FINAL CHALLENGE: Email "I love Japan" to me at mitchellh@stlucie.k12.fl.us for a guaranteed prize!

Unfortunately, the last weekend we were in our host city, we were without internet which is why there hasn't been a new posting in a few days! So here's the update:

Saturday, October 25

At the Minamisoma Cultural center, we got to participate in some local craftmaking which was really pretty neat. We made magatama charms which are symbolic of power. We started with a small square of soapstone and sanded it into a comma shape and polished the rock. We also participated in a watercolor demonstration using wooden postcards. During our visit, we learned more of the Soma Namoi annual horse festival. This festival was the center of this prefectures culture and was a part of their everyday life. Some of the locals we met in a restaurant shared pictures of their sons who were horse riders in this festival. Also, at the tatami mat factory, the man who owned the factory was one of the highest ranked riders. Soma Namoi is a highly respected and anticipated festival each year, culminating with a mad dash for a ribbon which results in high-priced prizes, as well as a barehanded attempt to capture wild horses that are later offered to the shrines (no horses were injured in this presentation hehe!).

We were escorted later to a local center which was a beautifully converted Sake factory. This building was over 120 years old and is currently used for local events such as the tea ceremony that we got to participate in. The oldest woman, was the master teacher and they were all so gracious and good natured about posing for pictures. We really enjoyed this very intimate and special ceremony.

Finally, we all gathered to wait for our host families to pick us up. I was so nervous! My family arrived, and of course, I went to get into the wrong side of the car! After clearing up that issue, things settled down and after a quick introduction they were really wonderful. As soon as I arrived at their home, I couldn't wait to give them their gifts. Mom and Dad loved my "Happiness" wall hanging and she immediately placed it in the perfect hanger by their front door...it was as if it was made for that very spot. Mone, their daughter, loved her Crayola Magic fingerpaints and played with them almost the whole time, while Leo, the one year old boy, got a kick out of learning "Peek a Boo" with his new Pat the Bunny book. (Notice their names? Dad is an art teacher at a local special education middle school and is extremely talented musically and artistically. He even had a violin hanging on the wall he had crafted himself! I learned that the children were named after the painter Claude Monet, and the artist mastermind, Leonardo Davinci!) That night I had a wonderful pizza dinner that had some unusual toppings like hotdogs, but it tasted great! Tachiko also made many small side dishes which included some of her husband Kenji's garden vegetables. My favorite were the pumpkin muffins. As you can probably see, I got to play dress up in a kimono as well. Mone joined me in her Hello Kitty kimono LOL.

The next day, was very special! I was lucky enough to be invited to their neighborhood celebration. Kenji's mother came over and suited me up in an apron, and as soon as we arrived, there were about 20 women chopping every vegetable you can imagine, and huge buckets of them! She dragged me right in and put me to work! I really enjoyed working with these ladies and watching how much fun they were all having. You can see from the pictures that this was no small task! Huge pots! Huge pans! Huge everything! There were about 100 people there. The food was great and I feel so lucky to have been able to share this occasion with my host family and their wonderful community.

After a quick rest at the house, Kenji's mother called and invited us for tea at her house. What a treat! Her home is over 100 years old and much more traditional than her son's newer house. I even got to enjoy her Japanese garden.

Grandma's House Kenji's House

(These are rice plants that have been harvested)

Throughout this trip, it has amazed me how welcoming the Japanese have been and how eager they are to share their traditions with us. This family and their community were certainly not the excpetion! They were wonderful to me and I truly am grateful for the short time I was able to spend with them. Though our conversations were certainly limited language wise, the simple interactions we had extended much further than our words ever could.

Sunday-Wednesday October 26-30

Sunday night we stayed at the ryokan. Ryokans are Japanese inns which usually have access to hot springs, which ours did. It was quite beautiful and a wonderful way to end our stay with our host city. That night we had a, and I am not exaggerating, 16 course dinner that resulted in 20 different dishes LOL...we kept counting and just when you thought you couldn't eat another bite, another dish would come out! Our rooms were traditionally outfitted with tatami floors and "futons" which are large feathered pillows on the floor for our beds. I also slept on a futon at my host family's house and by Monday morning was good and ready for a Western style bed!

Monday was mostly a travel day while all the groups returned to Tokyo for our final meetings and group presentations and so we got to ride on the bullet train again. When we got back to Tokyo, a small group of us went to the downtown and visited the Oriental Bazaar and did some shopping.

Tuesday was an interesting morning- we got to hear a local toy museum owner speak on arts education. We created a couple of handmade toys which were fun. Finally, Tuesday night I found a five story fabric shop in downtown Shibuya which was a double discovery! Shibuya centers around a very famous intersection that is pictured in many movies. You cannot even begin to imagine the number of people that line up and then cross at once at every light change. It makes New York look like a ghost town! While we were searching for the fabric store, we crossed the intersection several times and they actually have "shovers" or people that are there to specifically hurry pedestrians across the street. I personally did not get shoved LOL. I scored some beautiful fabric, but unfortunately not silk...just really bright polyesters for a small table runner or something.

Wednesday, we got to see each host city presentation and it was interesting to see a few common experiences in such different areas. First, even in a prefecture that was 400+ miles away, they did the same kanji symbol for building that we did, reinforcing the idea of a national curriculum. Second, the welcome feeling that every person had when visiting the local community. Many of the other groups also commented on the quality of the art and music programs, even though they are frequently extracurricular activities. It was really neat to get a picture of everyone's short experience. Wednesday night was our Siyonara dinner, which was quite sad. We learned at the beginning of this trip that we are the last group that will be participating in this experience . The Japanese government fully funds the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund and, like the rest of us, they are finding ways to cut their budgets. Unfortunately, the JFMF program is one of its first victims. So, after 12 years, there were many people, including our guide who had done it all 12 years, who were very sad to say goodbye to this once in a lifetime experience. It's one thing to come to a country to visit as a tourist, but it's quite another to become intimate with families and the culture of a country in the ways that we were so fortunate to interact. From my host family and the local city people that took us under their wings, to the average person in the subway that helped the "confused Americans," not one person ever made us feel unwelcome.

As our last outing, after the dinner, part of my host city group and I visited Tokyo Tower. It was a little late and so we couldn't ride the elevator up (with my fear of heights I wasn't TOO disappointed hehe), but we enjoyed sharing one last excursion together.

And so now, it's Thursday morning and I am packed and ready to go! I am looking forward to coming home but will certainly look back on this trip with fond memories and one day return the kindness that Japan and its people bestowed upon us.

Challenge #10: What are traditional Japanese floors called?

Hey there! This will be my last post most likely for the next two or three days. We have our homestay tonight and then a special visit to a ryokan which is a Japanese Inn, almost like a spa from what I've been told. More info coming!

Anyhowwwwwww...Friday we met with four mothers from the local elementary school PTA for a Q&A session which was actually quite interesting. We also visited a _________ factory where they make traditional Japanese floors. The man and his sons actually made several of these "mats" while we were there. The mats are made out of rice straw and a giant sewing machine is used to sew different fabrics along the edges.

Later, we went to the Tohoku Electric Power Cos's Haramachi thermal power plant for a tour. It sits right on the Pacific Ocean first for the convenience of coal import and secondly to acquire the water they use to make steam to power the turbines which create the electricity....I hope I got that right? Maybe my Dad will correct that one? hehe

Finally, we visited a chorus competition for the junior high school we visited earlier in the week. It was great to see the kids again, and they were quite surprised!

Challenge #9: How many years are students REQUIRED to attend school in Japan?

Thursday we went to our last school, Haramachi Senior High School. Again, the arts we observed were amazing. The students' extracurricular activities after school were really neat. We watched a Japanese version of archery, Kendo, and visited the art club. The kids were very shy about sharing the work and receiving praise, but were genuinely happy to meet us. I really enjoyed the high school kids. The academic classes were very structured and super quiet, though we did get a chance to see the home economics class which was so fun! This class took up two periods and students were chopping and cooking the whole time while preparing their own lunch.

Dinner tonight was another great success, because we decided to go back to our favorite that we have coined the "The Red Lantern" because of its giant red lantern in front of the building. They are the friendliest people. We knew we wanted their chicken, but after that the mom/owner just kept bringing more and more dishes LOL. By far, my favorite place of the trip!

Challenge #8: True or false: Japanese students clean their own bathrooms.

Tuesday morning we went to Haramachi 1st Junior High School. They greeted us with a short assembly and made us walk on stage! That was a little scary lol. For the rest of the day we were able to freely observe the different classes and parts of their day. The biggest difference is that even in junior high school (our grades 7-9), the students keep their homerooms and the teachers move. Another difference I thought was neat is that the students all eat lunch in their classrooms with the teachers. The lunch is brought in and certain students have assigned jobs to serve the lunch. We were each picked up by a student and had lunch with a class. We had fried rice, chicken, and miso soup with all sorts of vegetables. It was a great lunch. Here's the shocker though...later in the day, the whole school stops for about 10 minutes and every student and teacher has an assigned area to clean. They take really good care of their materials and school facility!

My favorite class was the English class where the teacher asked those of us who were observing to join a group. We played the "English Olympics" lol. We had to list our favorite stuff and the kids had to do some character translations and review the concepts they had been learning. It was a lot of fun...anddddd. we won! LOL We beat the other American teacher group!

We wrapped up the day with a quick Q&A session with the teachers.

Tuesday night, we met up with the local people we had met the night before at the wonderful little Japanese restaurant. This time they recommended a sushi restaurant right around the corner. Our interpreter came with us this time so we actually got to learn a little more about them! When we got in the restaurant, we had our own little room and "Maximoto" said he had already arranged the dinner! The chef brought out a huge platter of sushi and then proceeded to bring more food about ever 10 minutes lol. Later, the local dry cleaner, Furomashi, stopped by again (we had also met him the night before) and he was all excited because he had a newspaper clipping with us in it! He pulled it out and it was our day with the Mayor! We had another great night!

On Wednesday, we visited Haramachi 2nd Elementary School. I was really looking forward to this one and was not disappointed! Their elementary is grades 1-6 and the kids were so enthusiastic to see us! Lots of good mornings and thank yous! We got to do basically the same format as yesterday. We started with a quick assembly and their brass band played for us. Yes...a brass band in elementary. They were unbelievably great! I have noticed music is a very big part of their curriculum. Again, the kids cleaned the school, bathrooms and all! We had another great lunch with the class of fish, rice, and soup. My favorite part of this day was when a little girl from Sri Lanka grabbed my hand at recess time (which I'll tell you more about in a minute!) and she RAN me across the field. We got to the playground and she played the I like, I don't like game with me and a few of her friends. She was picking up English and teaching it to the others quicker than I could find a new object to talk to about! The funniest part was when another Japanese girl came over to talk to me, my little friend "Acendi," put her arms up and pointed to the other American teachers and said something to the effect of go get your own American LOL. I had a great time with her!

I also got to sit in on a calligraphy class and do a practice. The word these two symbols represent is "building." I am still baffled by how they are able to learn all the characters. Also, they don't just learn Japanese characters, each grade level they are required to learn a certain number of Chinese characters as well. It is really amazing!

Again, we got to observe the classes cleaning and I made sure to take a picture of the boys cleaning the boys' room since I figured you all wouldn't believe me LOL.





At the end of the day, we had another Q&A session with teachers.

Dinner this evening wasn't quite the event it has been the last two nights! Two other women and wanted to do some laundry and figured we'd go to this cheap ramen noodle place. After wandering for about 45 minutes, we found our noodle place closed lol. Sooooo, we threw clothes in dryer and figured the supermarket might have something good for dinner. Well the pizza slices they bought and the rice and fish box I bought both ended up in the trash. Sooooo, we went and picked up clothes from dryer and decided on a quick pizza place next to the hotel. HA! It took us 20 minutes to order a plain cheese pizza that, when we got it, had no sauce and about 10 kinds of cheese including brie. LOL It was also about the size of a small paper plate. Needless to say, we all went to bed a little hungry lol, but after the last two nights' dinners I suppose we deserved it!

CHALLENGE #7: How would you say, "My name is _____" in Japanese?

Well...there it is! The bullet train. This train can go up to 188 mph and is actually called "Shinkansen" by the Japanese. The trains were spotless and had lots more legroom than an airplane! We finally got to see some scenery a more countryside atmosphere during our trip to our host city. I posted a picture of the food items that are advertised as well. I thought the food advertisments were shockingly different from ours! The "Bento Boxes" contain a whole bunch of little items, which makes them lots of fun to eat. They tend to be a lot healthier too than our quick food.

After we got to Fukushima and checked in, we went back to the train station for dinner. Sounds strange, but everything was in the station from a vegetable stand to clothing stores on the second and third levels. The little stores or stands that are in the station were beautiful! Everywhere you look are "pastry" stores with the prettiest sweets. There is a lot more bread here than I expected as well. Anyhow, I finally got my sushi! We ate at a conveyer restaurant where the sushi is made by the chefs in the middle and they place each piece on a colored plate that comes out on a conveyor belt. You choose which dishes you want. The plates are color coded by price. Most of it was excellent but I went for the dish of the day and got myself into a little trouble LOL. I picked a pretty little roll that had some beans coupled with what looked like noodles. Well, it was the stickiest, gooiest, thing I have ever, ever, ever eaten....and the goo did not immediately go away. Unfortunately, I had the whole thing in my mouth and couldn't go back on that decision. I know how they feel on Fear Factor now. I found out later that the beans are fermented soy beans- "very popular and healthy." LOL- We decided they are healthy because you won't eat too many of them. I still don't know what the gelatinous "noodles" were and am probably better for that!

Monday morning we visited Fukushima University to learn about their teacher training program and actually got a very unique chance to see one of the chemistry professor's lab. Only two of us chose to hear about science and he happened to not be so involved with the teacher training aspect and so took us to his lab instead. He introduced us to several of his coworkes who then brought out the artificial heart parts that they are working on, the neuron stimulators for paralysis, and some liquid nitrogen just for fun! They were so enthusiastic and eager to share with us their research.

We then took an hour long drive through the mountains into our host city. We got to see a lot of rice paddies, which many were being harvested. They cut the "grass" down and then tie it up to dry so it looks like there are many "scarecrow" type sets of straw in the fields. The dried grass is then used to make tatami mats, which I'll tell you about later in the week when we get to visit a tatami mat factory.

Once we arrived in Minamisoma, we met with the mayor which is who I am pictured with above, to hear about their educational system and participate in a question and answer session. Our guide gave us a quick walking tour to show us the laundry, 7-11 (I told you they were everywhere), and grocery store. Five of us ventured out for dinner and found the most wonderful little restaurant. We met the owner of the restaurant, his mother who had pictures of herself in geisha dress, and a man who apparently "owned the street." They spoke very little English, but we had a great time figuring it out. The owner/chef kept bringing us more and more and more food! We had chicken on a stick, tomatoes with miso, cucumbers with miso, a potato stew type soup, fried noodles, a seafood and rice concoction, and my favorite, a large chunk of fried tofu in a soy sauce mixture. It was unbelievable! Then the chef's mother came over with origami paper and showed us how to make paper cranes!!!!! They were wonderful! We were there for over two hours!

We also got a quick lesson in Japanese for our school visits tomorrow. We learned how to say we are teachers, where we are from, and our names....have fun with your challenge! :0)

CHALLENGE #6: What city in Japan is the great Buddha, daibatsu?

We were in for a very special treat today! We went to visit ____________ (you have to figure out the city) to see it's most well-known feature-the great buddha, Daibatsu. It really is a site to see! He is about 14 meters tall and was created in 1262 and actually had a building around him until a tsunami washed it away. While we were here, there were many little girls dressed in traditional kimonos and were lucky enough for a few of them to allow us to take pictures. They were so cute!

At the base of this town, we were able to walk to their beaches which are quite different sandwise. The beaches are much darker (maybe something to do with the igneous or volcanic rock content?) and have boat lining the upper shore. Many fisherman were coming in and going out and there were also lots and lots of surfers, though the waves didn't seem to be much bigger than what we are used to. I took a picture of this warning sign as well. I thought it was interesting that they had tsunami and earthquake warnings posted.

This was a fabulous city with some really neat historical places to visit. I also had the best fried rice I've ever had before LOL. There was a little itty bitty restaurant off the beaten path that we finally stopped in. There food was out of this world! Another super day in Japan! Have a great weekend guys!

Tomorrow is a travel day for me when I get to go to the smaller prefecture of Minamisoma. I am not sure what my internet situation will be, but hopefully I will be able to post another blog tomorrow. Ohhhhh...I get to ride the BULLET TRAIN tomorrow!

:))
Ms. Mitchell

CHALLENGE #6: What is traditional Japanese theater called?

Happy Friday to you guys! But it's actually Saturday morning here...that is taking some getting used to! Friday was a neat day for us! As a group we first listened to a speaker from the department of education describe their math curriculum and some of the challenges they are facing in Japan. We then participated in a demonstration on traditional Japanese theater (Which I will not name here since that's our challenge!). The history behind this art was quite interesting and we learned that only men were allowed to do it for several hundred years!




Thisi is a quick pick to show you I really did visit the 100 yen store LOL. This was in a very busy part of town on a side street. The streets here are amazing! Not only is it UNBELIEVABLY clean...there is NO trash guys...but it is quiet. There are few honking horns or sirens but thousands of cars and people walking around. Something else fairly unique is that the Japanese do no walk around with drinks and food in their hands, which I assume is why there is no garbage. The vending machines all have garbage cans right next to them and I've watched people make a purchase, drink it, and then immediately throw the can out. Great system and boy does it make a difference.

And finally...here is the subway. A group of ladies and I braved the subway last night. I am a very directionally challenged person and got extremely lost in the subways of NYC. When I looked at the map for Tokyo, it is HUGE! However, it was a million times easier to follow the signs! We had no problem and went a few places that even required us to switch trains. If you need help, everyone is willing to help. One group of ladies I talked to who got lost, asked for help, the person actually stopped what they were doing and escorted them to the correct train. Everyone we have met has been so polite and eager to help. Again, it's hard to see here, but with the thousands of people in this one small hall, it's emaculately clean and quiet. I have really enjoyed seeing the city so far!