today hiro had school. i don't think he will usually have school on saturdays. some schools in japan have started having lessons on saturday. anyway, he'll get the 2nd of may off in lieu of today so....anyway, the last lesson of the day was an observation lesson for parents. before hand the parents of kids in our neighborhood met in the home ec. room to talk about rainy days (the kids walk to school, but on rainy days they get a ride from a parent.) we had to decide if each kid would go with his or her parent, or if we would work out a car pool plan. i said carpooling would be difficult for me because of sasha and tommy (not enough room in my car for other kids, sadly) so i was excluded from any car pool plans. as it is, i have to go to the school on fridays to pick him up (if it's not an early release day) because of work.

today's lesson was japanese, greetings and exchanging 'business cards'. before today's class, the kids had all drawn something they liked on four cards. three of the cards had their class number and their name on them. at the beginning of the class they wrote their class and name on the card. then they had to go around the room while the teacher played music. when it stopped, they had to find a partner, play paper-rock-scissors. the winner got to go first: say their name, say what they liked, say 'nice to meet you' in japanese and then give their card. then the 'loser' did the same, and then they shook hands. they had four cards so they had to do this four times. afterward each student went to the front of the class. they had to test the other students: what's my name? what's my favorite thing.

hiro's favorite thing was a strawberry. a very good drawing of a strawberry!

after school there was a PTA meeting with the parents and the teacher. then there was a main PTA meeting, but i didn't have to go to that one. on the whole it was interesting, the first graders are so cute! but i hope i don't have to do that too often. it's so tiring trying to understand what's going on all the time!