On 12/15, on the way to Miyajima, the island shrine in Hiroshima, I met some new friends on the bus – a class of eight year olds!  They wore matching red caps and brown backpacks.  The teacher, obviously overwhelmed by the chaos, couldn’t even think above his own voice saying, “Shizuka nishite kudasai!!”  (please be quiet), which basically gave the kids free reign of terror on the bus.  I jumped at the opportunity.  Standing in the back, I was swamped with red caps with voices, and asked them, “Ogenki desu ka?” (how are you?) and “Nan sai desu ka?”  (how old are you?).  and received a flood of squeals and smiles.  No matter where you go, Hiroshima, Japan or Mafubira, Uganda, a kid is a kid.  I tell the kids, “Shyashin!!” and they make peace signs and I snap a shot, sweeping my arm around their heads to show them the digital photo.  Kids jump, giggle and squeal.

Then one boy grabs my arm and quizzically presses his face against it – “Sento?”  I make a confused face.  “Sento.”  He rubs his wrists together.  “America sento?”  I laugh, hold my arm out so the other kids can take a whiff, and I realize that I need to do some laundry.

Today I went SKIING!!  I wanted to ski Nagano, the home of the winter olympics a while back, but there wasn’t enough snow.  So a friend reccommended Karuizawa, which was reasonably close to Tokyo, and off I went!!  For $71, I got skis, poles, boots, and a lift ticket.  Niiiiiiice.  I was a smaller mountain, maybe about the same size as Snoqualmie.  All the snow that I skiied on was man-made!  Unbelievable.

Also, anyone who has ever seen Japanese nationals on the ski slope, you’ll know what I’m going to comment on – bright, multi-colored ski suits!  Some tough looking snowboarders wore festive snowpants that made them look like come country’s flag whenever they stood together.