After two days of not seeing our Bright School students, we were excited to meet first thing Monday morning and hear about their weekends. They were full of stories about everything from going to the beach to visiting Disneyland in Tokyo. Most important were the smiles telling us they had connected with their families and had a good time. Tomorrow is our last full day at Mito Eiko Elementary School, so it was nice to know that their family stays had been enjoyable. We can't thank our host families enough for their wonderful and very generous hospitality in showing our children a good time. We will forever be grateful to them.

After we all swapped stories, the kids headed to a special math class while I began a series of meetings with the elementary and junior high students and their parents. In my meetings with the younger children, I gave them a glimpse of what life was like in America, but I was more pleased to hear all of their enthusiastic questions about the United States. We talked about games, schools, music, history, food, and geography. I also spoke with the parents about education in the United States and some of the differences with Japanese education. I gave them a picture of a day in the life of a student at Bright School as well as the school's philosophy and mission. It was all very positive, and I greatly appreciated their good questions.

The students in the meantime headed to a math class, which they seemed to enjoy. After class and before lunch, they did what all of the Japanese students do at that time: cleaned their classrooms and hallways. It was very interesting to see all of the children scurrying around with brooms and rags tidying up their school. Lunch followed, and then we all headed to the local aquarium on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. We made it just in time to see a great dolphin and sea lion show, and then the kids had time to explore what turned out to be quite an impressive aquarium. The fact that it overlooked the ocean was quite nice as well.

Tomorrow we have our closing ceremonies, and we'll then have time to pack for home. We are all sad to leave but happy to think about rejoining our families.