End of Teaching in Japan, for now. Summer vacation starts.

Hello All,

Hope everyone is doing good. We are well and everything is pretty good, although we are a bit tired.

Friday was the last day of the school semester for the kids and I. The kids spent the morning at school, and were home in time for lunch. They had a nice little closing ceremony, and are now home until the end of August.

For my school it was the last day the kids are there as well. Well the kids will come to school through the summer for the sport clubs, and the kids doing poorly must come to summer school, but I can pretty much relax and have fun with the kids for the next 2 weeks.

I was told on Thursday that I would have to give speeches to the first year class and to the whole school, since my contract is up the end of July. They wanted all the speeches in Japanese, but there was not time to prepare for this.

I ended up being suprised and had to give a speech to the teachers and staff first thing in the morning in English (40 people). Then had to speak in front of the 1st year class of about 260 kids and teachers, again in English being translated by an English teacher. My last speech was in front of the whole school, which was about 600 people. This last one was in Japanese, But I wish I would have had time to memorize the speech.

After I spoke, some 3rd grade students gave a speech in English, thanking me and gave me some flowers. Very sweet experience! The last 4 months at these schools have been a great experience for me.

One observation that Shiho has made is that the kids are really speaking a lot more Japanese lately. When they talk to each other, it is almost always in Japanese. Of course they still speak only English to me.

Friday night we went to a festival here in Kitakyushu. This one is to celebrate the beginning of summer. HOT-HOT-HOT & HUMID it is, so welcome to summer time. They had some great fireworks and then a fire waterfall off the bridge. The the first pics are from this.

Take care, Steve and all