Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program

200 Teachers from all over the USA converged on the Japanese Consulate General's residence in San Francisco last night for a wonderful reception in honor of the JFMF participants embarking on our trip to Japan. We enjoyed lots of speeches and delicious sushi for dinner. I'm now waiting in the San Francisco airport for our flight to Tokyo. We will fly for 10 hours and cross over the International Date Line so we will arrive tomorrow at 2:30 pm. Japan is 17 hours ahead of Anchorage, Alaska. Really looking forward to getting there and starting all our experiences. Until then, Sayonara!

The 10 hour flight to Narita and 1 1/2 hour bus ride from Narita Airport to Tokyo was grueling but we are here! Our first full day in Tokyo was spent sightseeing, enjoying a tempura lunch and watching a traditional Japanese drama presentation called Kyogen. Our tour buses took us by the Akasaka Palance, Supreme Court buildings, and the Imperial Palace. We went into the Diet (pronounced just like our weight reduction word) which is Japan’s House of Representatives and House of Councillors. Our next stop was the Asakusa district. We enjoyed a tempura lunch at Sansada Restaurant and then had time for shopping in the area as well as exploring the Asakusa Shrine, Senso-ji Temple, incense fire.

After a short rest back at the hotel, we were treated to an example of Kyogen, a traditional drama form of Japan. It is quite different than anything one would see in American or European drama. It is a very simple dramatic form wherein actors use their bodies and intonation of their voices to portray the story and emotions of the characters.

From what I’ve seen, Tokyo is a beautiful, clean and huge city! We will have some time in the evenings the next couple of days to do more exploring, although it does get dark by about 5:30! The streets are very safe even in the evening. Until next time, Sayonara!

I got up very early on Thursday morning to take the subway to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. This is where the fisherman bring their catch to sell to all the shop owners and restaurants in the city. It was wild! We missed the actual auctioning of the fish (that happens around 5 am) but we saw every variety of fish and seafood you could imagine, all while trying to avoid getting run over by vans, motor scooters, bicycles, carts, etc.!

The day was spent in lectures so no pictures there. But, we did go out to the Harjyuku District in the evening. Here we saw lots and lots of young people dressed in very elaborate fashions meeting each other, shopping, eating, etc. I am told that because the homes in Tokyo are so small, people go out a lot to spend their time. We enjoyed eating at a very authentic noodle house. I also bought a kimono which was one of my main shopping objectives of this trip.

I am figuring out the elaborate subway system fairly well. I do better underground figuring out where I am than above ground on the busy streets! The maps and signs are better in the subway, I think, at least for English speakers.

Until tomorrow, Sayonara!

So much has happened since my last entry I hope I can get it straight. Getting to and from our Friday lectures was altered a bit because of a meeting by the Prime Minister, Crown Prince and Princess being held at our hotel. There were lots and lots of dark suits with ear pieces present. I was actually in the lobby at the departure of those dignitaries. It was absolutely silent during their procession! Very different than the way it would have been in the US.

A couple of other teachers and I ventured out to try and find a camera charger at a store called Big Camera in the Shinjuku District. Getting to the area by subway was no problem. We had to ask three different people where the store was. Each time we got a little closer! What jubilation when we actually found it! We celebrated with dinner of tempura and some other stuff we had no idea what it was.

Saturday was our "free day". I chose to go to the top of Tokyo Tower which is very near our hotel and then go to my Kimono Class, Tea Ceremony and Calligraphy Class. I had hoped to see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo Tower but there was a bit of fog in that direction. I'm sure if I had gone up later, I would have seen it as it cleared up to be a very beautiful day. Oh well, it's a lot like trying to see Denali in Alaska. I got lots of pictures of Tokyo from the tower. It really helped give me a sense of how huge this city is.

At noon I took my kimono and obi to the Koomon Cultural Experience Center and had my private lesson on how to put on and wear my kimono. The picture in this entry is using a different obi than the one I have. Mine, I learned, is much too informal for a tea ceremony! I will have to find a book or internet site ("Kimonos for Dummies"?) to help me put on the kimono in the future. It is complicated!

The tea ceremony was very formal, dignified, ritualized, beautiful, and a number of other adjectives. Learning about the philosophy behind every aspect of the ceremony was amazing. The hardest part was sitting on my feet for 90 minutes! I don't know how folks do that for any length of time.

The Calligraphy class was a little later in the afternoon so I went to a big department store called Takashamaya. In the basement is the food department that has an incredible variety and quantity of all sorts of foods. I also visited Maruzan Book Store which has quite a large section of English written books. I was looking for Kimonos for Dummies. Apparently that book does not exist but there are many others about kimono history, etc.

In Calligraphy class, I learned how to write "flower", "peace" and "love" (sort of). Let's just say the Master did not want to keep my attempts to use as examples for future classes! It is a lot harder than it looks.

Today my prefecture group leaves for Tainai, Niigata. We will take the train across to the west side of the island and head a little north. We will stay in Niigata City tonight which is a large city. But then we head for Tainai Park Resort which will be lovely but will have no internet access. I will keep diary entries to post when I get back to Tokyo. During our prefecture visit is when we will go to primary, junior high, senior high and university. We will also meet the mayor of Tainai. I am sure I will have much to report.

Until then, Sayonara.

We traveled by bullet train across Japan from east to west to arrive in Niigata City yesterday. The bullet trains travel on a "magnet cushion" so the ride is very smooth. We were able to see Mt. Fuji to the south in the distance. A lot of the time, the train was in a tunnel so we saw the mountains only rarely. The weather changed drastically from dry, sunny Tokyo to wet, cloudy Niigata. Niigata is on the edge of the Sea of Japan.

Even though it was damp, Ishii San, our amazingly knowledgable tour guide who speaks excellent English, took us for a walking tour through a shopping district and Hakusan Park which has a major Shinto Shrine. While we were visiting the shrine, a " 3 5 7 Ceremony" was occuring. Parents bring their children to the shrine when the kids are 3, 5 or 7 years of age for purification and good luck.

Next door to the shrine is a former merchant's home that is now a tea ceremony house. The staff of Enkikan invited us in to look around and gave a gracious impromptu tour.

This morning we visit Niigata University. In the afternoon, we take our bus to Tainai which I can't even find on the map so it must be small! It is a small community to the south, I am told, near Mt. Yahiko. We will meet with the mayor today. Another full day. Once at the Royal Tainai Park Hotel, we will not have internet access. I may not be able to post again until we get back to Tokyo in a week. At that time, you will have lots to read!

Until then, Sayonara!

We were guests at Niigata University this morning in Niigata City in the Niigata Prefecture (like our states). We met with the President of the university and then had discussion and questions with faculty and students of the School of Education.

Before we left for Tainai City, we had a quick stop at the Sea of Japan. It was a beautiful fall day and the sea was surprisingly warm with very soft sand. Tainai City is about an hour drive from Niigata and the area is full of rice paddies and other agriculture. The rice has already been harvested but there are lots of other fruits and vegetables still in fields. We stopped at a 300+ year old Buddhist Shrine called Oppojii before we arrived in Tainai City.

Our first stop was at the City Government Building where we were to meet with the mayor and other city officials. Imagine our surprised delight when all the city workers cheered and applauded our group as we entered the building! We learned a lot about the small city of Tainai (pop. 30,000) during this visit including the fact that the Royal Tainai Park Hotel where we are staying is owned by the city.

Our arrival at the resort was filled with marvel at the beauty and elegance of the hotel both inside and out. My room not only has two western style beds but also has an alcove that is Japanese style complete with tatami mats, tea table, etc. I can’t imagine that the other 180 teachers scattered about 9 other prefectures could possibly have it as good as we do. We are awed and honored!

Sayonara!

The first thing I did this morning was to go out to the Japanese Baths here at the Tainai Royal Park Hotel. The baths are for soaking after you have washed yourself. The baths here are fed by the hot springs but they don’t smell like sulfur like many of the hot springs I have been in America. The view from the outdoor bath was stunning but sorry, no pictures. I was bathing after all!

We took another trip to the City Government Building, this time to meet with the Superintendent of Schools and the Board of Education. It has become very clear that Japan’s educational system has many of the same sorts of concerns as ours does.

On the way back to the hotel for our reception lunch with our host families, we were delighted to encounter several monkeys eating in the trees and rice paddies. We were like little kids squealing for the bus driver to stop so we could take pictures!

Our reception with our Home Stay Hosts was wonderful. My hostess is Chikako Sato, a 3rd grade teacher who studied opera in Italy during her college years. Talk about a wonderful match! Although she speaks very little English and I speak even less Japanese, we had a delightful time getting to know each other (with help of an interpreter and a lot of charades!) I will stay with her and her parents on Saturday and Sunday with no interpreter but with Japanese/English Dictionaries.

Our final activity of the day was making soba (buckwheat) noodles at a nearby restaurant/noodle factory. We had a very happy two hours doing what the master noodle maker could do in about a quarter of the time! Then we were treated to Udon (soba noodle soup) and tempura. It was a great ending to a very full day.

Until next time...

I know I have gushed and gushed about all my experiences so far in Japan but I don't know how anything can top the day we had today at Nakajo Elementary School. We had to get up very early and leave by 7 am so that we could watch the students arrive to school. They were so excited to see us. The school is very old and has about 650 students 1st through 6th grade. The kids are just as noisy and wiggly as our American students but when they have to work, they work!

The students had an assembly for us in which the principal addressed us and I made a speech on behalf of the JFMF educators. Then the students sang their school song for us. I have a video of it but I don't think I'll post it. It was a long song. We were not allowed to take close up or front facing pictures of the students for privacy reasons. But I took a lot of pictures from the back and sides.

We were allowed to wander freely around the school to observe all the different classes. Each of us were assigned a specific class to have lunch with. The school lunch was fabulous! We had rice, miso soup, salmon, a delicious Japanese salad, and milk. It is all cooked at the school and served to each student in their classroom. The students do all the clean up after lunch and have specific cleaning duties of the whole school each day, too. After lunch, my entourage (about 8 little 1st grade girls hanging on me!) took me to the gym to play a game they call "Kabuki". It was one of the roughest tugging games I have ever experienced! Kids got kicked, hit, pulled, etc. but nobody complained or had to go to the nurse. Imagine!

At the end of the day, my assigned class teacher had me sign off on all of the students daily journals. These children were adorable and joyful.

I've just been given the word we have ten more minutes on the computers so I will upload my pictures and get on with it. I hope to post again in Tokyo.

Sayonara!

I am putting two days together with this post. We visited Kurokawa Junior High School on Thursday. Junior High in Japan is 7th, 8th, and 9th grades, except they call it 1st, 2nd, 3rd for this level. These are the last years of compulsory education in Japan. Most students do go on to senior high school but entrance into specific high schools is very competitive and is based on the scores students receive in their March exams of 9th grade.

Kurokawa Junior High is quite small, about 160 students, because it is in a more rural section of Tainai City area. It is nestled in a beautiful mountain valley and we had lovely weather for our visit. I could not stop looking at the view! The students had an assembly for us and we were asked to prepare a song for them. We sang “What a Wonderful World” then the students sang for us a song that was partially in Japanese and partially in English. It was really touching.

We had less contact with students during classes in the Junior High (and Senior High, too). The students stay in one classroom all day and the various subject teachers come to them. They get a ten-minute break between each class and a fairly long break after lunch as well. We ate lunch with the students and all of us were really amused when the administration put on a “Carpenters” CD from the 70’s! We thought they had put it on because they thought we would like it but actually the students like The Carpenters! Can you imagine the riot that would occur if we did that in an American Middle School cafeteria?

Nakajo High School was our final school visit and all of us were really ready for them to be over. The high school students as a whole were much more like American students in attitude, dress (even though they had uniforms), hairstyles, accessories, etc. We found it amusing that the boys had more elaborate hair than the girls! Our overall impression of this school was that most students didn’t really seem to want to be there. The teachers said quite candidly that this was a very low high school. It is difficult to express my impressions without sounding judgmental and we don’t necessarily know the whole story.

This was our last night at the Royal Tainai Park Hotel. I will miss the great accommodations, restaurant, public baths and beautiful surroundings.

Most of us had at least a little anxiety about staying with a Japanese family for 2 days and 1 night, not knowing how communication would be, etc. And most of us discovered that our fears were unfounded! My time with the Sato family was delightful even though our communication was heavily supported by an electronic Japanese-English dictionary.

The Satos live in neighboring Shibata City. The father, Takeo, is a city councillor; the mother, Toyo, is a dental technician; the daughter, Chikako, is a 3rd grade teacher in Tainai City. A very close friend of theirs, Keiko (also a dental technician) spent most of the 2 days with us. The Satos are a very loving family and they treated me like a queen. They have a lovely Japanese style home with a beautiful garden.

They fed me almost non-stop during the homestay! Others had the very same experience. The families really were honored to have us in their homes. The Satos took me sightseeing to a couple of museums and area landmarks. One of the museums houses a very famous Japanese painting by Koji Fukiya of a Japanese bride - very beautiful. We also saw Shibata Castle but it was too dark for good pictures. A very well known Sake Brewery is in Shibata City, too. I had the experience of eating at a Revolving Sushi Restaurant as well as an Italian restaurant. Toyo is an excellent cook and for dinner we had a veritable feast of miso soup, rice, noodles, chrysanthamum salad, tempura, steak, and much, much more. Breakfast was a lot of the same foods as well as American breakfast foods.

Early on, I gave the Satos what I thought were a lot of presents. Well, I wish I had brought 3 times as much because they never stopped giving me gifts! The generosity was overwhelming and humbling. I ended up with three shopping bags of gifts to carry back to Tokyo on the train! The Satos even made up a photo album for me of our stay together, complete with English captions, and brought it to me at our hotel the next day. I loved my stay with the Satos and have four new friends I really hope to see again.

Now we are back in Tokyo and have two days of seminars, presentations, etc. with time only in the evenings to go out into Tokyo so I don't know how many more pictures or interesting entries I might be able to gather. I will be seeing many of you in a few short days. Thanks so much for taking time to read my tripdiary entries.

Sayonara...Mara