Wednesday, October 18, 2006 3:45 p.m.

Konnichi wa!

It is 1:45 a.m. in Tulsa! I don't know how I'll ever adjust to the time change again. I may have to take a week off...just kidding!

We just had our last meeting and presentations and tonight we have a final reception. I leave for the airport at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. It will be a loooong day of travel.

It has been a wonderful trip, more than I ever imagined it could be. Remember, teachers, this trip is offered to educators in all 50 states so if you are interested in applying, let me know and I'll give you the information. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

I'll try and post some final photos after I get home, so check the blog again in a couple of days.

Sayonara!

Painting of a monkey at the National Museum.

Samurai armor at the National Museum

The public bath. You put a wooden stool over by a faucet. Spray yourself, soap up and rinse. Then soak in the tub.

Breakfast at the ryokan.

The whole Joyo group at the ryokan in Uji.

The ancient-style kiln in Uji.

The river in Uji.

I’m drinking green tea at the shrine. We were taught the correct way to turn the tea bowl and wipe it. You never drink the tea from the front of the bowl. You humble yourself and turn the bowl two times to the left before you take a sip. Then you wipe your lip mark off the bowl.

This Buddha was in the cemetery at the shrine.

This shrine was built for the man who brought sweet potatoes to this part of Japan. Our hero.

One of the teachers asked for a flag. The city officials had to search for a few days, but found some in a city warehouse, and our guide, Moko gave us each one.

This is a street in the oldest part of Kyoto. It is very narrow and lined with tearooms and restaurants.

This is the slipper sanitizer in my host father’s dentist office. You push a button and clean slippers pop out the bottom. You wear these while you’re in the office. When you leave, you put the slippers in the top and they drop down and are sanitized for the next person.

Tables are hung with very thick “skirts” in the winter. A heater is placed under the table and then your feet and legs are tucked under the skirt and kept warm in the winter. This is a very common practice and my host family told me they use a table skirt. This picture was taken in department store and lots of these skirts were on display.

The Hippo Family Club meeting. The meeting room was very big and covered with tatami mats. The “windows” were rice paper in wood frames

Bamboo grows everywhere here. The roots spread everywhere and I was told they survive earthquakes very well.

My bedroom at my host family. The futon was laid out on the floor, and the “sheets” were sort of like terry towels, and then a big comforter covered the whole thing. It was actually very comfortable and I slept really well.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:00 p.m.

I’m back in Tokyo, but I’ll try to catch up on the last couple of days.

Monday morning we met with a group of parents in Joyo and discussed some education issues. There is a big concern here over the decline in population. Every school we visited had many empty classrooms. The parents said a major concern is that the majority of the population is aging and the young people will not be able to care for the older people.

We discovered that the public schools here are not free. Parents pay from $70.00 to $110.00 a month for elementary and junior high school. Senior high school is not mandatory so parents pay much more, around $1000.00 a month. They also pay for the required uniforms and any extra activities. The parents guessed that about 20% of families get state assistance. And many students go to “cram” schools, juku, on weekends and evenings to learn more and get ready for the very difficult exams the students take. High exam scores are required for students to get into good high schools and universities, and these schools also cost a lot.

The parents seemed satisfied with the large class sizes and want their students to become productive members of society.
We discovered that parents and teachers on the other side of the world have many of the same concerns as we do here in America.

Monday afternoon we had a brief tour of Joyo and visited some temples. We were served green tea and sweet potato cakes at one shrine. It was beautiful.

Late in the afternoon we went to a ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel. The floors were covered with tatami mats and we ate very traditional food. We were also served sake and beer with our dinner, and we slept on futons. Green tea is grown in this part of Japan so we have had green tea to drink, greet tea cookies, shampoo, soap, candy, you name it.

The ryokan was in Uji, an ancient town up in the mountains. Before dinner, a group of us went for a long walk up the mountain to a pottery school. We watched some people make pottery and then the owner took us up a hill behind the studio to see a very old fashioned kiln made of pressed mud and straw. It is heated with wood and it takes days to fire it up to make the pottery. It was huge and fascinating. This way of making pottery is probably 1000 years old, so it was wonderful to see the kiln. And, of course, I bought a few things.

The ryokan was right on the river so we slept with the windows open and listened to the river all night long. It was great, but in the morning most of us wished we could have Cheerios and milk instead of fish, rice, unrecognizable vegetables and … green tea.

We took the bullet train back to Tokyo and a few of us went to the National Museum of Japan. I saw beautiful kimono, paintings on rice paper and silk, and samurai armor and swords. Wow!! After seeing these things only in books, this was an amazing sight. And, of course, I did a little shopping.

And I admit we found an Italian restaurant and had pizza for dinner.

Tomorrow morning, each group makes a presentation of their prefecture visit. I am introducing our presentation. Then in the evening we have a final reception, and I leave for home early Thursday morning. I hope to post another message before I come home, but I may not have time.

What an amazing trip this has been!

Sayonara!

This is my host family, the Murakami's.
Standing in back are Motoki and Tomotaka. They are both university students studying to be dentists.
In front are Kazutaka, a dentist, Masako a house wife, and Noriko, a senior in high school.
Noriko lived in England last year with a family and went to school there. Her English was perfect (with a British accent).

Saturday October 14, 2006 8:30 p.m.

It is Saturday evening. I’m at my host family’s house in Joyo city. I’ll try and catch up with the last few days.
I spent yesterday at an elementary school. It was a very busy place. Almost every class had 35 – 40 students, even the 1st grade, and 1st grade was the only class with an aide. There was no small goup instruction, anywhere, two special education groups, with 5 or 6 kids. There was no pull-out for reading or any other special classes.

The entire education system is controlled by the central government in Japan (with an emphasis on the word “control”). Every class in every grade level was doing exactly the same thing at the same time, all day, so, for example, when you walked down the hall and passed 3 third grade rooms, every teacher was doing exactly the same thing.

We also saw no disciplining of students except in the most gentle way. Things like running in the hallway (there was a lot of that), general rough-housing, and talking while the teacher was giving a lesson, were almost completely tolerated and ignored. When we met with a few teachers and administrators after school, we asked about that. They said that it is expected that the parents are teaching the children what behaviors are acceptable in society, so the school does almost no disciplining. However, later when I talked to the 17year old daughter in my host family, she said teachers are always yelling at the kids to be quiet and settle down. So I’m not quite sure what really goes on. We definitely saw and heard many contradictions during our school visits. But even with the large class sizes, lack of individual attention and noisy atmosphere, when the teacher gave a specific direction, every student responded.

I was very impressed with the positive attitude of the teachers and the happy atmosphere of the school. There was lots of energy and the kids were enthusiastic and very friendly. They were very eager to answer questions, tell us what was going on and correct our mistakes. Of course, they spoke almost no English and we spoke no Japanese, but we still communicated very well. It was a great day.

(The teachers in my group have had many lively discussions about the huge differences we see in the school structure, behavior, lessons, etc. I would love to discuss these differences with teachers at home to hear more opinions. Other topics for discussion that have come out of this trip - intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards, instilling self-motivation, boys’ behavior, the purpose of testing – to rank students or as a diagnostic tool for individual needs and strengths assessment.)

Classes I observed – Reading, home technology, music, calligraphy, science, computer, math. Art, PE. I ate lunch with the 1st grade. They made lots of origami and gave it to me as gifts.

It was a long day, but I found a bit more energy to go into Kyoto for a few hours.

This morning my host family picked me up at 10 a.m. We visited at their house for a while, then walked to the grocery, toured the back garden, had udon noodles for lunch. I took a quick nap because I was so exhausted, and then we went to the Hippo Family Club meeting. 20 people from toddlers to middle age adults gather in a community meeting room in Uji (right next to Joyo) to practice learning about other languages and cultures. My family has been a part of the group for over 10 years. We went around the circle and introduced ourselves in English, for my benefit, and then for 2 hours we listened to tapes of songs, which we danced to, and conversations in Japanese, Spanish, English, German and Russian. The organization is in Japan and Korea, and they sponsor study abroad and other cross-cultural activities. It was amazing. I’ll have to look them up in the Internet and see what I can find out.

We had Japanese curried chicken for dinner with salad and fresh fruit, a soccer game on TV, a Japanese-style shower, and early bed for me. My bedroom was an 8 tatami mat room with a futon in the middle of the floor and one low table. The”curtains” are sliding wood-frame doors with rice paper. Beautiful.
Oyasumi nasai.

It’s now Sunday morning. I slept over 11 hours! I hope to take lots of photos of the house this morning because so many things are so different.

After returning to our hotel, a group of us went into Kyoto for a few hours. Lots of walking and talking and eventually a Spanish restaurant where I gat a cheese pizza! It tasted really, really good after all the Japanese food.

It’s now after midnight and I need to get some sleep.

I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to post again because of our travels, but I will as soon as I can.

Oyasumi nasai.

The kids were very happy to pose for pictures and they always give the peace sign.

The map of the world has Japan at the center, just like our maps have the U.S. at the center.

The schedule is posted on the board daily. (I think.)

The boys all take judo as part of the PE program. The girls will also start taking judo classes soon.

The music class seemed very chaotic until the teacher asked the kids to sing. They all stood up and sang a beautiful song.

None of the schools have grass on the playgrounds or around the buildings. The houses do not have yards either.

Rubbing your lunch tray on your hair to get static electricity seems to be a favorite activity.

The kids take turns serving lunch in their classrooms. It was very organized. We had rice with deep fried vegetable and shrimp patties, chicken and vegetable soup and some other vegetables.
When everyone finished, they cleaned their bowls, stacked them in carriers, and put their milk bottles and paper in recycle bags. Nothing is wasted and very little is thrown away. No one here uses napkins, so we have to be very neat. I was given chopsticks, but the kids all had their own set that they wash and use every day.

The kids eat lunch in their classrooms. Right before they begin to eat, the teacher calls everyone to order and they fold their hands, say a few words and then begin to eat. I'm not sure what it meant but I'll try and find out.

These kids are in a mechanical arts class, what we used to call shop. They are making wooden boxes. It was very interesting and a little different from what I would see in a class here.

The kids did not ask any questions. They did not ask the teacher for help or for approval. But they did not wear safety goggles, or gloves or use any special safety measures. That part was a little scary.

At the end of the day the kids have clubs, sort of like elective classes, but they don't have to participate. There are lots of sports clubs and a few culture clubs. I went to hear the brass band. They were great. They played American songs for us. The conductor is a musician himself, but he teaches math at school.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 10:00 p.m.

Today we visited a senior high school. We met with students and teachers, visited classes, ate lunch and had a tour. It was very interesting. The students were great, happy to try our their English with us.

The first thing we did was visit a calligraphy classroom. We made our own signature blocks. First, we chose a word, (I chose hana, which means flower.) and copied the kanji character for it onto a small block. Then we carved it out, covered it with red ink and printed it. Japanese artists create these blocks with their signatures on them and then use them to stamp their names on their artwork. It was difficult, but fun. The instructor and some of his students helped us.

I had two conversations with students who are studying English. First I spoke with two boys who were supposed to interview me for a newspaper article. They really didn’t know much English, so we had a hard time communicating. They used their translator, which looks like a little electronic dictionary. They type in a word in Japanese and it comes up in English. We had a difficult time.

Later I talked with two girls. We had a better time. They asked lots of questions and they were able to answer most of my questions. I showed them pictures of Tulsa and my trip and we talked about the photos. We wrote words in English because they had an easier time reading than speaking.

After we left the school, we stopped by a soccer park. Joyo has a professional team that has won its regional competition and is going to compete for the national title. One of the guys on our tour bought one of their professional jerseys. It’s purple with Japanese writing on the front and back. It’s really nice, but it cost over $100.00.

This evening I took a quick trip into Kyoto and walked around a bit. It was a beautiful night, but it’s been a very long day.

Sayonara

Here I am carving my signature block.

These are the two boys who interviewed me for a school newspaper in English. Can you see why we had a bit of a problem?

this is the lunch brought by one of the students - rice and vegetables.

This is the lunch we were served at school. It has vegetables, rice, tempura, fruit and lots of mystery foods.

Tsukie and Chizuru practiced their English with me.

This man was a teacher at the school and a karate champion. We called him "karate guy." He and another man demonstated a "fight" for us. It was pretty wild. Karate guy really hit the other man hard and knocked him down a few times. We oohed and aahed.

Our guide Moko is always smiling.

This is the mayor of Joyo. He's not sleeping, just looking down.

October 10, 2006 9:00 p.m.

Konnichi wa!
This morning we met the mayor of Joyo. It was all very official. We sat around a very big conference table in his office building, and he and a few other city officials came in. They were wearing dark business suits, of course, but he had a little red feather pinned to his lapel. I don’t know what that means, but I’ll try and find out. He made a speech, another man made a speech, and official gifts were exchanged. A special locally grown green tea was served to all of us and then he came up to each of us and bowed and offered us his business card. We each gave him one of our cards in exchange. This exchange of cards is a bid deal here, and it has to be done with the proper ceremony. And official photos were taken. I hope I get a copy.

Then he answered a few questions and left. A few other education officials came in and answered our questions about the school system in Joyo. It was all very official, and they all sounded a lot like politicians. I guess politicians sound the same in almost any country, in any language.

Then we went into Kyoto for lunch (Italian pasta and garlic bread!) and a visit to the Kyoto University of Education. We had a chance to hear from the president of the university and then we talked in small groups with the students. I spoke to a very nice young woman for over an hour. We asked each other lots of questions and talked about school, teaching, our families and our homes. It was great. I think we all learned a lot.

We came back to Joyo, and had dinner at a sushi train restaurant. Little plates of sushi, fruit, desserts and drinks sit on a moving conveyer belt and you just take off the plates you want as they pass by. (There is a sushi train restaurant in Tulsa, but this one is a little better.) Moko was with us so she could tell us all about the food as it passed by.

We ended the evening with a quick trip to a mall, yes, a mall, right down the street from the hotel.

Sayonara.

This is a typical house in Joyo. There are no yards, and the house are very close together. They are built right on the narrow streets with no sidewalks. The streets are one lane only, so the cars and buses are quite small.

The public library in Joyo looks a lot like our libraries.


Do you recognize any of these books?

Here I am digging sweet potatoes in Joyo.