Ando-san!

Hello

Yesterday I had ICES again, the club for international students at Kagawa University. All the people there are so friendly- I love it.

Today Yuichi asked me to sell a book about local architects in an underground plaza from 1-5.30. It was extremely boring. At least I wasn't alone, there was a guy only a couple of years older than me who I was with, but our conversation didn't get very far. Also very few people came which didn't help, and I had no reading material.

In comes Ando-san, aka miracle-worker. She is such a generous, selfless person- and when she heard that I was selling books, she came to support me. Anyhow, she ended up staying from about 2 till we finished at 5.30, 3 and a half hours talking to the 2 of us and even going to Starbucks and bringing us back drinks from there. I love her.

Tonight me and Ando-san went to karaoke with a friend of mine from ICES called Shinya. One thing I love about Ando-san is that, despite her being slightly older than my mum, her energy and enthusiasm make her really fun to hang out with. I often forget that there is an age difference between us. Shinya also likes 70's music, and both him and Ando-san are really friendly, so even though they'd never met before, we all got along really well.

On Thursday, we had a study circle with friends of Cathy and Ando-san's. They recently began the 3rd workbook of 7 which study circles are based on. Book 3 focuses on children's education and its importance. These women are all mothers and quite a few of them are teachers, so its a topic close to their hearts.

The weather in Takamatsu is gradually heating up. At the moment, the average maximum is in the high 20's. They recently flooded all the rice paddies and planted fresh rice plants, which has brought with it an influx of mosquitoes. Today when I rode my bike to karaoke, I kept getting hit in the face by mosquitoes. They're everywhere. In the first week after the rice paddies being flooded, I made the mistake of going for a walk in a skirt- and my calves each were bitten no less than 10 times.

Summer is supposedly terrible here- over a month of the temperature not dipping below 30 degrees, even at night. Humidity, also is a problem. A maximum of 38 and humid, for weeks, is not my idea of a pleasant experience. A Japanese book I'm reading at the moment said that Japan's summer is worse than that of many places in the Middle East, chiefly because of the humidity.

I can't believe it's only a month and a half until I go home! I love Japan and am going to miss it, but being able to see all my friends and family again makes the idea of leaving Japan more happy than sad. And I'm determined to make an effort to maintain my Japanese (and even perhaps improve it!) after I go back, but with busy uni life whether that'll be possible or not I don't know.

I think reading though is really important- and reading in Japanese makes me appreciate even more the importance of children reading lots of books when young. It is so incredibly good for every aspect of my Japanese (it even helps my spoken Japanese) and for vocabularly learning and retention, that it makes me want to tell every parent read to your kids! I remember the fact that I read a lot as a kid really helping me at school.


Sonia