This sort of thing really drives home the point that we are here in the very public eye representing Rotary International.
Happily they were all lovely pictures of us with the Mayor and generally behaving ourselves as we always do.
Today was really something. The Bunsui rotary club put on a fantastic dinner for us last night and provided all of the group with gorgeous traditional japanese garments called "Yukata." I can't say enough about how beautiful these clothes are.
Everyone was a blast and they had a wonderful jazz singer and band at the dinner. She sang slow songs while various couples waltzed and glided around the room.
Getting into and out of the geta and socks was a little hard, but with the help of a couple young ladies, I managed.
A long nights rest coupled with a wonderful breakfast and we were off to an amazing experience today. We got to visit our first grade school.
I mentioned to Dan, our fearless leader, that an English Teacher friend of mine in the province mentioned that almost every school in the district was having a bunkasai, or cultural festival, in the near future. This morning, Tachikawa-san informed us we were on our way to a school, Tagami Elementary School, to be precise.
Remember, this is the most recent interaction I have had with a child. I was pretty excited.
It was greater that I could have imagined.The bunkasai was in full swing. American and Japanese flags were all over the place!
We got to play Taiko drums.
We got to eat lunch with the kids.
We got to hear a music recital with a ton of koto and a mandolin and a flute. Note the ninja jumping out of the crowd to attack the flute player. It was awesome.
I learned that I am conversing on a 6 year old level in Japanese; YAY ME! Total improvement. Here's a shot of our two hostesses
All in all it was a fantastic day. As a capstone, following the tour of a famed Sake brewery, we went to a Buddhist temple and engaged in zazen meditation.
I got to ring the bell! Thanks for everything, Rotary.
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