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 b
ut 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 sing
ers 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.
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 b
ut 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 sing
ers 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment