These past two weeks I was with the babies, and then back to the five-year-olds. Babies are precious. Many are walking, but a couple can only take a few steps before falling over. They have the most contagious smiles. Babies are one of my therapeutic strengths, and it is always fun to observe their developmental state. I can see how they are processing the nursery they are in, cause and effect, and the different stages each child is in. The five-year-olds seem so big after being with the infants! They are fun, though! I got to play a lot of games with them. They taught me new card games like speed and old maid. I taught them how to shuffle. Well, I taught some of them how to shuffle, and some of them had difficulty figuring it out, but that’s okay. They also liked playing dodgeball with me. They play dodgeball differently here than I am used to. They only used one ball, and if you got hit, you got sent to the out-of-bounds zone behind the other team. You need to get everybody on the opposite team into your out-of-bounds zone to win. However, being out of bounds does not mean you are out of the game. If a ball goes out of bounds, a player on the out-of-bounds team has to get the ball, and they can try to get someone who is still in, out (why they have to be on the side of the opposite team). If they successfully get someone from the opposite team out, they can go back into their team’s square. I hope I explained that well; it’s hard without a visual aid. I also got to play jump rope with the kids, which was super fun! One little girl got over 100 jumps in! I played with them so much that the children began to pick up on English phrases like “Nice catch!” One five-year-old asked me to put my signature on one of her drawings after I came back from a lunch break. Although I found it a little odd, I signed her picture. After I did that, everybody suddenly wanted my autograph. I told the teacher I felt famous. Now, there are a large number of five-year-olds in Toyohashi that have my autograph. I got to practice my hiragana with the kids, and I helped them practice their English characters. I even got to show them the difference between cursive and print. During some downtime, I taught the five-year-olds how to play ninja. It was the best worst decision I made because the kids loved it. They loved it so much that it was the only thing we played for the rest of the day… we had two hours left. They all ganged up on me as well. It was funny seeing how excited they got when they got me out, but they did not even care about playing until there was a winner. Once I got out, they all took it as a collective win. I am glad they enjoyed the game. 

Music therapy with the babies was a huge success. The week was cut short due to the closed nursery, so I did my session earlier in the week. I did a lot of fine motor activities, encouraging the babies to follow instructions and manipulate their fingers. I did a counting song with visuals on my iPad for them to count. I let each baby try strumming on my guitar for sensory integration. I also did the adapted freeze dance. There was one baby girl in particular that hit a specific pose every time I froze. I was impressed because it appeared the infants understood the cues better than the one-year-old class. The teachers enjoyed the session and were so impressed that they specifically requested I do a session for them again the following week! The week I was with the five-year-olds, I went to a different facility for music therapy. The facility I went to was for children with various disabilities. The property the nursery school is located on has other facilities dedicated to other groups. I was not sure what to expect in terms of age and abilities, so I prepared a lot of activities. Fortunately, I was able to use many of the interventions I used with the babies’ group for the disability group. The group consisted mostly of infants and toddlers and were accompanied by their parents. It went great! I felt very professional being able to adapt so quickly and still have a successful session. I hope I get to do more sessions at this facility. After my session, I was unexpectedly asked to do another session that week with the babies at the nursery school. Even though it was short notice, I am a professional and said yes. It was another successful session. I added some new activities I had not done with them before, like egg shaker songs. 

After my session at the alternate facility, at the end of my day, I was preparing to walk home when Nobu and Souta showed up! They yelled at me from their car and asked if I wanted to get crepes with them on the way home. It was a delightful surprise that I graciously accepted! There is a local crepe place owned by my host family’s friends, so we go there relatively regularly. I can’t complain because the crepes are delicious! Later that day, I showed my host brother the game Nintendo Switch Sports. He has a Nintendo Switch, but he doesn’t have that game. I knew he would love it, and he did. He said, “One more round,” about eight times. I let him borrow my Switch to keep playing while I got ready for bed. He was very grateful. 

I traveled to Nagoya the week that the nursery was closed on Thursday and Friday. Stepping into Nagoya felt like a 2000s movie scene where the main character gets out of the taxi in the big city for the first time. I walked out of the subway station and was greeted by tall city buildings and huge streets. It was a stark contrast from my little town of Toyohashi. I went to Nagoya to see a friend from Belmont who was working as a missionary. She was holding an event at her apartment for young adults who speak English. It was so refreshing being around people who speak my native language! I had a blast and made some friends I hope to keep for a long time! We played Jackbox, ate taco rice and brownies, and got to know each other. Fortunately for me, Megan (my Belmont friend) let me spend the night at her apartment since my journey back would take so long. The following morning, she took me to brunch, and it was the most delicious breakfast I have had since arriving here. My host mom is wonderful at cooking, but this food was exquisite. I will put a picture in so you can see what I ate. On my way back to Toyohashi, I met a kind man who asked me about my motion sickness goggles (In English!). I was able to tell him that I was living in Toyohashi and why in Japanese! He was only visiting the town to go to a museum, but he was curious about my funny goggles. The following weekend, I went to Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo with my host sister. Since the Shinkansen is so expensive, we took a bus company. It took us about 6 hours to get there and then 7 hours to get back. On the way back, we went on an overnight sleeper bus, which was a rougher sleep than on the plane ride here. Sanrio Puroland was very cute, though. I got to take cute pictures and get cute merchandise I am going to cherish for a long time. 

I ended up going to the doctor because my fingers had gotten itchy, dry, and flakey, amongst other things. I have never had eczema before, but that is what the doctor thinks I might have. It does run in my family. The appointment and medications were shockingly cheap, and I applied for an insurance claim as well. It was just hard to believe how affordable it was before insurance. However, I learned that the Japanese people have extremely high taxes to lower the cost of healthcare.