Nathan's Homestay

One of the major highlights for the 4th and 5th graders at HIS is the annual home stay. Each of the foreign kids at the school partners up with a native Japanese speaker and stays with a local family for the night. Nathan was lucky enough to stay at a farm about an hour and a half away. The Farm was located near Miyoshii (where the Mazda test track is located).



The whole family

Here are the cows Nathan got to milk





The rice fields








The futan mats the kids slept on

Nathan’s class and the class from the local school

Iwakuni

On Monday we went site seeing with Pastor Kevin in Iwakuni and Oshima. It rained all day, so it wasn’t the best for taking pictures. However, we did have fun seeing the Kintai-kyo bridge the more rural areas on the island of Oshima..





Kevin at play

The flowers were very nice

Miyajima With Grandpa

Since we are in our last month we figured it was a good opportunity to take our last trip to Miajima

The tori (or gate) still amazes me.

It is about a 20 min train ride from our apartment. I think grandpa really enjoyed ridding on the local train






The kids always love seeing the dear



This is the second couple I have seen getting married at the shrine







The pagoda







The island has a nice little aquarium. This was our first time to visit it.

Grandpa Clair Visits

Grandpa Clair visited us this week. It was very nice to see him. I can not believe it has almost been a year since we have seen him. Nathan was very excited to play ball.

Hailey Black and White

The other night I was reading to Hailey in bed and she fell asleep. I couldn’t help myself; I had to take a picture.

Nathan's Exposition

In 5th grade the students have the PYP (Primary Year Program) Exposition. The kids vote on a subject, then study, plan and execute an exposition. Nathan's class decided to use "Peace" as a subject. This is appropriate, since Hiroshima is “The City of Peace”.

The kids fund raised to put a “Peace Garden” in a local park. The Pole in the center of this picture will be the center of the garden. Each of the students made there own tile to be placed around it.

Nathan made his own website about the atomic bomb. When it is uploaded to the public internet I will make a link to it.

The kids had a music presentation to match.

Hailey's Portfolio

At HIS, instead of teacher conferences in the spring, they have the children show their parents the work they have done throughout the school year. Hailey was very excited to show us everything she has been working on.

We will sincerely miss the school when we move.






Hailey and her teacher Trish Devine



Singing a solo with her music teacher Takako-sensei

Hiroshima at Night

The weather is getting warm at night now, and it was a perfect time to go for a walk and enjoy the sites in Hiroshima. I have posted many pictures of these landmarks before, but these are the first night pictures I have taken.

Pastor Kevin thanks for the editing help on this one!!!



I couldn’t get the reflection to work out in the water so I cropped it out. I will have to try again before we leave.