Sayonara Nippon

I am sitting in Narita Airport, an hour outside of Tokyo, with the constant reminder "End of the walk is ahead. Please watch your step." droning on from the speakers connected to the moving sidewalks as I write this entry. Wireless internet access is available for 500 yen a day. How delightful! There are still a couple of hours to go before my flight is ready for boarding, so now they will zip by as I write an entry for this blog and surf the internet.

My trip is almost over and I am eager to get home to share what I've experienced and learned with whomever will listen. (Dear students, sorry, but you are a captive audience and have no choice but to listen to me talk about Japan and its culture. I will try to make it really interesting and fun for you). Every day has been packed with multiple activities and things new to me. During my last few days in Shiogama, I stayed with a host family for a weekend, visited two fish markets and a fish processing plant. At my host family's house, I ate traditional Japanese fare at a low table while sitting on the floor and slept on a futon spread out on a tatami mat covered floor. Visiting the fish markets and processing plants might not sound like fun, but it was terrific. Shiogama's wholesale fishmarket is the world's largest dealer in fresh tuna. When we toured the facility a tuna catch was being unloaded. Hundreds of large silvery fish bodies lined the cement floors of the dock area. At the processing plant, we washed up and donned white coats, surgical masks, hats and really cool shiny white wellington boots in order to enter the food processing assembly lines. Seeing all my colleagues masked and dressed like that gave me a barely controlled case of the giggles.

After we left Shiogama, we stopped for a very relaxing night at a traditional Japanese spa called a ryokon. There we were treated to hotspring baths and a ten course dinner. Then, we headed back to Tokyo and the ten groups of twenty educators gave closing presentations about their experiences in the different regions of Japan and we attended a farewell buffet which include a great judo display.

Today, I checked out of the hotel and visited one last Shinto shrine in order to add one more stamp to my book. This place, called the Hie Shrine, was a few minutes walk from the hotel right in central Tokyo. The entrace was marked with a torii at street level, but the complex was actually situated high on a hill, which was accessed by climbing a few dozen of steps. The stairs were flanked by closely spaced bamboo poles painted orange-red. These were draped with red banners painted with black calligraphic characters. It was pretty magical. Then, I caught a bus to the airport and here I sit, waiting to start the second leg of a long journey home. I'll see many of you soon and as always, thanks for your comments and encouragment while I've been away.

More Fun School Visits

This is a picture taken at the Shiogama Girls High School during their afternoon clubs period. Students stay as late as eight o'clock pm to take part in a rich assortment of club activities. Actually, they are not allowed to take on part time jobs, because that would interfere with their club activities. These are taken very seriously and allow the students the opportunity to develop mastery in athletic and cultural endeavors such as archery, tennis,softball, kendo, calligraphy, band, orchestra, koto, and judo.

We spent today at the all girl's high school and yesterday at a middle school, which had both girls and boys enrolled. Both groups of students were lively and inquisitive, although a number of students- especially the girls in the middle school seemed reserved and shy. We were treated like superstars. The kids cheered us in and out of their campuses and in between our comings and goings we went on building tours, listened to lectures, observed classes, ate Japanese style school lunches (yum!), played games, and asked and answered all sorts of questions. The students at the middle school performed the most amazing traditional drumming, along with a wonderful folk-dance native to Shiogama and a great brass band version of the Star Spangled Banner! At the high school, we were welcome by a beautiful choral performance and whole school assembly. Later, after observing classes, we participated in a tea ceremony and watched a koto (traditional japanese harp) performance along with so many other things it's making my head spin.

It's been great. Visiting the schools and interacting with the students and teachers has been invigorating and, to put it simply, a whole lot of fun. We were all a bit sad about today marking the last of our school visits, but excited about meeting our host families tomorrow. They are coming to pick us up for our home stays over the weekend. I've got to go finish my wash (at 300 yen a load) and pack my bags in preparation for check out tomorrow morning at 9:30am. Oyasumi nasai. (Good night).

Shiogama Daiichi Elementary School

We spent the day at Shiogama Daiichi Elementary School. We walked to the school from the hotel, passing a small Shinto shrine tucked between modern storefronts and residential buildings. This shrine houses a large salt cauldron. "Shiogama" means salt cauldron and one of its most important industries in earlier times was the manufacturing of seasalt. Once at the school, we greeted the students as they arrived. They played in the school yard until the first bell rang. Then, we were greeted formally by the students at an all school assembly after which we met with the principal, vice principal and two head teachers. They explained the school's philosophy and answered some questions we had. After that meeting, we observed individual classes. I was paired with a first grade class, which was joyfully rehearsing a play about how vegetables grow. "Please, Mr. Mole, don't eat the vegetables growing under ground," was one line from a complex drama that was at once a science lesson and morality play. Following the rehearsal, I explored the school on my own until it was time for lunch.

Japanese children and teaching staff remove their shoes upon entering the building. They wear either slippers or "indoor shoes" which are never worn outside. In elementary school, the homeroom teacher teaches all the subjects and the class eats lunch in the classroom. I was fortunate to be invited back to the first grade class I had observed earlier for lunch. The students helped prepare the food. It was excellent. We had homemade vegetable soup, saury fish, rice, milk, and a wedge of a persimmon. Once the period was over, the children brushed their teeth and thoroughly cleaned the classroom.

In the afternoon, I observed drawing, math, writing and drama lessons. The students were eager to participate in the classroom activities and they were very friendly towards us. I was quite amazed by the self discipline of the students. Even though there was a lot of noise and movement at times, the children completed the tasks assigned them and came to order when the teacher called for it.

It was great to spend time with the these beautiful, joyful and friendly children and to have the opportunity to observe how a typical Japanese elementary school is run. Tomorrow we visit a middle school. Stay posted.

Meeting the Mayor

Aren't they cute? This picture was taken from the bus as we rode from Shiogama to Sendai for a meeting with the president and faculty of Miyagi University of Education. Before this meeting, we had an audience with the mayor of Shiogama and the superintendent of schools. During these sessions we asked questions and gave answers on both sides of the table. We learned about Shiogama's major industries: fishing and tourism and about the ways public schooling is structured here. Classes are much bigger with an average of 35 students (and a cap of forty), and there is no formal literacy training in kindergarten. Children in kindergarten spend their time learning to play games, singing songs, exploring their environment and making art. But expectations are high for Japanese students. Japan's literacy rate is about 99.9%. It is considered a great shame not to read and write. Elementary classroom teachers teach all subjects including art, music, and P.E. All schools in Miyagi are required to have a school librarian. Students move from each grade level according to age. No one is allowed to skip a grade or be held back. And, high school is not mandatory. Even so, most students do attend high school, paying an average of $100.00 a month on top of the cost of their books and other supplies. Entrance exams to colleges are very rigorous and many students attend "cram" schools to help prepare for the tests. The pressures on the students are great and increasing numbers of them are having difficulty coping with the pressure. Many of the speeches and presentations we have attended over the course of this week have touched on this subject and the government's desire to foster a solution to the problem.

Touring Tohoku

Drop your money in a bin, ring the bell, bow once, bow twice, clap once, clap twice, bow once again and make your wish. That’s Shinto style prayer. I wished for- surprise- prosperity at the Shiogama Shinto shrine this morning as we started our first official day in our prefecture. From the shrine, we traveled on a bus to the Zuiganji Buddhist temple complex in Matsushima where we took our shoes off and toured the 400-year-old national treasure and adjacent museum. Then, we took a boat ride across scenic Matsushima bay back to Shiogama and walked through the “Marine Gate,” a terminal full of concessions and restaurants, on the way back to our bus which was set to take us to the Tohoku History Museum. (Tohoku is the north eastern region of Honshu, the main island of Japan, where I am staying.) There, we had lunch, listened to a speech by the head curator and toured the museum, which includes an actual Edo period farmhouse. We saw artifacts from the prehistoric Jomon period on through recent times. Then, we went back to the Grand Palace hoteru (hotel) for a bit of a rest before heading out for dinner. And what was that, but more SUSHI. (Breakfast was fish, rice, fermented beans, and seaweed.)

I am having lots of fun and learning bunches of stuff. Wish I could spend more time at the temples and shrines. Wait 'till you see my "temple stamp book"! At each shrine or temple I visit, a special seal is stamped and hand painted into a blank accordian book, which I purchased at Kamakura. It's really beautiful, like so many things here.

Shiogama

I need to play a bit of catch up with this blog. Yesterday, I rode the JR (Japanese Rail) to Kamakura (a city south of Tokyo) to see a really big sculpture of the Buddha and I checked out an area of Tokyo called Nippori in search of an alternative art space called "SCAI The Bathhouse". Details to follow another day, now I want to move on to today's events.
After a terrific breakfast in the "Top of the Tower" restaurant (complete with a panoramic view of Tokyo and Mt. Fuji), I quickly checked out of the hotel, ran a few blocks to a Citibank branch to get some yen from the ATM, hopped on a bus to the train station, boarded the Shinkansen (aka "bullet train") and settled back for a 160 mile and hour ride to Sendai, the 12th largest city in Japan, where we picked up the bus that took us to our host city of Shiogama. Whew!

Upon checking in at the "Grand Palace" hotel, I rested for a few minutes until it was time to meet with the other members of my group for a walking tour of the town. When I got to the lobby of the hotel, I was greeted by my host couple Satoko and Mitsuaki ("Mickey") Numata. I was surprised (but delighted) to see them because I didn't expect to meet them until Saturday. They led me on a private tour of the city. Then Mickey left to pick up a softball glove and Satoko and I visited a couple of shops owned by friends. The picture posted with this entry is of Satoko and her girlfriend in the fishing gear shop she owns. We had a great time laughing and sharing stories.

Later, we had dinner at a Jaanese restaurant. We took our shoes off, walked up one step and sat on red cushions laid out on a tatami mat around low tables. I had this really interesting custard dish with seafood and mushrooms, along with sushi, miso soup, cooked meats and veggies. We are now twenty, rather than two hundred, and this dinner allowed us to get to know each other better. There are teachers from all over the country in my group- Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Montana, Colorado, California, Oregon, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Virginia and more! It's wonderful to share stories and ideas about how to incorporate this experience back into the classroom.

That's all for now.

Fish Market, Peace Studies and Art

Today I woke up a bit before 4:00am. That’s even earlier than yesterday! I got dressed and traveled the long quiet way to the main lobby of the New Otani hotel in search of a pay phone. If it is 4:00am Tokyo time it’s 3:00pm the day before Eastern Standard Time. I’ve learned this trick to tell the time back home: first, change the am to pm (or the other way around) and then subtract an hour. If you are going am to pm, it’s a day later in Tokyo. If you are going from pm to am, it’s the same day in both places. Got it? Anyway, I had purchased a phone card yesterday and was eager to make a call home. It was really good to talk to my other half, Bobby Lee.

The call was cut short because a group of teachers was gathering in the lobby for a trip to the fish market and auction and I wanted to join them. We broke ourselves down into groups of four and squeezed in into small cabs. Colored lights reflected off the wet pavement as we drove away from the hotel into the darkness of the predawn morning. Ten minutes later we poured out of the taxis and proceeded into a hustling and bustling whirl of activity. There were hundreds of stalls, tons of trucks, carts, people and umbrellas- not to mention the fish, so much, so many types, so big, so small. After touring the fish market, I left the group and started exploring the city on my own eventually making my way back to the hotel via the subway- an adventure in its self.

After breakfast, I attended a workshop on peace studies. In 1945, Japan and the United States were at war and the U.S. dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, we were privileged to listen to the stories of an eighty-nine year old “hibakusha” or atomic bomb survivor and two-second generation children of survivors. I’m going to purchase the video of this talk. I’d love to share the profoundly tragic and yet, potentially redemptive first hand account presented by this very gentle man, Koji Ikeda.

Later in the day, I joined one hundred and twenty teachers for a presentation by Chihiro Tada on art education. Mr. Tada is the director of the Art Education Institute and Toy Museum. He thinks kids should have more opportunities for creative play in school. He led us in a couple of hands on activities that I plan to use when I get back to my own classroom.

We’ve been going nonstop since this trip has started, jumping from planes to planes; planes to busses and busses to cabs and cabs to metro and always the walking, walking and more walking. We’ve been doing so much (I haven’t even talked about yesterday’s temple visit; my tour of the Diet building and the host of other speakers we’ve listened to), it’s hard to believe there is more yet to come, but tomorrow I have my one “free” day to do as I choose and then, Sunday we leave for the heart of the program, our regional stays and school visits. I guess I better get some sleep.

A Little Sleep Does One Good

Ohayo gosaimasu! It's 6:00am and I've been up for an hour. Even though I went to sleep late last night, I woke up before the alarm today. I suppose it’s the excitement of being here. Also, the days are so full of prearranged activities, if I want any time to read, blog, walk around the hotel's garden or what not, I've got to squeeze it in early or late in the day.

Yesterday we listened to a lecture about the state of Japan's primary and secondary students and educational reform in the country. Government officials are concerned about the emotional as well as the academic wellbeing of their students. Japanese students are generally perceived as focused and high achieving in school. While that is often the case, but there are also a number of students who aren't happy at school and are having trouble doing well. Japanese officials are looking for ways to address these issues. They have created new programs such as specialized arts, vocational and remediation schools.
In addition to their concern over the academic achievement of their kids, education ministry officials are disturbed by the high incidents of bullying in middle school and, though low, a rising trend toward bullying in elementary schools. Tsutomu (Tom) Kimura, president of the National Institution for Academic Degrees, who gave this lecture, spoke of the lack of parental guidance and dissolution of strong community ties as probable causes for this situation.

So, our morning was spent pondering some pretty serious stuff, but the afternoon was quite a bit more entertaining. We were privileged to view presentations on the traditional Japanese dramatic arts of kyogen and kobuki. Both were really excellent. Surprisingly, the two experts who spoke on the topics were two Americans who have been living in Japan for decades. It seems most Japanese people view these traditional arts as “old stuff” and don’t follow it much these days.

I was mesmerized and intrigued by the spare, yet hardy humor of kyogen and over the top glamour of kabuki. Now, I really want to go and watch a full production, yesterday’s presentation was just an introduction to these things.

Okay, enough for now. I’ve got to go get ready for breakfast and then another full day. We are taking a bus tour of Tokyo, having lunch at a traditional restaurant and then listening to a lecture on Japan’s economy.

Where has the time gone?

What time is it? What day is it? My computer clock says Wednesday 9:27am, but my hotel clock says 10:25pm. That means the school day is just beginning for you all back home, but I, on the other hand, the other hand on the other side of the earth- I am getting ready for bed. Tomorrow when I wake up it will still be Wednesday in Alexandria, but Thursday in Tokyo. Where has then time gone? What have I been doing?

Orienting myself, or so the organizers of this well planned program say. (It's funny how after so many orientation sessions I feel most disoriented! I'm sure it will all pay off in the end, but right now my head is swirling and every thing is a blur. I am so tired I can hardly type this out, but I wanted to post something to let readers know that I made it across safely and am already experiencing a ton of new things such as the fact that people drive and walk on the left here. (I keep having close calls, almost colliding with people in hallways, stairwells and the street because of my American habit of moving to the right in order to move out of someone's way.) I will write about more soon, but now I must go to bed.

Sayonara.