At the Cultural Festival, I met the mother of one my students, Yuichi. She was a very friendly lady, we hit it off and chatted while having lunch. She told me of her famous mother, Yuichi’s grandmother, who’s an artist. The conversation was a little hindered by the language barrier, but we managed to get by. Her mother, Nishimura Shien, had her work displayed at the Nagasaki museum last month, and will have her work displayed at a museum in Fukuoka in November.

Yuichi happens to be one of the students who is assigned to the room that I’m responsible for during cleaning time. At cleaning time today, he handed me a envelop on behalf of his mother.



His mother had written a kind letter and included stationary, postcards, papers that had been done by her Yuichi’s grandmother. I was really touched by the fact that she went through the trouble of putting it together for me.

When classes were done, I watched the students practice for a while, man they have so much energy!

I went straight to Amber’s place from school. I was so exhausted, I crashed on her sofa as soon as I got to her place. I woke up to find that she had prepared a lovely steak dinner!

We went to downtown Isahaya, I thought I would give the aerobics class that she usually attends a try. The place was a tiny gym on the third floor in the Isahaya arcade (‘arcade’ is what strip malls are called in Japan). The people were all very friendly, and some even spoke some English! I can’t remember the last time I joined an aerobics class, but it felt good to work out. The place is a little out of the way from my place, and kinda pricey…so I don’t think I will get a membership, but it was fun for this one time.