This is not the moon.

We witnessed a pretty spectacular solar eclipse here in Shizuoka on July 22. The day before, sweet solar shades had been distributed to all the teachers and students, and a couple telescopes had also been set up in preparation for the event.

But that Wednesday morning, the sky was gray and cloudy with a few sprinkles. Everyone was anxious. The vice principal eventually announced that we would have regularly-scheduled classes and forego standing outside, looking up at the cloudy sky, wasting valuable learning time...so third period, we started English class as usual. We sang a song, and I'd just explained the rules of the game we were going to play when the vice principal came over the intercom, letting us know that we was letting the kids go outside after all, since the eclipse was visible through occasional breaks in the clouds.
Everyone grabbed their black shades and ran outside, many immediately flattening themselves out on the pavement to look straight up at the sky (it was nice to see such an interest in this event...granted, the students were getting out of class, too, but they really did seem genuinely jazzed about the eclipse). It was only a partial eclipse in Shizuoka, but it was still pretty cool (One of the science teachers at my school had flown down to Okinawa just for the day, because it was a total eclipse there...hardcore).

I did get in a little English teachin' when I explained "partial eclipse" and "total eclipse" to the students I was hanging out with during the hour. They in turn explained to me that the Kanji for "solar eclipse" is the symbols for "sun" and "eat" put together, lovely!