Bali

This fall break my family and I went to Bali. The resort was really nice and big. Usually you room number is 3 numbers right? 415 say and 4 is fourth floor and 15 is the room number. In this resort ours was 3415, 3 standing for building 3. And it had a spa, kids club,  (mini) soccer field, tennis courts, beach, a lot of pools, pool table and a temple. Our room was really nice. It had 2 floors and 2 TVs and 2 beds. There were also really good restaurants at the resort.

My favorite activity in the resort was body surfing. Body surfing is like surfing but a bit different. For one you never stand up and the board is small. I find it more exiting because you go faster and it is easier. A lot of places near the US don't have good waves but Bali is different. In Bali the tricky part is getting out from the beach to the lineup because there are too many good waves. The good waves push you back so you have to dive through it.

My favorite activity out of the resort was the monkey forest. If you are thinking of taking a walk in a forest and you can hear monkeys, you are in for a surprise. You walk on pre-made paths and can see monkey temples built in the 11th century. Most of all there are lots of monkeys many hundreds of monkeys, that you can see on the paths, in trees, and even on people ( if they have a banana). There are these temples that people can not go in but the monkeys can. The only person not attacked was the banana lady, she had a big stick and slingshot. The bad things about the monkeys are they steal stuff. For example one lady was holding a banana and a monkey climbed up her and ripped her earring out and swallowed it!

My favorite restaurant was the Japanese restaurant called Ko. The food was okay but the cooking was awesome. The place was really far from the resort but was part of the resort. The sign was next to the kids club but you had to go down a long passage. The food was cooked in front of you. To start the grillish thing the person puts some liquid on it and lights it on fire. The best part for me was the the fried rice. I didn't get it but the making was really cool. He would make the rice and vegetables normally but the egg was fun to watch. The cook would make a omelet thing and roll it up. Then he would take 2 spatula things and slice off a bit if the egg so it shoots at the rice pile. Then another. Then another.  Then another. Then another. Then another. He would let up clap faster or slower and he would go faster or slower. I had fried chicken and shrimp balls.

Bali was fun and I hope to come next year.

First ever Nishimachi family math night.

I witnessed the first ever Nishimachi family math night. It was set up by Ms. Chida, the curriculum councilor. She was talking about it at all the assemblies.

First when I got there (gym) I was late because of taiko. Some of my friends were already there, but at my table, it was only me and another boy. Then, my mom found another girl and another boy (not in that order), so we got added people. There were so many snacks like cookies and smarties and chips.

Numbers
At first, we just played with the pipe cleaners and straws that were on the table.  Then we were picking a number, and mine was 19. We had to explain why you chose that number and a really annoying girl (who picked 50.32) said "It makes me look smart. " Except my other friend had exponents! Hahahahaha. There was a competition to see who had the biggest number won by someone with infinity.


Building shapes
One of the activities we did was use the pipe cleaners and straws to make any shape. Sounds easy right? At first it was just making a nice triangular prism but... We ran out of straws ( A minor disappointment). At first my shape looked really neat but try making a perfect shape with pre bent  pipe cleaners. Some of the shapes represented peoples personalities. My friend had a perfect cube and some other girls had a perfect pyramid. One girl's shape kept evolving. It will be a hat. It will now be a boat. No, now it will be a mobile.  My shape looked like this.

Word Problem
After that, Ms. Chida gave all the tables a word problem. Sound easy right? Only if you have done a related problem. A family of 3 children and 8 adults are on a private island. A sail boat took them but they must row back to the mainland.  The row boat can hold up to 1 adult or 2 children. Hint. 1 child can row by himself. How many trips back and forth to get back to the main land. Please comment what you think the answer is. The way my table did it was using diagrams. We used shapes as islands, cookies as adults and smarties as kids. After we solved it we had a free for all of eat the snacks.

I can't wait for next one. I wish there will be a family science night. With explosions!

Nishimachi Food Fair 2014

Food fair is a fair of food. It is at my school once a year. Most of the exciting stuff is in the court-yard, as in food, but there is stuff on the roof and in classrooms. Most people were from Nishimachi but some people were local.

9:00 ~ 9:30: Got there

9:30 ~ 10:00 Taiko practice
The songs I played where Seven Stars,  Buchiawase, and Nebuta. You know Nebuta. Buchiawase is a song where you jump around and play. Seven Stars you will see.

10:00 ~ 10:30 Taiko performance

Seven Stars at Food Fair


10:30 ~ 11:00 Played games on others iPads.

11:00 ~ 12:00 Coke booth
Grade 5 had a chance to work the coke booth. The shifts were: 10 to 11, 11 to 12, 12 to 1, and 1 to 2. I was with Keenan, Mackay and Ryo. My friend Keenan was working the whole day! We did something funny when my cooler hid all the coke and Keenan hid the Fanta, and then said "Last Coke of the century."

12:00 ~ 1:00 Tag+eat

1:00 ~ 3:00 Tag+snack

3:00 ~ 3:30 ish run from Aya and Ellen
This was because Thomas, Mackay and I had bought fake hair and Aya and Ellen where chasing us with their iPhones on camera. They had a hard job because they had to guard the main stairs, other stairs on all floors. They never got a good picture.

All in all, Food fair was fun and will be memorable. Can't wait till next year.

Kazuno

I came back from Kazuno this friday. Kazuno is this house that the school owns in the mountains. We  go there for 2 nights and three days.  On this Kazuno trip we did pottery, tie-dye, a lot of games,  and went to a giant park. The sleep arrangements where the same: the boys got the bunks and the girls got the tatami. Tatami is smooth, woven straw mat. They slept on futons, pullout beds. I was going to bunk with a new kid but there were more beds then we needed so I was not with anyone.

My favorite day was the last day. The park. The park was called 子どものくに。ko do mo no ku ni means kid land kodomo meaning kid. The park was so big.  Do you know brickyard park? The size was about 3 times that.  They had the strangest equitment you might ever see. For one, they had a slide about 40 feet long. It was made of spinning bars so you can go really fast. They also have a trampoline. It was white with a slight shape of 2 mountains and a valley.  Or maybe the wooden pyramid was the most interesting. There where 2 ropes attached to the top so you could mountain climb.

I think there most interesting thing was the extra bouncers. There were 6 in all, 2 red, 2 blue, 2 green. They are these poles of material that was solid yet springy. There was a pair of bike handles at the top. You jump and hang on and the thing comes down with you.  Then you jump again and the thing makes you go really high. Just don't let go. The red are the lowest, then the blue and then the green. I only saw two people get the green, Erika and Keenan. Erika is the second tallest in the grade and Keenan just climbed.  I could only reach red and blue.

Last Kazuno blog I said I would never forget it and now this makes 2 times.