Well, as you can imagine, I ended up working a lot harder than I expected. Each teacher had a task, like manning a checkpoint or drinking station, and mine was to be one of the teachers walking with the students. Alright. Well, I ended up being one of the teachers running with the students, and I managed the first 5 km before taking it to a walk. I brought my camera along and took pictures of the students I saw along the way.
But this was more than just a timed walk/run physical fitness test in beautiful, brisk weather. This was an adventure! It almost felt like the Milo and Otis movie, where a puppy and a kitten get lost and have adventures in the rivers and forests they come across. Along the walk, I passed waterfalls, babbling brooks, corn fields and cow farms. I even put my hand out and got licked by one such cow.
At the checkpoints, some younger students waited with their parents to help point the way. One group of young girls followed me a ways down the road, and we played an approximation of red light/green light for about 1 km. I passed students who were designated trash picker-uppers. I had a full blown conversation (90% Japanese) with a group of boys who are usually very quiet in class. The sun was shining the whole morning (in what seemed to be a miraculous 6 hour interval amidst 3 days of nonstop cold rain) and it was a wonderful day, though my legs and especially my toes would say otherwise - ouch! But this was my first such long trek, and I had motivation to try to keep running - mostly to try to catch the next group of students to talk a bit with them.
After that, I took a nice long shower and soak. A while later, I believe I discovered the first child here whom I rather dislike. This girl, named Sunflower, is about 8 years old and behaves as though she owns the world. She doesn't ask permission before she does anything. This included entering my house, getting Zuma's leash and taking him for a walk, and various other things. She is the leader of her group of friends, but she rarely succumbs to the wishes of her followers. She even kicked one of the kids, for who knows what reason, sending the 5 year old boy into a rant of tears as he tried to run away. We spent a good 10 minutes following him. In her mother's greenhouse, she didn't hesitate to pick up a scalpel to cut a few leaves. That rather alarmed me, since there were other kids around, and this girl seems to have little conscience or sense of consequence for her actions. So I told her to put it down, as best I could. She understood me, but it took her awhile to set it down. After which she picked up a much bigger knife, and began using it to cut up a twig, in that mildly-shamed-but-still-defiant way that kids have. Then I told her in No Nonsense English to put the knife down. This time she got the message. Yep, the first kid I decided I don't like. She's just not a very nice 8 year old. At all. Not a very nice thing to say, but well, every day has its ups and its downs.
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