Christmas Party at Hamaton Elementary

	The first part of the day I spent making Christmas Cake with the special needs class. There were a couple of autistic children, a few with an unspecified mental handicap, and one whose only problem was a speech disorder. They don't spend all their time in the special class, for example Akari-chan has been with the main class both times I've visited.
	Christmas cake is basically two slabs of what tastes like Angelfood cake covered in whip cream with fruit in the middle, on top, and occasionally on the sides.
	Here's the other group. The kids are many different grade levels here, and each level has their own teacher, explaining why there are so many adults here.
	Here's Akari-chan whipping the cream while another student plays with one of the teacher's cameras.
	A shot of the finished cake... with a hand in the way!
	Ok, here's a clear shot. Maybe we went a bit overboard on the strawberries... nah... can never have enough, really.
	And a close up! A weird gnome with a hacksaw among the strawberry and sprinkle undergrowth of a candle forest.
	Not really sure what they're jan-kenning for here... maybe to eat the rest of the sprinkles or something. I waited too long to get this up.
	Here I am in my Christmas finery. The suit was made by Akari-chan's teacher who is now a junior high English teacher up in Wakkanai, so I'm gonna miss him. I think I scared the student in this picture as he ran away from me once we were done. We were friends later though, so it's all good.
	And on to the main first-grade party! After I got to listen to an insanely cute Japanese rendition of Jingle Bells from the entire class, we got to see some magic tricks.
	There's the teacher - Hori-sensei. She's in fact the wife of Hori-sensei, the English teacher at Shimoton JHS
	Another shot of the magic show. Just had to include this as Mai turned around at just the right time.
	Here's Akari-chan's teacher again who did a few magic tricks. I loaned him those reindeer antlers, but the kids didn't really know what they were so they decided he was a demon. I think the suit adds a nice touch.
	Here's an interesting game we played. Basically they put a bunch of fruits in front of some buckets at one end of the room...
	...called out the names in English to the kids at the other end of the room...
	...who then turned around...
	...while the buckets were placed over the fruits and shuffeled around (the buckets were moved too, so you couldn't guess via color)...
	...Then, when the whistle was blown, the students at the other end of the room rush to the buckets trying to find the one fruit called out...
	...Once everyone has a bucket, they lifted them up. The one who had the correct fruit got a star and a chance to compete in the final winner's race.
	I was pretty bored and had my camera out at this point, so I have lots of pictures of it.
	Here's another group
	And another.
	Ok, new game! Fruit basket with Christmas items (christmas trees, candles, santa, etc.). Basically, everyone's assigned an item, and when their item is called, they must get up and grab someone else's vacated seat. Of course, there's one less than there are people, so the one left over becomes it and has to call out the next item.
	Another action shot from that game.
	And here's one from when my item (star) was called.
	This kid is great... he always comes up and gives me a big hug whenever I see him.
	Here's Akari-chan on the right.
	Here's demon-man with a nice backdrop showing how it just sort of randomly starts snowing out here. If you'll look back, you'll note it was clear not that long before.
	The last shot from that game.
	Here's the can-stacking game. It's pretty straightforward: you have 30 seconds to take turns stacking as many cans as possible. The team with the highest stack at the end wins. Of course, they usually come crashing down, so the winning team often only has 3 or 4 cans.
	Here you can see both teams
	I just thought this was funny - sheck out Kaisei-kun on the left there... not sure what he's doing, but he's doing it in a hurry.
	After the games, I got treated to a handbell rendition of Silent Night, which was actually very good. A few mess ups, but not many, and these are first graders, remember.
	There weren't enough handbells to go around, of course, so the students took turns in groups playing.
	Some were more enthusiastic than others.
	Here's the final group
	Here are the kids getting ready for lunch, pushing their desks into groups, getting their aprons on, and, if it's their group's turn, serving their classmates.
	He grabbed my hat and put it on in a point, so he got his picture taken, whether he wanted it or not.
	Got the antlers in their too and it was a party!