We took this picture in front of the Ikuo Hirayama museum; there was a bus stopped outside and all of the people were looking at me in my kimono; it's not every day that one sees an American in this part of Japan, especially not one decked out in full kimono (I even had the painful shoes!!).

Sunday after lunch (which was okonamiyaki- one of my new favorites), the grandmother, mom, and aunt dressed me in kimono and then we went all over taking pictures. Putting on a kimono is a very complicated process! There are at least 10 parts one has to wear, and you can't do it alone; it took proabably 45 minutes to get me all dressed. It was very fun, though. The obi I am wearing in this picture (obi is the patterned belt-like thing in the middle) cost 800,000 yen [that's about $8,000!!!]. We were taking so many pictures, I felt like a Japanese movie star.

After the temple and museum we went to Sunset Beach where, appropriately enough, we watched the sun set. It was so beautiful. There was no one on the beach, but they told me that in the summer it is packed. I know I would hang out here all summer long if I lived in the area!

Saturday, after my Japanese dad and aunt picked me up at the Mihara Community Center, we travelled on ferry to the island of Setoda (in the Seto Inland Sea) where they live. We had a big lunch (the mom cooks sooooooo well), and then went to see some of the sites around town, one of which was this beautiful temple. Nearby we visited the Ikuo Hirayama Museum. Ikuo Hirayama is a famous Japanese artist who now lives and works in Tokyo; I really enjoyed seeing his art and my Japanese dad bought me some prints at the museum.

My Japanese host family in the Japanese garden in front of their Japanese house (they actually have 2 houses- a larger, Japanese-style house and a smaller Western-style house next door). The Japanese house has tatami rooms throughout, while the Western house only has the one tatmi room upstairs. We spent most of our time in the Western house (which is a lot more like what I'm used to in the US).

Tatami bedroom- tatami mats are sort of like a woven grass mat; they are very durable and can last for a long time. You never walk on tatami wearing shoes! Tatami floors are very traditional in Japan. The pile of blankets here actually became the bed I slept on Saturday night (it's called a futon, but is different from the futons most people have in college).

Last day of school

Today we were visiting Josuikan Sr. High School (grades 10-12). It was very different from the Jr. High, but a very interesting visit. The school had a variety of programs that we got to see, such as their International English program- their English teachers were from Canada and Australia and the English classes did a funny performance for us. The school also has a Performing Arts Course. The students in that course did a demonstration for us of some of the songs and dances from their recent musical. They were amazing!

We also did more calligraphy (just as I start to get better we won't be going to any more schools!), ate lunch with teachers from the school, and visited the after-school clubs (one of which was cheerleading- they were really good and did lots of acrobatics, but it was kind of unusual to see an entirely Japanese cheerleading squad; cheerleading is something I have always thought of as being "All American").

I ate sushi for dinner with some of the guys from the group. It was really great sushi- so fresh! Tonight I've been getting everything packed to get ready to spend the weekend with my new Japanese family. I'm a little nervous, and hoping that they speak English (or Spanish)! My Japanese is getting better, but it's far from great. [I did almost get to use my sentence, "Where is the light?" the other day. The "where is" part has come in extremely handy, I just have to substitute different things for "light." Also, remember how I could count to 999 but didn't know 1000? Yeah, that's kind of been a problem. I think I'll learn the word for 1000 tonight; prices use that number all the time!]

Many shout-outs need to be made, and somewhere I have a list of who all needs one. However, I think I've packed the list, so you may have to wait. I have really enjoyed hearing from you all; what a treat for me. M.M.- I will remember our friend in my prayers; tell her that I'm thinking of her and take care of yourself, ok?

I may not be able to post again until Sunday (depending on my internet situation with the fam.). Hope you all had a lovely holiday and enjoy your long weekend!

At the end of the day, we got to see some of the after-school club activities. Although we were tired from a long day, some of us participated with the Kendo club. Kendo is a kind of martial art involving bamboo swords. I actually hit kids over the head with my sword on purpose [ok, so they were wearing helmets]. I think it is a very good activity for relieving stress.

After lunch and cleaning time (the students are responsible for cleaning all of the school, even the bathrooms, library, and halls), we hung out with some students. They were really sweet and I enjoyed communicating with them even though we don't speak the same language. It was striking to me how similar 7th and 8th graders are, even those who live on different continents. I was really glad to be at the Jr. High school and all day long I kept saying, "Man, I love middle schoolers." I think some of the other teachers in our group thought I was crazy (maybe I am). :)

This was my Thanksgiving lunch. There's probably not a whole lot more to be said for that. [you can't see them in this picture, but in the top right hand corner of the box there were these little tiny fish that still had their eyes and had sesame seeds on them- I elected not to eat those for Thanksgiving.]

During the morning, we met with the principal, vice-principal, and others and then visited classes. I visited another calligraphy class because I think it's so awesome and got some more pointers on improving mine, but I'm still not a very good calligraphy student.

So much to be thankful for... what a Thanksgiving Day we had here. We were at Daini Jr. High School, a school for kids in what we call 7th-9th grade in the US (the way the Japanese name it is different). It was an awesome day. At our welcome reception in the morning, we were greeted by the band who played the Star Spangled Banner, the Japanese National Anthem, and some other really wonderful songs. I gave the thank you speech for the group, and then a group of 9th grade girls did this really complicated gymnastic dance called the "Soran" (it's really awesome to see!). Finally, the ENTIRE school sang 2 songs in 3 and 4 part harmony. It was incredible. We all shed a few tears because it was so special and touching.

As soon as we got out of school, we boarded the Bullet Train to go to the Peace Park in Hiroshima. Although the International Peace Museum was closed by the time we got there, we walked around the site where the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. The A-bomb Dome pictured here was left exactly as it stood after the bombing. Everyone inside it was killed instantly and it's a wonder this much of the building remains. It was very much like visiting Ground Zero in New York. I was glad to have the experience.

My final product got posted on the board (that's it on the right) most likely because I was a guest rather than because I was good at it. It says "Happy New Year."

In the 3rd grade, students begin learning how to do calligraphy for some of the more simple kanji characters. I'm not a very good student, although my 3rd grader teacher did an excellent job of teaching me.

Wednesday- Mihara Elementary School; we spent the entire day at this school, which was fun, but exhausting! I don't know how elementary teachers do it! My home room was with 5th graders. This is us having lunch in the room.

A very special shout-out to...

• Melanie, who I somehow left off the other shout-out list(s)
• Lincoln, who I know would e-mail me if he could use his hands for things other than hitting himself in the head with his rattle (and if he knew how to read and write)
• Carrie H., the single greatest foreign language program director on the earth
• Michelle B.- somehow I left you off, too!
• Linda F.- thanks for your well wishes
• Dan-dan and Mom-mom, I think I have your e-mail address fixed now
• Mimi, Ollie, and Mitzi the dog
• Janelle and Fernando just because I miss them and was so happy to talk to them tonight. :)
• anyone else I may have left off...

Many people put coins on the small Buddha statues that are around the temple (on their heads, hands, laps, anywhere they'll balance), perhaps for good luck or as an offering (or just because they're given a coin by their mothers, as seems to be the case here).

Inside the main tatami room, Butsuji Temple.

After lunch, we went on a bus tour of some sights around Mihara- first waaaaaaay up a mountain-ish thing where we could see the Inland Sea and other things for many miles around. Then we were taken to visit Butsuji Temple. It was a beautiful temple, made even more so by the changing colors of the leaves.

Some of the women, dressed in kimono, who served us at the tea ceremony

Gouji Ihara, Mihara Board of Education, and I at our sushi lunch: What a fun lunch! We had maki sushi (rolls), tempura (that still had the head attached), edamame, miso soup, apples cut in the shape of rabbits and some other things. There were 4 teachers at each table and various Japanese administrators/members of the B.O.E. This man, Gouji Ihara, was teaching me some Japanese words, mostly about sushi (meishi= rice, tamago= egg, shitake= mushroom, nori= seaweed, anago= a kind of fish). He was very funny. I gave him one of my business cards but he didn't have one of his to reciprocate so he gave me his name tag.

What a day! We began by visiting the City Hall of Mihara, where the superintendent and Board of Education treated us to a very full morning. We were provided entertainment by some women who played traditional Japanese instruments (sinobue- a type of traditional flute [Reiko-san pronounces it "fruit"] and koto- a long, canoe-shaped stringed instrument that you play by plucking the strings). We were then given a chance to attempt to play the instruments...my 7th grade flute skills proved mighty useful; who knew I was a natural at Japanese traditional flute? Afterwards, we had welcome speeches from the superintendent and others, then we intriduced ourselves in Japanese and all the Japanese introduced themselves to us in English. After the welcome ceremony, we were treated to a traditional tea ceremony, which is what Sue, David, Craig ["Claig"], and are are getting ready for in this picture.

Markets, Museums, Massages, and Mihara

Yesterday was Sunday, which now seems like a very long time ago. It was nice...what an incredible thing that the Japanese government is doing here by not only giving us a paid trip with the opportunity to learn about the life, culture, and educational system of Japan, but by giving us free time to explore their country. We are blessed.

Anyhow, yesterday Janelle and I ate breakfast then headed on foot to find a flea market near Shinjuku station. We got a little lost along the way, asked several people for directions, and bought some tasty treats from a convenience store (do you know they make green tea Kit Kats? They're pretty delicious and have an entire flavor process). I bought a kimono, a wooden Japanese doll, and a wooden box with kanji characters on it at the flea market. Afterwards, we headed to Ueno Park, walked around the park a while [I was amazed to see how many homeless people live in the park- Tokyo is a big, expensive city, but I never realized there was such a problem with homelessness in a country with such a social structure]. We walked through a very interesting cemetary, visited the International Children's Library, and visited the National Museum, where we also had lunch.

Afterwards, we headed back towards the hotel and went to a place to get Shiatsu massages. It was wonderful!! The lady really knew what she was doing and rubbed a lot of tension out of some of the sore spots on my back. I could hardly get off the table at the end of the hour and felt loopy for the rest of the night (I'm even a little sore today, but in a yeah-there's-so-much-less-tension-in-my-back way).

Today, I had to part ways with my new friends (which made me really sad!), and headed to the small town of Mihara. We flew to Hiroshima, actually, and visited the University there this afternoon. We had the chance to visit with some teachers and students in the English Education department and it was quite interesting.

We've just arrived at the hotel, which is very different from the one in Tokyo. In fact, it feels kind of like being on a overnight train (well, a little bigger than that). However, they have high-speed wireless internet, so I really can't complain that much! We're going to wander around the city and have dinner shortly, so I"d better end this.

Special shout out to Simon, T'Kheya, and Allison for their e-mails! Keep 'em coming, guys (especially since I have fast internet now...I'll be able to check them much easier)!

The Japan I've been looking for

Today was so wonderful. It may go down as one of my "best days" (the others were a day in Florence & Rome and a day at La Alhambra in Granada). In fact, we can assuredly add Kamakura to that list of days that are just so wonderful you want to replay them over and over again.

Fernando, Janelle, and I had breakfast this morning and then boarded the train to this small seaside town in the hills south of Tokyo. It's only about an hour away on the train, but is worlds apart. The pace was slower, the prices lower, and even breathing seemed easier. We first visited the Great Buddha statue, then did some shopping, visited the Hase Temple (a Buddhist temple), had lunch, shopped some more and walked around the town before boarding the train back to Tokyo. What a wonder to be in this small delight of a town! I could have stayed forever and ever; after you look at the pictures, you'll have some understanding of why. In fact, why don't you just go ahead and look at those; words fail me in describing the beauty and serenity of the day.

Watching the koi

You can pay a small amount to get your fortune at different places within temples; if you have good fortune, you take it with you. If your fortune is not-so-good, you tie it up and leave it there.

At the Hase temple- it was so beautiful and peaceful; this is the Japan I was hoping to see.

At a Kamakura street-side store

Daibutsu- the Great Buddha in Kamarura (built of bronze in 1225)

At the Tsujiki fish market...these are some of the giant headless tuna.

Melissa, Janelle, and I in Shinjuku

Tokyo view from Keio Plaza Hotel's business center

fresh fish/fast internet

Oh my, how addicted I am to high-speed internet connections. I'm at the Apple store in the Ginza shopping district with my friends Janelle and Fernando. They have free internet they let us use, which is excellent. Also, I'm not sleepy, although I woke up this morning at 2:45 am (I got out of bed at 3:00am, but have been wide awake since 2:45), which is also remarkable.

This morning, we went to the Tsujiki Fish Market, perhaps the largest fish market in the world. We left the hotel at 4:45am (the big tuna auction begins at Tsujiki at 5:00) and took the subway over to the market. What an experience! Someone yesterday put it well, that you really get an idea of how big the world is by seeing all these fish- caught the night before- in one place. At the tuna auction, there are all these giant frozen tuna (mostly without heads) on wooden palates on the ground, and in very fast Japanese, a man auctions them off to small companies who sell the meat to restaurants, sushi shops, etc. The fish are HUGE! We're talking hundreds of pounds...I'll post a pic when I get back to the hotel. After someone buys the fish, these guys with big fish hooks drag the fish onto a crate and wheel it off to its new home.

The best part of the morning, though, was the sushi I had for breakfast! There were these men cutting up the tuna into strips to package to sell to sushi shops. I asked them (in bad Japanese and bad English) if they knew where I could get some sushi to eat. They proceeded to cut some strips off of several different types of fish, put them in a plastic box, drizzled them with soy sauce, handed me chopsticks, and I ate the best sushi of my life. When I asked them how much I owed them, they told me nothing. How great is that!?!?

The people of Japan are very kind, friendly, and helpful overall. People have helped us buy subway tickets, find where we're going, given us free sushi... even though we don't really know Japanese and some of them don't really know English. It's amazing how people can be helpful and kind to one another when they can't even understand one another...we could probably all learn a lesson from that.

Well, I think we're going to go find something to eat for dinner. More soon!

Lunch! Rice, a tangerine, tempura shrimp, fish, and vegetables (tempura is anything that is lightly breaded and fried- it's quite delicious), egg custard with chicken and ginkgo nuts, ginkgo fruits, and sauce to dip the tempura in. It was yummy; we had to take off our shoes and sat on the floor on cushions to have our lunch.

A special shout out to Kelly, Daisy, Sara, Randi, Keltie, Nancy, Julie, Wendy, Martin, Jana, and Mom for their e-mails. I've been having some trouble staying on-line, so I may not have time to reply, but know how much it means to me to hear from you.

Will you be the one to receive the next shout out? E-mail me and see!

Incense burner- the people stand in the smoke, take some into their hands and rub in on parts of their bodies where they have ailments (some people rub it on their faces to become more beautiful). My knee was sore, so I gave it a try. I'll let you know how it works out.

Pagoda at the Asakusa Temple

Me with a giant lantern marking the way to the Asakusa Temple and Shrine (I saw a wedding taking place inside the shrine).

View from the Asakusa Temple (a Buddhist Temple- people make a donation of a few coins, clap their hands over their hands, get a fortune, and other activities you wouldn't normally see in the US...I kept having to remind myself that this was the real deal, not DisneyWorld).

Night of the Living Dead

I have been awake now for...umm, close to 24 hours. My lovely plan to stay awake throughout the whole flight here so that my jet lag wouldn't be too bad has a major flaw- my body thinks it's 8:00am right now, though my clock says it's 11:00 pm.

So, kids, here's the deal for today. We had a looong flight...about 11 hours. It was nice that there were so many teachers on the flight (there were 100 from my group) because the people on the plane let us walk around to stretch and congregate, something they don't usually do. Being a teacher has it's advantages; you're perceived as a not-so-big-threat-to-security. Our flight was running a little late. We got to Narita airport at about 5:45, went through customs (I got a really cool sticker in my passport- I'll be happy to show you when I get back), and got on a bus. It took about 1 1/2 hours on the bus to get to our hotel in Tokyo. We got our rooms, ran up to drop off our things, and then went to meet some volunteers who took us out to nearby local restaurants for dinner. They fed us 2 meals and a snack on the plane, but I was delighted to eat Japanese food in Tokyo!

Sumi, a university student who is a junior studying math/education, took 3 of us to a lovely little place where we ordered four different small plates and all shared [actually, she ordered for us, as our Japanese is pretty darn bad]. The food was good, and very different. The last thing we ate (which was also my favorite) had rice, some tuna, and a raw egg on top that was mixed all together. I wasn't sure about it when I saw that raw egg, but it was really good! Oisaii! (yummy!)

For now, I am going to get ready for bed. Sayonara!

Me, Melissa (from Brooklyn), Leonard (from Philadelphia) and Sumi (from Tokyo) at our lovely, sleepy, first official Japanese dinner.

Tokyo Bound

After spending a lovely day yesterday getting to know some of the people from my group and relaxing at the hotel in San Francisco (we got here early, so I got the chance to take a walk and a nap before our meetings began), I am now about to board the bus to go to the airport. Our flight leaves San Fran at 12:55pm (Monday) and we will arrive in Tokyo at 5:00pm Tuesday! The flight itself is only between 10-11 hours long, but we cross the International Date Line, en route, making it seem a LOT longer. I will post again from Tokyo!

Taken as I left school Tuesday. That's PM, mind you.

To the untrained eye, this isn't that impressive; to ye who have ever planned a single day for a stranger to take over your occupation, you can comprehend the magnitude contained in these 4 boxes. Twelve days of sub. plans, 11 hours after school, and completely worth the effort.

so sleepy...

It is 10:26 pm. I just got home from school about 10 minutes ago. That's right, from school. Yes, I was there 13 1/2 hours today (well, I left for about half an hour to get some pizza).

But let me tell you, I am one organized chica...my sub. plans for the first 7 days are complete and marvelously put together. I have copies, transparencies, and tests made; I have keys finished and my gradebook set up. I just need to finish up the last 5 days of plans, so I'm gearing up for another late night tomorrow.

For now, however, I'm going to bed, then waking up and going back to school. If Japan somehow sinks into the ocean during the week and I don't get to go, I may have to just take 12 days off anyway to recuperate.

5 Minutes of Fame

I had a message in my box today from Minyon Levels with FWISD Communications Department. They want to do an Employee Feature about my trip for the FWISD newsletter. I thought that was nice.*

Just over a week left now. My "packing" so far is a bunch of stuff in a corner tossed on top of my suitcase. And about those sub. plans...I have an idea in my head what's going on, but will probably be at school until midnight next week trying to get them finished for Wednesday. I do have grades done, so that's out of the way, but there's just so much to finish!

*Jenny pointed out that these will actually be my second set of 5 minutes of fame, the first 5 being when I was the air-guitar playing nun in that Dallas Stars commercial that I never saw. Thanks, Jenny.