I'm back in Orlando, folks... the wonderful trip is over and after two turbulent plane trips yesterday I made it home to be greeted by Gorgeous Wife and a very giggly and enthusiastic The Baby, who jumped on me and made me carry her around everywhere. After I spend a little family time I'll finish posting... it's just a matter of editing, cutting and pasting from Word. I'd have posted on time, but after we left Kashima city it became a situation of either have-the-time-but-no-internet OR have-the-internet-but-no-time. So tomorrow you can expect the journey to continue with the two secondary school visits, followed by the home stay (my favorite part of the trip), the ryokan, and the return to Tokyo which includes the Studio Ghibli Museum, my trip to Harajuku Street and the final JFMF events (featuring me performing Kyogen Theater on stage in a kimono made of wrapping paper.)
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The Best Day Ever!!
I’m going to skip a few things now so that I can get to the elementary school visit. I’ll summarize briefly, but now that I’m finally spending time in schools I’d rather spend time blogging about that than other touristy things or less interesting parts of the trip. Sorry if you don’t get all the details, but believe me when I say that it will make for a much more interesting blog this way! I am working on an errors and omissions page that will include a lot of impressions, thoughts and photos I’ve left out along the way, and I’ll probably publish that when I get back to Florida. Things I’m skipping for the sake of the blog (and to get caught up):
- Visit to Sake Brewery (quit complaining, that doesn’t belong on an elementary school blog anyway)
Visit to Hariko Handicraft Studio
Meeting with representatives of PTAs from the three schools we’ll be visiting (which was interesting in a talk around the issues sort of way)
Visit to Chiba botanical garden
Visit to Inoh Tadataka museum
Visit to Katori Shrine
Other interesting notes about the JFMF trip outside of Katori… the Miyagi group is still being affected by the aftershocks of the big earthquake in their prefecture… the Yokkiaichi group made it on TV… one of our participants had to go home early because of major forest fire damage to his neighborhood and property (we’re thinking about you, Andy.) No other news from the other groups.
June 18
We had a super early morning today, leaving the hotel before 7am. We wanted to get to Shinshima Elementary School in time to watch the two basketball teams practice and watch the children come to school. We were greeted by the assistant principal and a member of the school board. Kids started coming in before 8am, and they saw us lined up on both sides to greet them and would run away into the school! I guess we were just too scary for them. I tried to take pictures of them, but they were too quick and all I got were backpacks. I went into the gym and watched the girls and boys basketball teams practice on opposite ends of the court. These kids were excellent shooters and defenders. They constantly encouraged each other as well, saying “Nice In!” if the shot went in, and “Don’t Mind!” if the shot didn’t make it. Many of them greeted me as I came in, so I stepped off to the side to be less distracting.
We went into the school, where we had to remove out shoes and put the slippers on. This is a very interesting custom. The soles of the outdoor shoes are not allowed to touch the raised part of the entrance, and must be placed into a shoe cabinet, and you walk around the inside of the school in the clean slippers. I think it has something to do with respect for the school as much as it does cleanliness. At 7:55 I was called over by the principal and AP (assistant principal) to deliver the speech to the entire school. They wanted me to speak through the public address system, so Mikiko-san (our translator) and I got ready for our big moment. A fourth grader and a sixth grader were running the show in the broadcast booth, and they started the morning announcements with a gentle tune which they followed with the reading of a prepared sheet of announcements. Then I was on! I read my speech two sentences at a time with Mikiko-san translating into Japanese during my breaks. Here’s what I said to the school:
Good Morning. My name is Scott Ralph, and I teach fifth grade at Apopka
Elementary School near Orlando, Florida. I am just one member of a group
of teachers from across the United States that is happy and excited to be
visiting Shinshima Elementary School today.
To the school administration and teachers, I would like to say it is truly a pleasure to
observe and make connections with you, our fellow educators. We have had many
opportunities to learn about the government, economics, and culture of Japan,
but today is the day we have been looking forward to the most, the day that we
finally get to spend time in your classrooms to see how you cultivate the young
minds of the future leaders of this beautiful country.
To the students, I would like to say that we are so excited to be able to learn from
you as we watch you solve math problems, create art projects, and conduct
science experiments. Today will be a time for the teachers of American children
to become students also, and we can’t wait to see what you have to teach us.
Thank you all very much for making time for us to spend the day learning and growing with you. We are very humbled by your kindness, and expect that we will all leave this building today as great friends.
As we were walking back to the waiting area, Mikiko-san told me that she was glad that I addressed the children in my speech. I was really happy as well, because as I went to different classrooms, kids that read my nametag knew who I was. That was pretty cool. When I got back to the waiting room, the rest of the teachers clapped for me and told me that they liked what I said. It was very humbling to be complimented by teachers who are at the top of their game like those I’ve been working with these last two weeks.
We were given a brief orientation by the principal and AP of the school, and we learned about the administrative policies and about the history and demographics of the school itself. Shinshima has a staff of 17, with 101 pupils from grades first through sixth. There is only one learning disabled student in what’s called the Dandelion class. At first the teachers were beside themselves over the learning disabled student being referred to as a weed, until the Mikiko explained that when she hears the word “Tampopo” (Japanese for Dandelion) that she thinks of something small and fragile that must be protected. She said that they love Dandelions in Japan, and she was genuinely surprised to hear that Dandelions were regarded as weeds in the US.
As all of this orientation and discussion was going on, I heard the sound of children singing throughout the school building. I think that they were singing the school song. It was beautiful. After they were finished, we were given free reign of the school, allowed to go anywhere we wanted. I made sure to drop by the Dandelion class first because the teacher of that class, Fumiyo Nishio, is my host this weekend and I wanted to greet her more than anyone else. She gave me a very warm greeting and I stayed and watched her teach for a little while. She was working on long division with her student, who happened to be a fourth grader. I moved over to the fourth grade classroom and saw that they too were working on: long division. It looked like the second or third day of the lesson, as there was some work posted on the bulletin board. I loved how the problem wasn’t only solved, but included an explanation and a drawing to prove that the student had a true understanding of the problem's solution.
A word about the student work in general: it was everywhere! There were math solutions posted on bulletin boards, art projects hanging up, calligraphy posted on the outside of the classrooms, poster boards with photos from field trips, compositions, everything you could imagine covered an amazing amount of space in these classrooms. The fire marshal would have been all over this school with his clipboard. I can tell you though, it was a happy little place and all of this work showed it. Plus, there were plants everywhere! More than one classroom had a fish tank full of little tiny swimmers.
I noticed that the students all had a nice little cushion to sit on. One of the kids showed me that when the cover for the cushion was removed, it became a heavy orange head cover to prevent injury from falling debris in the event of an earthquake. Each teacher also had a hard plastic helmet to wear in case of an emergency.
After the first few periods, the students suddenly were running all over the school. No one was hurting each other, but instead they were just playing, talking, drinking water, getting bathroom business done, and building up the courage to greet the American teachers that had invaded their school for the day. The bell rand again a few minutes later and all of the children took off to different areas of the school. From what I could tell, the third and fourth graders went to the gym to practice some type of flag performance, the first and second graders were working with pom-poms in the multipurpose room at the top of the stairs, and the fifth and sixth graders were practicing a music piece in the music room. I watched the older kids play music for a while. There was a drum major, some drummers, and some xylophones, but most of the kids were using some type of handheld instrument where they would blow into a pipe and play a piano style keyboard with one hand. They actually were playing a Beatles song “Ob-la di, ob la da.” One of the teachers in my group found out that they were working on a big performance for the parents and that all of these different components would come together later.
At the end of this period, the assistant principal came and found me and the other teachers, and rounded us up and invited us into the fourth grade classroom again, where the principal was teaching a calligraphy lesson. Simply put, this was one of the most awesome parts of the day. The principal showed the kanji characters for left and right and asked the students for the origins of the characters. Some stood up and gave answers. The principal then pulled out a photograph of an ancient cave drawing of a turtle (which I assumed was from south east Asia somewhere) and showed the children that the symbols for left and right were almost identical to the left and right limbs of the turtle in the drawing. The students kept going “ohhhhhh…” it was truly an aha moment for them, and it was so exciting to see them understand the history of their written language. The principal then taught them the calligraphy strokes for the two Kanji, and the children practiced their calligraphy, making beautiful artwork in the process. I found out after the lesson that the principal has a special degree in calligraphy, and as a master calligrapher he is passing on his art to his students as he teaches them calligraphy every week. Amazing! You just don’t see principals in the classroom teaching very often… I guess that’s one of the many benefits of such a small school.
At lunch time, we were to report to the cafeteria where we would be picked up by kids from the classes we would be visiting. I was picked up by fourth graders, and we walked up to the room together. I sat with a bunch of boys and one girl who had pushed their desks together to make a lunch table. The kids were eating in the classroom with their teacher, just like they did every day. There was no cafeteria in the school. The children had gone down to the kitchen where the food had been made from fresh ingredients, brought the meal for their classroom up in the dumb waiter, pushed the cart to the classroom, put on hair nets and aprons, and made sure that everyone was served and waiting to eat. After the other teachers and I came in and sat down, we all said “Thank You for the Food” in Japanese, bowed, and began to eat lunch. All of the kids ate the school food which was curry pork with a piece of chicken, flat bread, a probiotics yogurt drink, and milk. The food was free to the kids as healthy nutrition is part of the school curriculum. It was awesome, probably the best school meal I’ve ever had. After we were done eating, the kids said “Thank you for the food I ate” sorted all of the trash, milk cartons and metal trays and got everything out of the classroom. They where moving quickly with smiles on their face, and didn’t treat the responsibility of cleaning up from lunch as a chore at all, but rather as a privilege.
After lunch, the kids had recess, which basically meant run all over the place inside and outside of the school. I got trapped by a bunch of little kids that wanted my autograph and business card, so I spent recess honoring these requests. The other teachers wanted to crush my face because all of the children were asking for their business cards because I was giving mine away. It’s not my fault that I brought a box of 250 and they didn’t! I knew the kids would like getting cards, and they truly did: they accepted my cards like little business men and women, bowing and studying the information on the card just like the school’s teachers and administrators had before.
We had the chance to watch the kids clean up their classroom as well, and during this time I took advantage of the opportunity to hunt down Hirayama-sensei, the fifth grade teacher. Mikiko helped me present a partnership with her where we could exchange letters between our classes and possibly do a writing project. We’re going to begin this project on September first, near the beginning of Apopka’s school year and at the beginning of Shinshima’s second semester.
I stopped by later to see the kids in that class during a time designated for their class meeting, and Hirayama-sensei called the class to attention and told them about our partnership. They got so excited about having a class to communicate with in the States. It was very cute! So any Ralphadelphians who are out there reading this blog post, you’d better get ready to make some Japanese friends! Start studying Japanese language right now!! After the announcement, Hirayama-sensei invited me and Christina Vargas (who attended the meeting with me) to join he class for a game called Fruit Basket, where some people were the melons, some were the oranges and some were bananas. I was a banana, so whenever my fruit was called I’d have to run for another chair in the circle. If there were none left, I had to stand in the middle and think of another fruit to get that group up and steal their chair. If someone in the middle yelled “fruit basket” we all had to run for it. It was fun, even though I’m pretty sure I lost.
The rest of the day was a lot of fun, but as usual this blog is getting super long. I will finish by saying that this day has been the one that I have been waiting for on this trip, and that there is nothing else that will be able to top it. I have seen a day at a Japanese elementary school, I’ve connected with teachers and kids, and I’ve had a lot of fun. I wish I could invite all of you to come to wonderful Shinshima Elementary and see it for yourself. It is truly a wonderful place. In fact, as we were leaving, the principal presented each of us with a sheet of student made calligraphy from his lesson and a card with the calligraphy for “love” and “friendship” that he put on it. As we left, all of the teachers were outside the school waving goodbye to us. I wished I could stay for another week or two.
I can’t imagine a day that could possibly top this for the entire rest of the trip! Thanks, Shinshima Elementary School!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Wossamotta Chiba U?
June 15
We arrived at our hotel in Chiba City a little later than expected, and I had two missions that needed to be accomplished. First, I needed to find a coin laundry. I was really getting close to running out of clothes, and my extra piece of luggage was being used solely as a rolling hamper at this point. Secondly, I’d looked at our schedule for the rest of the trip and seen that there would be almost no other time to go to Tokyo DisneySea other than this evening. I made the decision that I was either going to convince people to go with me or I was going on my own, which would have been fine because sometimes I do that on my own at home.
Upon checking in to the Mitsui Garden Hotel in Chiba City, we immediately asked for directions to the nearest laundry. We were told to walk straight back from the hotel until we got to the grocery store (about five traffic lights) and then to turn right and just walk until we saw it on the left. I headed out with LJ from Nebraska and Wendy from Utah and we walked what must have been a mile and a half or so to this tiny little run down Laundromat in the middle of one of the neighborhoods.
At this very moment, all of my preconceptions about uniform Japanese cleanliness, attention to detail, and operational efficiency went right out the window. We walked into the tiny coin laundry to find an overflowing trash can and probably the single nastiest laundry sink in the history of public clothing wash houses. There were six tiny washing machines and three tiny dryers. Two of the washing machines were broken. There was a detergent machine, but it was broken, so I shared my four small boxes of detergent with LJ and Wendy. There also was a dryer sheet dispenser for us to use, but it too was broken.
This old man and his wife were hanging out in front of the Laundromat, so I guess they must have been the owners or something because there weren’t any machines going. LJ and Wendy both had about one small load to do, but mine was colossal and the guy came in and helped me with the machines. He was trying to explain everything to me and seemed amused that I had no idea what on earth he was saying. The machines all seemed easy to use, though… there were buttons on any of them. All you did was drop in coins and they would start. After getting the wash started, we left and headed over to Yac’s, the tiny local grocery store. There really was not a lot of difference from any grocery store back in Apopka aside from the fact that the grocery store was about half the size. I saw Ziploc, Reynolds Wrap, Snickers bars, and everything else I might see over at Albertsons. The biggest difference in the products was all of the fish in the meat department. They had everything, and lots of it in so many different sizes: shrimp, squid, octopus, all manners of fish, clams, oysters… if it was from the sea, they sold it! There was beef, but it was super expensive. There also was a pretty big variety of different kinds of eggs. I picked up a bag of chips, some chocolate Apollos, and a couple of Onigiri (rice balls) to eat for lunch, and we headed back out to the coin laundry to switch things over to the dryer.
It was a nice change of pace to just sit and have a little lunch with some folks in the Laundromat. I definitely enjoyed the company, and it was nice doing something that was hidden back in a real neighborhood that was so far removed from the crowded and fast moving experience of Tokyo. Even doing the wash was an experience on this trip.
That evening Kendra, Wendy and Chrissy from New Jersey accompanied me to Tokyo DisneySea. We had to take the Chiba City Monorail to get to the train station. The Monorail is a hanging train where the tracks are above the passenger car, and there is nothing below you except the floor of the train and a very long drop. After about ten minutes, we switched to the regular train system for a 20 minute ride to the park. At the park, we found that the Disney Monorail that connected the four main areas of the Tokyo Disney Resort cost 250 yen per ride. That junk’s free in Orlando!
This place was awesome, but I’m not going into many details because aside from everything being in Japanese, it was not much different than other Disney parks. Lots of people, lots of lines, lots of opportunities to burn money. There were a few notable differences though:
The popcorn wasn’t just popcorn… it was black pepper popcorn, or strawberry popcorn, or chocolate popcorn, or caramel popcorn… but not regular old butter popcorn.
Everything shut down at quarter til ten. In Orlando, if you have money to burn, they have products to sell you, and those stores stay open.
Even though the park closed at ten, the rides closed at 9:50. This was annoying.
On the rides in Japan, they have a single rider line for just about everything. We took advantage of this and turned 70 minute waits into five minute waits.
Fastpass exists, but they shut it down before 6 pm, when the twilight pass customers come in.
We got on some pretty incredible rides: Indiana Jones, some cheesy roller coaster right next door to that, this crazy 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea ride where some Japanese narrator dude was yelling like crazy through the whole thing, StormRider, which was a theater size version of Star Tours that flew you through a hurricane, and this super crazy ride called the Aquatopia that would just randomly follow an underwater track and spin you around wherever it wanted to.
After the park I stopped into Bon Voyage, a big Disney store where I was able to pick up a few souvenirs, including a new tie. We stumbled back to the hotel via train and monorail and dragged ourselves into our rooms, falling immediately to sleep. It was a very mixed up and exhausting day.
June 16
I woke up this morning with the nagging feeling that I was missing something… my big suitcase was gone! After calling one of my fellow teachers, I discovered that the larger pieces of luggage had been sent ahead to the next hotel already, and that we were to have a suit packed in our carry-on for today’s meeting at the teacher’s college. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t paid attention to this. My exhaustion must have been winning the battle when we were told, because everyone in my group was prepared but me. I looked at what I had, and it wasn’t much: jeans, one belt, sneakers, a dress shirt that I had just washed the day before, and the new tie that I had just purchased at Tokyo Disney. I got dressed and went downstairs feeling like an idiot. I greeted Sawamoto-san at breakfast and she just about had a stroke when I told her that I had no suit to wear. She had to call the JFMF office in Tokyo to find out if I could still go to Chiba University. I felt so bad about it that I wanted to apologize to every Japanese person I saw.
When we got to the university, Sawamoto-san said that the clothing issue was only a minor problem and that after she apologized to the university on my behalf and on behalf of the ENITRE JFMF PROGRAM that we should be fine. Thankfully, after we got started with our meeting I forgot about my wardrobe malfunction and was able to enjoy and participate in the discussion without any problem. After Tom from Minnesota gave a speech introducing us and thanking Chiba University, we had an opportunity to ask and answer questions. It was true exchange of ideas, and everyone spoke very franklky about teacher training and the situation of education in both the United States and Japan. Honestly, I need to say right now that it’s nice to be traveling with a group of really intelligent people who are on this trip for all the right reasons, because they asked some super questions. The question of moral education came up, and the response was similar to the information that we received in Tokyo. In March of this year, educational guidelines were revised to include moral education in all facets and in all levels of education. Behavior and morals are apparently becoming serious problems for the Japanese people to the point where they have to take drastic measures.
I asked a question about teacher attrition, and when I shared that we lose about 30% of our new teachers within their first three years of service jaws dropped on the Japanese side of the table. The president of the College of Education personally took this question and asked me why the turnover rate was so high. I told them that the three primary reasons were the extremely low salaries for beginning teachers, severe behavior problems with many of the children, and a very small but conspicuous group of parents in each school who have a strong sense of entitlement and have problems behaving as well. As the answer was being formulated in Japanese, the English speakers on my side of the table heard the words “Monster Parents” and we all laughed because that one needed no translation. Basically the answer came back that the turnover rate for teachers is very low, largely in part to the significant government subsidy that teachers receive in their salary that makes them among the highest paid government workers. I felt like sharing the story of Amendment One and Florida’s willingness to cut education funds before subsidizing but restrained myself… I didn’t their jaws to hit the ground and break completely. The “Monster Parents” problem is a fairly new one in Japan, just showing up within the last four or five years. No one’s really quite sure how it started. I assured them that this problem was alive and well in the States, and then I thanked God that I have only had one over the last four years, and even that was only for about ten weeks. There’s something to be said for having a group of supportive parent in your class, so thanks Ralphadelphia families!
After the formal session, we moved into another room where we were able to share ideas and speak more candidly with education students. I was checking out some replicas of ancient scrolls where two young ladies came over and said hello. Megumi Machida and Nao Tozaki both spoke very good English and were Elementary Education majors, and they wanted to learn more about Elementary Education in the US. I told them about my class and the community that we’ve built, and gave them my card so that we could begin to build a connection. I asked them what they were most apprehensive about as preservice teachers, and one said that she was nervous about Monster Parents, and the other was nervous about teaching subjects where she wasn’t completely confident. I told her that as she teaches these subjects to others, she will better understand them herself. As for the Monster Parents, how do you explain to someone from Japan to stand their ground? It seems like their entire society is based on deference, so Monster Parents have opportunities around every corner to antagonize a young teacher.
I’d include more about the session but this blog is long and time is short, and I need to give the speech at Shinshima Elementary School today. I will say that I found my conversation with these young teachers to be my absolute favorite part of the trip so far!
***out of time, pix coming later***
Monday, June 16, 2008
Happy Father's D'OH! SCREECH! CRASH! BANG!
June 15
Car accidents do happen in Japan, folks, and I was in a pretty horrific one on Sunday.
I wasn't sitting in that one, thank God. Here's what happened: after spending a quiet Father's Day morning looking at the great cards my sweet wife and daughter sent with me, I boarded the charter bus with my group. We were bound for Chiba prefecture, and the ride seemed quiet and quick across the fine freeways of Tokyo. We had just gotten to the bottom of an exit ramp when I noticed that we didn't seem to be stopping for the red light that was right in front of us. Then all of a sudden the driver let out a loud Homer Simpson "D'oh!" hit the brakes and destroyed a car that had already pulled into the intersection. I don't think I've described how small passenger cars are in Japan-- take the smallest Honda you can think of, and now cut a third off of it, and you have a Japanese car. The tour buses are the same size as those in the States. When there two things meet, it's never good.
We had the opportunity to see firsthand how Japanese first responders operate, and I want to break this down for you here. Immediately after the accident, people were coming out of the woodwork with brooms to clear debris from the road. Even a Buddhist monk came down from the local temple with a handbroom and was sweeping glass and car parts out of the path of the other vehicles. Some people were pulling over to offer first aid to the driver and passenger of the other car. The fire truck was the first one that came. They made sure that neither vehicle was about to explode and began working with the two injured from the other car. One of them came on our bus and asked through our translator if anyone was hurt. Kendra from Massachusetts and Artis from Mississippi both raised their hands. Kendra said her neck was bothering her, and Artis said she hurt her back. Kendra got off the bus with the firefighter and they old Artis to stay put. Sawamoto-san, our guide, hit her head but refused to be looked at, instead worrying about all of us. We could not convince her to let the paramedics check her out. The fire truck was followed by three ambulances, who took the people who were in the car to the hospital. The cops showed up and came on our bus, and when they saw that we were all Americans they looked at each other and I guess they figured thay wouldn't be able to communicate well enough with us to get any statements, because all they did was mark on a diagram who was sitting where on the bus. They were followed by paramedics, who came on board and had a book that had questions written on a big in Japanese and English. They pointed to a place on the card that said "Please tell us where you have the pain." Artis pointed to the word "Back pain" out of a list of about 40 choices. The paramedic then pointed to a place on the card that said, "We are going to transport you to the nearest hospital. Please don't resist as we assist you into the ambulance." They drove Artis to the hospital and left the rest of us there. Kendra decided she was okay, in spite of the insistence of the firefighters and paramedics that she go to the hospital as well. While all of this was going on, the police were measuring and taking photos of every aspect of the accident scene, and the local Chiba City news was beginning to roll tape on what must have been the traffic story of the century for that area. After about an hour or so of this a bunch of taxis pulled up and took the rest of us to the hotel, which was literally less than two minutes away from the crash scene. Just for good measure, the taxis made sure to run every possible red light on the way there.
Artis was back by evening after having been examined and released. She's in pain but it's not enough to keep her from participating in the program. Kendra's neck hasn't really bothered her since we left the accident scene. This morning when we met in the lobby, the president of the bus company showed up personally to apologize to Artis and Kendra for the whole situation. He was bowing very deeply and seemed very ashamed over the whole incident. The two accident victims in the car were walking and as far as I know survived with minor injuries, and if they hadn't I wouldn't have even posted this. As you leave the house today, PLEASE make sure you're paying attention to the traffic signals AND THE TRAFFIC and not daydreaming. If you look at the car at the top, you car see how the outcome of this collision could have easily been much worse. On our first day on Tokyo, were we told on the charter bus that we had to wear seatbelts because the was a new nationwide regulation in Japan. I never wear sealtbelts on charter buses. In fact I'd never work a seatbelt on a bus EVER before setting foot in this country. With the force that we hit that car and were thrown forward, there would have been a heck of a lot more injuries if we hadn't all decided to follow the request of our guide on that first day.
Tomorrow I'll post about doing laundry in Japan, Japanese supermarkets, Tokyo DisneySea, my major clothing blunder, the sake brewery, the visit to the famous handicraft artist, and the visit to Chiba University's College of Education, which has been far and away the best part of the trip. But not today. This post will stand on its own.
Happy Father's Day, everybody. Please be safe.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
A Lesson in Peace... and FUJISAN!
EATHQUAKE UPDATE: yes there was an earthquake in Japan yesterday but it was not in the area where I am so friends and family please relax!!! Now in with the blog:
June 13
Today after I woke up I went walking with some folks to find a Japanese garden right in the middle of one of the hotels across the street. It was beautiful, and temperature-wise it was so cool. It been a little hot here lately, and it was nice to breathe some fresh air and see some natural beauty.
Today was another day of seminars, and the first one of the day was the most incredible one of the program so far. It was the Peace Education Special Seminar, and it was presented by Tomoko Yanagi, a high school teacher from Hiroshima whose father was a survivor of the atomic bomb, and also by Keijiro Matsushima, himself a hibakusha (A-bomb survivor).
Tomoko-sensei spoke first, sharing her father’s experience as a hibakusha, telling stories of how people blamed themselves for surviving when they felt that they should have died with their families or friends in the blast. She is a cancer survivor, saying that many second generation hibakusha have contracted various cancers although the government says its inconclusive whether the children of blast survivors are more susceptible to cancer than others. She said then almost half of the population of Hiroshima died by the end of 1945 after the A-bomb was dropped. She also recounted a story about a field trip where she took her students to a museum in Korea, and the students learned that the Koreans saw the US atomic bombing of Japan as a good thing thanks to the centuries of invasions and occupations by the Japanese army. She said that her students were shocked by this and felt unforgiven by the Koreans. She looked at the display not as a slight against Japan or its people, but rather as a warning to all of the people in the world against repeating the use of nuclear weapons or engaging in warfare in general.
Tomoko-sensei and Ralph-sensei
After Tomoko-sensei finished, Matsushima-sensei, a retired junior high principal, began to share his experience. He said that people in Hiroshima have a deep anger toward the atomic bomb but not toward America, and that they collectively work toward peace in the world. When the A-bomb was dropped, he was a 16 year old student at a technical college inside of Hiroshima, 2 km from the hypocenter of the blast. He said that he was in math class at the time of the explosion, and he saw two American bombers high in the sky. At this point in the war, American planes usually just did reconnaissance, as there were no more fighters to go after them and no more anti-aircraft ammunition to shoot at them. He though, “Hey, American planes, how beautiful, shining in the sky like ice angels.” When he turned his eyes back to his textbook was the moment of explosion. He described it as a very strong flash, shockwave and heat wave all in a very short moment. At first he thought it was a normal bombing, but a huge noise followed, like hundreds of thunders at the same time, and it became dark and silent. When he got out from under the roof rubble, he went outside and saw so much destruction… he thought that the Americans had managed to drop thousands of bombs with only two planes. He said that he turned and looked toward the center of the city, from where many people were walking. They were burned from head to toe, their skin was sagging and their clothes were blown off. The held their arms out in front of them because they couldn‘t bear the pain of putting them down. He asked himself, “Why are they all so badly burned? Did they drop thousands of firebombs in one moment?” When he began to walk to his mother’s house outside of town, the saw both sides of the river on fire, and bodies flowing down the river from where they drowned from trying to cool off in the water. He was convinced he was in hell. When he got to his mother’s home, she was overjoyed to see him because she had convinced herself that he had died in the mushroom cloud she had seen in the city as she worked in the rice patty that morning.
Matsushima-sensei shared that everyone was trying to develop and use the A-bomb in 1945. He said Japan would have used it on New York if they could have. He wants Americans to have the attitude that the atomic bomb wasn’t a good thing, but it was an inevitable wartime decision and now that we’ve all seen what it can do, we must work to make sure that no one will ever use this weapon again any nation of any people ever again. At the end of the session Dr. Satterwhite shared a thought with us, and I’d like to pass it along to all of you:
If we don’t teach peace, who will?
If we don’t teach peace, it won’t happen.
There was also a lecture on Kabuki and Music, and the guy was pretty funny and it was very informative, but I was too worn out to take notes and the thing was two hours long. But here’s a picture so you can pretend you were there:
It really was a good lecture. When I’m not tired from writing another long blog post maybe I’ll add more details. Let’s say I owe ya one!
In the evening, I went out with some folks who were going to go souvenir shopping. I stopped in at a soccer store and got a really cool Japan National Team scarf. I also found a HUGE 100 yen store in Harajuku called Daiso, and I was able to buy tons of stuff for my classroom project: calligraphy brushes, scrolls, origami paper, a map and a flag of Japan. I meant to go to DisneySea this evening, but like I said, I was still tired from the baseball game the night before. The goal was to ride the Tower of Terror on Friday the 13th. I found out from people I ran into that the Tower was closed for maintenance. Good thing I didn’t go!
There are some interesting signs in the Tokyo Metro. This one has been my favorite so far:
Please get bi-polar at home.
I stopped at McDonald’s for dinner because I wanted to try to McShrimp. It’s actually called the Filet-o-Ebi.
It was awesome!
June 14
Today I got to go to one of Japan’s most enduring symbols, Mount Fuji. I and several other people had booked a tour in advance of coming to Japan, and we were to travel to the Mt. Fuji art and cultural museum, then up to the fifth hiking station on the volcano itself, followed by a cruise on Lake Ashi and a cable car ride up to the top of another volcano. At the end of everything, we were to take a bullet train back to Tokyo. We were picked up at our hotel at 8:00 am, and we were met by a guide named Emi. She was very funny, and told a lot of great stories and gave some scientific and historical information along the way. She introduced herself by saying “My name is Emi, and you can call me Emi-san, or Nakamura-san, or Guide-san if you can’t remember my name, but please don’t call me Miss Guide, because I will do my best to not misguide you!” Everyone laughed… we all thought it was pretty punny, heh-heh.
The trip started out with a traffic jam. Because of this, we were not able to see the museum and had to shorten everything else. On our way up to Mt. Fuji, I could see the volcano in the distance. The summit was obscured by clouds.
Before arriving at Fuji-san, we got to stop for a Japanese lunch, which was very good. I had sashimi, roast duck, wheat gluten, a bayberry, and couple of bowls of rice.
After I finished, I had the chance to go downstairs and get some souvenirs for my family. I’m not going to tell you what I got them because they read this blog! We left soon after and were on our way up to the fifth station of Mount Fuji. The bus driver was driving really close to some cliffs really fast, but I wasn’t that nervous because I felt just awful thanks to altitude sickness. I’ve never had it before, and my family and I even drove around in the Virginia mountains over Thanksgiving, but something about this trip made me so nauseous. I also had a tremendous build-up of sinus pressure that was just painful. Despite this, I really enjoyed the scenic views going up the side of the volcano. We only had 25 minutes up at the station, just enough time to buy souvenirs at the tour-group operated shops.
2,305 m above sea level and not feeling groovy.
As we were leaving, we tried to get a good look at the summit of Fuji-san, but it was still too cloudy. About one minute after beginning the trek down the hill I felt (and heard) my sinuses release the pressure. Immediately my splitting headache was gone, but my altitude sickness would stay with me for the rest of the day until I got to go to bed. Shortly after leaving, we saw the cloud that was blocking the view of the summit begin to leave, so we pulled over and snapped some quick photos.
After this, we were set for another long bus ride to Hakone, where we boarded a boat for a 15 minute ride. We arrived at another resort at about 4:30, and were to get on a cable car so that we could go and spend 5 minutes at the top of the next mountain and then come back down. I really didn’t want to spend any more time on the go, so I opted to stay behind and try to get some drawing and painting done (which is why I booked this tour in the first place.) The group went on without me and I had the chance to walk around the resort and try to find something to draw. I finally found something back at the dock: a building with a Japanese style roof poking out from the tree tops at the very top of a hill. I began to draw, and a few Japanese people came over and looked at what I was drawing and talked to me. It was nice to slow down and connect with people a little bit. Soon my hour was up, and even though I didn’t get my drawing finished, I was happy that I at least got it moving a little. I’ll post it when I do finish. After another long bus ride we arrived at the train station, and were ready to board the Shinkansen. While we were standing on the station, the fastest bullet train blew past us. It was impossible to hear it coming, all of a sudden it was whooshing by and then it was gone. Amazing! We got on the slowest Shinkansen, but it was awesome to ride back to Tokyo in just 30 minutes after having spent nearly five on the bus.
Overall, it was a pretty good day. I enjoyed being able to visit Mount Fuji and I really liked riding the bullet train. But I was happy to get back to the hotel and rest. People weren’t kidding when they said you should rest up before coming on this trip… it has been exhausting!
But it’s also been outstanding. Thanks JFMF! And thank you for reading, my faithful friends!
*** I got an email from my host family in Katori, Chiba! How exciting! I can’t wait to meet them! ***
Friday, June 13, 2008
Game Day!
June 12
Today was a day of lectures in the hotel. I’m not used to sitting down for a long time, so at times I found it to be difficult to stay in my seat. We started in the morning with a lecture on the economy of Japan presented by Manabu Fukada, the chief legal and compliance officer of the Secured Capital Japan Company. He shared that since the mid 1990s, when Japan faced an economic downturn, the economy has been stagnant with a growth rate of less than 2%. Despite this, they still have the third largest eceonomy in the world. The US is first, and I thought China might be second, but he said that the Chinese were catching up and were fifth. I don’t know who comes after the US because I’ve always read the Japan was second. He also shared that thanks to the awareness of Japan of their scare resources, 90% of steel and aluminum and 60% of paper are recycled.
After Fukada-san finished, we had the opportunity to attend our keynote presentation, which was delivered by the President of the National Institution for Academic Degrees, Tsutomu Kimura. This was an excellent presentation, and Kimura-sensei reinforced many of the things that I read in the book Shutting Out the Sun. The biggest point that Kimura-sensei made was that the Japanese were not satisfied at all with their educational system, and view it as having serious problems. He said that Japanese children have large amounts of knowledge but lack in the ability to apply this knowledge and don’t have the ability to think for themselves. He said that school bullying is excessive, and that kindness to others, respect of life and human rights are not sufficiently fostered in school or at home. The primary cause that he cited for these problems was the “continuing decline of educational power of families and communities.” Among the last statistics that he shared was a survey given to boys. In elementary school, their career choices were rich and varied. The same survey given to the same group a few years later in middle school showed that over 60% of the boys planned to become salaried office workers. He said that uniform education in Japan has created a stereotype Japanese, and that every male is being put on the path to becoming a “salaryman.” He also showed that the same survey given to girls at both ages yielded a remarkably different result, one that showed that their future career choices never steered toward the path of “office lady,” but instead stayed varied throughout their schooling. Because of this, he has come to the conclusion that “this county has to rely on women going forward.” I plan to share these things and many more with teachers who attend my presentation during the Back to School Conferece on August 13 and I’m sure they will be shocked!
The afternoon session focused on Japanese government, and featured a discussion by Yuji Tsushima, the most senior member of the House of Representatives, and Wakako Hironaka, a member of the opposition party from the House of Councilors. They both shared their views of Japanese policy, and despite their constant compliments of each other and their expected deference, they both made strong arguments for their causes and against those of the opposition. I was made to think of Nancy Pelosi and Mel Martinez sitting in a room in front of 160 foreign teachers and being asked to explain Japanese government while being required to be very polite. It just wouldn’t happen! They both agreed that the biggest problem right now was taxation, and that Japan was having a challenge in finding a way to fund the universal health and pension plans each year. When asked what they saw as the biggest worldwide issue, they both said the environment. Wakako-san seemed surprised that Tsushima-san answered that way, but he went on to explain that not only is the environment a bi-partisan issue, but it’s a human issue and everyone should be concerned with it.
I enjoyed all of the lectures, but I had something on my mind all day: baseball. I spent all of the breaks hunting down 68 people to give tickets to, and as soon as we got out of the final lecture we changed and headed to the subway. This was my first time taking the Japanese subway, and as soon as we walked out of the hotel, we found that there were seven different subway stations outside of our hotel, each running in different diection with different lines. After about ten minutes of asking directions, we found the right one and headed off to the stadium. I found that I didn’t pay enough money for my ticket, so I needed to go through the ticket office where they stamped the face my ticket. I prayed that the stamp didn’t say “arrest this moron” in Japanese. After a longer ride on another train, we finally arrived at the Seibu Dome. As we were exiting the train, I found I had to pay 40 yen to leave the station as a result of not having paid enough at the beginning of the trip. That’s about 37 cents, so I was cool with it.
The game was awesome! I barely watched any of it, though… I was too busy checking things out. While the play of the game seemed mostly the same, there were a great number of differences. The most notable was that everyone in the outfield on each side of center field was some type of organized cheering section for their respective team. They were banging drums and singing songs and it was really impressive to hear them carry on the way they did. I also noticed that the stadium was split totally in half: the side where we sat were all silver-and-blue clad Lions fans, while across the field I could see the sea of gold and black that was the fans of the Hanshin Tigers.
Other things that seemed a little different: from time to time, a dance team would come out into right field an do a number; I actually ate octopus balls that I bought from a vendor (it was fried chunks of octopus in case you’re wondering); teenage girls sold beverages out of kegs they carried around the stadiums on their back (I think it was apple juice); during the seventh inning stretch, people let go of these balloons that slowly floated into the upper regions of the dome as the air blew out of them, making a whistling sound; people were walking around with trash bags and spectators were rushing to put their refuse into the trash bags, and we couldn’t find a spot of litter anywhere (except our section); the mascot walked around the stadium with no chaperone; there were no skyboxes in the stadium, and no upper deck.
The ballgame was one of my favorite experiences so far during the trip. A lot of other people have told me the same, and many have thanked me for organizeing the whole thing which has been very flattering. It was so much fun seeing this uniquely Japanese event, and I regret that more people didn’t come. I know not everyone in the group is a fan of baseball, but I can tell you that those that didn’t come really missed out.
Thanks for reading! I hope to post again soon!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Baseball Guy
The plane landed hard at Narita Airport, and a lot of the overhead luggage bins popped open. Mine was one of them, and I suddenly had two very heavy carry-ons right hanging right above my face. Maybe the part they had to replace was a landing gear. Well, they did a pretty bad job!
I couldn’t believe it! I was finally in Tokyo! I was ready to get off the plane and start checking things out. The customs desk was extremely smooth (that’s what happens when you’re an “honored guest of the Japanese government”) and before long we all had our bags and were boarding buses bound for downtown Tokyo. Keiko-san, our tour guide, passed out maps of Tokyo, some hotel information, and $280 worth of meal money. They won’t even let us pay for our own food while we’re here. This trip is awesome!
After arriving at the hotel, I changed into my Apopka Elementary School shirt (the one embroidered with Ralph-Sensei, of course) and headed downstairs to the Fulbright Alumni event. This is one of the great things about the JFMF: they are committed to building relationships between Japanese people and American people. This first event put us into groups of four or five and then matched us with a Japanese person who had been part of the Fulbright program sometime in their lives. I was with a gentleman in his 60s named Toshio-san. He had been a Fulbrighter in San Francisco from 1968-1970 while he studied to get his MBA degree, and here he was forty years later, volunteering to take a bunch of wild American teachers out on the town during their first night in Tokyo. As Dr. Satterwhite has said, the Fulbright program had made a huge impression on the lives of so many Japanese, and Toshio-san’s eagerness to volunteer in a great example of his respect and appreciation for the program.
Yuko Naito plays the Koto and Koumei Ashigaki plays the Shakuhachi as we arrive for the Fulbright event.
We stayed in the Akasaka neighborhood around our hotel and found a great little restaurant tucked away along one of the streets. I have no idea what the name of the place was, because the sign and menu were only in Japanese. I do know one thing: the food was awesome! I had the mostly lively and interesting group too: Jen from West Virginia, Tara from Colorado, and Rebecca from Alaska. Toshio-san did all of the ordering for us, and the food just kept coming! He didn’t order any Sushi, though, which was fine with me. I guess he figured we’d have enough Sushi during the trip. There were all kinds of other things, though: roasted corn, skewered beef and pork, steak, fish, beans, sausages, roasted corn, chicken livers (yes I ate it), shrimp, and ice cream. The food was great and the conversation was wonderful.
From left: Toshi-san, Jen from WV, Tara from CO, Ralph-Sensei, Rebecca from AK
During dinner, we Americans had shared our desired to go sing karaoke at some point during the trip, and Toshio-san told us that he’d show us a place to sing near our hotel. After dinner, he walked us down to a seven floor karaoke parlor, and to our surprise he rented a booth and took us upstairs. I was so excited! Karaoke was on my “must do” list while in Tokyo. We got into the booth, which was a tiny room with a karaoke set up and some maracas and tambourines, and we started picking songs. I personally was involved with the singing of “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “Borderline,” “True Colors,” Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and an amazing group rendition of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It was one of the most fun things I’d ever done, and I knew that if the next three weeks would be anything like this, then it would be a trip of a quality I’ll never be able to match.
June 11
I was awakened by the sun pouring through my window at 4:30 am. I was so surprised by seeing the sun coming up at that time that I started flipping through TV channels to try to figure out if that was really the correct time. It was. At breakfast, a lot of other people were making the same observations that I was about the early sunrise, mainly that they had a tough time believing that it came up so early.
We boarded a bus to go on a tour of Tokyo which began with the Japanese Diet building. This is basically the Capitol Building of Japan, where the two houses of Japan’s parliament meet to make the laws of the country, much in the fashion of our two houses of Congress. The building is made up of materials from all over Japan with the exception of three things: the stained glass windows (made in Britain) and the door locks and mail chute (made in the USA). It was a very interesting visit.
A joker who needs to go on a diet standing in front of the Japanese Diet.
Following that, we drove past the Imperial Palace for about thirty seconds and headed over to Asakusa where we had a tempura lunch planned. On the way there, Keiko-san pointed out a lot of high-fashion clothing stores where she said that we might like to go visit to see the goods, but that we’d be challenged to find “king sized items to fit you Americans.” We all laughed at that, our bellies jiggling like bowls full of jelly. I got what she’s saying though: not only are we much taller than most of the Japanese we encounter, but we carry around much more girth! You seriously need to look hard to find people in Japan with any sort of weight problem, even with the presence of tempura in their diet. Tempura is a style of cooking where the food is lightly breaded and then deep fried. It was really good. We were eating at little tables and sitting on pillows on the floor in the restaurant. I spilled miso soup all over the place, which is to be expected if you know me, but the Japanese lady just about had a heart attack.
After lunch we had the chance to walk around a giant Shinto temple. I got to see Thunder Gate, which was huge. Walking back toward the temple, I found a place where people were trying to cup some incense smoke in their hands and putting it on places on their bodies to cure certain ailments. I put some on my bald spot.
Japanese Rogaine
There was also a really neat place where you could get a fortune by dropping a 100 yen coin in a slot, shaking an octagonal prism filled with chopsticks, and then pulling a fortune out of a drawer. All of the fortunes were numbered within the range of 1 to 100, 1 being the best possible fortune and 100 being that you’ll die a horrific death AFTER every possible horrible thing in the history of mankind happens to you. Here’s the one I got:
Oh no!
Now I had the chance to pick another fortune, but I had to tie the bad fortune to a string to make it go away and pay another 100 yen to buy another fortune. This time I got Fortune #8, “Best Fortune.” Apparently, “happiness will come to me just like cutting rice plants with a cutter,” whatever that means. The good news is that “marriage is very good” and “the person you are waiting for will come.” Well the fortune worked out, because when I got back to the hotel, my package of baseball tickets had finally arrived (but more on that later.)
This afternoon we came back to watch a demonstration of Kyogen, which is traditional Japanese comedy theatre. The performance was put on by Don Kenney, an American who has lived in Japan and studied Kyogen for decades, and is Japan’s only performer and translator of English-language Kyogen. I loved it. The voices and movements were all very deliberate, and followed a story pattern where a servant tells a lie to try to get out of work (sounds like something that would happen in Ralphadelphia) and the master tells an even more elaborate lie to catch the servant in his original lie and put him back on his task (also something that would happen in Ralphadelphia).
After the performance, we went to the official JFMF Welcome Reception. There was a great deal of wonderful food, and we were addressed by Dr. Satterwhite, Kiso Isao (director of international affairs for Japan’s Ministry of Education), Ronald Post (Minister of Public Affairs for the US embassy in Japan), and Ginko Sato (President of Japan Association for the Advancement of Working Women.)
After the reception was over, I headed back up to the room, called my sweet wife, and then spent about an hour or so putting the baseball tickets and change into envelopes with people’s names on them. Let me explain that last one:
Ever since running into a group of JFMF teachers at the baggage carousel in San Fran, my other name has been “The Baseball Guy.” People look at my nametag when we introduce ourselves and then invariably they say, “Hey! You’re the baseball guy!” which is then followed either by a firm handshake and the words “thanks so much for organizing this, it’s one of the things I’m most looking forward to on this trip” OR “I’m not going, but that’s great that you put that together.” Let me explain how this all happened. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you’ve read about my desire to go to a ball game while in Japan, and you probably remember seeing my comments about the JFMF group listserv. Probably about the second or third day of the listserv, I commented in a message that one of the things I’d most like to do in Japan was to go see a baseball game, and that the Seibu Lions would be playing on one of the nights. About 12 people commented back and said they’d also like to go.
I began looking for ways to buy group tickets online because I figured it would be more fun to sit with about a dozen teachers than for us to show up at the ball park on the day of the game and end up sitting all over the place. I found JapanBall, who sold individual tickets to people planning a tour in Japan, and I asked them about their group rate, giving them a figure of 20 since I knew a few other people would be jumping on the bandwagon. When they got back to me with a price of $40 per ticket, I informed the group. I guess that must have looked like a request to sign up or something because suddenly I was getting a bunch of emails from people asking to be included in the order. Eventually I had about 45 people, so I started keeping a list on the listserv so people would know if I had seen their email and had counted them in the order. I gave JapanBall the number 45 as a “preliminary final number” and they said it was no problem.
I opened up an ordering window through this blog so that people could send me the money and I could send to total amount to JapanBall, who would send it on to their ticket buyer in Japan, who would send it to the Seibu Lions and hopefully there would be enough seats to accommodate our group. Can you see the potential for disaster there? I hate dealing with other people’s money, and collecting a lot of money from people I don’t know and sending it on to someone else I don’t know made me very nervous, but I’d offered to buy group tickets so I knew people were counting on me to get this done. When he ordering window closed four days later, I looked on my PayPal account and saw that 68 people had put in a PAID order for a ticket.
68.
My jaw hit the floor, but JapanBall handled it in stride and I got the money to them via bank wire (after a few glitches), they got the tickets (somehow all together in one group) and the tickets got to me exactly when they said they would (thank goodness!) If something had failed, I would have been the goat of the group and my dream trip to Japan would have turned into an absolute nightmare. But all came out well, and tomorrow I will be passing tickets out to 68 crazy American teachers. Whew!
Being known amongst the group for setting this up has been a nice icebreaker in many situations, but honestly, I’m glad the job is done!
And you get to read about the Seibu Lions baseball game on another day! Good night!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
What a long, strange trip it's been...
June 8
I really am not a very good flier. So you can imagine my reaction when, while taxiing toward the runway yesterday afternoon, the pilot hit the brakes and came on and says, “folks, we’re going to have to go back to the gate… we have a tiny little glitch that we need to take care of.” When we got back to the gate, the captain said that there was some type of malfunction that was keeping a windshield heater from operating properly, and that if the heater came on suddenly in flight, the windshield of the plane would shatter. After hearing this, I was considering either asking to be let off the plane or at least being allowed to go in the cargo bay so I could get a new pair of pants out of my suitcase. But I survived, and the trip was uneventful, and now I’m here in San Francisco, the first leg of my journey.
I had one other JFMFer on my flight, a middle school teacher named Chris from Merritt Island. Unfortunately we didn’t sit together, but it was nice to have someone to find the way through the San Fran airport with me. After checking in, I went upstairs and found that my roommate for San Fran has already checked in. I discovered this when I tried to enter my room and found it was bolted, and someone inside yelled “Hold on while I put on some pants!” He also is named Chris, and he’s from Atlanta, Georgia.
After checking in, we had a brief orientation headed up by another Chris. Chris Powers is one of the folks from the IIE, who help the JFMF put this whole experience together on this side of the world. He was joined by Dr. David Satterwhite, the director of JFMF, and three other teachers who have been on the trip in previous years. It was an excellent presentation, and I wished that I had brought my camera downstairs from the room with me. I promised myself it would be the last time I would be caught without my camera on this trip.
After the presentation, we all boarded a bus to go to the home of Yasumasa Nagamine, the Consul General of Japan for the San Francisco office. Driving through the steeply inclined and narrow streets of downtown San Fran in a full charter bus was pretty scary, but we all survived to tell the tale. By the time that we arrived at the Consul’s home, I was almost completely exhausted. The Consul’s residence was a beautiful mansion with incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After some remarks by the Consul and other JFMF and IIE dignitaries, we were treated to a buffet dinner which included wonder sushi, dumplings, tofu and other dishes. On of the more exotic dishes looked to be some type of chicken sushi, where the chicken was sear on the outside and totally raw on the inside. Jen, a teacher from Pennsylvania, put some on her plate. I told her not to eat it! She contemplated the morsel on her plate for about one minute before it went down the hatch. She chewed that nasty thing for a long time, and I got the feeling that she was regretting it already. I told her it wasn’t a shame to spit it out in a napkin but she swallowed it anyway. We’ll see what happens with that one.
After a great night of dinner and meeting teachers and dignitaries, it was finally time to come back to the hotel for my first sleep in almost 40 hours. My roommate and I set a wake-up call, an alarm clock that he brought, and both of our cell phones to wake us up on time, and we decided not to fool with the hotel alarm since we were covered in so many other areas. We settled down to a nice sleep only to be awakened but the hotel’s alarm clock going off at 3:30! It figures!
June 9
When I got up, I headed down to breakfast which was just your traditional American eggs and bacon sort of affair. Things moved really fast as far as getting us downstairs and over to the airport. I was on a 9 am bus, so I made sure that I was ready for travel by about 7:30. I’ve had a tough time getting things done/turned in/being places on time lately, and Dr. Satterwhite has made it very clear several times on this trip that we must always be on time. I am determined not to screw this up!
When we got to the airport, I checked in to find that the flight was overbooked and that I had no seat, along with about 15 other members of my group. They said that they find a way to get us onto the plane, and to see the agent at the gate. I was thinking about climbing into my suitcase, that would solve the problem. Another thing on this trip to make me nervous, and I really wished that I could get someone to rub the mounting tension out of my shoulders.
All of that excellent planning in the morning didn’t really get us anywhere as our plane to Narita Airport in Tokyo was delayed by an hour. I took the time to go with a few other teacher to this place called XpresSpa across from our gate and had a 25 minute Stress and Tension Relief treatment that was worth every penny. Let me tell you this: if you’re about to board a ten hour flight ANYWHERE, and you see an airport spa on the day you’re going to leave, go get a massage! I was totally relaxed during the entire flight, and it was the first time I haven’t felt tense in about three weeks, despite what was going on with the flight.
When I got to the gate, they finally had a seat for me—a free upgrade to economy plus! So I and the other folks we almost got bumped ended up with five inches more legroom than the other members of our group. I really appreciated that, and the fact that I was on an aisle… I really wanted to be able to get up and walk around. After we got seated, the pilot gave us an awesome shoutout, telling the passengers that there were 100 teachers from around the country on a study trip. We got a little applause. I thought that was really nice.
Before the plane took off, however, we had another “minor malfunction,” this one requiring a mechanic to come out to the plane and fix the problem for forty minutes. At this point I started to question United Airlines and their patchwork planes. Add this to the previous delay and the fact that no one was available to move the jetway away from our plane so we could taxi to the runway, and we were now nearly two hours late leaving. I probably should have been getting nervous because I knew that we were to have an event with Japanese Fulbright Program Alumni shortly after arriving to the hotel, but I was so relaxed from the spa treatment that I really didn’t care.
The plane took off and the ride over the Pacific was amazingly smooth. I had ordered vegetarian meals and I was glad that I did, because everything was very light and I felt comfortable through the entire flight. I had some graphic novels with me to read, and as I got into one of them someone rushed past me, knocking the book out of my hand and down the aisle. She turned left, into the bathroom and didn’t come out for a while. I suspected that I knew who it was. When the poor sicko finally emerged, I was that I was right: it was Jen of the raw chicken sushi episode. I offered her some Pepto Bismol tablets that I had but she declined, saying she was much better now that it was out of her system. I felt really bad for her though, not just because she got sick but because her stomach hurt so much the night before that she didn’t get much sleep.
Aside from that, there wasn’t much else that happened. I was able to relax and watch a few episodes of Firefly on my iPod. So many teachers were up walking around with drinks in their hands that the fuselage resembled more of a singles bar than a trans-Pacific flight. I really enjoyed the company of so many new friends—it made ten hours zoom by like nothing. The two things I learned from this experience: 1) get a massage before a long flight, and 2) always travel with teachers!
And on this flight we crossed the International Date Line, and for it became Tuesday, June 10. And that will be subject of another blog…
Talk to you tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
School's Out!
That was one fast school year.
"Sit next to a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. Sit on a red-hot stove for a minute, it seems like an hour. That's relativity."
