Update

Things are winding down for the Stony Plain delegation but winding up for me. (I will be heading to Sapporo and then to Honshu after the group has departed.) I pulled in a lot of favors to have my mom invited to eat school lunch on Friday at Shikaoi elementary school with the grade ones. I had really wanted to introduce my mom to where I work and the people I work with. The staff was very interested to meet her too. The whole school was in chaos as we walked the halls. The grade ones were very entertaining but were stuck on the fact that my mom didn't speak Japanese like me. My mom must have become very tired after lunch because on top of dealing with twenty-one grade ones she also played thirty-six holes of park golf on Thursday.


Last night was a banquet at Mogami-san's farm for the delegation. My interpreting skills were put to good use and stretched to the limits. The weather could have been better but the Japanese love a crisis and the men concocted quite a protective structure. Lots of games were on hand for the nearly seventy people that attended. The one which I consider of most cultural note was a Soba-noodle water-fall game (where soba is sent down a channel and everyone must catch the soba they want with chopsticks). Cold Soba is known for it's refreshing properties in hot weather; the meal was slightly less invigorating because of the poor weather but delicious and a good laugh none-the-less.