I Become Painful Head

This morning's Mordor-ish mountains. The picture, of course, doesn't do it justice.

Today was Sports Test Day at GCS (Genki Country School for those who haven't been paying attention), so I spent it alternating between schmoozing with the kids while they did their tasks and writing back to them in their journals (For the record, there were two more "Dear Abbey" notebooks!).

At ease, gents, I did make a note on "What your hobby?"
As funky as her grammar was, however, at least she wrote about something besides sports and food.

Many of you from or back in the States will recall your dreaded Physical Fitness Test from your schooldays. In Japan, or at least in Gifu, it's similar, but instead of being drawn out over several gym classes, here it's an entire morning of tests and the whole school gets involved. Instead of teaching English or Math or History, teachers dedicate themselves to measuring students' flexibility, strength, coordination and speed and things get done lickedy-split.

Around these parts, the irises are in bloom, so please enjoy some bloomage fresh from Gifu-ken.