, once you figure it out, its very easy to ride and transfer and such, not like the DC metro.

So, today we went to school as usual, BUT today, the results of the placement test were posted. @_@. Remember that yesterday I was really worried about my placement test since they said I got a 28/200 and that was equal to level 1? Well, I got placed into the highest class with one fellow classmate from JPN 202 at UVa and one that was in 302!! I don’t know how that happened, but I’m glad!

This week and the next are special sessions for students from the US to review and prepare us for our level when it becomes “real” school July 10 ^th. It’s kinda weird, but I like it! And, we can take the test again at the end of the 7 days to see which level we get placed into (if we want to, I don’t want to. I’m in the class to go into 3 OR 4, and I’m happy with 3!). We have two classes each day. In the morning, 930-1245 I think, I have a really nice Japanese woman, the person that I had my oral interview with yesterday. (and because of her I got put into class F instead of A ^_^). We have a 15 minute break half way through and then we have lunch for 45 minutes, until 130. I went with a few other people to this place called “Freshness Burger” and ate a Spam Sandwich. The problem is that all the good or cheap places to eat are a little far away from school, so we were late! From now on, I think I’ll just grab some bento from a convenience store or vending machine near by. The good thing is that starting July 10 ^th, I will only have morning class. ^______^, so I can use that time to explore and eat at good places THEN.

So, the second session is with this old Japanese guy, and I was late, so I was kinda scared of him. He is much harder to understand than the woman, and I got so tired from straining myself to hear and process what he was saying. After that class we had a mini-orientation for a trip to Yamagata we’re taking on Thursday and Friday. [Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures and I'll have the weekend to upload them!] After that, I tried to get help filling out my internet modem (*_*) request form and then Amanda and I went back to Mizonokuchi to try to get an Alien registration number from the ward office (to get a cell phone), but it closed at 5!! Then we went to “explore” Mizonokuchi and found out that our small town wasn’t small at all! We have a mini-NYC on the other side of the train tracks! We met fellow KCP people/person downtown and then went to a stationary store where I bought an orange pen, pencil, notebooks, index cards, and some postcards. The postcards are so pretty (and expensive), that I don’t know if I want to send them! After that, Christine (the person we accidentally met down there) went back to the dorm and Amanda and I went to this huge mall called O1 City and went into this food court that had a KFC, Mister Donut, Baskin Robbins, and a LOT of good looking inexpensive restaurants. From now on, we’re going to eat there because by our dorm is too expensive. The food court is like 2-5 dollars and our dorm area is like 7-12 dollars. BIG difference! Plus, I don’t eat that much, so yeah…Amanda ate her ‘freshness burger’ that she didn’t get to eat from lunch (she didn’t have time) and I ate a small scoop (kids size) of Lemon Cranberry Cheesecake Ice Cream from Baskin robbins (SO YUMMY!) I didn’t take pictures of the burger place outside or the food court, but I took a picture of the burger place inside, kept the menu, and took a picture of my sandwich and ice cream.

Then we went back, got a *little* lost and then came home. I did laundry and the dorm manager said that she could lend us a fridge! (Only one though, that will be put in MY room! ^_^)

I would like to write more, but for now I need to do my Japanese homework because I need to go to bed really soon if I want to call you and take a shower and get to school on time!

I love you so much Danny, and send me some packages!
my address is: I have two. Letters go to Mizonokuchi, Packages (or both!) go to KCP.

KCP International Language Institute
University-Accredited Program
1-29-12 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo, Japan 160-0022

or, if you can print the Japanese, it is better:

日本

〒１６０－００２２
東京都新宿区新宿１－２９－１２
ＫＣＰ地球民日本語学校

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Tokyo Student House Mizonokuchi
TOKYO STUDENT HOUSE MIZONOKUCHI
453-1 SHIMO-SAKUNOBE, TAKATSU-KU
KAWASAKI-SHI, KANAGAWA 213-0033 JAPAN

日本

〒２１３－００３３
神奈川県川崎市高津区
下作延４５３－１　２１６号
オアンダサン・ニコール

東京スチエーデントハウス溝の口

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