Filed under: Uncategorized
Yes, all great things eventually have to come to an end and it’s time for this happy adventurer to gear up for the transition home and Halloween. It’s been a fabulous ride and one which has been fun to share with you.
We’ll finish with a visit to a school for students with mental retardation. This is one of 30 special schools of this nature in Tokyo with another 33 for students with physical disabilities, and yet more for those with hearing impairments and vision impairments and autism. There are just over 200 students from k-12 and 96 staff, 70% of which are certified.
The #1 goal for the school is to foster the children’s abilities to learn by themselves and to think for themselves through their daily living. The curriculum is heavily slanted toward activites of daily living, and as students get older, vocational skills. We were told that while a rcommendation is developed by a committee as to what kind of programming might be best for the children, parents have the final say whether the students go to this institution or to regular school with support in a resource room like setting.
Minato Special Support School
While the principal of the school suggested that an increasing number of parents wanted their children to go to this special school, in the afternoon we heard clearly by an emeritus professor that in 2011 the law forcing all regular schools to provide programming for all students with special needs will go into effect – essentially closing these special schools. I perceive a political battle unfolding ing the next few years……….we’ll have to watch and see. The Professor also said that as part of this philosophical shift, schools will be tasked to focus more on individual needs and differentiated instruction in an effort to improve performance on international assessments of ability of students to put their knowledge to work to solve problems………compared with comments made earlier in our visit just reinforces the impression that Japan’s educational system is heading toward a massive shake-up that will send ripples far into the base culture…..wow!
Another note of interest in the age of consolidation…..Professor Kato reported that he recently visited a school of two students and four staff, a fourth grade and sixth grade teacher plus an assistant principal and principal, as required by law…….he admited that this didn’t make much sense, and the financial situation in the country will eventually force a change in the law, especially as schools are facing teacher and administrative shortages in some areas.
Enough, enough, enough….I could go on and on…….but you’ll have to wait for Open House and some other presentations, and I have to help the Takeo Tigers put on our group presentation, enjoy our Sayonara banquet – sadly the last of the JFMF program, and find some way to pack up all my artifacts and presents for the long ride home. While I like the idea of getting home earlier than when I leave, I doubt if my body will appreciate it.
Sayonara,
Thanks for reading and see you all soon,
Here’s to future adventures for all of you!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Kamamura
After we dumped our bags, five of us were off to Kamamura, which was the capitol of Japan for a period of 1000 years or so back in the 1300’s. It took two subway rides and a train ride to reach this city of 150,000 about an hour away from Tokyo, but still seemingly connected to its urban sprawl. The trip was well worth it as we were on the adventure path once again. First was a Buddhist shrine to the lost children – very powerful as row upon row of tiny Buddha’s appeared which we learned were placed primarily by mothers who mourned the children who have died. Very powerful….haunting.
A well kept and beautiful series of gardens surrounded the shrines and set the tone for the visit, which was topped off by finding a series of caves and stooped underground passageways that took us to wonderful ways to honor and pray for others.
Cave Entrance
Please note that the smaller Buddha had a bit of trouble getting into the proper position…..and he’s nowhere near as old as the other fellow.
And then our adventure took us into the woods as dusk fell of course and we attempted to follow a path up and along the ridge overlooking the city. While we didn’t encounter the usual giant spiders, the 2 kilometer trail did end at a steep single lane road that wound down the hill….and about half-way down the hill was another cave, this time which led to isolated grotto empty of people with steep-walled cliffs all around – another shrine, complete with 50 Torri gates and numerous places of worship – this time the focus was on money, here you are supposed to wash and dry your money and pray in the hope that these efforts will lead you to financial success. The shrine was only dimly lit when we arrived, and deserted except for us, causing all to whisper as we marveled at the ancient beauty and mystique.
I have to admit that I didn’t wash any money here, but I did do my laundry once we returned to the fancy hotel New Otani for three final nights of luxury – which perhaps did more for my wallet than buying amulets and fortunes at the shrine.
Tomorrow it’s off to one of Tokyo’s special education schools in the morning, followed by a seminar on Education and Society. My hard drive is getting very full, so it’s a sure sign that it’s time to head home soon.
Rainbow Bridge - Tokyo
Filed under: Uncategorized
I slept quite well in the traditional Japanese manner – a mattress on a tatami mat with a shaped pillow on the floor covered by a blanket. The only thing non-Japanese was the pajamas and the beard – which by the way, Masako, my host mother and father commented on that she would like to see me without it….”Doesn’t it get in the way…of eating?…of washing?” I found out at breakfast that Tashiki sleeps in a t-shirt and shorts, and Saki in American-like pajamas. Sunday breakfast was huge: a sheet of dried seaweed on rice with another rice garnish of strips of pickled kelp, skemono – a cold rolled up scrambled egg, pickled cucumber, miso soup, slices of Japanese pears, and the ubiquitous tea.
And off we went to a strip of street that had been closed off for a street bazaar – probably put on just for us. Vegetables, cakes and breads, tatami mats, post cards, bamboo trinkets – all offering samples, all very friendly – and many of my fellow Americans and their hosts were there too.
Host Family at Street Bazaar
Every time I turned around, my hosts were buying me yet something else. My best find was a bamboo hanger, simple and elegant. From the bazaar we went back home for tea and cakes then off again to Arita, Masako’s home town, clearly a mecca for bone china and ceramics – Mrs. Lightbody eat your heart out – where we went first to a shop that opened just for the American guest on Sunday where Saki and I got to make a pot on a potter’s wheel, much to many oohs and ahs. Saki’s came out measurably better than mine – I started out planning to make a small cup and ended up with a rather funky shaped bowl. It apparently will be shipped to me in a couple of months.
Next stop was a ceramic shop where we all chose an item to paint. I tried a rice bowl and attempted a branch of persimmons – orangy in color, which of course won’t match anything in our kitchen, but it was very peaceful and fun to do.
Next was a very fancy ceramic shop with dazzling displays and a museum of old ceramics upstairs – very high end items in the thousands of dollar range. Lots of pictures…. I managed a find to fill the one hole remaining on my shopping list – whew! Surprise! Surprise!
We ended our Arita excursion with lunch at a curry rice restaurant/gallery…..extremely good food in exquisite surroundings. Sometimes it’s hard to eat this food because it just looks so beautiful.
Back home just in time for more cakes and tea and a wonderful universal game of UNO while Masako changed into her kimono (takes about ½ hour). We agreed to call the UNO game a win for everyone as the homestay was coming to a close.
A few more pictures and off to the Ryokan (Traditional Japanese Inn) to meet back up with the American Takeo Tigers for our final evening in Takeo. It was some teary/happy goodbyes for the Imamura family and this blog’s author – truly a generous family who opened their home and their hearts, gave me their weekend and their friendship. I truly hope we meet again.
Of course before we settled in to a relaxing evening in the Inn we needed to do a bit more Indiana Jones activity, climbing high on the ridge again, this time in the waning daylight, clearly breaking new territory as we encountered multiple giant spiders trying to block our way. Hacking our way through with a staff, we were once again enthralled by this wonderfully friendly city as dusk settled.
A quick dip in the hot spring and an easy change into yakatori with vest and we were off to the banquet to beat all banquets. This could have been a movie set for Indiana Jones……easily except for the missing dancing girls. Following a welcome speech by the great-grandaughter of the founder of the Inn, we found that despite our previous thoughts – there is even a higher level of banquet and service that we had yet to experience – at least 25 separate offerings that kept coming and coming and coming, served soundlessly by two kimono-clad servers, attending to our every wish.
And the food……of course there was the usual sushi and sashimi and miso and rice, but there was also a sterno-like ceramic pot lit to cook meat and pepper and onion and squash, the stuffed figs and the sake and beer and boiled egg and pickled seaweed and cooked Japanese veggies and chestnut and another soup with clover and a dumpling, and tempura, and more things still that I have no idea what they were…..but I ate it all (except the pickled octopus knuckle).
Stuffed to the gills, the karaoke machine came out next and we rocked and rolled and laughed and giggled and laughed some more. The Takeo Tigers have bonded for sure.
We finished the evening, you guessed it, in the hot springs for a long soak and a game of floating basketball with the washcloth and bucket. Needless to say it didn’t take any of the four of us long to fall asleep on the tatami mats……despite the snoring competition that was definitely not on anyone’s agenda.
After a lineup goodby by the mayor, his key staff and the staff of the Ryokan (just 20 or so folks – nothing special) – these people are something else – and a “box breakfast” of rice balls and seaweed, banana and tangerine, and juice, we were off by bus and plane for our return to Tokyo. On the way we broke our closing presentation into five groups of three. I was on the O (for Onsen) team, and we managed to finish our part of the show on the bus and plane ride.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I found a dried smelt outside my door this morning – a harbinger of some rowdiness that clearly went on beyond my bedtime at midnight. A quick pack of things to go by truck to Tokyo, cramming my host presents and three days of clothes plus my trusty computer into the computer bag got me out the door and down to the lobby where the anticipation and confusion was rampant as 15 of us waited for our host families. The surprise was mine as my host mother Masako Imamura (pronounced just like it’s written) showed up on her own as husband Takashi and 12 year old daughter Saki were at a meeting about her application to the Saga Jr. Sr. High School starting next year. We got into a newish gold Mitsubishi four seater and were off home, the last house on a two house side street, stucco construction with a tile roof – just like just about everyone else.
Homestay Home
The front and back yard are postage-stamp-sized but very efficiently contain a peach tree, several roses, cherry tomatoes, eggplant and sweet potatoes (Japanese style). A short distance away is a small rice paddy, and the backdrop is Mt. Mifuneago, quiet, and mostly tidy. Masako, is quite proud of her occupation as Kimono dressing teacher – apparently teaching others how to wear the kimono – according to her, not an easy task, and her workshop is where I will be sleeping on a mattress on tatami mats surrounded by sliding rice paper windows and doors – very authentic. Masako, to her credit, is trying harder at learning English than I have at learning Japanese. She offers me green tea and Japanese pear. I show her my photo album – she is enthralled. Our conversations are very broken, with long pauses to use the electronic Japanese/English dictionary – pretty cool item. I take lots of pictures. She asks me what I like to eat. I mention tempura and comment on the sweet potatoes, and before I can say boo, she’s digging up a few sweet potatoes and mixing tempura batter.
Japenese Sweet Potato
Before long, Saki arrives, very soft of voice, shy, sweet and beautiful.
Saki and Prince
She has a wonderful smile, had seen me at the elementary school and commented on my white beard to her parents, and was part of the 6th grade band greeting us. She plays the keyboard, and her mother talked her into playing a couple of pieces on the piano in their living room…..sweet. She also does plastic bead craftwork, making tiny animals by sewing them together. If she hadn’t been hanging out with me, her mother says she would have been at a friend’s house playing with her play station. She also has piles of Changa comics…..a typical modern child I guess. Takashi then arrived and we ate lunch. His English is the best of all. He does maintenance for the city golf course. Lunch is relaxed. I give them my gifts – Saki really likes the Dexter Tigers hat and fleece, but it is clearly too warm for them right now.
They get no snow, even in winter. Masako loves her balsam pillow and calendar of Maine scenes. Takashi seems to really like his Garland baseball cap and sweatshirt. They give me a really nice set of chopsticks, and later a shrine-blessed trinket representing a ong marriage for Elaine and I. Saki also gives us two beaded owls and a Pokemon book for McKynzie…….Smiles all around…..Good vibes for enhanced understanding and relationship between Japan and the US.
Takashi is off to work at the golf course for a while. The three of us are off to a public recreation area with a lake, complete with swan paddle boats which we rented to feed the ducks, some boys fishing, a science museum, a “sky train” scenic ride to the mountain-top and a nearby hotel. Not nearly enough people are taking advantage of all the offerings – it seems heavily subsidized by the government, and operating in the red, but we have a great time. It is clear that Saki has never driven, so we weave our way around, getting stuck only once and finishing off the trip with a soft serve ice cream in a cool cone.
Swan Boat
Next stop is the shrine by the camphor tree. Masako has an amulet from here that hangs in her car and keeps her safe. We make an offering to the shrine and al pray, and then return home where Takashi is waiting. I ask Saki to make me a dove from beads, and try to help her, but the task is obviously beyond me. Takashi has several questions about my photos and studies them at length, Before I know it the sushi is placed on the table, followed by a sashimi salad, a hot chicken and vegetable dish, sweet bread, boiled Japanese radish, green tea, warm shochu (Japanese spirits distilled from sweet potatoes, wheat etc.) with a few drops of lemon, and a cake with almond slices – al of it quite tasty. My stomach makes noises all through the meal, much to the delight of Saki, and later, she brings out Prince, her tiny hamster which I put in my shirt pocket and then let it crawl up my pant leg, much to everyone’s delight ……..who said you have to have fancy entertainment and good language skills in order to get along and have a good time. All you need is a curious hamster!
Prince and I
Before long I was hustled into the bathroom (which doesn’t hold the toilet) where I was given instruction in how to shower while kneeling on the floor and then easing into the hot tub for a soak. I put on my American Yakata, again to Saki’s peals of laughter, and then turned in while making only about ten cultural mistakes regarding taking off and putting on my slippers. (always take them off when entering a room with a tatami mat).
Up at 7 for a trip to a ceramic festival….that is if I understood the conversation correctly!
Filed under: Uncategorized
While Wednesday night we found yet another community festival with a return of the half-naked drummers, more free sake, and this time helped one of the community teams lose a tug of war….twice….. (the consolation prize was 2 pounded rice cakes with little flavor and the consistency of play-do), the evening was relatively mild, and I managed to get my laundry done in the hotel laundromat.
Mr. D and the tug of war team
The high school greeting was a row of girl volunteers clapping as we arrived at the school…..not the whole school this time, but pretty special.
After the usual meeting with the principal and a powerpoint overview it was on to the classes – first a participation co-ed “homemaking class” where Amy from Massachusetts and I joined 4 11th grade boys in making “Manju”, a refried bean and chestnut cake served with green tea. What a blast!
Bean and Chestnut Cake
The rest of the classes were strictly lecture, with some serious note-taking, and very studious students (again it was empasized that everyone here wants to pass the entrance exam for University and 97% of them do. Teachers expect their students to do 240 min of HW per night and the students we ate lunch with said they do 3 hours regularly plus clubs or sports…..a lot of studying goes on here.
English class
We saw physics (sine waves) math, biology, chemistry and PE (badminton) plus a 10th grade Computer Animated Instruction class where the students were working individually on making a newspaper according to specific instructions. Science classes were heavily male and many classes had 40 – 42 students, with the smallest class I saw being 32 students. Again, not a peep – everyone taking notes, plus following the typed outline handed out, plus following the book. Only in one class did I observe any teacher asking a question of the class…… straight heavy-duty lecture.
Biology Class
We had a discussion with eight teachers:
- No substitute teachers unless you’re out one week or longer. Instead students have self-study
- The basic work day is 8:15 to 5 with some working 7-7, and some staying until 10 or 11 at night.
- Only 2 of 8 were members of the teachers union since the salaries are set by the government…..there is no negotiation.
Next we watched the HS students do their cleaning stint (with a little less enthusiasm than the elementary students (only 2 custodians for a school for 756 students with no cafeteria (students provide their own lunch) and no buses or bus drivers. Oh and by the way, the only thing students drive is a bicycle…..and did I mention they wear uniforms?
This was followed by a lesson on etiquette by the tea ceremony club.
Tea Ceremony Club
Did I mention that in the middle of the day, we snuck out for a half hour to see the a horseback Archery festival preceeded by a parade to the shrine of the camphor tree. Spectacle after spectacle!
Portable Shrine
Archers at Festival
We finished the day with observation of the high school’s after school activities ranging from kendo and judo and Japanese archery to baseball and volleyball and calligraphy and soccer and band. Each club meets 2 hours per night, 5 nights a week, all year and the students start involvement in elementary school…what a focused commitment!
Japanese Archery
Kendo
We did not see a class for students with special needs…….because there is none. Any student with special needs would not pass the entrance exam for this high school and would end up going to a special school about 20 minutes away by car. We are told we will see such a school upon our return to Tokyo. I’ll reserve comment until then.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Can you imagine entering a gymnasium full of 730 elementary students – all clapping enthusiastically? I definitely got my kid-fix today! All this time that we’ve been in Japan, and this was the first full day with kids, and boy (and girl) was it great!
Mifunigaoka Greeting
With an average of 30 students per grade and a maximum of 40, these were the best behaved elementary students I have ever seen……..and friendly and curious…..wow did we have fun!
Mifunegaoka students in window
We had a whole school musical performance by the sixth grade, we visited a second grade language class where they were looking at and describing shapes to each other and writing about what they learned, an art class on the color wheel in which each students mixed colors, a 3rd grade math class on multiplication, a 4th grade math class covering area, a 6th grade math class on volume and a 6th grade calligraphy class. We ate lunch in the classroom that was prepared by the students, played dodgeball, slapped five, helped the students clean the school – yes it’s true, and played duck-duck-goose etc during after school program for students k-3 whose parents are working (available until 6).
Mifunegaoka School Lunch
Student Chefs 5th grade
Student Custodians
Some really awesome kids!
- We learned that in order to become a vice principal you must be at least 45, and to be a principal – 50.
- A special ed academic assistance room is only available 4 hrs per week for language and math (if that isn’t enough, you have to go to a special school.
- Student “promoters” are assigned to help lagging students.
- There are 6 classes of 45 minutes per day with a 15 min break between and an extended lunch followed by recess and cleaning time.
- More than half these students ( a point of pride) are preparing for the exam for entrance to a prestigeous jr. high
- There is no failure or retention
- Teachers feel class size is biggest challenge followed by expectation to assume parental discipline role.
- Teachers at this school work from 8-5 (required) plus 2-3 hours afterward at school plus work at home, plus one day each weekend.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Picture this: 5 am, with sunrise Japan not due for another hour – three intrepid adventurers (Melinda from Colorado, Will from Georgia, and the old man from Maine, venture forth through the deserted streets of Takeo to the overgrown stone staircase we had spied the day before. Armed only with an earthquake flashlight from the hotel, facing rumors of wild boar, stinging centipedes and small poisonous snakes with triangular heads, we have a deadline of 7:20 to be on the bus to the elementary school….which we don’t want to miss.
The stairs are steep, endless, covered with leaves and are crumbling from age. Does that slow us down? No way intrepid adventurers……but the spiders do…..yes my friends, huge tropical spiders have stretched their snares across the path, and we are easy victims of their webs…..yuck! To make a sweaty, breathless task shorter – we made it…..and what a reward – sunrise over Takeo. Awesome, and we even made it back in time for a shower – running pell mell through the streets to get back in the nick of time.
Will and Takeo Sunrise
Takeo at Daybreak
Filed under: Uncategorized
Well, before we get to the proper tourism, we have to reflect on the morning – a question and answer period with five mothers from the PTA (one of whom had spent a year in Kansas during high school). Here are the highlights:
- Two mothers had 2 children, one three, and two four – an unusually large number.
- They have recently had a problem with men trying to lure children into their car, so now the older children are equipped with crime-prevention bells
- Some of the classes have 40 students a few have only 20 – and they are under pressure to close. The mothers thought 40 was way too many.
- The PTA in Japan operates in about the same way as in Maine.
- Observation Day (one day a year) is basically the only time parents are welcome in the school due to security.
- Only 2 of th 5 mothers work outside the home. In 75% of cases mothers stay home with children until 3rd grade – then may work part time. Often grandparents help with child care. The school sponsors an after-school program through third grade until 6:00PM.
- Students begin dating 1-1 in about 10th grade. Sex education starts in 5th grade. Teenage Pregnancy is very rare, and if it occurs, everything is kept very quiet. According to these parents, Japanese teenagers are much less focused on boy-girl stuff than in US. we’ll checkit out with the students.
- Truancy is a problem
- Pressure to prepare for exams is a problem. Many students feel they need to attend cram schools after regular school. The purpose is to do just what the name says – cram a bunch of meaningless facts into your head just long enough to spit it back out for the exam.
- They are trying something that sounded like alternative programming for repetitive truancy.
- As in the US some parents are very vocal in a complaining way – which these mothers thought was inappropriate.
After a take-out traditional Japense box lunch,
Japanese box lunch
we moved on and acted like tourists for the afternoon, visiting the Kofuku Temple of the four heavenly kings (Buddhist guardian deities) from 800 years ago,
Shrine of the Imperial Budda
The world’s longest ascending kiln. “14 hundred thousand cups are fired at a time”. It takes 4 days to fire the kiln, 15 workers to tend the fire, and seven days to cool the kiln off. They fire this kiln only about once a year.
Kiln
The Giant Camphor Tree of Takeo – the 7th largest tree in Japan, it is more than 300 years old. As you may be able to se, the main trunk is hollow and the heavenly gods are worshiped inside the tree……and becuase it is a special thing, there is a shrine and gates built to honor the tree. I could easily walk around inside the trunk – probably 30 people could fit inside easily……..that’s why they call it giant.
Camphor Tree
Along the tourist way, several of us found a poster advertising some kind of festival…….tonight – about ten minutes away – it was a no brainer seven of us wanted to go! So we did……and it was awesome. There were boots selling everything from fried squid to roasted chestnuts to chocolate-covered bananas to refried beans in a biscuit-kind of thing to fruit crepes to free vegetable soup, to free sake in bamboo cups and roasted corn on the cob. There was a small stage set up with wooden planks layed on plastic milk crates with school performances, a Kareoke competition, a rock/paper/scissors elimination tournament for the audience (won by one of the JFMF teachers (prize of some frozen fish steaks)) and topped off by a Japanese drum performing group that easily matched anything we might see at the American Folk Festival…….they were good. The whole thing was very local and put on by something like the local Kiwanis group. It reminded me of Dexter Days as much as anything……a real cultural find.
Chocolate Covered Bananas
Festival Stage
Several of us are getting up at five to climb a rock outcrop overlooking the city before heading off to the elementary school. Wish us luck! The adventure just got a little real!
Filed under: Uncategorized
OK, an onsen is a snazzy hot springs in Japan. First you have to realize that in Shinto-Buddhism, whenever anything is considered really special a shrine is built to honor it, and then people can come and pay their respects at the shrine. And then you have to build one or more gates to the shrine, and remember – the higher the shrine the more special and powerful. So here’s the shrine at the Onsen. This gate is special because it was designed by a famous Japanese architect and its construction is totally without nails or fasteners. This current gate was built only 100 years ago – pretty new by Japanese measures of time.
Gate to Takeo Onsen
Well I can’t show you pictures of the inside of the onsen for two reasons – 1. It was wet and steamy in there and 2. this is a proper blog so I can’t include pictures of naked men…….alright I can hear the euw-w-w’s half way around the world, but being naked when you experience a hot springs is part of the Japanese culture and I firmly believe that when in Japan, you do as the Japenese do…..to a point.
Now that we’re done with the juvenile responses, here’s the really interesting part culturally (at least to me). First, as you reach the entrance you come to a wooden platform. That’s the clue that you take off your shoes, being sure to put your stocking foot on the wood, not the concrete so as to keep everything as clean as possible. If front of you are some cubbyhole lockers – each with a key sticking out. You put your shoes and valuables inside and proceed to this machine that looks a little like an ATM vending machine – because that’s what it is – a vending machine for tickets to the onsen. Taking our towels that the hotel provided, we walk up the stairs to a locker room with more keys. Here you take off your clothes and put 100 yen (about a dollar) in the lock to get your key which you put around your wrist. Now totally naked (except for the key and glasses) you go through a sliding door into the shower room with 16 short stools in front of shower wands and soap and shampoo dispensers. Sitting on the stool you wash your hair and take a sitting shower. From there you enter the onsen itself. This includes two one meter deep hot water pools (we estimated 110 degrees F – very hot!), one inside and one outside on a balcony looking up at the lighted ridge and a clear starry night. Inside there is also a much smaller pool with frigid water and I mean frig-g-g-g-gid. There is also a sauna room with cedar benches and dry heat. You start in one of the hot pools by sloshing water on yourself and pouring it over your head to gradually get your body used to the change in temperature. Slowly you ease into the pool. This night there were the four American men from my group and about 3 or 4 others that came and went. After immersing yourself in the hot pools for a while you need to get out and cool off in the frigid pool – again splashing and pouring before getting fully immersed. We went back and forth several times between the hot and cold and also spent a few minutes in the sauna……..the whole experience was extremely peaceful and relaxing, and recharged our batteries for even more adventures the next day!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Apparently the pictures I’ve been posting have not been visible to most accounts at school. Until the “Tech Guy” fixes that, I may not put in so many pics…..sorry
Saga University: We spent the morning here with a welcome by the President and some seminars with teachers and students. Saga U is similar to our Farmington – primarily a teacher preparation school – and that’s the part we focused on obviously. The declining birthrate in Japan is impacting the enrollment at the school. Right now, applications = enrollment. The official explanation is that “Japanese women are reluctant to have more than one child”, but it’s more complicated than that. Workers commonly work extraordinary hours (one jr. high teacher said 9 hrs at school is common, but at her exceptional school she works 12 and still goes home to grade papers. Maternity leaves of absence are not universal. Obviously all of that makes it difficult. I’ll be interested to learn more from my host mother. Saga U’s challenge is to expand the emphasis of the college from just education to education and culture. They have four faculty from the US with a total of 6500 undergrads and 1000 grad. students – 300 foreign. Their school mascot is the magpie (and Deb M., they didn’t have pennants, but I did get a hand towel with the school’s name and mascot.
I next went to a seminar on bullying and violence – comparing US and Japanese schools. We got to discuss this with some Saga U students, the Jr. High teacher, and the chair of the College. Unfortunately he put a damper on the conversation and I’m not sure the students were very open. We did learn that the problem with bullying is universal – that Japan has a big problem with cyber bullying, and like in the US the students most often picked on are those from needy homes who are untidy and low academically. More eye opening was the number of teachers from the US in our group of 6 at this seminar whose schools still have some version of corporal punishment – things that would get a teacher dismissed immediately at good old DRHS. Thanks Ms. E for your pro-active approach.
Saga U reception
Takeo City – Finally!
We finally made it to our final destination! What an incredible journey so far. Takeo City which apparently includes several towns has approximately 50,000 folks. There seem to be three main things going on – Tourism for the hot springs (more later), rice and soybean farming, and ceramics.
The town itself is nestled in a valley along the Takeo River. The valley walls are as tall as Oliver Hill when viewed from the store, but much steeper and sharper. As we entered the town by bus there were lots of small plots of rice – at various stages of cultivation – some recently harvested, some newly planted. I hope to learn more about this later and get some up close pictures. I haven’t seen any dairy cows, but am told there’s a hog farm nearby.
rice fields
OK, so picture this – driving up to city hall in a bus. As we disembark we notice a row of about ten white-shirted office workers lined up at the entrance – pretty cool, we think……..but then they start to clap!, and as we walk through the building to our conference room, they’re lined up along the stairs, along the upstairs hallway – at least 50 or 60, all clapping and bowing respectfully – talk about the red-carpet treatment…….I guess I’m beginning to understand what they mean when they say they really value teachers here……I accepted the warmth for all of you back home…..I hope you got a burst of good vibes.
Greeting at City Hall
Upstairs we had a nice welcoming reception from the mayor with speeches by them and us. They presented us each with a gift of lemongrass teas and herbs, which apparently are produced and promoted here.
We also had a meeting with the Superintendent of Schools and some Board of Education members. The Superintendent showed us a slide show emphasizing the junior high they had just renovated, talked about probems related to declining enrollment (sound familiar?) and gave us an overview of the school district: two senior highs, five junior highs and 8 elementary schools – a couple with around 100 students. There are a total of 3194 elementary students (gr 1-6) and 1560 jr high students (gr 7-9). They had a fireworks display and festival and passed out fans with the picture of the old and new school when they opened their newly renovated school – in case anyone is starting to think about celebrating our new school.
By the way, our group picture with the mayor will be posted on the city’s web site (I hope to get you a link soon) and we’re also due to be featured in the local paper. I’ll be calling my agent soon!
Mayor of Takeo City and Celebrities
Several of us finished off the night with a scrumptuous meal of tempura at a traditional restaurant (this time we invited the interpreter and our fearless guide – so, while not quite as exciting an adventure – we at least knew what we were ordering!…..and then four of us walked up the hill to the onsen (hot springs). Time to go for a run – I’ll save the hot springs adventure………and it surely was…..for the next post.
Thanks for reading.
