My students are all so artistically talented. It is unfair...

We were teaching my 3rd years relative pronouns (that, which, who) and I was told to think of an activity to practice.  Anything was fine, they said.  So, I thought of a sort of fun activity that is listening practice.  I will admit the sentences are a bit odd, as in perhaps we would not say them in normal speech, but it worked, and it still tested their listening.  I said some sentences, and the students had to listen and draw a picture!  First the sentences, then the incredible artwork!

1.  There is a lake that is in the middle of a park.
2.  There are five trees that are by the lake.
3.  There is a girl who is sitting under a tree.
4.  There is a man who is swimming in the lake.
5.  There is a table that is by the lake.
6.  There is a cake that is on the table.
7.  There are two ants that are eating the cake.
8.  There are four flowers that are under the table.
9.  There is a boy who is riding his bike by the table.
10.  There is a giraffe that is listening to music by the lake.
11.  There is a woman who is eating ice cream by the giraffe.
12.  There are two monkeys that are playing soccer.

Ok, those were the sentences.  Here are some randomly selected results:

Christmas fishing!

YEP!  I went fishing for Christmas last year.  Crystal got invited to go by one of her teachers and he said she could bring friends, so I got to go, too!  Thank goodness because otherwise, who knows what I would have done on Christmas.  We went to Nojiriko, which is a lake about a half hour north of where we live.  I think it might even be in Niigata prefecture rather than Nagano, but I am not sure.  In other news, it snowed the whole day up by the lake, but not in Iiyama.  Odd...Anyway... pictures tell it best again.

The boats. 

Inside the boat.  Things to notice: heaters and holes in the floor.

Holes in the floor.  This is how we fished!  And the rest of the floor was tatami mats, which are the straw mats that are used inside houses.  No shoes on tatami.

Equipment we borrowed from Crystal's awesome teacher.  Poles, bait. colanders with ice and weights.

Size comparison.  What size fish do you think we were going for?!

The bait... pink grubs.  ew

Did I mention ew?  This is the awesome teacher baiting my hooks for me.  I learned to do it by the end:

Here is me baiting the hooks for myself.  Why was it so gross?!  Because (a) the grubs wiggle in your fingers, as shown in this picture...

..and because (b) after they were on the hooks, you had to cut them in half so they would be oozing and attract the fish.  Look closely at my face and you can see the disgust.  ew ew ew

My first catch!  The fish were TINY!  Like 5 to 8cm.  My first reaction to catching it "awww, its cute!~" which got a nice reaction from everyone on the boat.  Also, I do not like to touch fish, so the teacher or Crystal had to take them off the hooks for me after I caught them.

Pretty winter scenes.  That is another boat like the one we were on.

Fish on a hook.  Tiny, right?

Some fish I caught!

my "saigo no saigo" catch.  Meaning very last just as the boat was ready to head back.  I caught 3 on one line!!  But then one of them fell off a hook... you can see it on the floor.

Here is the jumper.  He even managed to "stand up" on his own!  Talented little guy!

Crystal and I put our fish together into one colander!  We got between 60 and 70 together.  We were so proud until we discovered that other teachers had caught over 100 themselves.  lol.  Also, we did not know what to do with the fish, so we gave them away.

One last shot from shore before we headed back.  It snowed a lot that day.

Another awesome Japan thing.

Round 1!!  Round 1 is a...hmm... how to describe it...it is like Chuck E Cheese for adults, only  better.  Things you can do at Round 1:
fishing
roller skating
karaoke
pool
games
basketball
batting
curling
archery
mini motor bike racing
bull riding
UFO catchers
darts
volleyball
soccer
bowling
read manga
massage chair
etc. etc. etc.

So pretty much, you go in and you can stay for a certain amount of time, and everything (except real bowling and of course you have to pay to try UFO catchers) is included.  Insane!  The karaoke is 20 minutes in a room, which is quite perfect.  Enough description!  How about I show pictures?!

UFO catchers galore!

skating rink and you can see air hockey

Upstairs is the sportsy part.  Soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, archery, curling, etc.

They have a mini-manga library.  You can take a book and go sit in a massage chair for 20 minutes and read!

Fishing.  There is just a small pool full of fish.  I caught one!  I never catch fish!  Of course, in usual unlucky Elissa fashion, the hook would not come out, even when the employee tried, so the fish got to return to his friends with a new lip piercing!

Yeah, mini-motor bike races!  You bet!

Bowling shoes!  Rental machines.  You just push the button for the right size and they come out.

They shoes are snapped together!  Maybe I should put snaps on all my shoes so they stay in pairs...