What a week!

A very brief summary of why I haven't been "online" lately.... Sunday morning I jumped on the train to Kitakyushu with Chris and Dannie and they continued on up to Hiroshima while I got off and ran a communication/team building program for a group of mothers. After finally getting home at about 7:30pm I cleaned the cottage and tried to get ready for the busy week ahead.
On Monday I went to pick up the first guests for the week - a group of four 5th grade primary school students. They are from a school close to here that I have been doing quite a lot of teaching at for the past few years and they were coming to stay as part of a "rural experience" - can't see the logic of sending rural children on a rural experience, but that is the Japanese Education system for you! They stayed two nights with us then we changed and got a group of six fourth grade students for two nights - with no break in between. We filled our days with lots of baking, chicken care, river walks, potato digging, jam making, vegetable collecting (if I can find them in the weeds!), dairy farm visiting, icecream making, waterfall hopping, wood chopping, pizza making, pottery classes, scarecrow making, eating, eating and more eating! Each night I had to take them to the local onsen where we met the students from the other grades and I then had to "supervise" them in the onsen. Nothing like getting naked with your students!
I took them back at 3pm today and came home to have a quiet cup of coffee! I managed to lose close to 2kgs over the week and I really put my organisation/shopping skills to the test but have some how come out the other side in one piece. The only major problem was that they managed to lock the bathroom door of the cottage this morning while there was no one in there - how I really don't know! So now we have to try and find a way to open the door without smashing the window - preferably before Wednesday when the next guests arrive! Of course my children loved having children of a similar age to play with.... I am going to enjoy sleeping in my bed for the first time all week.... supervision is not my favorite thing, but perhaps it was a taste of what is going to come in the holidays which start at the end of next week. Can hardly wait!