Power Ups

Well, tis the season, and once again the city of Matsue volunteered us ALT's, still around for the summer, to guide/entertain a group of children from Matsue. These events are called "Power Up", who knows why, but all in all they were good fun last year, and once again proved to be entertaining. This year we have three of these so called "Power Ups". In the first, 8 ALT's were assigned 5-6 children as we toured the Shinji section of the larger Matsue area. I had all girls in this group, and we all know how difficult girls can be, but for the most pat these seemed to have some kind of sense of humor, so we got along just fine.

Then for the following day's "Power Up", another group of students were divided up for walking tours around some of the city's more prominent features for a walking tour. This time, each group of kids got two of us.

For those of you die hard blogerella fans, you might remember this picture. Well, for whatever reason, the powers that be, decided that Marie McGill and I would be a good team for leading another small group of elementary to junior high school aged children around the highlights of Matsue. Even though we were all chaperoned by city staff, shenanigans occurred.


Aside from petty theft, it was another good day of awkward English interaction with the kiddos. We visited the castle and an old samurai house. It was also very hot, which makes me ponder why we attended a traditional tea ceremony where nuclear hot green tea is served in small bowls. The heat alone explains why almost all pictures look as though i was competing for a wet t-shirt contest, the tea did not help abate the sweating. But most importantly the kids seemed to have fun. Marie and I were convinced it was because of the impromptu chant our group hollered throughout the day.

As a highlight, I will have to say that being led to a huge stone turtle, was awesome.

The third of these "Power Ups" happens next week as we ALT's host 60-70 kids in an all morning bazaar of English fun. No doubt more good fun to come.