At the time you were a rake and a roustabout

I don't really ahve anything to add for today, except for a few curiosities...

For instance, today the other Higashidoori ALT invited me to go to McDonald's with him because he had some coupons that were going to expire today. We ended up challenging ourselves to finish as much as possible, eaching making it about three full sets in (they're small... the Japanese medium size is the American small). I havent been to McDonald's in maybe three years, but there was something necessary about this, as a Big Mac sounds delicious after two months of FISH NOTHING BUT FISH ALWAYS FISHY FISH FISH.

That being said, nether of us had the shrimp burger.

The past couple days have been cool... at my small ancient school, Oippe (like Oi! then "peh"), pictured below...


...during one of my free periods, I was invited to calligraphy class with the third graders. It was pretty funny, but a lot of fun. I'll post a picture of the result later, if I ever get ti back (I had to leave it to dry). After our first practice with the word we were drawing, the students were told they could check out how everyone else had done. Of course, they all rushed over to see how I had done. I was the coolest kid in third grade.

Today, at that same school, they had a fire drill. Now, Japanese fire drills are unlike American fire drills in many ways. The best way to train a kid to be ready for a fire, of course, is to set an actual fire in the school. This made me a little nervous at first (see above picture of really old school). Turns out it was actually just a fog machine which the fire fighters were using to fill a room with smoke. They then taught the children how to move through a smoky room (which is applicable in any burning building, not necessarily one's school), by having the kids form a line and then squat down and go through the entire room. It was pretty interesting, the kids with their hankerchiefs over their mouths as they exited the smoky den.

At the end, they held a meeting to talk about it. They love meetings over here.


Then they let the kids play on the fire truck:


INEVITABLE.

Oh, another thing of note I saw today: a woman smoking a cigarrette as she drove along with the windows shut and her baby in the backseat.

Cultural difference?

A final PS: the new TV on the Radio album is awesome.

G'night