Fall block party

Today we had a fall block party! Even though  I say fall it was still 80 degrees.

I came a bit late because of my Rugby class. There were already some kids there. There were a lot of kids after a while. I even saw someone from school come for a bit. There were so many people.

The party was on our neighborhood street. Our apartment is on the 1st floor, in the middle of the street, so the party was basically right outside our door. The neighbors were cooking outside right across the street. I think there was one big grill, and a lot of food! Like 2 buffet tables worth!

There is music playing (too much I think). The music is coming from the party room, that no one is actually in. (Did I mention the neighborhood has a party room?). The music is very loud, I can still hear it inside while I am writing this!

At the party, I mostly did the water gun fight. I don't have a real water gun, so I brought the spray bottle I use to clean the dinning room table. Someone else at the party, the guy who suggested the water gun fight, had already brought out a bajillion water guns, so everyone stole my bottle and gave me the worst type of gun or a broken one.

Before the water gun fight, I was a servant. People set up a little camp with chairs and cars in the garage. My friend Jonathan and I where riding our bikes to and from the food tables getting snacks and stuff. I did this because it helped the others and I was kind of hungry. Other people were taking poisonous berries, calling them tomatoes and squashing them with a spoon (What?!?!).

I had a lot of fun at the party but my shirt was really wet. I wish in the winter block party there is snow so we can have a snowball fight. Snow is rare in とうきょう.Tokyo.

The End!

Taiko

Yesterday I went to (and preformed at) friendship day at the American compound. I went with my mom and dad but met with family friends. The American compound is where the employees of the American embassy live.  The performance time was really short but the time I spent there was a good 3 hours and thirty minutes there. The performance was thirty of those minutes.  The other 3 hours were Practicing, setting up the drums, putting them back and doing the last paragraph.

The songs I played where, river piece, winter passion and Nebuta daiko (again). Technically I was not  going to do river piece until the second to last possible second. Luckily  I did the base note for river piece not the song. The base note is only hitting the middle at an even pace. For winter passion I think I did really bad. I kept forgetting what part I was on. That was expected by me because it is hard and it was my first time preforming it.                    

Link to Taiko Video - Winter Passion

                                                                                    
Nebuta was almost the same as last time. Almost. There was a pro flutist that was playing the whole time. He came from somewhere around Mt Fuji. Anyway , he had a solo that made the song 5 minutes longer.

After the Blue sky ( not ) performance it started to rain.  I got in line for the long (foot long) fries but there where 2 lines and I was in the wrong one ( how do you say "french fry' in Japanese ?) Soon I got in the right line and got the sold out fries . The cheese garlic fries where really good!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately we had ridden our bikes and had to ride home with no umbrella.

StuCo elections

This month at Nishimachi we are going to have StuCo elections. StuCo stands for student council. The members of StuCo do lots of stuff. For example, they set up fundraisers and organize spirit weeks. So, why do we need elections. 5th grade students can be president or vice president. This year, so many people wanted to enter so we had an elimination round.

Now that you have the background info, I will go back in time. My friend Mackay is running for president.  When he came over one day, I helped him make posters. I said I would vote for him. I did. The next day at recess I helped him put up the posters. Some other posters were not as good. One poster was really a cutout poster from a movie. One of his is Harry Potter but his face glued on top  of Harry's. Another one was a box that said "go ahead, take a peak and you will find what you seek". There is cloth and under it says Vote for ---, vote for success.  I think that is rude because in my mind I think Vote for ---, Vote for the only person that will actually do you good.  Another person's speech and posters were really good but he did not make it.

Preliminary votes
All of 5th and 4th grade came into our classroom ( why our's ) . The 11 candidets stood up and recited their speech. I would either vote for one of 3 of my friends. I voted for Mackay because his speech was good, and he is my friend, and I helped with his posters. The voting was done by ballots and each had a pic of all the people. The thing is, the copy was so bad I might have voted for someone else. The day after, we got the results. Mackay did not make it. The person with the box poster made it and the Harry Potter poster dude made it. I think most people voted based on friends not speeches.

Earthquake!!!!!! ( drill )

This Friday we had an earthquake drill at school. At first we were innocently reading in the classroom when a voice ( the headmaster's )  said, "Teachers and students, we are experiencing a very severe earthquake." I knew it was coming. It was on the schedule. It was 5 minutes late.

We all crouched under our desks and waited. Finally our teacher, Ms. Elliot said, " You should get your helmets on." Everyone at the same time reached behind themselves, under their chairs and under the net and pulled out a helmet, and put it on. After our helmet was secure, we retreated under our desks again.

Finally ( after about 15-20  minutes ) the headmaster announced they did a safety check and we should go to  safer area. The elementary kids go to the gym. The middle schoolers go to the MPR and the 5th graders go to the same place as their sibling, if they have a sibling, or if not we go to the library.

I waited in the library for 16? minutes before my mom picked me up. The thing is, it was about 2:30 when I was picked (which is an hour early) up so my friend came over.  This friend was telling me what had happened. He had been chosen to be "injured" and this is what happened. He got a paper stapled around his arm earlier that said, "A poster-board hit my arm and it's bleeding". Another injury was that plaster dust fell in someone's eye. Mackay the poster kid / friend said he got bandaged and got his blood pressure taken. The other kid, Asako had fake eyedrops put in ( but she has glasses?! ).

I think that zë drill taught everyone about earthquakes except it wasn't good for the parents because they knew there was a drill. My mom said, and I quote, "I made sure not to plan anything between 2:00 and 3:30". In a real earthquake, you don't know when it will happen.