October 1st: Trip to Kobe with the Parent Teacher Association

I spent a day in Kobe with my school’s PTA. It was a very rapid pace day…after a three and half hour bus ride on what seemed to be a party bus with chandeliers and everything (the men started drinking at 7am!), we went to the Disaster Prevention Center to learn about the 1995 earthquake that damaged most of the city. I was very well taken care of, the group made a big deal to find English guide head-sets wherever they could. We then went to China Town, ate a huge feast, and then ventured to the outlet mall. The bus-ride home was spent playing many games of Bingo and I won scotch tape and a cat-shaped file folder, it was quite exciting!


Note to self: next time, get in the front row.


China Town, Kobe





All in all, it has been a very busy but great last few weeks. My day job is still going well. The junior high kids seem to be warming up and they are participating a bit more. I also visit pre-schools and elementary schools one or two times a week which helps to break things up because they are so wild and fun. I look forward to staying around this weekend to jump from town to town for six days of Taiko (giant drum) festivals.