Auld Lang Syne

When each person from our Hiroshima group got back from their home stay, each had a unique experience. Even though we all packed every minute full during our time in Japan, listening to others’ adventures reminded us that there was so much more to see. Today, back in Tokyo, we heard from the other nine groups who traveled to host cities all over Japan. Each group had different geographical and cultural experiences and there was some variation in the school visits. What seemed to be the same across the country was the children. It was so unifying to be reminded that kids are kids everywhere. Another thing we all shared is a renewed commitment to Peace and Environmental Education. I feel embarrassed when I think of how far behind our country is in making those two elements a priority. When Kejiro Matsushima first told us his story as a Hiroshima survivor days ago, he said, “You will tell your children what you learned in Japan and make some small waves.” We are ready to go home and do just that.
Mostly, we’re ready to go home!

Fond Farewell

Tonight was the last gathering of the last group of Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund teachers. There were speeches, an akito (sp?) demonstration, more great food, group snapshots, and tears. We've gotten really close and most of us won't see each other again. Singing "Auld Lang Syne" has never been so poignant.
Tomorrow will be brutal. The group of us returning through Chicago don’t even leave the hotel until 2:00 p.m. We have nothing scheduled to do in the morning and have to be checked out by noon. It will be a day to hurry up and wait. We found out that tea ceremonies are performed in our hotel on Thursdays, so we may get to do one last cultural thing before we take off.

Our plane doesn’t leave until almost 6:00 p.m., then it’s 12 hours in the air until we land at Chicago. I, then, have a 3-hour layover until my plane to KC, and I still won’t be home. I may have one more blog entry after I get home and have time to reflect but no promises.

Ryokan

After returning from our home stays, we loaded once again on a bus to head out towards Miyami Island were our Japanese style hotel was located. Japanese style means that 4 of us shared a room that looked huge when we entered to see a low table in the center and a floor covered with tatami mats. While everyone attended a Japanese style (sit-on-the-flloor) meal, hotel employees laid out the beds -- thin mattresses covered with a sheet and a pillow. There is no covering sheet -- just a light down-like comforter. I thought the mattress in the New Otani king-size bed was extra firm, but sleeping on the floor is hard. You could take a Japanese style bath in the room -- you sit on a stool and wash yourself and shampoo your hair. There’s a drain in the floor of the room. Then you get in a hot tub to soak. In a home, everyone in the family would use the same water -- that’s why you only get in when you’re completely clean. Some of our group bravely tried the onsen -- a public bath. There the procedure is the same except the soaking bath has many hotel guests. You can’t take a towel into the room. The Japanese are less hung up about body image than we Americans are.
Monday
We had looked out over the lake the night before, but we couldn't see much. We woke up to a gorgeous view, looking over at Miyami Island. After a breakfast buffet, we headed back to Tokyo on the bullet train. I’m back in a room overlooking the New Otani gardens for my last days in Tokyo. Two more days of meetings before we head for home.

Overnight with my Host Family

I am the luckiest person of our group. I’m sure the rest are having a good time, but my home stay will be the highlight of my trip. Yatsuki’s strong skills in English have made him invaluable to his company and a big bonus to me since I’ve been so unsuccessful in learning Japanese. We were able to discuss everything from religion to music as he and a family friend took me back to Miyajima Island. This time I got to see some of higher of the 88 shrines on the island. The trees are just beginning to turn, and the setting was lovely. Before our afternoon sightseeing, I got to visit a grocery store as Katsuki and his wife Shoko picked out ingredients for our make-your-own-sushi lunch. The displays in the grocery were brightly colored, beautifully arranged, and remarkably fresh. Both for lunch and our dinner out, I got to taste many new things. I didn’t know so many tastes existed and discovered textures I’d never experienced before in food. Shoko is a beautiful, multi-talented woman who, as her husband likes to brag, has an innate sense of design and organization. She has to have lots of energy to keep up with 1 ½ year-old Kotaro and monitor Saeko’s school work, violin and piano lessons. Saeko (8-years-old) is quite talented and demonstrated her musical abilities in impromptu concerts. Shoko keeps a lovely home, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the visit tomorrow.
Sunday
I can’t believe how much we packed into one day. I got to see a neighborhood festival, which was just like any school carnival or community fair I’ve attended in the U.S. -- except, of course, the food offered. Instead of corn dogs and turkey legs, there were fried octopus and squid. The little train that you could ride for one lap around the field was a bullet train. The ball toss and band playing in the background were just so familiar.
In K.C. before my trip I had seen a Japanese entertainer performing an English version of Roguku, a traditional Japanese comic storytelling. Saeko belongs to a club that learns roguku and I got to hear her tell a short story. I had no idea what she was saying, but her expressive voice, gestures, and the laughter of the audience proved her to be a promising performer.
Before returning to meet up with my group at 4:00 we made one last stop -- a traditional Japanese home that is now a lovely teahouse and gift shop. We were served tea as we looked out on a beautiful garden. By the time I returned to the hotel, I felt like I’d made a new family of friends.

Motomachi High School

I have never seen a school like this one. The principal told us that usually in Japan if there was this much open space, someone would have wanted to put in a parking lot. That, of course, made me hum Joni Mitchell to myself -- “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. Pave paradise, put up a parking lot.”
There are high ceilings, glass skylights, and escalator since the four stories are so high, and even a skywalk to the most amazing art wing imaginable. They were prepared for our visit. We were scheduled for calligraphy claas and each assigned to a student who taught us to write whatever we wanted to try in Japanese. After that we watched an expert bamboo flutist, who demonstrated on a 1,000-year-old instrument. After that he passed out flutes he’d made out of plastic pipe to all the students and to all of us. After we tried valiantly, some with more success than me, to coax out a tolerable squawk, we were given the flutes to take home. I also observed an English class, which was co-taught by a Japanese teacher and an American one. They did a scavenger hunt to practice Halloween vocabulary, then watched Charlie Brown’s the Great Pumpkin to look for the same words. I had less luck watching a World History teacher lecture about Chinese history. Our interpreter was in the room part of the time and she couldn’t translate. Luckily, there was a soccer game going on out the window. The teacher seemed to be a good lecturer, but by the end of the class, six students were asleep on their desks.
Tomorrow morning our host families pick us up for an overnight visit -- 10:00 a.m.Saturday to 4:00 p.m. Sunday. If they don’t speak any English, it may be a long visit. Sunday all 16 of us are staying all night at a Japanese Inn or ryokan. That should be an experience, too. We travel back to Tokyo on Monday. I won’t have access to the internet for several days, so this will be the last entry until next week.

Senogawa Junior High

We were in a different world today. Yes, these were definitely junior high kids -- you only had to watch them during their free time to see that -- however, the school had a completely different atmosphere. I don’t have many pictures because we were told not to take photos if it would disturb the class. All you have to do is point a camera, and all the students are making faces and high fives -- a clear disruption of class. I did get a snap of a girl playing keyboard when they had free time as lunch was being served (by the students and the homeroom teacher).
She was quite talented. Music is required through middle school and all students learn basic keyboarding in elementary school. When I asked the rest of the eighth graders at lunch, they all said they played an instrument and played a sport. Students stay after school for “activities”, which includes clubs and sports. All teachers are required to sponsor an activity as part of their contract and must stay at school until 5:10.
The elementary school teachers yesterday had planned for our visit and had included us in the activities in many classes. Not so in junior high. Students are studying for the exams that will determine their track when they finish junior high. Teachers had set curriculum and if visitors were scheduled for today, that was fine, but they could be satisfied by watching students take a test if one was scheduled.
Therefore, I was surprised to see several teachers using Cooperative Learning groups. Other classes were taught by rote repetition and lecture. Given the press for success, it was most ironic that most teachers did not seem at all concerned if students were not listening. Often boys (rarely girls) were talking and clowning around or sleeping and the teacher just kept talking. I think it’s part of the philosophy that it’s the students’ responsibility to get the knowledge and the teachers’ job to make it available.
We had several lively question and answer periods with the principal and teachers. They had many questions for us, too.
A speaker we heard in Toyko, Tomoko Yanagi, is a high school English teacher here in Hiroshima. At the Peace Education seminar, she told the story of her father who is a A-bomb survivor -- a Hibakusha. Several of us contacted her , and she’s meeting us for dinner tonight. I’m looking forward to that conversation.

Yasunishi Elementary School

Today was amazing! The principal at Yasunishi Elementary School had us line up with her to greet the students as they came in the school gates. What a treat to watch the mingled surprise, fear, and excitement that crossed the faces of the students as they rounded the corner -- some careening, late, into the schoolyard -- and caught sight of 16 Americans lined up in a row. They mostly recovered and started yelling “Hello” and flashing the peace sign, but some of the more timid hid behind friends or older siblings. Our official welcome started in a program with performances by the various grade groups. Then pairs of students -- some holding hands for courage -- stepped forward and presented us with gifts.
The most important gifts of the day, however, came from interacting with the students. We led English lessons, tried calligraphy and let the 6th graders try out their English on us while we shared their hot lunch -- served by the children. After lunch students cleaned the rooms, halls and bathrooms. I have the pictures to prove it.
Of the many interesting things I saw, the most unique had to be the instruments students were playing in Music Class. When students started passing them out in yellow cases, I thought they might be the recorders we’d heard at the assembly. To my surprise, they were little keyboards. They were powered by students blowing into a tube, which produced a sound similar to an accordian.
Although the students goofed around like kids anywhere, they knew when to settle down and get to work. The first graders had yellow covers on their backpacks, so the parent volunteers that watched students walk safely to and from school could easily see and look out for them. On their desks were the ubiquitous tennis balls to protect the floor. The took math notes in gridded notebooks with squares for each character. When I asked a girl at lunch if she liked movies, she answered, “High School Musical!” Kids are more alike than different.

Tuesday's Official Meetings

There was a concrete school building very near the A-bomb Hypocenter on August 5, 1946. Honkawa Elementary School was devasted, not only by the blast, but by the fire that followed. Only 2 students survived. The shell of the school was used first as a first aid center and then as a burial ground -- mounds of bodies were cremated every day for weeks.
The ruins of a classroom were used as a school until the school could be rebuilt, covering the charred remaining walls. Eventually a new school was built, and the original damaged concrete walls uncovered and made into a museum. The beautiful flowers in the museum/school courtyard contrast the contents of museum.
After our museum visit, the rest of the day was official. I delivered the welcoming seat to the Deputy Mayor. All meetings like this are very formal in Japan. Looking at the city official watching for her like a Secret Service agent, you would have thought a President or the Pope was arriving. The Deputy Mayor arrived and I delivered the official introductory speech from our group. There were a lot of speeches and bowing. Finally, the Deputy Mayor formally gave me gifts -- a request to Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten to join the international organization Mayors for Peace and a beautiful book of drawings and poems by A-bomb survivors.
Lunch was indescribable. Hiroshima is famous for a dish called okonomiyaki, and we learned how to cook it. I have the certificate to prove it. It’s cooked on a hot grill with layers, starting with a crepe-like layer, dried bonito powder, a MOUND of cabbage, crispy tempura pieces, green onion, sprouts, port, noodles, egg, okonomi sauce, and seaweed. Several ingredients were grilled separately and the whole thing was turned with 2 spatulas several times. It was -- you guessed it -- delicious, Oishii!