Summer Camp

This has been a busy last few days for the Winters. Friday and Saturday were summer camp for my school. We took the kids to Mori no Kuni (Forest Country) also known as Field Athletic at Mt. Daisen. Hana came, too. We had a blast. On Friday, first, we set up the tents. It was kind of camping light comapred to my Boy Scout days. All equipment was rented from Mori no Kuni.Then we had somen nagashi for lunch. Somen are thin noodles. In this traditional way to eat, they take a long piece of bamboo and cut it in half lengthwise. They set it up at a slight angle and let water run down the half-pipe. Everyone stands on either side and gets ready. At the top, they drop in the noodles in bunches and the people have to catch them with their chopsticks as they run down the bamboo. They put them in a bowl with cold broth, then eat. Great fun and cool for summer.

After lunch was the main event, mud play in a rice patty. We all got in the unused, water-filled field. The very knowledgable Mr. Tahara from Mori no Kuni explained how there are many kinds of living things in the field because they don't use any chmicals there. We spent some time looking for creepy crawlies. The kids found all kinds of frogs and bugs. Later, we played games in the mud. It was my first time to play in the mud ike that. Great fun, but I should have worn my water shoes in there because uder the mud were lots of little rocks, ouch. The kids won the kids vs. teachers tug of war, twice. After that we came back, had a shower and some kids went home. The rest of us stayed and had Japanese style barbecue for dinner. Later we went night hunting for bugs and fireworks.

On Saturday, the main event was making pizza from scratch for lunch. We built fires outside and the kids did everything from beginning to end. Wealso had vegetable soup. The kids kept asking for seconds or thirds of the soup. I said you'd never see American kids begging for seconds of vegetable soup. Japanese kids like their veggies. The kids played a lot, then we finally came home. Everyone had a great time, but was dirty and tired like camprs should be.

This busy time didn't finish. Tomorrow, we have a day campat the beach and are going to make a raft. More on thart later, Bye.