TGIF! School's out for the week... the kids are bundling up and running to the doors... but I have to put in another thirty minutes before I'm officially out of here. I tried to work on some Japanese, but I'm too distracted so I gave up.

Today was the big English Lotto drawing! OOhhhh.. was it ever exciting. Took the lucky 4 Lotto tickets to the TV/Announcement broadcast room and waited around freaking out the students until it was my turn to announce the winners. I choose one student from each grade, plus another "Big Winner" from the entire school. The grade level winners win 2 cookies a peice (this month's are peanut butter... I must love them to sacrifice some of my very valuable Skippy!) and the "Big Winner" wins 9 cookies all for themselves (though my guess is that they share since "We Japanese don't like sweets... mmmm, yum!"). Lucky, lucky kids. I also usually bring in cookies for the teachers so they don't get too envious. ;) I make the announcement during lunch time and the winners are usually hovering at my desk before I get there. It has been a fun way to establish a mini-reward system (since I have absolutly zero control over their grades or discipline).

Great news! One of my favorite 3rd grade students just ran in here to announce that she passed her entrance exam for her first choice high school! She is one of the few students that have chosen a school outside of Nagano. Most students go to schools in Matsumoto, the big city about 10 minutes away (Misato has no high school). She flew to Fukuoka last week for an English interview and to take the entrance exam at a school with an international track. They encourage all their students to be exchange students at some point.. which I think is fantastic. She's a super student and really excited about travel and studying English. I'm so happy for her! All the 3rd graders are in major study mode. One of them told me that if you aren't accepted into your high school of choice, you have to either go to a back up or spend the next year studying to take the test again. I can't imagine such pressure just to choose a high school! Every time I ask one of them what they did over the weekend I get the same answers: "I went to cram school" "I studied _____"

Ok, off to run and then hit the onsen (public bath.. ok not so public but japanese style) that we've wanted to go to forever but couldn't because it is on the mountain and too painful to bike to! I'm so thankful to have a car!!

happy friday....