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!

Hiroshima University and the Peace Memorial

Today we finally got a look at the countryside. We actually got quick flashes of countryside on the bullet train, but traveling out of the city on a bus to Hiroshima University took us through small towns and rice fields; lush, green hills and lots of people on bicycles. The meeting at the University was enlightening. After the delivery of many speeches -- something we’re getting used to by now -- we divided into smaller groups for a more intimate conversation with university professors and students. After much mental calculation and conversion from yen to dollars, our host professor said that it costs about $5000 a year to attend. Several of our group were ready to sent their children.
The first part of the afternoon was spent strolling through the lovely Shukkeien Gardens, filled with ponds and singing birds. It’s beauty was starkly contrasted with the sights we saw at the Peace Memorial. The A-Bomb Dome, whose ruins were left standing as a reminder, is just one of many monuments and museums to visit in the park. There were many school children among the tourists. The all were wearing yellow hats, which our guide told us makes them easy to spot in a crowd. She laughed and said that she didn't have to worry about spotting our group. Many of the children brought paper cranes folded in memory of Sadako, a girl who developed cancer after surviving the initial bomb. Read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes for her full story.

Artifacts, memoirs of survivors, and descriptions of the awful events which led up to and followed that tragic event on August 6, 1945, would convince any visitor to join with the survivors in saying, “Never again!”

Sunday Travels

Today was supposed to be just a travel day, and travel we did -- this time by bullet train to Hiroshima. As we sped through the countryside, we got glimpses of mountains (even Mt. Fuji several different times), fields, towns and cities. If it
had been a slower train, I might have gotten some great pictures, but as it was I had another great photo opportunity after we arrived in Hiroshima.
Because we arrived early in the afternoon, our guide arranged for the bus to take us on a side trip before settling in at our hotel. After traveling about an hour, we took a ferry to an island with the

Today was supposed to be just a travel day, and travel we did -- this time by bullet train to Hiroshima. As we sped through the countryside, we got glimpses of mountains (even Mt. Fuji several different times), fields, towns and cities. If it Miyajima Island and its famous shrine. The distinctive red gate in the harbor is a famous Japanese photo.
We ate at a little family-owned restaurant near our hotel. When the menu was only in Japanese, we had to all go back outside, so we could each point to the food in the window that we wanted to try.
This hotel is beautiful if not as large as the New Otani in Tokyo. The rooms are comfortable, stocked with everything you’d need, but SMALL!!! By the time our bags are delivered tomorrow, we won’t even have walking space.

Adventures on the Town

Today (Saturday) was our only free day. Some people took side trips out of Tokyo, which were expensive and required a good portion of the day being used up going to and from their destination. A group of us decided to explore a couple of the many sights to see here in the Tokyo.
The first order of business figuring out how to get where we wanted to go -- easier said than done. We’d already had the harrowing taxi ride, so we decided to brave Tokyo’s efficient but complex subway system. It’s a virtual warren of color-coded tracks intertwining beneath the city. I’m sure we provided some amusing anecdotes for native Tokyo-ites (??Tokyo-ans??) as they described observing a group of middle-aged Americans poring over a map and retracing their steps before at last boarding a train. We nearly headed off in totally wrong directions but ultimately made no errors.
It was a beautiful day for strolling through the Imperial Palace Gardens. We could identify some flowers and trees and mis-identified bamboo before we came across the real thing. People were sitting in the shade on benches or on the ground under a tree. One man was sleeping, stretched out on the ground in the middle of a lawn. Although we saw homeless people later in the park near the National Museum, this man seemed just to be enjoying the sunshine.
After another subway adventure, we opted for some culture in the National Museum. It sits in Ueno Park, which is filled with tree-lined paths, people of every sort, street performers, and the Japanese version of an ice cream truck -- this one again serving interesting flavored soft-served ice cream with no identifying flavors, at least not in English.
I was intrigued by watching a number of people eating a food that I couldn’t identify. It was long and red on the outside (at first I thought it was a red banana-like fruit I’ve seen here) with a yellow inside. People were buying them from a vendor, breaking them open , peeling the skin, and eating the inside. They smelled good, so I decided to buy one. When I stood in line, I noticed that they were shaped more like a sweet potato. It was almost too hot to hold and break apart, but it turned out to be some kind of potato. Oishii!
Tomorrow we take the bullet train to Hiroshima. Another new experience.

Contrasts

Somehow it’s Friday already. The morning’s presentation was emotionally draining. We heard Tomoko Yanagi, a high school English teacher whose father is a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing and Kejiro Matsushima, who is a survivor himself. Tomoko spoke well, but the telling of her father’s story did not prepare us to hear Matsushima-san tell us what happened to him, minute-by-minute on that fateful day. He kept talking about how lucky he was and thanked Buddha for his good fortune, all the while describing the horrors he witnessed. I will be bringing back a DVD of his talk that I hope to share with students.
On a lighter note, this afternoon we heard a lecture that was advertised as a presentation on traditional Japanese theater but was so much more. We did have a history lesson but also learned about the music that accompanies the various kinds of theater (we sang a song that the speaker said the Japanese people think is traditional, but it’s sung to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne”) and saw a Nihon Buyo dance accompanied by singers and a woman playing shamisen, a stringed instrument. I had seen the dancer with her daughter earlier in the hotel and asked to take their pictures -- the mother in traditional kimono and her teenaged daughter. Imagine my surprise when she came out on stage!
Before the day ended, we met with the group who is going to Hiroshima on Sunday. Our guide told us that we were the “lucky ones” because there is so much to see in that city. We will be visiting 4 different schools during our week there. It was announced that I will be giving the speech of appreciation to the mayor of the city on behalf of the group--no pressure there. Our guide said that I had been selected because I was the highest member of the group. It wasn’t clear if she meant that I was the oldest or merely had the highest degree.
Tomorrow is our only free day, so tonight while we’re out looking for more mysterious food to sample, we’ll be making plans for our next adventure.

Thursday Lectures

Jet lag finally caught up to me. Luckily being awake at 5:00 a.m. has its advantages. I got a picture out my window of the setting full moon against the Tokyo downtown skyline at sunup. Since I was up anyway, I went for a walk in the gardens I had been viewing from my window.-- waterfall, koi ponds, lush foliage, singing birds -- simply gorgeous!
After a sleepless night, I had doubts about a day of lectures. Luckily all our Japanese speakers were engaging and spoke about complex subjects at a level I could understand.
I had read about the history of the Japanese education system, but found myself fascinated by our keynote speaker, Mr. Katsuhide Kusahara (Vice-President of Tabushoku University) and his description of problems their schools are facing. He talked about a new plan called ESD (Education for Sustained Development), which the Japanese Prime Minister recently presented at the G8 summit, calling it an “opportunity to reconfigure the very essence of education.”
Prof. Takahiro Miyao, of the International University of Japan, explained the Japanese economy in simple enough terms that even I got a rudimentary grasp of the GPD, PPP, and BIG MAC index as well as NEETs and Freeters. Ask me when I get back to see if I can still remember what they are.
Mr. Yuji Tsushima, Diet member of the House of Representatives , and Prof. Hiroya Ichikawa of Akita International University spoke about government and the relationship between the U.S., Japan, and the global economy. Whatever meeting Tsushima-san rushed off to must have been important because I saw him on the news the next morning. Unfortunately, I had on a Japanese news program, so I have no idea what they were saying about him.
After sitting all day, it was great to get out for our first free night on the town. After a thrilling taxi ride to shop at the Hard Rock Café (most side streets are very narrow), we returned to the hotel and walked to a 100 Yen Store -- like our Dollar Stores. We then wandered around, looking at pictures of food on menus that restaurants post out front. We finally decided on one, mostly because we were tired of walking. Idt We didn’t know what we were ordering when we pointed at the pictures on the menu -- but it was all delicious. Later we found out that it was actually a Chinese restaurant.
Tomorrow we see some Kabuki Theater.

Sightseeing in Tokyo

Today (it’s Wednesday here) was busy. It was interesting to see salad and vegetables served alongside bacon and eggs for breakfast-- the latter a concession to American guests. I’m learning how many things we assume to be a certain way -- what side is the UP escalator , for instance. We went sightseeing and started at the Diet, which is the Japanese Parliament. There were many groups of school children on field trips, dying to get their picture taken.
We then went to the Asakusa area, named after a shrine that was having a big celebration today. We had a traditional tempura lunch for which we did have to sit on the floor -- more food whose origin was unclear, although we made a guess on everything.
We had about 1.5 hours for shopping and looking at all the shrines. There was soft-serve ice cream in the flavors you’d expect in addition to unexpected flavors such as bean curd, green tea, and plum. I tasted the green tea flavor, which was aptly named -- not a flavor I would associate with ice cream. Another fun thing I saw reminded me of the state fair. A man had a booth set up with bulls-eye targets where you could pay to try to shoot one with a bow and arrow. I saw a girl hit the target -- a lot of bells were rung, but I didn’t see her get a prize. The temple, shrines, and gardens were beautiful. Many people left money or burned incense in honor of ancestors.
Tonight’s official welcoming reception involved a lot of speeches, plentiful drinks, and more new foods to try. Tomorrow I hope to visit the hotel’s expansive gardens, waterfall, and koi pond that I can see from my window that looks out on downtown Tokyo.

San Francisco and on to Tokyo

Orientation in San Francisco started out with bad news and good news. Listening to lists of things to do (take off your shoes before stepping on wooden floors) and not to do (chew gum in public) was long but not the bad news. The director announced that because of budget cuts, our group would be the last of 12 years of JFMF (Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund) teacher programs. We felt very lucky and sorry for those who have applied several times and not gotten to go yet.
The good news was the reception at the Japanese Consulate on a hill overlooking the Bay. We got a preview of Japanese food before heading back to the hotel to try and sleep.
Sunday/Monday brought 21 hours of being awake, 12 of which were the plane ride which started an hour late and then took 2 hours longer than anticipated. They showed 4 full-length movies.
As exhausted as we were, most of us opted to go out to our first dinner in Tokyo with volunteers who were former JFMF participants. The guide for 5 of us was a retired economics professor. He took us to a restaurant within walking distance of our unbelievable hotel -- luxury, individual rooms. The tables at the restaurant were low, but there was a pit for our legs, so we didn’t have to sit on the floor. Our host ordered a variety of foods to share, and we often didn’t know what we were eating, but it was all Oishii -- delicious. The wood block in the picture is the "key" to the cubby where we left our shoes.

We were literally falling asleep in our plates by the time we headed back.

Greater KC Japan Festival

I’ve been so busy getting ready to leave for Japan, that I almost passed up a chance to attend the Japan Festival in Kansas City on Saturday. I’m glad I took a break and went. It was an incredible preview of some of the things I’ll be experiencing when I begin my Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund study tour on October 12. The festival had an impressive slate of performances. I got to see a Yosakoi Dance Group; Ms.Kuniko Yamaoto, a talented storyteller ; classical Japanese music; and a hilarious show by Mr. Kaishi Katsura, the King of English Raguko. Before and after shows I saw exhibits of ikebana (flower arranging), bonsai , kimonos, hina dolls and samurai armor. It was impossible to see everything, but it was like getting a sampling of what I will see during my three weeks in Toyko and Hiroshima.

Preparation

It seemed like years away, and now it's almost here. My trip to Japan!