3rd Week - Sunday (270108) Kaikan

Woke up at 9.45am today with muscle-aches, butt pain and sore legs. Haha! Claire and I were supposed to meet Ton-chan at noon for lunch first before going to the Kaikan for a Youth Meeting and Sensei's speech. But I called Claire a few times but she only picked up at 11.30am and said she was aching all over. Hence she decided to rest at home and so I went downstairs to meet Ton-chan.

Ton-chan arrived in a van. I was surprised as I took my bicycle and waited for her outside my apartment. I put it back and went to meet a high school student for lunch. The high school student's name was Kako-san. She was shy as she don know how to speak english and with my limited japanese, we talked little. Ton-chan was like a translator and she kept explaining to me, togehter with her hand guestures the things that they wanna ask or know about me. After lunch, Ton-chan brought me to the kaikan and together, we watched Sensei's video as Sensei gave a speech for the youths. This time round, the whole Makiguchi Memorial Hall was filled with youths, from junior high to high school students to young working adults. This time, Sensei was conferred a honourary doctorate from a university in Panama and then gave a speech. I had difficulty understanding but I noticed that Sensei was constantly encouraging and motivating the youths in the hall. Even Ton-chan was sometimes moved to tears, esp when Sensei entered and left the hall, was greeted with standing ovation.

After this, I went to the kaikan shop to look for some souvenirs. Then I headed back home to get a nap cause I got a photo-taking session with the YMDs later in the evening at 8.30pm. It was a good rest and I left my room at 7.40pm to catch the electric tram to the kaikan again. This time, I was lost in the underpass for 10 minutes as I tried to figure my way to the correct exit of the kaikan. But luckily, I still managed to reach the kaikan before 8.30pm and they were broadcasting Sensei's video for the 2nd time and I watched it again. It ended at 9pm and we had a ヤン男子部 photo taking to give it to Sensei. I then had a chat with them and I managed to make a few more friends from my Tokaichi district: Hamaoka-san, Kuroda-san, Chiba-san and Kuroda-san. I even had an agreement with Konda-san to teach each other English and Japanese! Yeah!!! He will call me again sometime this week and we chatted till 9.45pm and Hamaoka-san then brought me home...