Yochien means preschool

Marley had his first day of preschool today.  Both Seth and Kelly were beyond nervous for him but we got him out of the house and onto Seth's bicycle without too much of a struggle.  Once we got to the school he started to get upset and scared.  Seth and I brought him to his teacher and classroom and showed him the toys and his cubby.  He cried and struggled but soon got into some toys and Seth and I left to talk with the principle.  Now keep in mind this is an all Japanese speaking school, the children and most of the teachers know little to no English.  The principle knows enough English to communicate with us.  So we went to her to find out what room I will be hanging out in just in case he needs something.  She shows me the room and then looks and Seth and I and says that there is no school tomorrow.  We both look back a little puzzled and repeat it and shes says yes, typhoon.  The look on Seth's face was priceless! haha He just repeated no school because of typhoon and shook his head.  Its hard to get local news here because we cant watch any TV news because we don't understand it and there isn't a whole lot of time to read off the internet with Marley running around.

So Seth said goodbye to Marley and left.  It took a total of about 2 minutes before they had to bring Marley to me because it was crying so hard.  Thankfully I was able to calm him down and take him back to the room.  This happened several times throughout the first hour but we were able to rest and then go back.  He was saying that the kids were scaring him.  But they were so excited to see him that they kept trying to get in his face to talk to him that it was overwhelming.  Thankfully the teachers were amazing though, they kept him busy moving from one activity or area to another and showing him new things.  For the second hour he would stop in to see me just to say hi and go back to play!  Not sure how it will go when we have to return Thursday though...

The teachers and children loved Marley but were also fascinated with me sitting in a classroom.  They kept coming up to me and showing me things or handing me books and of course rambling away with things I didn't understand.  The same adorable boy that I mentioned before with the puzzle pieces kept following me around.  He brought me a fish pillow and a book.  I taught him to say fish and book!! And then near the end he sat next to me for probably 5 minutes and watched all the other kids.  So cute!

Here's a few of the kids I met, my favorite is the one in the yellow shirt.  I couldn't get his face though