Today was our first day at Jiyu Gakuen school! We started out the day at 6:00am (for the girls only, lucky boys) weeding, and then eating breakfast with all the girls here. The school has chapel that starts at 8:10 where they introduced us to the students. After that, we split up and went in pairs to Jr. High boy classes. Me and Steven went to the 7th grade boys class. When we walked up, they were so excited to see us! They were cheering and waving wildy through the windows. BUT, as soon as we walked in and were introduced, they became extremely shy! We helped teach the class (English class), and then went to join the others.


One thing that is very important in Japan is shoes! There are different shoes for everything. Indoor shoes, toilet shoes, kitchen shoes, outdoor shoes, and sometimes no shoes. It was very strange to constantly be switching what shoes you were wearing, and having to be careful where you were walking depending on the shoe you wore. Apparently it is a huge joke in Japan that when foreigners go to Japan, they always wear the toilet shoes outside of the bathroom. I have been very careful to not do this!

Jiyu Gakuen 1st year college English class

Steven puts on an impromptu show for the class :)

Anyway, back to our day: We went to a first year college English class, where we had to explain different prepositions. We realized how difficult it is to explain something like that when it just comes naturally to us. Lunch time, we all were split up at different tables to meet new people. My table was so friendly! Some of the people are very good at English, but the ones who aren't as confidant won't talk to you readily. If you try and speak Japanese to them, they usually start talking with more confidance. They realize that however bad their English is, it's not nearly as bad as my Japanese!

Hanging out after lunch with Kazusa!

Everyone got a bit tired at some point during the day. This was Cynthia's time.

After classes, we spent time with the Jr. High and High school girls (which we will do Monday-Friday), playing games like telephone, Ninja, and asking questions about each other. Soon after that, we had time with the college age students where Christine taught them Zumba, Steven taught them swing and salsa, and I taught them line dancing. At first, they were hesitant and we only had a few participants, but once they saw how much fun their friends were having, we got everyone to join! It was such a fun day, and even though it was very busy, I can't wait for tomorrow!

College girls hang-out time

Salsa dancing!

They got pretty into it!