Last Day

Well, our last day in Tokyo was spent doing 15 minute presentations for each group's city homestay. We were finished by 3 p.m., so with two friends, we went to Harajuku to see the Meiji Shrine (http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/english ) and the Harajuku girls (http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/tokyo/harajuku_girls.htm). Being that it was Halloween and all, we really thought the outfits would be outrageous, but they weren't. Here is a photo of me with a couple of Harajuku girls near the shrine, some just stood at the bridge and blew bubbles.

The Meiji Shrine is "the" shrine in Tokyo as it is dedicated to the Meiji emperor family

"Meiji Jingu is the Shinto shrine dedicated to the divine souls of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Emperor Shoken. Emperor Meiji passed away in 1912 and Empress Shoken in 1914. After their demise, people wished to commemorate their virtues and to venerate them forever, and so this shrine was constructed, and their souls were enshrined on November 1, 1920"

We ended the evening with a sayonara buffet, that included Japanese food, fruit and drink. I would have to say my favorite food that was introduced to me in Japan are the Asian Pears. They are so crisp and delicious!

I am saddened to be leaving tomorrow, but am happy at the same time. This is a wonderful land with wonderful, hardworking people, who are not afraid to show all their sides, good and bad. The Japanese I encountered were always looking for ways to better themselves, and were not afraid to ask for our opinions and suggestions. I also learned a great deal about other parts of our own country by interacting with the 200 teachers that traveled to Tokyo.

I know I am a different person as a result of this experience. The more I learned about this culture, the more I came to understand I know nothing about this culture. Our sterotypes of Japan are full of traditional images of kimono, kotos, and samurai to name a few. Although those are part of the Japanese culture, there is a contemporary culture that exists, a culture that demonstrates its strengths through its kindness to strangers in the hopes of building a more peaceful world. This country, only a short time ago (62 years), experienced first hand what hate and ignorance could do to a nation-both within the country and from other parts of the world. I have come to understand that through diligence and patience, a nation could foster peace in the world one person at a time, one teacher at a time. The diplomatic policy of bringing teachers from the U.S. to study in Japan, to gain a better understanding of this nation and to foster better relationships is brilliant. The Japanese government understands the importance of education, and that it is the most effective way to foster understandings between countries. Understanding the differences can halt actions that are born out of hate and ignorance. For this, I am grateful to the JFMF program.

See you soon!

kw

Rolling Green Tea - An art in itself!

A fun video of that 91 year old rolling green tea leaves.

October 30

Well, we had a later start to the morning, so I ventured to the Zojoji Temple next door (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3010.html) to the hotel. There were these little statues with knitted hoods on them, signifying that someone came to pay respect to their child who died. There was also a tomb to a samuri who had committed hari kari. You can see from the photos there are rows and rows of these little statues.

Our speaker today talked about art tradition in Japan. Traditional Japanese art had been looked down upon by the Japanese, and not as superior as the art found in Europe. As a result, traditional Japanese art has not been stressed in the school system today. We made some paper toys during this session. We were also told that becuase Japanese eat with chopsticks, create paper toys or origami, that they have great hand and finger dexterity. By the time a child is three until they are six, they have folded origami thousands of times, and are origami professionals in the first grade.

After this session, I decided to head out solo for lunch, to experience what it was like without a group of Americans. I was somewhat uncomfortable, as I kept getting stared at, especially in the restaurant. The hostess was kind, but the customers pretty much stayed away. I ate my food (fried shrimp and rice) a bit faster when the tables filled up because someone came in and the hostess was about ready to seat that person by me, and he refused. So I got up, paid and left as I was about done anyway. I noticed the women eat in seperate restaurants than men - so I ended picking out a restaraunt that men went to, and down the block as I was walking around, I saw only women in another restaraunt. So I was stared at either because I was female in this place, or an American in this place, or both!

Well, I am off to our final session today, then to Harjuku and Oriental Bazaar tonight - our final free evening in Japan. It will be sad to leave in 2 days, but it will be good to get home too. It has been so warm here, I am afraid it will feel very cold at home!! Later, kw

Home Stay Weekend

I had a great time with my host family from Saturday to mid-afternoon Sunday. I spoke very little Japanese, and they spoke some English, but between my phrase book and thier electronic Japanese to English dictionary, we survived.

After they picked me up from the hotel, we went to Fujieda - a town about 30 minutes from Shimada. After we dropped my luggage off, we were off to an artisan museum and craft center called Takumi Shuku (http://www.shizuoka-cci.or.jp/english/kanko_06.htm) , up in the mountains. There were many soft tennis paddles with paintings of each stop on the Tokkaido road at this museum, plus local history that stressed how this area became the lacquer making center of Japan. Fujieda was the 22nd post town on the old Tokkaido Road, while Shimada was the 23rd (for more on the Tokkaido Road, go to: http://www.pbs.org/empires/japan/traveltokaido.html At this craft center my host mother made some shoes, the second oldest daughter made a bear, and I decided to make a bamboo bug cage - it took me about an hour to complete it, but the real challenge will be to bring it home

in one piece! Here is what it looks like

After "arts and crafts time" we at dinner at this place. More sushi, fish, miso soup and green tea. It was a great day to come here because it was raining so hard. When I watched the news Saturday morning, they kept saying "taifu" - here is a photo of the TV

Yes, it was a typhoon - so I got to experience one of the common weather ailments of Japan, now if I could feel just a teeeny tiny earthquake. We did not get the winds that Tokyo did, which was to the north of where I was staying. After we got back to my host family's house, I took a while to communicate if it was ok to take a one hour nap, that was an adventure in itself :) ! They had a two level home, that was both contemporary and traditional Japanese style. I stayed in what seemed to be a den area, I had my own closet/computer (I didn't use) in one room, and the futon closet, alcove in another. Both were covered in tatami floors, which after having slept in two nights of them, I don't care for the smell. But, at this house I slept on a futon on the floor with a buckwheat and normal pillow with no problems. The alcove had a beautiful scroll and flower arrangement. It was somewhat sad that there was a little dog house in the back, they just lost their dog in May. They had a beautiful Japanese pine in the front and lots of flowers to the side. I felt uncomfortable asking to take photos, so I only took ones of the room I stayed in. Oh, this home also had shoji doors. The family consisted of the mother, who is the vice-principal of the commercial high school we visited, the father who works in the city office in Shizouka for the private education sector, one daughter who lives in Osaka, another who is a first grade teacher, and a son who is in college. The son worked at a convenience store while I was there, but I came to learn he loves baseball - he was rooting for the Hokkaido Ham Fighters, who were playing the Dragons in the Japanese World Series, that started Saturday night. Everyone I have asked here LOVES the Boston Red Sox!

We ate a traditional Japanese dinner at the home, where I wrapped rice and raw tuna with a nori sheet (students: what is nori?) - It was quite good! There was also more green tea. I have drank so much green tea here, all different styles and strengths. That must be one of the secrets as to why the Japanese live so long and always look young for their age.

On Sunday, after a homemade traditional Japanese breakfast - which is ususally salad, fish, rice and egg - they took me to a Tea House, where I actually rolled some green tea leaves - my hands smelled good and turned green. I put up my hands and said "look, I am the Incredible Hulk", to which they just stared at me, not understanding the reference. I worked alongside a tea roller who was really good. I couldn't get the technique down - and it evidently takes 2 hours to roll by hand. There was a man there that was working and he was 91 years old! He looked like he was loving every minute

We walked around and took part in a traditional tea ceremony here as well, but it was very strong powdered green tea. It was beautiful, as the leaves were turning color and there were koi ponds everywhere. If you clapped your hands real loud, the koi would swim over to you looking for food. That was amazing!

Then we took a drive further up the mountains to see the tea fields, which was amazing! It is so incredibly steep here. We headed back down to an authentic soba noodle cafe for lunch. I have a video of that. The soba comes from Hokkaido and is a different tasting noodle that is eaten cold. You dip your noodles into a cup of soya sauce and slurp it up with the help of your chopsticks. I believe I provided great entertainment to my host family as the chopsticks were real smooth and my noodles kept falling off, so I had to use wooden ones that have more grip. Again, more green tea.

We headed back to their home to pick up my luggage before going to Rengeji Ike Park. Before leaving, I was given many gifts by the family, which completely surprised me. I had given them gifts the night before, as it is customary to give many gifts to people in Japan, particularly if they have done something nice or you want them to do something nice in the future. Then, if that wasn't enough, I was packing and the mother left, to come back with stacks of paper that had Japanese black water ink artwork on them. I was told to pick one I would like - the neighbor across the street is an artist who painted them. I had to choose one? How could I choose? There were about 9 different options! I decided on a hydrangea as I have one at home. Then my host family took me over to the neighbors because I wanted to personally thank the artist. We went across the street, took off our shoes, and the host mother handed him my chosen drawing. He stamped his family name below in red, and on the top right was a red stamp that meant "old friend". This guy had to be at least in his 80s, perhaps older? After we took a photo, I bowed deep for at least 3 seconds, to show my respect and honor. After much "gushing" on my behalf, he went to a curio cabinet and handed me a hand stitched ornament, I was completely taken by surprise. To add to that, I was told his grandmother made it! My jaw must have dropped, as I was in such disbelief that he would give me such an heirloom! Then the wife gave me another one and said it was for my husband! Between the gifts from my hostfamily - a chopstick wrapper with the chopsticks I ate breakfast with that morning, a handstitched drawstring bag and apron, in addtion to the rides and entry fees to places and food - and these neighbors, I was speechless. After the farewells, we went to Rengeji Ike Park - which housed the museum of Fujieda.

Rengeji Ike Park (http://www.kandou10.jp/en/spot/spot353_e02_10.html ) has a beautiful wisteria display in the spring - these plants are enormous here compared to where we live! After visiting the museum, which housed items found in archaeological digs hundreds of years B.C. we walked around the lake, taking in the warm sunshine after the typhoon rains the day before.

I was dropped off at city hall in Shimada, where I met up with the group again. We all had interesting stories of our host family stays, each one unique and special. It was hard to leave, as the homestay reminded many of us about home. But, we had one more adventure to experience before our Shimada group reunited with the 10 other groups back in Tokyo for our final days. We went to a Japanese ryokan in Yaizu city, where life was just divine! Students: resarch what a ryokan is at http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2029.html

I had two other roommates in this ryokan, and I did everything it had to offer! I wore the yukata everywhere, went into the onsen, visited the stores and had a gorgeous view of the bay and Pacific Ocean from our window. We had at least a 9 course meal, including beverages, sitting on a tatami floor, hearing the karaoke going on next door! There was sooo much food! The next morning we could see the shrimp boats out on the bay at sunrise and had a wonderful breakfast. It was the first time in about 5 days I had coffee, not green tea, and it tasted good. We left the ryokan to go to a viewing spot on top of the mountains to view Mt. Fuji - we were so lucky it was a clear day! The mountain was covered in more snow than when we first went to Shimada, because the typhoon had dumped alot of precipitation the day before. Below are photos of our ryokan stay, wearing the yukatas and Mt. Fuji. We then took the bullet train back to Tokyo, where I went with some others to buy Japanese books in English. I chose to get Doreamon - the gadget cat from the future. This is a Japanese comic book that has both the konji and english language. I read part of the first one at my host family's house, and it was good :) . After, I went up the Tokyo tower to view the city...it is quite large!

It was a fun weekend. I am hoping to have some time here to at least label the photos from the days I missed, and blog a bit about them. The photos are up, and I am still working on uploading the videos. Tomorrow is a fairly easy day, and our last independent night on the trip. I have to repack a bit tonight, as this is the first time all of my items are in one place since a week ago. Take care, kw

October 26

Today we visited Shimada Commercial High School. Here you see a school t-shirt with their school logo - we each got one, which was so very kind! Once again, we had our introductions and an overview of the H.S. This H.S. is incredibly competitive to get into, as they have won numerous awards for academics and athletics. Their volleyball coach was just named #1 coach in volleyball for the entire country of Japan! Since this is a commercial high school, the "elective" courses (which make up 33% of the students day) focus on business and computers - 100% of students who graduate from here who do not go onto college get employed by companies immediately - so there is much focus on school work such as math, computer applications and accounting. You can find more about this school on a powerpoint made by the principal on the google groups files page.

In the Japanese history class, they were studying the 226 uprising in the 1930s and the "invasion" of Manchuria. Again, the sensei drew a great map on the board of Asia. Students: can you tell what countries are where? Japan is not on this map.

What struck me was how quiet the students were compared to the elementary and Jr. High schools, and their class sizes that ranged from 33 - 40 students! Note taking is done with attention to precision, and multiple colors are used when the teacher uses different chalk colors. Also, a few students seemed to be very good at twirling their pencils, almost an art form - quite mesmerizing! We traveled between classes, seeing a variety of teaching styles. The most fun part of the day is that I played volleyball in gym, in my skirt and socks - evidently they were impressed :) here are photos...what a back set!

Another nice thing was how every student would bow their head and say hello to you in the hallway, with a smile - very respectful! After the classes, we observed the club activities - which we would call sports teams. There was volleyball, basketball, baseball, soccer, running, badminton, tennis, archery, judo, kend, accounting, music and computer programming. The students choose what sport to be in during the first year of H.S. and they stay in that sport or activity, year round, for all three years of H.S. (H.S. here is grades 10-12). We saw the accounting club, which is working hard to be #1. They have competitions such as how fast they can calculate the "books" - these kids were incredibly fast on the calculator! They "practice" from 4-9:30 every day and 9-7 p.m. on Saturdays - WOW! This school has won many awards for accounting and sports. I have posted photos to see and will upload video of the various practices after school. What was interesting is that the band kids stood outside in the halls that were covered between the buildings to practice!

This day went very fast, as there was so much to see. In all the schools we had to take off our street shoes and wear slippers - I wore my Crocs as slippers which was very comfy. I had to laugh as the Social Studies teacher was the only adult at the school who also happened to wear Crocs - must be a social studies thing?

I am off for my over night stay with a host family. It just so happens I will be staying with the vice principal of the high school we visited today, in a town about 30 miles away. I have no idea what they have planned for me, but I told them I am open to pretty much anything! I probably won't have internet access again until Monday. On Sunday we are going to a Ryokan - a Japanese style hotel which is like a spa. Take care, time is just flying by! There are some video links below.

KW

October 25

Is it the 25th already? Today we visited the Ikumi elementary school up in the mountains and it was just gorgeous! Plus, there are only 15 students in this school, which definitely provides a close teacher-student relationship. This is a rather unique school, in that it hasn't shut down because the Shimada City mayor and the ministry of education realize the value of this school. It focuses on utilizing the rich environment that surrounds it. The older kids help the younger ones and the younger ones look to the older ones as role models. This also helps develop leadership qualities. It is a k-6 school, then the students attend a Jr. High in town, which can prove to be a difficult transition, similar to when the 8th graders move to 9th grade. Students: why would there be an evacuation area?

This school has a fish hatchery, buckwheat field, silky chickens, gardens and flowers everywhere that the students help take care of together. The school itself is 150 years old, but the building were new about 20 years ago. It had up to 300 students one time too. It is located next to a river, surrounded by the town of Ikumi and tea fields. Students from Shimada city come to this school for field trips and camping. Their were 3 first graders, 7 sixth garders 2 fourth graders and 2 fifth graders (one was sick today). The fourth and fifth graders were together in one room and the 6th and 1st graders their own room. No second grade at this school. About half the kids are bused from Shimada, while the rest live near the area. Parents in Shimada can send their kids here, without additional cost.

I also loved this school because there were maps everywhere you turned (see photos). A teacher was absent, and it was amazing because the students did everything by themselves - no substitute necessary! The students also have a special backpack that they use from 1st - 6th grade. They use the same one all those years, and they cost around 16000 Japanese Yen (how much is that in US dollars?). They are very sturdy and nice. When you think how U.S. students usually will get a new backpack every year, the cost comes out to be the same.

The teachers played a game of prison ball against the students, which was a blast. Before and after each activity - such as class, lunch, or a game, the students line up and express their greetings and thanks. During one recess, I taught some girls a few tricks with the basketball, until they ran away from me screaming towards a boy. I went over there and saw he had gotten his "pet" out. A praying mantis-I assumed it was his pet, and not something he grabbed from outside, but I could be wrong. I took the plunge and had him put it on my arm. Oh, and I asked about the killer hornets, and our interpreter said they were just up the hill from where we were. They are about 3 inches long....eeeks!

We had another delicious lunch where everyone chipped in to serve and clean up. After clean up, was a school-wide clean up during homeroom. All the students clean the rooms and common areas - vaccuum, dust, wash, etc! They did this at the Jr. High as well. I am starting to naturally grab chopsticks as though it were a fork. The food was some fish, soup and vegetables with milk to drink and a piece of walnut bread. Mmmmmm

The school finally showed us their operetta, where all the school kids particiapted. It was taped, then played in front of the kids, where they did a brainstorming session after to improve it as there was an upcoming competition.

We also learned Ikebana flower arrangement, which is quite complicated for something that looks simple. To find out more, go here: http://www.ikebanahq.org/whatis.html I was provided with all the materials and instruction...it was quite fun!

The air was so crisp, with pines and tall bamboo everywhere, and the crystal clear river water made this school so cozy. What a cool place to go to learn!

Well, off to a high school tomorrow, then an overnight visit on Saturday with a host family. The mom is the vice-principal of that high school and the dad is a government official in Shizouka City. I am actually going to another town 30 miles away called Fujiata. Fun, fun!

Students: try to look at the photos from today and come up with the different geographical regions you see.

Later, kw

October 24

Hi again. Today we visited Shimada City Daiichi Junior High School for the day. Let me tell you, we got the royal treatment! Once getting inside, we had to exchange our street shoes and wear slippers. Wearing slippers is the rule inside schools, homes and some businesses. Wearing shoes inside makes it very dirty. So, once we got on our slippers, we went to the gymnasium, to be greeted by the entire school, and a band that was amazing - made up of students grades 7-9. They placed us on the stage, and once again we went through introductions. I have mine memorized by now: Konnichiwa. Watashi wa Minnesota no Dilworth kara kimasta Kerri Westgard des. This school is up to date and environmentally friendly - it uses solar power to regulate the indoor pool.

Here I am in front of the art they made for us and the students all in nice rows. You can tell the girls by thier stripes, they sat in rows of girls and rows of boys.

We observed three periods of classes today, which last about one hour each. I checked out the social studies and the 7th grade (called first year middle schoolers). They were learning about the time between the Edo and Meiji periods, and when the Europeans came to open up trade. I wonder if that was coincidence or not? They had just talked about Commodore Perry the day before (students, who was Commodore Perry?). The class was completely in Japanese, but I could follow along as the teacher had photos on the wall, and wrote some dates down. I also watched a math class and art class, where they were learning calligraphy. In front of the principals office, was a gorgeous flower arrangement. I asked if something like this was here everyday, and they laughed and said no - only because we were visiting. There are some of those photos below. One thing to point out, these kids were not that much different than American kids in class, which totally blew me away. They asked me questions, we laughed when I could not pick up the last bit of salad with my chopsticks, and were surprised that I wore Crocs. I played a bit of volleyball with some girls in my dress, and they lined the city streets to wave us goodbye when we left. They were really practicing their farewells with "see you" :)

Here in Japan, students do not leave their classrooms to change subjects, teachers move between classes and the students stay with eachother all day. Students also eat lunch in their rooms! I ate something I thought was deep fried fish, come to find out it was fried squid! I never would have tried it if I knew it was squid, so I am glad I didn't know what it was at first. It didn't taste too bad. There was also delicious melon bread, a lightly sweet soft dough bread.

Each room had a balcony where students could go onto between classes and the doors to the hallway slid and they could hang out there. They don't have bells to signal a class change, rather they play soothing classical music instead! We should do that!!

After classes in Japanese, English, Science, Math, Social Studies, FACS and art, the students spend 2 hours in after school activities. Then many will go home for supper and then attend the "crammies" usually from 7-10 pm. I thought my days here were long...

*Students* : below you will find photos of various activities Japanese Jr. High kids participate in. Can you tell from the photos what they are? Some you may have to research a bit or look very closely. In addition to the ones shown below, there is after school band, choir and art. Students do not get bused to school - all of them walk (no bikes either). The principal told us one student walks about 2 hours to and from school each day. It costs about 10000 Yen a year to participate (like our activity fee). Figure out how much that is in U.S. dollars :) About 80% of students participate in afterschool activities. It is a goal of this school to increase the participation. The school motto follows the national governments goal of promoting "a wealth of heart and wealth of mind".

The activities below can be put under "E" for entertainment. You may have to click on the photos to get a larger view.

Well, that is about it for now. I have a very early morning. We are visiting a small, rural elementary school that has only 15 students and is in the mountains. Take care, and perhaps I will have time to get more photos uploaded!

bye bye...kw

October 23

Ok, so I am going to work backwards and tell you what I did today, then yesterday, and so on. I am very busy and by the time I get back to the hotel room, I am just exhausted! Plus, I think jet lag is settling in.

Today we visited the Barono-oka (Rose Hill) Garden in Shimada, Shizouka, the largest rose growing region in Japan. Their growing season is from May-December, so there were still quite a few roses in various stages of bloom. One of my favorites is actually called "Miss Shimada" and is unique to this area, and just happens to have been "invented" in 1971 - the year I was born. My other favorite is the "Peace" rose, "invented" in 1945 - can you guess why it is called the Peace rose? (think of your history).

Rose horticulture is an important part of Japan's economy and certainly helps the Shizouka prefecture; there are over 350 varieties of roses here. It was very relaxing, as classical music was being played around the grounds. Here are photos from left to right: Miss Shimada Rose , Peace Rose

There are many more rose pictures if you follow the link to the left under "Photos"-I will post them later.

After viewing the roses, we went to the Haurai Bridge that spans the Oi River. This bridge is in the Guiness Book of Records for being the longest, wooden foot bridge in the entire world. This bridge now connects what was the old posts of the Tokkaido Road - a road that stretched from Tokyo to Kyoto hundreds of years ago. Where I am staying, in Shimada, is where the 23rd post, or stopping place, occurred for travelers. At the time, there was no bridge, so people were actually carried across the river by men. You could pay for various tickets - the most expensive included a carriage, while the cheapest way to go was on top of someone's shoulders! Not only did you have to pay for yourself to cross the bridge, you had to pay passage for each worker that carried you across! That got to be expensive! This was the only place on the Tokkaido road where there was no bridge (5 rivers cross the Tokkaido road at various places).

Today, you can cross the bridge and see men fishing the river for what is called "sweet fish". I found many similarities between these river communities to the Fargo/Moorhead river - both were historical towns that grew up on the crossroads of transportation - rivers and roadss. One difference, however, is that the Oi river floods three times a year, and not because of th e melting snows - like you would find at home, but because of the Typhoons. This year, in September, there was a bad Typhoon that swept over Japan, and the foot bridge was damaged, so we could not cross all the way. What happens is the Typhoon comes in from the east off the Pacific coast and drops an incredible amount of rain, which floods the area. It is a very wide and shallow flood plain as you will see in the photos and video on TeacherTube.com

Then we headed over to the Kawagoshi Historic Road/Shimada City museum, where they had on display original items of the Edo period (when was that students?). I had asked if everything was original and they told us yes - the government does not allow replicas inside museums. This particular museum had items related to the Oi river crossing and the process people went through to cross this particular river. We also walked through remnants of the original town. You can find out more about this bridge and other Shizouka places at http://www.pref.shizuoka.jp/a_foreign/english/no1/index.html

We proceeded, by bus, up a long winding road to a Tea museum, where we learned about all the kinds of tea in the world. What country did tea originate? (it is not Japan). Shizouka is also Japan's largest green tea producing area in Japan. It can take up to 5 years for a tea tree/bush to be ready to pick after it is planted. Much of the work today is done by machine and they have mono rail to bring this machine up the mountain side. If it is too steep, people still have to carry it. In this area are also scattered rice fields, which were out to dry this time of year. Here is a photo. Surrounding these fields are fans that circulate the air to prevent freezing/frost...wow! See them in the photo below.

After the museum, we ate in the adjoining restaurant, with a view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. I was a bit hazy, so Fuji-san wasn't very clear. But you could see it, which made for a great view! This was a great meal, we ate raw tuna and some other fish I have no idea what it was, miso soup, vegetable tempura, dinner custard, soba noodles, rice, a red bean paste bun followed by green tea. Yes, I ate everything, including the raw tuna (but only tasted the white fish, it was real rubbery) I have photos to prove it! These photos are before, during, and after lunch.

After (Jeff, the fish is gone :) )

Enjoying the locally grown green tea - a customary after dinner drink here in Japan. For more on green tea go to http://www.maruichi-jp.com/e_index.htm

Then, if that wasn't enough to keep us busy, we traveled to observe the artifical turf. It was actually cool to see - I will have photos and explanations on the photo link.

After...yes, there is more in this day! We met with members of the local Parent Teacher Association after 30 minutes of introductions. Introductions are very formal and long here.
It appears that the parents have the same concerns as those in the U.S. and they expressed their jealousy over many of our automated grading systems (run by computers and internet). We told them there are good and bad sides to this ;) One question they asked that struck me is the belief that U.S. schools are violent. As was the case with most questions we answered, we always had to preface it with "each school in the U.S. is different from one another" - we represent 20 states from the U.S. in my group. There was discussion about "crammies" (look it up students :) ) and the role it plays today in the competitve school atomospehre. I have seen what testing has done to this culture...everything, and I mean every aspect of a student's life is dedicated to passing the exams to get into good schools. When, and if, you go to college, you go directly into your major area of study, there is no 2 years of general education classes in Japan (except for one private school - ICU, International Christian University).

One more thing before I got back to the hotel. We proceeded to the Obi Street/Suzubishi Kimono store. Shimada has an Obi festival and parade once every three years. (see http://east-asian-cultural-events.suite101.com/article.cfm/shimada_obi_festival ) It was held in town this year, just last weekend. The town has about 97,000 people and an additional 167,000 people came to the festival! The store owner is a long time and close friend to one of our guides, and we went to his famous Obi and Kimono store. He allowed us to try on wedding Kimonos, to which one female guide raised her eyebrows and gasped....evidently this is a very famous place and even for her this was incredibly special. So, I tried on an orange one, that is hand stitched. It was quite heavy, and it didn't include the Obi ( yes, students, find out what an Obi is). Oh, by the way, the wedding hairstyle, called the Mage, originated here in Shimada as well. Try to find a photo of a Mage. There was one obi, not for sale, but it was just beautiful - and made out of pure gold threading...the owner told us it was priceless. Anyway, here I am in my orange wedding Kimono. It costs about 100,000 American dollars, if I remember - it could be more. On the first floor were items for sale. Since I could not afford a kimono such as this, I opted for the fabric remants, which where more in my price range ;)

I decided after this point (our days start at 8 and go non-stop to about 6 pm), I was going to the local grocery store to eat dinner. Sushi to go is incredibly cheap here, and I am sure those of you who love it would like to know that a box of about 8 pieces, with rice is $3. I bought green tea ice cream, which has a much stronger flavor than in the U.S., a chocolate bar, and these potato things...not sure what it is called, and vitamin water. There was acerola water this morning, which I believe is cherry juice...it was tasty.

It is 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night and I need to get to bed. What time is it there? - students, I am 14 hours ahead of you.

Take care, kw

Student assignment

Hey there, something for you to do and keep track of for me. It is called the ABCs of culture. Here is what you do:

For each of the letters below, describe some aspect of Japanese Culture that I have blogged about so far or that you can see in photos (or researched on the internet).

I will upload a worksheet into the Google Groups this evening that you can print out and put your answers on.

ALSO, email me with a class question you would like me to answer about Japan. Please limit the class question to a max of 3 questions per class, that way I can try to answer all of them. Mr. Christensen can then email me those questions to my hotmail account, which he only has the address to ;)

Please keep in mind there are two types of cultures you can find in Japan - a traditional culture and a contemporary culture.

A is for appearance, such as clothes, hairstyles, jewlery, shoes

B is for beliefs, such as religion or traditions

C is for communication - how do people move their ideas and conversations from one place to another? What languages do people use?

D is for dates - what special dates do people celebrate? Think of holidays and so on.

E is for entertainment - what do people do for fun?

F is for food - what kind of food do people eat? Where does it come from?

G is for government - how is the government set up in Japan?

H is for housing - what are the houses and other structures made out of? What do they look like inside and out?

J is for jobs - what kinds of jobs can be found in Japan?


Your task is to look at that worksheet and find out what the letter I and letter K and L are for (that is how I can get you to that worksheet) ;)

Japanese Commercials

Can you figure out what each commercial is for? I recorded this from my hotel TV.

Fish Anyone? Day 3

*a bit behind, but will catch up-reminder, this is also written for students, so I leave out some details in order that they can find out :)*

On the third day I got up at 3 a.m. with no problem. Still working on U.S. time schedule :). I actually had somewhere to go...the fish market. No, I didn't have to buy fish, I just wanted to look at the fish! It is an actual place of work, that is incredibly busy. You have to watch out as you may get run over by the little trucks! It was quite the rush, and will be hard to describe the actualy feeling I had just watching and getting to different areas without getting killed...I am not joking there either.

Many restaurant owners comes to buy fish for sushi and other recipies here; there is a frozen tuna and fresh tuna auction that is just incredible to watch! There is an area we came across where the market "middle men" hang out, you could tell who they are as they wore blue hats. We approached one and I asked him in my limited Japanese where the tuna auction was. After he kindly told us, I properly presented to him my meshi - or business card.

In Japan, the business card is taken very seriously; it is seen as giving someone a bit of yourself, that is the best way I can put it. There is also a strong sense in this culture that things must balance eachother out. This is called "wa" or harmony. So when you present someone with a business card, for the most part that person will feel obliged to give something back in return...it may be right away or in the future. This prevents a disruption of the "wa".

So, after I gave this market middle man my business card (he spoke great English by the way), he looked at his watch and said "I will take you there". As we went, he told us we had some time, and he was going to give us a personal tour of some areas. Everywhere we went, he described the different fish/seafood and where it came from. We would have never known without him. I have posted photos of these sea creatures in the photos link, with a description of where it came from. Students: this fish market is a great place for the study of the Movement theme of geography!

After the exciting fish market, we stopped at a shrine dedicated to the Fishermen. Shrines have many items with special meanings. For example, when you walk into a shrine, you encounter two guarding statues. One of the statues has its mouth open, the other its mouth closed. This is to represent the sound "aahhhh" and "mmmmm" - in Japanese, these sounds translate into the meanings of beginning and end, or Alpha and Omega.

There is also a bell you ring to awaken the kami - shinto spirits that inhabit things in nature, like animals or rocks. Before you ring the bell, you toss in some money, ring the bell, and clap twice. It has been fun to watch people do this.

The rest of the day was spent learning about the government of Japan, which is called the Diet. We were honored to be visited by the first female member of the Lower House, Kuniko Inoguchi and the Senior member of the LDP, Yuji Tsushima. The LDP was the leading political party who just lost the majority of seats in the House of Councillors (upper house). Here is a link to the article talking about the historic loss of the LDP and its "one party rule" http://www.newsweek.com/id/43375 By the way, Yuji Tsushima is considered to be in the running for Prime Minister in the future. When these two walked in, we were told to make no noise, as it is incredibly rude to do otherwise. You could have heard a pin drop and many Japanese bowed very low. The lower you bow, the more honor you give someone who is considered to be in a higher position in life than you.

We also talked about the economy today. Takahir Miyao, a professor at the International Univeristy of Japan, spoke to us about Japan's economic role in Asia and the world. One topic was the world's view about who is number 2 in GDP (student's figure out what that means)...is it China or Japan. The western view is that China is second in GDP, but Mr. Miyao showed us another view of economics that had Japan as second in GDP. He talked to us about "burger economics" which can be found here: http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/03/11/pakko.pdf or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgernomics

Finally, at night some of us took the subway to Harajuku - a place where the kids hang out and wear very cool, stylish, and sometimes outrageous clothes and hairstyles. We again ate at a noodle bar and went to takesita street http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3006.html . There are many shops that cater to the small sizes of people in Japan, as well as shoes and purse shops. It appears that metropolitan Japanese are fashion-conscience. Also, it is very common to see women in 4 inch high heels! My feet would hurt!

Please see my photos for more descriptions of my trip. Again, I mentioned the students to make a power point...all you have to do is right click on the images and do a "save as" paste to word and save as a jpeg - that should work. If not, ask your teacher. More to come...make sure to check the archives for past blogs!

Konbanwa....kw




Here is the official website for the Tsukiji Fish market http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/tukiji_e.htm

Video of fish market (movement theme)

Day 2 - Touring

Well, day two was spent in a nice chartered bus touring the City of Tokyo. We went to the Diet building, which is similar to the Congress buildings in the U.S. There were all kinds of school groups there. Again, I will put in photos once I get that working :). One of the students, about 9 years old asked us if we ate sushi and one lady in our group said yes and they raised their eyebrows, gasped, laughed and clapped - a look of surprise and amusement...perhaps they believe Americans don't eat sushi?

Again, in all the buildings, it was very quiet. After the Diet we went to Akasaka for a traditional tempura lunch. We were told the Japanese usually eat their lunch in three minutes, so as teachers this wouldn't be anything new :). Akasak has a temple and shrine. Temples are Buddhist places of worship, while shrines are Shinto. At the temple, there was a large cauldron emitting nice smelling incense - you are to wave the smoke to your ailing parts of your body - a Buddhist religious ritual. As I was standing there, a male and two females came up, and the male took the smoke and rubbed his head, said something I couldn't understand, and the two women giggled. I laughed too as it was funny how he smiled and then it dawned on me...he was wishing for hair as he was bald...to confirm this, I took my hair and waved it; the females nodded yes. Ahh, the power of body language when you can't speak the native language.

On the path between the temple and shrine at Asakusa is a shopping area, again lots of crowds, but very quiet. You can certainly tell what groups are American, we are very loud in public compared to Japanese "standards". I found a nice paper goods store and purchased some things. In the U.S., when you buy something, it is just tossed into a bag and off you go. Here it is carefully wrapped; I would compare it to gift-wrapping presents back home. Can you imagine buying something from a store, and it was wrapped to make it look like a present?

At lunch, we ate on tatami floors and had to take our shoes off before entering the eating area. I had to move around quite a bit, as my legs would fall asleep from being crossed. Tempura was served with Green Tea, rice, radish, miso soup, and water. There were warm packets that when you opened it, there was a nice washcloth inside to clean yourself Before you eat. Students: you need to find out what a tatami floor, tempura and miso soup are and why there was a side of grated radish. Also, why the green tea? Yes, I ate with chopsticks...one teacher from Texas brought her own chopstick adaptor to help out. Find out what those are like :)

When we returned to the hotel we were treated to an English translation of Kyogen theater...yes students, you need to find out what Kyogen is by researching it on the internet and looking around Google groups (if I can get the video of Kyogen up and running). This was very entertaining and comical! Don Kenny is the master of translating original Kyogen into English, so you may want to look him up.

Finally, we had a welcome reception for dinner. The food was glorious! One thing I noted today is how ceremonious the Japanese are. In the U.S. welcome speeches are, for the most part, short. Here the "introduction" goes on, and on, and on....it is rude and offensive otherwise. This culture is very much aware of social ranking and it is expected that others honor the tradition of bowing the right way, addressing the person with the correct level of title (called honorific). So, being it was the real first full day in Tokyo, we had to be patient. After the toast, everyone says "kampai". Then you could eat...the welcome took approximately 1 hour :). I mingled with other teachers and Japanese nationals for about 15 minutes and just had to get to bed because the next morning I was getting up at 3 a.m. to go see the Tsukiji Fish Market!

Your Sensei,
KW

Phrase of the day:
Konbanwa. Westgard, Kerri des, no Minnesota

Busy Day 1

They have sure kept us busy here, with very little time to get on the internet!

Well, the flight was incredibly long, and believe it or not, I could only sleep for 1 hour.

The first night after settling into our hotel, we were broken up into groups of three to four to go out to dinner with a local college student who spoke english. Our "leader" was Hanamae, and she had just gotten back to Tokyo from Oregon State.

We ended up at this cool little noodle bar for dinner. It was very different as you didn't order through a waitress, but through a vending machine! The buttons were all Japanese, so Haname helped us. I ended up going for a bowl of soba noodles and pork. After I put my money into the vending machine and pressed the button, a little ticket came out. You give that ticket to the waitress, who then gives it to the cook. Then we went to sit down on these short wooden stools, with no back to them. When the food was ready, it was brought to you. I liked the noodles and soup, but the pork in it was actually about 4 inch around slices - very hard to cut with chopsticks! But after watching Hanamae, I realized you don't have to cut the pork, you just bring it up to your mouth and bite off a piece! Another thing I noticed the first night were all the business men coming home from work in their black suits...everyone in black suits! It is the "official" uniform of the white collar worker here in Japan. As these men sat at the noodle bar, we walked in and all I could here was this hissing noise - it ended up being the Japanese slurping their soup and noodles. This is not considered bad manners here in Nippon.

After that first dinner we headed back to the hotel, upon our arrival, I wanted our little dinner group to take a photo in front of the hotel with Tokyo tower in the background. So I asked a group of Asian men if they would take our photo, and they kindly did. Feeling rather bold at this moment I used my first Japanese phrase to thank them "Domo arigato". They all started laughing uncontrollably at me! I couldn't believe it!! Did I not pronounce it correctly? I was going by that 80s song lyric that says "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto" as a guide. I asked Hanamae if I said it incorrectly and was that why they were laughing at me. She told me I said it perfectly, it was just that those men who took our picture were Korean.

Wow. That so far has made the greatest impact on me with this trip. For all the years I have taught geography, and on the topic of talking about different Asian countries, I have always wanted the students to completely understand that each country is very different from other countries, and even different within one country. Often I would hear from students something to the following:
Me: Can you tell me something about Japan?
Student: They have the Great Wall of China.
Me: Sorry, that would be in China :)
Student: Well, same difference.

That line "same difference" ALWAYS bothers me, and I try to explain to the students there are indeed differences...it is almost a campaign of mine to create a more sensitive cultural awareness in our students. We can look at these differences from the U.S. perspective through our textbooks and teachers at one level. Even though I am constantly conscious of this while teaching in the classroom, to be immersed into a culture where I can not tell the differences between nationalities, (as I am not exposed to this on a daily basis in the Upper Midwest) and regardless of my own cultural , "awareness" I unconciously did exactly what I have been teaching my students for YEARS not to do....unconciously or conciously think that every Asian I see in Japan is Japanese. This has made it very difficult to communicate in a language I barely know. Another example, and I will leave this topic. I did the exact same thing in the hotel elevator in Tokyo to someone who appeared to be of European/USA descent...I started rambling off in English about how great Tokyo is and asked them what they are doing here while in Japan. After looking at the person for a while, he shook his head no and said something to the effect of I don't speak English and "Sprechen zie Duetsch".

Some other things I have noticed and that surprises me:
* It is incredibly quiet everywhere you go-subways, restaurants, stores, tourist attractions. The Japanese are a soft-spoken culture, it is eerie almost. You get to a similar situation in NYC and it is incredibly LOUD!
*It is not culturally acceptable to eat or drink while walking around outside, but there are vending machines for everything imaginable, outside, about every block!
*You can watch groups of Japanese and figure out who the "head" person is by how low everyone bows to eachother.
*The Japanese are a very polite and curteous society, and their actions show how humble they are on the outside to other people.
*Everything is incredibly expensive!

As I said before, I am trying to get the pictures off my camera onto the computer and will add them ASAP from the 4G memory card. I ended up buying a new card last night, and that seems to work, so I will have a few phots of my hotel room on the Google Groups and here. I have two more days to catch up for blogging and hope to get that done later today. I am off to Nikko for a short day trip tomorrow - our only free day.

KW

Phew

Wow! Last couple of days have been just full!



Got into Tokyo around 7 p.m. Tuesday night after about 10 hours of flying. I left Monday, so students, how did that happen?

San Francisco

Wow...only one day and it has been quite full! Am trying to figure out how to download my photos/videos from the video card, and once I do, I will have some pix up. Flew over what I believed to be the Salt Flats of Utah....very dry and white!

Once we were finished with our orientation at the hotel, they brisked us away to the Consul General's house for dinner. The bus ride (as you will see on the video) was ok, until we got into San Francisco proper. Being from the flat, horizontal plains of the midwest, going up the street felt like the roller coaster ride when the car goes "click...click...click" on the way up. Gravity pulling you into the back of the seat as you ascended...I was in a complete anticipation mode, waiting for the top ready to go down fast. Try to imagine that sensation in a bus, and you will know what it is like. It was great to see the mountains and the fog slowly rolling in off the coast, which apparently happens every night. I also saw the Golden Gate bridge at night, but it surprised me because there are hardly any lights on it to show the "outline" of the top part of the bridge...just street lights lining the road.

Cable cars! There are wires all over, above the streets for these transportation devices. To me it looks "cluttered" with wires for cable cars and street lights above

So, what did I eat? Well, Japanese food of course, including sushi and shashimi...I stuck with the tuna roll- but they did have raw beef and pork, lightly seared....ewwwww! But the servers were in tuxes and white gloves...a couple of them looked exactly like California surfers...all suntanned, bleached out, wind blown hair. Like serving us at the Consualte was their night job, as they could have been surfing during the day. Hey students...find out if they surf around San Fransico for me, ok?

I have met people from all over the U.S. already from all walks of life, one of the more interesting was a gentleman who has lived and taught school on the Pine Ridge Reservation in SD. In Denver, all the midwesterners converged to catch a flight to the west coast...people from ND, SD, NE, OK, IA, MO. The accents were obvious from the different states, and only 3 people said "I love that movie"...when they heard I was from Fargo. LOL.

I got information about who my host family is. It is an older family - the parents in their mid-fifties with 3 kids, 2 at home ages 24 and 26, and a 28 year old who lives in Osaka. The momma-san likes to garden, papa-san likes to fish, one boy likes baseball, the other girl at home karaoke. They didn't tell me if they speak English or not...hopefully they will a little :).

Well, I am going to pack it up for now as the buses are coming to bring us to the airport. If someone out there wants to make a power point movie of my stories and photos (once I get those downloaded) go right ahead. I have provided lots of information in just this one blog that you could map out things like where I have been, where other people have been, or answer the question I posed to you a few paragraphs above!

Well, I will be on the longest flight of my life to date- approximately 10 hours!! I am lucky to have this opportunity, and will get the pictures up ASAP!

Later,
KW

27 days and counting....

Here is where I will be posting my adventures in Japan October 14-November 1, 2007. This site will include daily ramblings with a geographic edge, as well as photos and links to videos posted on YouTube.

I have decided to take my laptop along, a difficult decision, but it will allow me to work in the evenings with what appears to be free wireless in the majority of places we will be staying.

So until then...sayonara

k