Garan-Pi-Poron

It was a good thing that I got up early after all, because on the second day we ended up having a lot to do. Do you like to volunteer? I do, and apparently so does Mrs. K, though I never knew that about her. At 10 am Mrs. Usa came over to make packed dinners for the performers of the childeren's theater group that would be putting on a show at the Tomakomai Cultural Center that night. They tried to explain what type of performance it would be, but I'll admit I didn't get it. That didn't stop me from wanting to help though.. (Mrs. K is on the left)

so we made sandwiches and onigiri, veggies on skewers, and sliced fruit for dessert. While chatting my Japanese started to come back a little more naturally, and I don't remember when exactly, but at some point it hit me-- woah, dude. I speak Japanese. Ahh, these little skills we forget we have while we're off doing other things..

The performance ended up being Roba's Garan-Pi-Poron and it was really neat. Before the show we helped out by collecting tickets and reminding everyone to go the the bathroom (most of the audience were grade-school kids). It was great to be "the foreigner" again and have all the little kids whisper about me. Some even tried to use a little English they learned at school. I had a great time, I forgot what it's like to be instantly popular...

You couldn't take pictures of the performance, but here are two of the little girls that befriended me.

These elephants acted as road blocks to mark off a pedestrian walkway. Too cute, needed a picture. I collected a lot of animal stuff on the trip, fabric, trinkets, pictures. Mostly elephants and owls-- you'll see them popping up in future posts, I'm sure. The first week kept getting busier and busier, the next day we left for a shopping extravaganza in Sapporo...

(p.s. Thanks to everyone for your sweet comments! I want to reply individually, but if you've got a blogger acct, blogger doesn't give me your email address. Please leave me a way I can get in touch with you..)