Lone Rock Library

Still Waving, Still Waving

2007-10-31T07:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Are you shocked to see jack-o-lanterns in Japan? I certainly am! Nonetheless, they are everywhere! Even though there is no trick-or-treating here, they like to do a lot of Halloween decorating.

Last weekend, we each stayed with a Japanese family and experienced what everyday life is like for most Japanese families. The first thing my family did when they picked me up was to go to a koto lesson. A koto is a traditional Japanese musical instrument with 13 strings. The woman showing me how to play is blind, but is well-known for her koto playing.

I spent the evening with my host family eating an incredible homemade meal of sushi. They live in a house that is both traditional and modern. Some rooms have tatami mats, made from rice straw, on the floor. Tatami mats are very special and you do not wear shoes or slippers when you walk on them. Tatami rooms are called washitsu and have sliding doors.

I had to remember to take my shoes off before entering their house and put on slippers. When I used the bathroom, I had to take off my house slippers and put on special bathroom slippers! It was a little confusing.

The next day my family took me on a drive all the way around the Sukurajima volcano island. We could see a small cloud of steam and ash over the volcano as we took the ferry over to the island. (After we got back to Tokyo, we discovered that later that afternoon it had spouted off quite a bit of steam and ash.)

My host mother (in the above photo) is a teacher on the other side of Mount Sakurajima (behind us). I have given her some of the cranes you made to give to her students. She was excited to have the photos I had brought of you. She will show them to her class and soon you will be known by many Japanese!

Last night we were back in Tokyo and I walked across the busiest crosswalk in the world. It was crazy, but thrilling to be surrounded by a huge crowd of people.
The Land of the Rising Sun is a beautiful country with a tolerant and sensitive people. We always knew there were many differences between our two cultures, but now we realize there are also many similarities. Our students laugh and joke the same, our teachers work hard and love children the same. A friendship has definitely been started and we have extended our hands (and bows) to one another in a desire to increase our understanding of each other.

There is a tradition in Japan that when you say goodbye you wave until you can’t see each other anymore. We would always hear our group coordinator, Naoko-san, urging us to keep waving as we drove away from a group of Japanese. She would be watching out the window and would be calling to us, “Still waving, still waving, still waving, still waving” and we would wave and wave until we either turned a corner or just couldn’t see our well-wishers anymore. On my last evening in Japan, I will begin to bow deeply and wave long and steady to the kind people and wonderful culture that we have found in this country. During this three week journey we’ve seen, done and learned so much. Even so, we also know there is still more to learn and share – so instead of “Goodbye”, “Mata aimasho” or “we shall meet again” seems more fitting.
Still waving, still waving, still waving, still waving….

A Few Fun Observations

2007-10-26T02:54:00.000-07:00

今日は日本の金曜日である。

Would you like a translation? It says "Today is Friday in Japan." Can you believe it says that? The above letters are called Kongi and there are nearly 2000 of these characters that the Japanese learn. In addition to Kongi, they also learn two other alphabets - Hiragana and Katakana. Both of these alphabets have 46 letters in them.

日本語は非常に堅いようである!

Translation: The Japanese language seems very hard!

Everyone rides bikes which seems like fun. Even in downtown Kagoshima or Tokyo, which are really big cities, people are riding bikes. People in business suits, dresses, school children, young, old - they rides just about everywhere and park them just about anywhere. Yikes! There are fish everywhere. I smell fish in restaurants, on the streets, in the hallways of the hotel. You see fish at every meal served in a million different ways. You taste fish when you least suspect it - like on the pizza I ate tonight. Oh well, I guess if I can't beat 'em, I'll join 'em!

Sidewalks on major streets have these yellow, bumpy ridges on them. They not only help blind people find their way, but they also act like centerlines on roads and help to keep people walking on the correct side of the sidewalk.

Japanese money looks very different from ours. Each one of the paper bills has an important historical person on it. They have two coins with holes in them!

Sometimes when the Japanese translate their language into English it sounds a little funny. This is a sign on the front of a grocery store:

Tomorrow we stay overnight with our host Japanese family. Sunday, we go to a traditional Japanese inn called a ryokan. Monday we fly back to Tokyo. I may not have internet access until Monday, so until then,

さようなら

Goodbye!

Elementary School Visit

2007-10-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

Today we had a delightful day visiting a nearby elementary school. At first the students were shy, but they soon warmed-up to us and were very excited to have us at their school. This is a K-6 school with 550 students.

Here is a photo of the children coming to school. They walk together into the school yard. They all have beautiful leather backpacks. The girls have red and the boys have black ones.

Older students lead groups of younger ones to school.An early morning job done by students: Before classes begin, all students play outside for a short time. The playground has a beautiful nature area with big rocks, trees and a small pond for quiet exploration.

Flowering plants are everywhere and are used for beauty and to keep a connection with nature.

A first grade classroom: Story area in the library:
Some beautiful student artwork:

Working hard:

About mid-morning everybody, including teachers and administrators, participates in cleaning the school. They clean inside and outside.

This girl is cleaning the shoe boxes. Everyone takes off their shoes and puts on slippers before entering the school. The children wear masks during cleaning or if they are sick.

The younger students learned the traditional way of harvesting rice. It took a long time to harvest a few grains of rice.

These two first graders came to pick me up to take me to their classroom for lunch. I was so busy visiting and eating during lunch that I forgot to take pictures. The students are served lunch in their classroom and eat there with their teacher.

After lunch we went outside to play:

We also met with the teachers and administration to learn more about their school. It was a busy, but fun day! Many things reminded me of our school and how much I miss you all!

Kagoshima Gyokuryu Senior High School

2007-10-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

Konnichiwa (Hello), Ohayo gozaimasu (Good Morning),Today we visited one of the best high schools in Kagoshima - Gyokuryu Senior High. This school has a little over 800 students and about 84 teachers. High schools students are very serious about their studies because they must pass difficult exams to get into a university.

This is what most of the classrooms looked like. Instead of carrying backpacks like we do, Japanese high schoolers carry leather briefcases. They use duffle bags to put their sports equipment in.

Here is a classroom with students. Uniforms are worn by all students. Even classrooms have recyling bins. Like junior high and elementary students, these students also help to clean the school.

Do you recognize the books that I found in their library?

Some students take Kendo classes. Kendo is very similar to fencing, but uses bamboo instead of swords. The Kendo class did a fascinating demonstration for us.

We met these high schoolers on the train at about 9:30 at night. Most students get up early to be at school by 7:40, go to school until 4:00, do after school clubs or sports until 6:00 and then do even more activities until 8 or 9:00 at night. And they still have energy to text!!!
Well, no texting for me. I'm ready to hit the hay! Sayonara until next time!

Ishiki Junior High School

2007-10-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 23

Today we visited a public junior high school here in Kagoshima. From start to finish, it was an amazing day.

When we arrived we were greeted with much fanfare. The entire school was lined up outside and the band was playing. We immediately felt like honored guests. We listened to presentations by the school adminstration and then had a tour of the school. This school is a training school for university education students and also gives demonstrations to other area teachers throughout the year. It has 605 students and 44 staff members.

Computer lab: Math class:

English class:
Bulletin board: Before entering the bathrooms the students must step onto the blue (for boys) and pink (for girls) platforms, take off the slippers they are wearing in the school and put on the blue and pink slippers.

Science lab:

The hallway has small wooden tables with potted plants on them as a reminder of the tranquility in beauty. The library - yea!

The librarian is making a banner for the assembly the students are putting on for us.

When coming into the school the students take off their shoes, place them in these cubbies and put on slippers. Notice the umbrella racks - you see these everywhere. You can borrow an umbrella and leave it at the next umbrella rack.
The students were very excited to meet us. They were anxious to try out their English. Kids of all ages always give us the peace sign!

The students had prepared an all-school assembly for us and did skits, judo, karate and traditional Japanese archery, calligraphy and some origami! We sang the national anthems of both of our countries. It was all very, very nice.

Karate demonstraton: Judo demonstration:
Origami:

The students serve lunch to each other in their classroom:
The students and the teachers eat together in their classrooms.At 2:00 every afternoon all students spend 20 minutes cleaning the school. They sweep inside and outside the school, scrub sinks, bathrooms, wipe down the floors, empty the garbage, work in the greenhouse and other janitorial type of jobs. They seem to have a lot of fun doing it.

Then it was time to leave. Once again, they rolled out the red carpet for us. The entire school lined up and as we walked past them we shook hands, gave high fives, and peace signs and all the while the band was playing in the background with great vibrato. It had been an incredible day. I think we all left the school feeling like we had just made 600 new friends.

Kagoshima

2007-10-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

October 21 & 22 – Sunday & Monday

On Sunday, 20 of us left Tokyo and flew to the Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan has 47 prefectures which are very similar to what we call states. The capitol of this prefecture is Kagoshima and it is located at the tip of the island of Kyushu. It has a population around 600,000 and has a subtropical climate (bamboo grows in the forests around here!). I hate to tell you this, but the weather is warm, sunny and gorgeous!

This is Naoka-san - our group coordinator while we are in Kagoshima.
Kagoshima has an interesting history as it was the home of a clan of samurai (the Shimazu) for many centuries. The movie The Last Samurai was based on the true story of the samurai in this region who were resisting western influence. Today we visited the villa of one of the last samurai who lived here. It was beautiful.
Sakurajima is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan and is just across the bay from us. There have been major eruptions in the past and about once a week it will spout steam and enough ash to cover the city. Every year on January 12 the city practices an evacuation plan.

Today we visited Kagoshima University and had interesting talks with university students who are majoring in education. We also met with the Deputy Mayor of Kagoshima and the Superintendent of Kagoshima Board of Education. While at the University we saw some school children on a field trip. They were very excited to see us. All the kids give us peace signs! Here are some kids having fun on a Sunday afternoon.
In front of restaurants you often see plastic examples of their food dishes. At first I thought it was kind of strange, but when I began to look closely at them I discovered that these are a form of art and are really pretty amazing. They also help you to decide what you want to order.

Well, I hope your weather is not too cold...I'll be thinking of you!

October 20, Saturday

2007-10-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Today we had the whole day to explore on our own. Some of us took the subway and went all over Tokyo. Here are some of the sights we saw. These two are called pushers. About 2-3 million people communte by subway into Japan during the week. In order to maximize space on the trains and subways, the government employs pushers who literally push on people as they try to fit into the train so everybody will crowd up and make room for more. Notice their white gloves. Unfortunately, although we rode on some crowded subways, we did not get to experience the fine art of pushing. The subways are very clean and quiet! No one visits during the ride - they sleep, read or daydream.

McDonalds is a universal language. In Tokyo they also have shrimp sandwiches at McDonalds.
The Japanese recycle everything! At McDonalds we had to separate every part of our garbage for recycling. Vending machines are everywhere. Even so, you don't see people in public eating or drinking because they consider it impolite. Maybe that is why you do not see any litter or garbage cans.

Here is a photo from the kabuki theatre performance we saw on Friday. She was acting and there were musicians singing and playing instruments in the background.

A traditional Shinto wedding procession.

A little girl wearing her finest for the wedding.

This a Buddhist lantern festival which is like a Mexican Day of Dead celebration. It was full of dancing, music and processions.

A very cool car about the size of a Volkswagon beetle. Talk to you later!

October 19, Friday

2007-10-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

It was another early morning – many of us met at 5:00 AM to get on the subway to go to a sumo wrestling stable which is where young apprentice sumo wrestlers train. It was really cool to watch these wrestlers practice. Sumo wrestling is a national sport in Japan and these wrestlers are dedicated to the way of life they must lead as a sumo.

Our morning class was Peace Education. We listened to a daughter, Tomoko Yanagi, of a Hiroshima survivor and from a 71 year old man, Keijiro Matsuahima, who was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. Listening to their first hand accounts of how their lives and even their children’s lives have been affected by the bomb was very moving. Matsuahima san was emphatic that what happened in Hiroshima should happen “never again”. Even though what he lived through was horrific, he holds no grudges against the United States and encouraged us and the whole world to learn to live in peace. Yanagi san (san means teacher and is the polite and formal way of addressing someone) talked about Sadako and the thousand cranes. Origami cranes are symbolic of peace and are made by thousands of school children around the world and are sent to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial park every year.

Our afternoon was spent listening to an actor explain and demonstrate another type of traditional Japanese theatre called kabuki.

After our classes ended some of us went to the Tokyo National Museum of Art which had a great exhibit of ancient Japanese art. Mrs. Weatherly will pleased!
The Japanese people have been overwhelmingly kind to us. As we came out of museum, it was pouring rain and a guard saw us without umbrellas. He beckoned us over to him and gave the three of us umbrellas to keep. Everywhere we have been people have exceptionally polite and kind. They have incredibly polite mannerisms that are making a big impression on all of us.

October 18, Thursday

2007-10-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

Thursday, October 18

Early this morning, at 5:00, I met a group of people in the hotel lobby and we ventured out to the local fish market. This market supplies 90% of the fish sold in Tokyo. They eat a lot of fish here, so you know many fish pass through this market. We rode the metro or subway which was a pretty good accomplishment in itself. Luckily, I tagged along with some people who are really great at figuring out the complexities of metro schedules and we had no problems at all.

The fish market is a huge place where they bring in fresh fish of all kinds and either auction or sell them outright. It shows another side of Tokyo that I hadn’t seen yet. This is one of the places where you see a bit of the heart and soul of the average Japanese at work. They work fast and furious filleting fish for sale (if you don’t watch out you will get run over by men driving small vehicles loaded down with fish), bargaining for the best price and then preparing them for shipping to all parts of the world. We saw someone from Ireland at the auction buying tuna that will be shipped to his country by tomorrow. All kinds of fish are sold. We saw enormous blue fin tuna, octopus, eel, oysters, and many others that I did not recognize. The people who work here obviously work hard day in and day out. When I ate fish for breakfast this morning I thought of the hard labor by the many people that it took to bring it to my plate.

Speaking of breakfast, a typical Japanese breakfast is very different from ours. It seems more like what we might eat for lunch or dinner than for breakfast. They offer items such as green salad with cucumber and tomato, a cabbage salad, many kinds of fruit, fish, pickled radishes and cucumbers, bean salad, boiled rice, soup, small cucumber sandwiches. It is very delicious (oishii). I am thankful they also offer coffee which I have desperately needed because of jet lag.

The girls in the above photo were on the subway and on their way to school. They were intently practicing reading English. We saw their handwriting and it was absolutely perfect!

Japan is an epicenter for earthquakes. Right now they are overdue for a large earthquake so they told us what to do if one occurred while we were in our hotel room. Our rooms are equipped with a flashlight and most have helmets. If there is an earthquake we are to take the flashlight, put on the helmet and duck and cover under something solid. Sounds funny to us who are not used to earthquakes, but because they have had big earthquakes in the past, they take it all very seriously.

Just in case you think this trip is all play, it is not. We do excursions into the city on our ‘free’ time – early morning or evening. Our days and many evenings, too, are totally scheduled with seminars or classes on Japanese life. Today we listened to many important Japanese dignitaries speak about the education and government in Japan.

On Sunday I fly with 15 others to Kagoshima which is in the very southern portion of Japan. We will spend a week there visiting schools and we will each stay overnight with a Japanese host family. I still have the cranes and plan to give them to school children in Kagoshima.

Right now, it is 2:00 in the middle of the night in Tokyo and in Montana it is about 11:00 Thursday morning. My body seems to be listening to its own internal clock and not the clock on the wall!

I'm having trouble putting labels or captions with my photos, so you'll have to follow along as best as you can. Sorry about that. Talk to you again soon!

October 17, Wednesday

2007-10-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

I must have had the famous jet lag because even though I hadn’t slept for a day or two I slept for only three hours last night and then was wide awake for the rest of the night and now for the whole day. I’m hoping that tonight I can get some sleep.

This morning my brain was extremely foggy so met a few others in the hotel lobby at 5:00 AM and we went for about a two mile run through downtown Tokyo. The early morning air was cool and humid and it did help to clear my head. Even though Tokyo has 12 million people, the parts that I have seen have been incredibly clean. You do not see garbage anywhere and you frequently see people whose job is to sweep and clean the streets and sidewalks. The city was very quiet with little traffic at this early hour, so it was fun to be out and about.

Today we had orientation meetings in the morning and then we went to The National Diet of Japan which is the House of Representatives of Japan. We had a tour through the enormous building where they meet. There were several large groups of school children on field trips to the Diet Building at the same time. The younger children all had on yellow caps and were so excited to see us. The older students, probably middle school, wore blue school uniforms. It was really fun to see them.

After that we had a wonderful tempura lunch at a local restaurant. We sat on pillows on the floor because the tables are only about a foot tall. It was very comfortable and the food was fantastic! I’m getting really good with chopsticks!

We then walked through a very crowded street market called Asakusa. There were hundreds of small open air shops with people swarming in from all angles. It was very fun to mingle and see the huge variety of people. I loved smelling the incense burning at the end of the market. People would go up to a huge incense burner and gather up smoke in their hands and spread it all over their bodies as an act of cleansing. I did it too! We also visited a Buddhist shrine or temple.

When we got back to the hotel we went to a performance of kyogen which is a traditional Japanese theatre which is performed with usually only two people and uses no props except maybe a fan and sometimes a mask – the actors (very few actresses perform kyogen) don’t even wear makeup. Kyogen is comedy (no one has ever died in a kyogen play) and pays close attention to body movement and voice delivery. It was fun to watch this old art being staged.

In the evening there was a reception for all of us American educators which was attended by many Japanese dignitaries. It was inspiring to hear their speeches about the importance of being immersed in other cultures in order to better understand and appreciate our similarities and differences. Japanese chefs cooked and served some of the most beautiful and delicious food I have ever seen or eaten.

It has been a very busy time, but exciting. Nonetheless, I miss you and will be very happy and glad to see you.

Day Three - Tokyo Arrival

2007-10-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

Day 3 – Tokyo Arrival

Konnichiwa (kon-ni-chi-wa) Hello,

Yesterday was another long day. We left our hotel to go to the San Francisco Airport at 9:45 AM. It didn’t take long to get there, check our luggage and go through security. We had to wait until a little after 1:00 PM to board our plane. Finally, shortly after 2:00 we had take off. There were 100 Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund educators on this plane. 100 had flown out on an earlier flight.

We flew up the west coast of the U.S. and Canada, across the Aleutian Islands and over the Bering Sea. I am still wondering why we did not fly straight over the Pacific Ocean. It seems like that would have been faster, but I’m sure the pilots know a lot more about flying a big airplane than I do. The flight was very smooth – all 11 hours and 5,300 miles of it!

We flew between altitudes of 34,000-37,000 feet and with ground speeds averaging around 510 miles per hour. The outside air temperature at these altitudes was between -41 and -60 degrees Farenheit. Cold!

Although I didn’t have a window seat, I occasionally peaked over a neighbor’s shoulder to see what it was like outside. It was very bright and sunny, but we were above a layer of clouds and couldn’t see anything except interesting poofs of puffball clouds.

We crossed over the international dateline. I think I was expecting daylight to change to nighttime, but there was no visible indication that we had crossed over and lost an entire day. The time change between Montana and Tokyo is 17 hours. So, when you are having breakfast, I’m probably about to go to sleep.

On the flight I read (Three Cups of Tea) and visited with other teachers. There are two other people on this trip from Montana. One is Sue Johnson from Phillipsburg and the other is Brian Suttle from Browning.

After arriving at Narita Airport, we went through customs and the boarded buses that took us to the Prince Hotel in downtown Tokyo. The Japanese have everything precisely scheduled and amazingly enough we arrived at our hotel exactly when they said we would. Five minutes after finding my room we all met downstairs and some volunteer Japanese university students took us in small groups on a short walk to downtown to get something to eat.

Today we have a sightseeing tour around Tokyo and later see a traditional Japanese theater performance.

I haven’t been sleeping much. I’m wide awake right now, but the clock says it is 2 in the morning. Well, I’ll try to get a little sleep before the day truly begins. Talk to you again soon.

Day 2 - San Francisco

2007-10-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, All,
Yesterday (Sunday) I traveled from Missoula to Denver to San Francisco. All the educators in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program arrived at the San Fransisco Sheraton yesterday afternoon. There are teachers here from all fifty states including Hawaii, Alaska and the District of Columbia.

We had meetings all afternoon and then in the evening we went to the Japanese consolate's home in the middle of San Fransisco. The houses and apartments in the city are really, really close together! Very different from what I am used to! The consoluate has a gorgeous home overlooking the San Francisco bay and they served a huge table of beautifully prepared Japanese food. It was delicious, but other than sushi, I have no idea what I ate!

I have cranes in my suitcase...can you see them? I coudn't fit all of them, but I have a good representation of them. They are beautiful!

Today we get on the big airplane that will take us to Tokyo. I miss you all!

Will I Be Ready?

2007-10-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the cranes! Many thanks to Mrs. Minster and her fifth grade students for becoming experts on making cranes and also for teaching others how to do them. It was fun and they will make a great present for a school in Japan. Thank you to everyone who helped make them.

Only two more days before I get on the airplane and fly to San Francisco. There I will meet up with all of the other Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund educators who will be on the trip. On Monday we fly to Tokyo.

Will I be ready? Will I remember my toothbrush? Right now, I'm not so sure...

The Beginning of My Blog.

2007-10-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that I will soon be taking off on a big trip to Japan. I've been busy getting things ready. At school, we've made over 1,000 paper origami cranes that I hope to deliver to a school in Japan. In library classes we've learned about Japan and read Japanese folktales. Mr. Singley has been helping me get this blog going and has helped me get better at working with digital photos. At home, I've been packing my suitcase and taking care of a million details. I've chosen some good books to take along with me to read while I'm in airports and flying for nine hours from San Francisco to Tokyo and on the two hour bus ride to our hotel. So, the countdown has begun and although I'll miss you all, I'm looking forward to a great adventure! Stay tuned!