16.7.13 Meeting the mayor of Hakusan and visiting Matto Junior High School

   Today has been a lovely day. Hot and dry again. I took over 150 photographs today so I will try to show some of the best!The day began at the Hakusan City Council and our welcome meeting with the mayor. First he welcomed us and then I  made a short speech followed by one from the students made by Isabel. We were each presented with a goody bag including a tee shirt!
   Next we travelled the short distance to Matto Junior High School where we had a tour of the school. We spent some time in Yuse Okamoto`s English lesson. Yuse was on the exchange last summer in Boston. He asked our students to listen to his year 9 students read in English a passage about fair trade chocolate! This was too good an opportunity for us to miss!
   Next lesson was a PE lesson and our group competed very well in a volleyball maｔｃh. We then had a lovely school lunch which included Bacon and Broccoli soup. We were then invited to a lunchtime Japanese cheer leading activity for boys! The revelation was to witness the students spending 15 minutes of their lunchtime cleaning their classrooms and corridors with brushes , mops etc. After lunch we attended a very challenging music lesson with year 9 which involved taking apart the structure of a Schubert song! The final lesson of formal school was very enjoyable with the students learning to write in Japanese characters (Calligraphy).
   After the end of school we attended 2 after school activities. First we went to a Japanese tea ceremony which the whipped green tea and sweets to counteract the bitter taste. Then we went to see their wonderful choir practice 2 numbers. Matto school school is a frequent school choir prize winner in the district and it showed! well done. We rounded off the day with a quick trip to the 100 yen shop not a million miles from a 1 pound shop! The students are tired but very happy and tomorrow`s programme includes Mikawa primary school and the Taiko drumming workshop!

David