Well, it rains 24/7 here but the adventures I have had are numerous. The little girl is Kana, Koji's 4-year old. We have a ball together.

The mammoth bones are from a wonderful museum, Kushiro City Museum. It has a spectacular design. The next pictures are of a plastic replica of a marsh bog, and the production of peat. The round green things are balls of algae...a rare phenomena. Someone said they exist only in a few places in the world.

The rest are self explanatory...cranes, eating at a famouos oyster grill, addressing the students at an assembly, etc.

Not much time to rest or process this experience, but I am hoping our schedule will calm down a bit. My hosts are going out of their collective ways to show me interesting and unusual places, people and things.

Cynthia Jones
Bellwood

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my partners feel bad for me when it rains but I tell them it rains so little these days in North Texas that the rain feels good...Looks like the rain has not slowed you down at all..have fun
Tom

Look at you Cynthia: actually signing your entry. Your work would stay out of my classroom wastebasket! Love dem bones. My degree is in geology and my strong suit is paleontology.
My wife arrived at Matsuyama Airport last night and both my partners was there. More than a coinsidance...Koji brought his 1st grade daughter and her name was...not the same as your Koji's daughter (but she's every bit as cute!).
After visiting an elementary school with a greenway yesterday, Kiwame took me to the Ehime Prefecturel Zoo, where they have successfully mated the Ice Bear. They have a sweet 3 year old cub, about the size of a large holstein, who is sniffing the air to see if the visitors are made of protein or not...this polar bear has proudly been named "Peace". That"ll be a hard name to live up to according to the local seals and penguins...
We have been checking out some of these second hand stores. I'm looking for a used elementary school backpack and my childhood pencil box. Did you ever have one of those "rolltop" style pencil boxes made of wood with the secret compartment (for the cigarette) under the pencil compartment. These gave way to the plastic jobs with the sliding top that had a pencil sharpener at one end and the weights & measures info in the ruler style lid. Appairently wvery one of these precious memories is gone from the earth. I've given up on scoring a Japanese license plate. Appairently this is impossible, as they actually belong to the Gov'ment. life would be easier if I wanted something like rice, pearls or small sandals.
My wife has made off with the digital camera that holds zoo photos (because it's actually her camera!) so I'll post some photos that I think haven't been sent out yet. Cheers, Jim McElroy

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Looks like fun. Glad you are keeping busy! It is rainy season here in Sendai but mostly is has just been cloudy skys and maybe 2 days of rain. The clouds have kept it cool though.

Sherry

Hi Cynthia!

I wish I could get my students to stand at attention in neat little rows when I'm talking to them! I teach seniors and I'm lucky if I can get them to sit in chairs. I agree with Tom's reply, we miss the rain so much in Texas that it is a wonderful treat to have rain every day.

Tim