Great Weekend

The last Friday I got to experience something very Japanese. I got to plant rice with my elementary school kids. Everyone except the first and second grade went to plant a field. The field belonged to a student's grandmother and the school plants it every year. It took about an hour for us to do it all and was pretty fun. The rows planted by real farmers were straight and even the rows planted by kids were ,lets just say, not straight and even. There were about 6 or 7 inches of water over about the same of mud. The rice goes in several plants at a time about half under the water and half above. The kids had a great time playing in the mud and splashing each other with it and I was glad to try planting the rice. However, it seems like it would be a hard job.

Saturday, the church had a festival to shear the sheep. It was mostly kids, church members, and the people from the handicap school in Okunakayama who went. I had never seen a sheep being sheared and was surprised by how docile they were through the whole process. After the shearing we had an egg hunt and ate lunch with some friends from the church. It was all-in-all a ton of fun and something that we couldn't have without living in a rural area and our close friends at the church.

Also, I went with the pastor to hear another pastor speak. The speaker was the pastor of a Japanese language church that meets in a New York Methodist church. His speech was in Japanese and I could only get about 75% of it. Even with that though it was very interesting. Though his comments about crime in America were a bit embarrassing. Since, it was in Sannohe there wasn't anyone who already knew me except my Pastor, but people were really friendly.

Sunday. Stephanie and I went to the Fuji Matsuri in Kozuya. Now this was not Fuji like the mountain but Fuji like the flower. The flowers had not bloomed because of a cold snap but the festival was fun. It was at the Elementary school and all the kids were there. The older towns people sang folk songs and the kids did dances. It was a great afternoon. One of my second graders gave Stephanie and I cotton candy and was so cute. Also the kids were selling soda and toys.

Three days of great activities show that winter Ichinohe and Summer Ichinohe are completely different. Winter is dead with nothing going on at all. Summer is alive with events every weekend all the time.