One Last Lunch

On February 3rd, Juhee's class had another "Observation Day" for the parents (mostly moms, but there was one dad!).  We were given instructions in a letter (written by Haru-chan, one of the older kids) and 4 "tickets" to purchase items with...

There were tickets for snacks, accessories, dolls, and decoration.  The kids were told to keep everything a secret and I could tell she was bursting to tell me everything.  She was very excited! :)

When I got there, I was greeted by this sign on the door of the school's "Hall", which said "Tsuyukusa (name of Juhee's class) Town".

Unfortunately, upon entry, I wasn't allowed to take pictures but I was in for a wonderful surprise!  The kids were split up into the four categories listed above and they pretended to be workers in shops selling those items.  They were so cute!  They even had little bags for the little items that they'd made.  They'd made all sorts of things out of origami paper, felt, yarn, beads, toilet paper rolls...  And it was pretty good stuff, too!  I got a bracelet, "purin" (a Japanese pudding type dessert), a laminated decorative piece, and a doll.

After the "Tsuyukusa Town" bit was over, they put on a talent show.  They sang a few songs together - a song about the donkey that carried Jesus, one about housework (laundry!), and one which has "bang bang bang" in the chorus and the kids absolutely love - which were super cute.  Each child also had an individual piece.  The younger kids went up on stage one at a time to show and explain what they made and some of the older kids did things like hula hoop, acrobatic moves, etc.  It was fun!  I was very impressed. :)

Afterwards, the moms and some of the younger siblings, went to eat lunch together at a Japanese-y pasta place.  I'd never been there and was surprised at the fancy Japanese-y atmosphere of a pasta place.  They also had a kids' play room next to the room we were in which was nice.  Sungjae and I shared a lunch set.  It was salmon and bacon with basil in some sort of Japanese-y oily sauce.  It was yummy but very, um, oily... ㅡㅡ;  Sungjae loved it, ate most of it, and got his hands very oily. ^^;;;

My friend had the one below.  A sea urchin, seaweed, and fish eggs pasta... Definitely one you won't find in Italy!

 Most of the moms got their drinks toward the end of their meal, including me.  I ordered ice yuzu tea (유자차) as I'd never had an iced version before.  The moms were all shocked that a Korean had never had it before as most Japanese people think of yuzu tea as being a very Korean thing. :)  Again, Sungjae loved it and drank most of it. :)

Below is a picture of the English speaking mom (right) in Juhee's class that's been translating for me during Juhee's first year of Japanese schooling and another mom (left) I got to know pretty well.  I am eternally grateful to her for the huge amount of help she gave me.  I thank God for placing her son in the same class as Juhee.  I definitely could not have done it without her!  Not sure what's going to happen next year when she moves to Yokohama 'cause of her husband's transfer... ㅡㅡ;

The moms of Juhee's class for the 2011-12 academic year minus a few.  They were very gracious, patient, and understanding to a mom who was often lost. :)