Yochien cleaning day......

I had to go to the yochien on Friday - oh, I should explain that I scheduled the last couple of posts since we went camping at the weekend, so everything is a bit of of sync, sorry. Back to yochien, so we got there for 9.00am, it was already really hot and I was dripping with sweat, blahhh, I am not a summer babe. We watched the kids do their exercises and then they had to run round the yard to the 'can can' music, the senseis have to do it too so I don't feel too bad for the kids :o). Then the kids went to the class and we went to the gym to listen to the head sensei, I zoned out after a while but it sounded like he was talking about what to do and not to do during the holidays. Then it was time for cleaning, yes, one of the little culture differences that I don't enjoy (anything that involves cleaning I don't enjoy!) We were split into groups and I got to clean the gym with a bunch of others moms who couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. Other groups cleaned classrooms, weeded the grounds, cleaned around the animals encloures etc.

Let's see, why don't we sweep the hall from completely different directions missing several parts and then lets wipe the floor with wet clothes (obviously there is a big market in Japan for mops), now, splash the wax in big puddles all over the place and everyone start from a different point and work to the middle of the hall so that you all have to walk over the wet wax. Right, now lets go upstairs and sweep the balcony so all the dirt can fall onto the still wet waxed floor and yes, clean the windows, standing on the wet floor as you do it! Seriously, I came out in complete shock and disbelief that anyone could do things so backwards. The hall of course was really hot so I was soaked - better add some sweat to the nicely waxed floor. The kids had been playing and had a water fight and they were just finishing up cleaning the class when we got back.

We had a mothers meeting, most of which went over my head and we were given a bag of goodies to bring home, more on that in another post. Then we went to the mothers room and had lunch together, which wasn't too bad, the moms started quizzing me about Christmas and what we usually eat at home, the usual and then we got a life home with one of the moms who lives close by, which was quite handy considering the amount of stuff we bought back, which included a morning glory plant. He was supposed to have yochien Saturday but we skipped it because we were off to camp and today is his last day before summer holiday, my last few hours of me time before I have him full time again, so I had better go and get those emails answered and packages sent off...