We hope everyone has a happy, healthy, weekend.

We hope everyone is enjoying time with their families and resting their aching leg this weekend. It was a wonderfully memorable three days in Tottori for not only the students, but for the teachers and staff as well. Rest well and we are looking forward to seeing your happy, healthy, faces on Monday.

We have been close to Ikeda for while now but we are stuck in very heavy Friday traffic.
We hope to arrive around 5:35.
Will update you on our progress

Thanks to the great driving by the bus drivers, we are on schedule to arrive at Ikeda Elementary School at 4:25 as scheduled.
It is common practice that families come to pick up their children. Please come if you can. We will see you soon.

We are retracing our steps back to Osaka. We are now back to Awaka Land for a short rest before we head to Kasai Service Area. It looks like we are back on our scheduled time so we may arrive as scheduled thanks to our great bus drivers.

We are back at the Tottori Sand Dune center for lunch. This is our last meal for the Outdoor Education Camp. Unfortunately, we will not have time to enjoy the sand nor can we ride the lift to the children’s dismay.
But, many are all happy to get off the bus and have some lunch. Here were some students who wished to stay and sleep in the bus though.
These are the different lunches provided to us. A Halal meal, and Hindi meal, a vegetarian meal, and a non secular meal.
On a different note, there is construction on the highway, so we must take the regular roads back to Osaka. We may arrive 30 minutes to an hour later than originally expected. We will keep you updated.

Those who enjoyed a lovely hike in town visited Daisen Temple, Ohgamiyama Shrine, and the local shopping street. They were even interviewed by a local television crew.

Not only strength and courage, but cooperation and teamwork.

Some of these obstacles require courage as the y require students to be quite high off the ground.

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After our morning meeting, we have left our home of 3 days and now headed for the Mori no Kuni Park.
http://www.sanin.com/site/page/daisen/instituti...
It is large nature park that will allow the students to enjoy outdoors and play equipment in a safe environment.
We would like to say a special thanks the staff of The Hotel Daisen Shirogane. They were so friendly, so accommodating, with service and accommodations that were fantastic. We want to say a special thanks for providing meals for students with dietary restrictions. Thank you so much!

After a refreshing bath and an great dinner, we had our second big event of the day - the evening campfire.
We started with the recreation of the lighting of the Olympic flame with VP Uchimura doing the honors. After that, each class was given 10 minutes to perform two dances that they had been practicing for. Each class performed so well as all the children wanted to do their best in front of their peers.
We ended evening with the teachers doing a play of Taketori Monogatari.

To prevent large crowds in small places, half of the 5th graders ate indoors as half had a BBQ outdoors. The indoor group and salmon and nave and the outdoor team enjoyed a BBQ prepared by the teachers. I don’t know if it’s the delicious food, the fantastic tasting rice, or food just tastes great after a very long and hard hike, but everyone ate so much and seemed to really enjoy their dinners. Or were they just relieved that the climb was over?

Our class was hiking at a brisk pace and came in a bit earlier than expected. Therefore, we had to make a short visit to Daisen Temple before heading back to our hotel.

These are photos just before we got back to our accommodations.

The Tale of the Tape
8.7 km of hiking
960 meters of climbing
Climbed to 1709 meters

We are now taking a must well deserved break at sector 6.
The children are doing so well but are starting to complain about the very long descent. But, they are all smiles and laughs at this break after a very quiet way down.

Our way down from Mt Daisen was less rigorous, but still tough as everyone was tired, the path is steep, and difficult to navigate. Several students had slips on the way down. Fortunately, nobody got any serious injuries. We took the scenic way back and we’re fortunate to see much of the landscape which was hidden to us from the clouds as we climbed.

　

At the top, it has suddenly become cloudy.
But, that is not stopping the students from enjoying their lunches.

We are now having lunch at the summit. After a pretty hard climb but the nice weather made it easier for us. After leaving around 8, We finally reached the summit just before noon. There were points in which many students wanted to give up, but after some well timed breaks, everyone made it to the top safely.
Just when we reached the top, we were greeted by a sunny summit! The warm sun, an incredible view, and a delicious lunch had put a smile on everyone after such a hard long hike.