Today's the 4th of July-- and unlike last year-- I remembered. It's easy to forget, because in Japan there are no BBQs, no swimming, no drinking, no fireworks, and most importantly no days off from work/school. It sucks to have a work day and miss out an all the patriotic fun. Actually, I usually don't go all out on Independence Day, but it's just the fact that here-- I can't.

I wanted to do something special today, other than setting off fireworks down by the river in Fukui city-- which some of us are gonna do anyway. So I dressed up in red,white, and blue--- and I prepared a fun quiz game about the USA for one of my classes. Most classes have a busy schedule and no free time for any holiday/cultural lessons- except for in one class. The JTE put aside 10 minutes to do any activity. Cool- 10 whole minutes to do something-- that beats not doing anything. I ended out using the whole lesson time for the activity and my JTE didn't mind. So yea, my 4th of July was kinda festive... that is till:

Class 3-6. There's a section in the 3rd year student's books on Hiroshima and the atomic bomb. Well would ya guess, today is when we covered that lesson. During the class the JTE talked about the flood that hit Fukui 2 years ago (cause the anniversary is coming up), next I talked about 9-11, and we followed up with "Mother's Lullaby," the story of a little girl and boy that die under a tree in Hiroshima after the bomb fell. If there's anything to put you n a less patriotic and festive mood-- it's talking about floods, terrorist attacks, and the atomic bomb-- which as we all know America dropped on Japan. It's kinda hard to turn around and be all "Yeay America. Woohoo the 4th of July." So there you have it my 4th of July.