Teacher Jared... Ha... Seriously...

I am now an official substitute teacher! My first substituting experience took place last Friday taking the place of one of the playground supervisors. My day was full of keeping the children from destroying each other and keeping as much sand out of their mouths as I could. I was mostly successful with the first one but we're working on the second task... This school has been a good experience thus far. I was invited to go to Sichi-go-san with S's class which is the ritual performed on the three, five and seven year olds (Sichi-go-san's literal translation is three-five-seven). Most of the kids got dressed in Kimonos and we went down the block to a Shinto temple. The priest performed a beautiful ceremony to bless the kids "so they grew and listened to their mommy and daddy." It was pretty cool to be able to see this traditional ritual and get a small taste of the Shinto religion. I love the look and feel of the Shinto temples and I'm surprised by how many there are around town.

Another cool thing about the school is it's location. It is right in the shadow of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. One of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, this is just an overall sweet building. It is mostly offices but has a bunch of upscale shops and restaurants inside. I appreciate the building for it's architectural value. I don't know much about that kind of stuff but I like know what I like when I see it.