Me and Ayano and Asuka. Ayano was special to me because she gave me God's grace one day. Last August or September I was really depressed one day and felt stressed about my job and about life in Japan and I was praying for comfort and peace and when I came to work that afternoon, Ayano was their with her Mom signing up to take my class. While her Mom was talking with the staff, Ayano came up to me with a pink ball, held it out to me, looked me straight in the eye and said, "kore wa?" ("What's this?") It was so precious. I told her, "it's a pink ball." she repeated, "pink" and the proceed to point to things all over the room asking, "kore wa?" I don't know why she had such an affect on me, but I looked forward to seeing her every Thursday because she always sparkled up my morning.