Daycare

We visited an all Japanese speaking daycare/preschool yesterday.  It is only a 10 minute bike ride from Tsuda College which is amazing compared to the 45 minute commutes to the other schools they are looking at.  We brought along one of the Tsuda College contacts who speaks English to help.  The place itself looks like heaven compared to the school we visited last week!  It has a gate all the way around the premise to secure roaming children, a pen with chickens and ducks, slides that come down from the second story of the building and lots of attending staff.  The lady in charge spoke some broken English but it was difficult to communicate.  She did say though that the children are free to go from inside activities to outside play as they choose.  It is mostly a schedule free day besides lunch and a little time for songs/books.

Being a red headed, pale white child was in his advantage here because he stood out! All the children were fascinated by him and the employees couldn't stop wanting to practice their English and play with him.  We spent a good 2 hours talking and playing and observing him.

At this time i was standing at the back of the play room watching when a little boy came up to me.  He was the cutest little boy ever! Probably about 4, longer black hair to his face, and super cute squinty eyes.  He held out a puzzle box and said something in Japanese.  I said konichiwa and smiled.  But he kept looking at me holding out the box.  I said puzzle, tried to get him to do it but he just kept looking at me.  Finally he walked away and emptied the box in the middle of the room.  Two minutes later he was back.  Looking at me, saying something, and holding out a piece of paper folded into an envelope with puzzle pieces inside.  I smiled, said thank you, and smiled some more.  He repeated this another 10 times.  Just coming up to me, saying things, cocking his head in confusion, and then leaving... He was adorable!!!!

We are going to try this place out on a trial run in two weeks.  Seth and I will drop Marley off 9am-11am.  Seth will leave while i will sneak to an upstairs
room.  This way if he does have a breakdown or problem and the teachers cannot figure out what is wrong I can help.  We'll try this for 4 days and see if he likes it and wants to continue.  Good thing I have a Kindle and can read for those two hours.