School + field trip

I got 100% on both my hirigana and katakana tests, yay, kanji here I come... finally. I can write my host family's name, person(人), and prisoner in Kanji. Yay! I was so excited when I learned Kurokawa (黒川), the first thing I did when I got home was show my okaasan. In class on Tuesday we wrote the longest sentence we could think of, and then later Lucy and Bianca and I wrote another:

1. PAのともきはきのうごごくじごじごふんににほんじんのともだちのまットさんとしんかんせんでいけぶくろののみほだいバーへいきましたか。
"At 9 pm yesterday, did the PA Tomoki, his Japanese friends and Matt went by bullettrain to an all-you-can-drink bar Ikebukuro?

2. うのせんせいはAクラスとにほんじんのPAのしのさんとせんしゅうのかようびごぜんじゅうにじよんじゅごふんいJALのひこうきでほかいどへいきましたか。
Did Uno Sensei, the A class and the Japanese PA Shino, take a JAL airplane to go to Hokaido last Tuesday at 12:45 am?

Uno Sensei was so impressed. She bragged to the other teachers. Yay A class!

We had a JSP field trip to Nagatoro, a city in the mountains, where we learned to make udon. It was fun, but rather difficult. We didn't get to make the dough, only roll it out and cut it. So first, you take the do and put it in the center of a plastic bag. Then you step on it until it flattens out. Then you take it out, fold it in quarters, put it back in the middle and step on it again. You do this as many times as you want. It got to a point though, at about the 4th round, when stepping on it didn't do much. Then you take the dough out and put it on the huge cutting board and roll it around the rolling pin, which was a long stick, smaller in diameter than an american rolling pin, but twice as long. You roll it away from you, gently pushing it out with your hands (hands stay on dough, not pin) and then get to a thick part and slide it back toward you. Repeat a million times. Not quite a million, but it felt like a million. One would think I would be better at this part, having baked so many pies, but really, I wasn't. Once it's big enough, sprinkle a ton of flour on it, roll it up on the pin and unroll it again, but layering it on top of itself. It's hard to explain with words. I may eventually have pictures. Then you break out the huge knife and cut 3-4mm pieces and pick them up and twist them so they don't get tangled, put them in the box and take them to the pot of boiling water. We got to eat our udon too, which was fun. It was tasty. We each made about 3 servings worth of noodles, so I got to bring some back to the family. I also bought them some sweetened beans (mame) that were supposed to be good, and I didn't know, but my otoosan loves them. lucky.

After udon making we went to this river where there were these huge rocks//cliffs/ river. I tested the water and having so much experience testing ice bath water in the training room, I figured it was about 60℉. Warmer than it looked and I expected since it was really cold and rainy out. Many of us plan to go back once it gets warmer out. It was really cool.