Journal 2002 - Hamada
Monday November 25, 2002
Today we left Tokyo early in the morning and flew to Shimane prefecture. The airport is far from out city so we had a bus ride. In the morning we visited Matsue Castle. It was really neat. This castle was completed in 1611 and is one of the largest castles in Japan. There was some great suits of armor. It made me think of Higgins armory.
After a wonderful lunch, we went to Shimane University. It is a teacher training college for teachers of students of K - 8. We were formally welcomed. Their manners are impressive. WE got to speak to professors and students for an hour or so. I sought out the science teacher professor and we had a great time talking science. I especially talked to him about Sumo. He said he thought the students in high schools are not into sumo like they used to and suggested I have try to find a Judo or Karate club after school to observe.
I am now in my hotel room. It is very much smaller than the one in Tokyo.
Tomorrow I get to meet the mayor and other officials. I am excited to finally be in touch with folks in Hamada. In the afternoon, we will have a tour of the city. I hope all is going well. I would be happy to have you come up with questions for me or one of the teachers I am about to meet.
See you later guys!
Mrs. Pearson
Tuesday November 26, 2002
Dear students:
I would love to hear some comments or questions from you. Click here to send email.
I could tell you that they have us going every minute and you might not get the full impact but after rereading yesterday's journal, I think you can see how tired I was. I believe I wrote that journal after being up 19 hours.
Today we went to Hamada town hall. We were not prepared for the reception. City officials and workers were lined up outside the town hall in the rain applauding us as we got off the bus. We felt like celebrities. In fact that is how we have been treated on this trip. There was a big banner outside town hall welcoming us to Hamada. We had a brief talk from the Mayor then we gave him gifts. I gave him the flag of West Boylston that the Community Club sent with me as well as the picture of old West Boylston that the Historical Society gave me. I have a picture of the Mayor receiving the flag from me.
Next we met with the Superintendent of Schools. He welcomed us and told how their schools are set up and some of the initiatives they are working on. He talked about the fact that students are no longer going to be required to go to school 6 days a week. They are also going to cut down on required testing. They seem to be going in the opposite direction that we are on some things.
They served us lunch at the City Hall. They were fancy box lunches. I will try to buy a lunch box to show you but they are flat boxes with little inserts similar to the indentations on the Styrofoam trays in our lunchroom. We had a variety of food in the lunch boxes. We had such items as tofu, eel, spaghetti, sausage, Japanese radish, etc. It was an experience and I liked most of it. The one thing I did not like was something that looked like an innocent cherry on the rice. It turned out to be a highly salted pickled cherry that was very startling when you expect a sweet cherry.
Next we went to the Hamada Children's Art Museum. It turns out this museum is dedicated children's art. It was fabulous. It is one of only two children's art museums in Japan and none of us teachers knew of a children's art museum in the United States. You would have loved it! Again, I have pictures and they are terrific. I told the curator of the museum about the crane American flag that you all made and he was excited about it and said he would come to the school on Thursday when I present it to the school. He said to tell you he applauds you. If he could only see some of the work of our talented students he would have some of your work on his walls. I hope one day I can work with him to get a display of West Boylston art one day. He does have a room of international children's art.
We made a brief visit to the Shimane University. It is a prefecture university as opposed to the one yesterday that was a nationally run university.
Next we went to a store that was like a tourist center/convenience store. I bought masks that go with children's fairy tales and a traditional story. The one that goes with a traditional story is fierce. I think you will like it.
We then got ready for a formal dinner reception. We all dressed up and were taken to a very nice restaurant. We had to wait out in the hall and when we filed in everyone was lined up on two sides so we filed past everyone up onto a stage while they all applauded. It was nice but a bit embarrassing. We were greeted by the mayor again and then we each had to introduce ourselves in Japanese. I had to say "Watachewa Massachusetts no, Glenna Pearson des." It means I am from Massachusetts and am Glenna Pearson. I got through it ok as we also had to do the same thing at the university the day before and at the mayor's office that morning.
I got to meet my host family that I will be staying with this weekend. The young lady that met me is 30 years old. She is an English teacher at the Junior High level. She is very nice and has terrific English. She got me to eat fish roe that is a fish that was quite good actually. it was on the table with head, tail and fins still on. I talked to her a bit about what we would like to do this weekend. She wants to go to a hot springs which is a place you go to soak in the hot water, naked but it is separated by gender. Oh well, we will see what the weekend brings.
I had another wonderful day. I am looking forward to hearing questions from you that you think I can ask the Japanese astronaut next week. Please think about this and talk to your families. I am counting on your help. Click here to send email.
Tomorrow is a visit to a High School. If you do not hear from me again before Thanksgiving, have a happy one. Check out the website. I will try to keep up with journaling better this week.
I miss you guys!
Mrs. Pearson
PS Can you tell I have had more sleep?
Wednesday November 27, 2002
Hamada High School was in impressive experience. It has a student body of 947 students. There are three grades which are equivalent to our 10th, 11th and 12th grades. They have 200 days of school. At this school they wear uniforms. The boys wear a jacket and pants and the girls wear a skirt and a sailor type top. They eat lunch in their rooms but we ate in the conference room so I did not see them. Students clean their rooms and we did see them sweeping up and cleaning the room. One girl was even washing the windows.
I visited two classes, one was chemistry and the other was biology.
I have heard they are so strict in Japan but I found the kids were quite talkative. I observed them in a laboratory situation both times but found them talking while the teacher was talking quite often. The teacher just kept on telling them what to do. Both teachers I saw were very kind and friendly to their students. The chemistry kids were heating a liquid in a test-tube. I could not figure out what they were doing. I also did not have much interaction with the kids. In the biology class they were dissecting a sheep eye. It made me think of my class with Mrs. Marold. I am glad you enjoyed her visit. Anyway, in the biology class the teacher invited me to come in and sit with a lab group. I tried to talk to the kids and found them very friendly. They thought it was icky to touch the eyeball much like you guys would have. They asked me sports questions that I could not answer, unfortunately. I explained about the Red Sox and "surely next year." The teacher had a video camera up front that was connected to a TV so the kids could see him demonstrate the dissection. It is much like I did with the flowers and the little microscopes.
We had been told that students in Hamada had a lot of technology available to them but not in this school. We visited the computer lab and found it is not used very much at all. It had 4 year old computers and they did not even have usb ports. The lab instructor did not use PowerPoint and said occasionally a student will come in to type something up but mostly, it is hardly used. Those were the only computers for student use. This is a hard school to get into and these kids are likely to be doctors and engineers but it is not important at this time to teach them computer skills. They do not do research. They are just taught information by the teacher and expected to memorize it. Except for science it is lecture and memorization.
The class size was between 35-44 students per class. The kids were crammed into the rooms. The exception was the labs. They seemed to be larger than other rooms. They have three semesters a year and get only the three report cards. They have 80% of their grade based on one exam. 20% on other things.
They do very little reading. They do not have to read a book for class or summarize a chapter. As I said their lessons are based on lecture and memorization. They are now being encouraged to read by having a 10 minute reading time each morning in home room. The kids are in homerooms together for the three years they are in this school. They stay in the room all the time. Except for science labs and gym, they get all their classes in the same room. The teachers are the ones that move around. the teachers have a desk in the teacher's room and just go to the students. So for a normal day, the students are in that room all day long. Between teachers and for lunch, they do not have a teacher in the room with them. Sometimes the students got kinda loud but I never heard an adult raise their voice.
I asked about discipline. Fighting is rare to nonexistent. If a student gets in trouble, they will be scolded by the teacher. If it is worse, the teacher will go to the student's house and discuss the problem with the parents. On a rare occasion a student may get suspended from school. The kids told me they do not smoke and absolutely do not use drugs. There is no graffiti in the school, but then the students are in charge of all of the cleaning so that may account for some of that difference.
After school they have such clubs as gymnastics, swimming, baseball, judo, and science club. 90% of the students from this school will go to university. Others will go to a 2 year college, a nursing or technical school and a few go right out and get a job from high school.
The homeroom teacher is like a guide for the student. They have a very good relationship with their class of students. They stay with the same group of students for three years. They encourage them in their school work and give them advice in choice of colleges. During vacation there is supplementary teaching so students that are behind can catch up. They have mock exams to prepare them for the national exams. They have about 15 mock exams for the sophomores and 7 for the juniors.
I was very much impressed with the group of students I was privileged to share with at the end of the day in their homeroom. They seemed like serious students. Most had science or English as their favorite subject and were glad for a chance to try out their English. One student was asking me about the power of the Senate Vs the House of Representatives and another said he wanted to be a doctor and go to Princeton. I hope to hear from one or more of these students as I gave them my card. It was an exciting day! Now we are off to yet another sushi restaurant. I have to say it is not my favorite food.
Tomorrow I will be visiting an elementary school and will try to get the answers to some of your questions. It was great to get messages from you today. I miss you guys.
Tomorrow night (Thanksgiving) there will be a tree lighting near here with the mayor in charge so we have been invited. I think it is hilarious that we would be going to a tree lighting so far from home. They certainly do not celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas but they do it because stores like to sell stuff and this is an excuse. They buy Christmas cakes from the bakery at Christmas and couples go out and give each other gifts.
I miss you guys!
Thanks for the messages!
Mrs. Pearson
PS I also need questions that I might ask the astronaut that a hope to visit next week. Be thinking of good questions! Click here to send email.
Thursday November 28, 2002 - Happy Thanksgiving!!
Wow!!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
This was one of the most incredible days of my life! Certainly the most exciting Thanksgiving! This morning we went to Sufu Elementary School in Hamada City. The school was started in 1873 but the building was built in 1991 and is state of the art!
They have 343 students and 24 teachers. The principal is a personable, pleasant dynamic gentleman. He started by telling us that the school has been in existence for 110 years but today was the best day for the school in that time. We were treated like royalty. It started with the faculty waiting for us in the entryway and applauding us as we entered. Unfortunately, one has to take off shoes and put on slippers in the entryway so picture us with bags and cameras and coats, trying to balance all this and take off shoes and put on slippers without stepping on the floor and not falling over. It must have looked very comical to their faculty.
We went to a conference room where we were given a PowerPoint about the school. We have an excellent translator that travels with us but they tried to talk in English when they could. They gave us several pages of handouts in English. I big effort on their part. The basic concepts that are their goals this year are courtesy, cleaning and punctuality. They work very hard to cooperate with their very active PTA and the community at large. They also said they have a goal to develop Mental, physical and moral character.
They have 45 minute periods with one teacher teaching all the main subjects.
I noticed that part of the school curriculum includes Peace Education for the 6th grade, Part of their annual overnight field trip includes Hiroshima.
When they have a sports competition they do not have any individual events, only group events, especially relay races.
All day we were applauded and the students hounded us for autographs. They were allowed to leave their classrooms to go after us for autographs. We often had 10 - 20 students around us with the one word... "sign" for us to sign our autographs. I started having them sign theirs on a paper for me when I signed theirs.
I ate lunch with a class. They go get the meal from the kitchen and put on masks to keep it all hygienic. We had cold soup, two fish, two large pieces of bread with jelly, a carton of milk and broccoli. We kept getting interrupted so it was cold but it was a lot of fun to eat with the children. I gave them each a West Boylston soccer patch and they were thrilled! The other teacher in the room with me gave them each an us penny and they liked learning about Lincoln and I told them that if you get a magnifying glass you can see Lincoln Memorial on the back.
The teacher came to me and translated for a couple of girls that were trying to get me to understand them. He said very seriously "they want to pray" At first I thought, well it is Thanksgiving, then I said "but they are Buddhist!" He looked puzzled until we realized he was trying to say "play, not pray" to the Japanese, they do not hear a difference between r and l. An English teacher said she struggles to have students make a difference between rice and lice.
I observed after lunch cleaning time and could not believe my eyes. Everyone cleaned but without supervision!! They did not clean their own rooms either. They went off to do their assigned area. They scrubbed desks, swept and washed the floors and cleaned the bathrooms, office, etc. To wash the floors, they wet their rags and scooted around the floors scrubbing them on their knees. They really scrubbed too. They do this every day and it helps them to be vested in keeping the school clean. It was spotless. As I said, I did not see teachers around while this was happening. first grade to 6th grade. All worked together.
After cleaning time we met together again with the class. I was with a fifth grade class for lunch and meeting time. They had my name on the board welcoming me.
We went to a sampling of club activities after school. We sat in on calligraphy, home economics which included sewing with sewing machines and making stuffed animals. We also observed Karate and making a toy out of balsa wood. This last class was taught by an older gentleman who volunteers to come in and teach the children.
After club activities, we went to the auditorium for a performance. The 1-3rd grades had gone home so we had just the 4-6th grades left. They sixth graders put on a traditional Kagura Performance with rented costumes that were absolutely incredible. The students did a spectacular job. They acted out an old Japanese myth with demons and monkeys gods and so on. I would like to get a copy of the story in English. It looked very interesting. I bought masks similar to ones that were used in the performance.
At the end of the performance, the kids all stood and formed two lines and we were to pass between the two lines as the kids cheered and tried to get us to shake hands. (they do not shake hands in their culture and they liked doing this American thing). They were so excited to have us there and sad to see us go that it was really touching. Many of the teachers were crying when we go to the conference room again. In the conference room we were served a typical Japanese treat with the sweet beans that I mentioned to you. They also served us the traditional green tea made like they make it in the tea ceremony thought there was not time for the ceremony. They then presented us with pictures of us with our students that we ate lunch with. They had scurried in and taken pictures but we did not think anything of it. They have Japanese calligraphy around the calligraphy as well as some origami.
After we left the school, they drove the bus to the harbor and we took pictures of a beautiful sunset over the harbor.
We went to the hotel and after a quick break, we went to the center of town where city officials and some students threw the switch to light the town Christmas tree. It was quite a sight to be in the middle of a Japanese City and see them turn on Christmas lights. I asked our interpreter why they were doing such a thing and she said "We are Christmas Christians." In other words they just like the traditions of our Christmas. Before the lighting of the tree, a choir sang Amazing Grace and What a friend we have in Jesus, in Japanese.
Later they had a brass band that played both Japanese and American songs. When they were American we sang them nice and loud. It was fun for us. They had a rice pounding event and we Americans were invited to help out. There is a huge mallet and you pound this gluttonous rice. After it is pounded, it is rolled in sugar and spices and it is a desert item. I liked it a lot. We also had chicken soup. It was good.
After all that excitement, we were invited to go out to eat with some JET folks. I gather it is a program between English speaking countries and Asian countries where they have young people come and teach English and act as interpreters. They took us to a quaint old restaurant that does not serve any fish and in fact, served pizza, chicken and pasta. It was refreshing and we had a great time. I got back to the hotel in time to call home only to find that at Japanese time of 9:30 PM. I woke my husband at 8:30 Am as he was sleeping in Thanksgiving morning.
I miss all of you but am having the opportunity of a lifetime.
I am eager to show all my pictures but I have 600 - 700 and just do not have time to do any more than download them onto the computer and set things up for the next day. AS it is, it is almost midnight and I still need to get a speech ready for the Junior high tomorrow.
Again, Happy Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Pearson
PS Here is a message I sent to someone who asked if the cities are crowded and are the cities clean. I answered:
Everything is incredibly clean. There is no graffiti anyplace. The subways, streets, parks, etc., are impeccable. I did not experience crowded conditions in Tokyo and the small city I am visiting is much like any small city in Massachusetts. Perhaps bigger than Auburn and smaller than Worcester. I do not do well with this sort of thing but I think They said something like 50,000.
To give you an example of clean, today we visited the elementary school and after lunch you would not believe how all the kids scurried around and cleaned, without supervision. I mean they really scrubbed. They scrubbed the tops of desks, bathrooms, swept and washed the halls. Each child has a cleaning rag and it is hung with clothespins from the back of the chair to dry after cleaning time.
Hygiene here is far beyond anything in the US. At a restaurant they give you a rolled up wet cloth in a plastic wrapper of a nice hot washcloth to wash your hands before you eat. Some restaurants even have a sink near the entrance. If someone has a cold they wear a face mask in consideration to others so no one will get their germs. They change their slippers to bathroom slippers before they use the toilet and then change back afterward. This is true even in most schools. (Not in restaurants and stores.) Everything is scrubbed and polished even in old buildings.
As far as crowded, I have not experienced rush hour and when in Tokyo, I was in the Fifth Avenue type section so did not see any poor sections. They are having quite a recession/depression. In the park they had quite a few homeless people in a kind of tent city.
I know some of this is rambling and needs editing but I just have to let it go at draft level. I will take all my information and make a more formal version when I return.
December 1, 2002
Junior High Friday
I am sorry I have not reported on Friday at the Junior High visit. It was emotionally exciting but draining and I did not feel up to journaling Friday night. Since then I have been at my homestay visit.
Friday was an incredible success for our peace crane flag. My group of teachers were very supportive and most came to me some time during the day and told me how wonderful the crane flag was. When we got it to the school, an official from the town took over and supervised getting it put up in the conference room where we had our meeting with the principal. Then they moved it to the gymnasium where we had our official celebration with the students. It was after an incredible Shinto play with costumes that were unbelievable that I was to present the flag. Here is my speech.
I bring to you greetings from the United States of friendship and peace. My students read the story of Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes. They have folded over 1700 origami peace cranes helped by students from the elementary and high schools. Half of them were used to make a flag of Japan which hangs in our school to remind us of your efforts in peace. The other half of the cranes were fashioned into this American flag to bring to you in Japan. My students want each flag to carry the words that are on the children's peace statue in Peace Park in Hiroshima.Then I said in Japanese: Sekai ju no Heiwa Korewa watashi-tachi-no Sakebi desu Korewa watashi-tachi-no English: This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the world.
The principal got up and said that they work hard to teach their students about peace and human rights. He said we may come from different cultures but we "like-minded people." It was a very moving time for me. I wish very much that you could have been there with me to enjoy the emotions of the moment.
The rest of the day was fabulous as well. I visited a science class where they were studying chemistry and they made water by putting oxygen and hydrogen together and with a spark made water. It was fascinating and I took a video. I think you will like it. The room had a window that overlooks the ocean. It was a magnificent view. I would have a hard time concentrating in such a room. The science labs were very large and nicely equipped.
When sharing lunch with a class, (I gave them the gifts you wrapped) a girl stood up and shared a speech with me about the Titanic. It was excellent and all in English.
The final program was totally run by the students. They had a brass band that was led by a student and would put most high school bands to shame. It was fabulous. They we had songs by the chorus which was accompanied by a student pianist and led by a student. Next was a Shinto dance with incredible costumes including large serpents that even had smoke and flame coming from their mouths.
I would like to share more but do not have time.
I wanted to share pictures but just do not have time for that either.
Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We went to a restaurant that serves American type food and had pizza, and salad and pasta and other dishes. We all went to the same restaurant and enjoyed our time together. It is a great group of teachers. We are becoming like family. I will miss them very much when we go home. I also miss home. This has been a very emotionally draining experience as I keep meeting fascinating people and only get to spend a little time with them and know I may never have contact with them again. I have gathered a lot of emails and will try to keep in contact with some at least.
Mrs. Pearson
Home Visit Saturday/Sunday
I got up early and packed for my home visit. I had a lot of gifts to take as well as all of my technology equipment so I had a lot to take. After a shower and quick breakfast bar, I was off. My family met me at the hotel. Yasuko and Kiyoshi Maehara. They are a young couple in their early thirties. They have been married for 3 years and built a new house last year. It was Yasuko's dream to have a nice house and entertain American guests. Our first stop was to a hot springs. The areas for the men and the women is separate. (Whew!) You pay your money and then go in and take a key from a square locker. You take your clothes off right there in front of the locker and take a hand towel with you if you like. I held it in front of me but not everyone did. You go into another room where there is an area with low stools and hoses with a spray head and soap and you wash your self all over. You can even wash your hair if you like as they supply shampoo. This area is similar to a gang shower at home except everything is low and you can sit on a stool. There is also a basin available if you want to use it.
Next we went outside in a fenced in area where there are two hot tubs with an awning type roof extending from the building to shelter the hot tubs. It was good on the day we went as it was quite cold and raining. We did not linger on the stone walkway and hurried over to get right in. Yasuko put her hand towel on her head and got right in. She cautioned me not to get my towel wet so I put it on the side. The water was colored and came from a hot springs and had minerals in it. My skin was very dry from travel and it felt very good on my skin. It was fairly hot so after a few minutes we needed to sit up on the side. When we did that we laid our towels on our lap as we chatted. We tried out both of the pool areas outside then went in side to the spray sauna. Again, with travel, my sinuses and lungs were quite dried out and the steam felt quite good. When we were done with that, we went back out to the area for cleaning yourself and rinsed ourselves off. Then back to the locker room where we dressed and there was a vanity area to comb and dry your hair and reapply makeup.
When we rejoined Kiyoshi, Yasuko's husband, he said one of the men's hot tub/pool areas was wood and one was stone. Both of ours had been fiberglass, must like a hot tub at home.
This hot spring was part of a resort so there was a restaurant so we stayed for lunch. We had a variety of dishes including a salad from a salad bar. I liked it very much. One of the items for the salad was sweet potato and it worked very well. The salad dressing had some vinegar in it so it was a comfortable dish for me to eat. Our main meal was eel over rice. It was moist and soft. I can't say I have had anything quite like it. The meal came with several other dishes. One was pickled radish and another was like a mini salad and yet another was a little soup.
We made several stops at stores. One was at a bookstore with music and I bought two cds of music. One of contemporary music and one of contemporary music played on traditional instruments, the samisen. We also went to a grocery store. It was like ours in that it had food but other then that it was very different. The meat was mostly fish and most of the fish had the heads and tails still on. One of the bags of snacks had tiny dried fish with head and tails still attached. I bought a bag of them in case anyone wants to try them... :)
We then went to their home. It is on the edge of Hamada in an area of new homes. It is fairly small in American standards but plenty large enough for two people. They have two cars as both have to drive to work. Yasuko is an English teacher in a neighboring town and Kiyoshi is a working for a propane gas company. They explained that there is propane piped under the streets. Their home is lovely. They had it built to their specifications and they have very good taste. When you walk in the front door, you take off your shoes and there is a rack of house slippers that guests may use. My room for my stay was the traditional Japanese tatami room. It has a straw mat for a floor and I slept on a thin mat with a thick feather comforter over me. It was quite comfortable and I had one of the best night's sleep of my stay in Japan.
In the afternoon we spent hours talking and she answered all the questions I wanted to ask at the schools and did not have time.
One question was the school schedule. She explained this was just her school but most schools are similar. To start with, this is the first year that the schools have gone to a five day schedule. Up to this year, students went to school a half day on Saturday. Now there are only clubs and sports on the weekend.
The teachers arrive at school at about 7:40 AM.
8:00 - 8:15 is a Teacher's meeting each morning
8:30 - 8:45 Homeroom. Much like ours with attendance and announcements
8:45 - 9:35 Period 1
There are 10 minutes between periods and the students are allowed to do what they please. They are not allowed to have a snack but they can go to the bathroom and socialize. The teachers move from room to room so they do not have to go to another room unless it is to a science lab or gym.
9:45 - 10:35 Period 2
10:45 - 11:35 Period 3
11:45 - 12:35 Period 4
12:35 - 1:05 Lunch It is prepared in a central kitchen of the town and shipped off to the schools. Yasuko is next to the kitchen for her town and gets hot meals but some schools I was at ended up with cold soup and rice because they were farther from the kitchen. Students go get the food from the preparation room and serve it in their classrooms. The students who serve it wear masks and white jackets. The teacher eats with his/her students.
1:05 - 1:35 Break or free time. There is no supervision as the teachers go to the teachers room to prepare for afternoon classes. Students are allowed to go outside and play baseball or soccer or go to the gym for basketball or volleyball. They may also read books or talk with their friends. They may also play hide and seek inside even though this sometimes is a problem. When it is rainy or snowy it is hard as everyone is in. Sometimes a window of the building can get broken.
1:35 - 1:45 Cleaning time. Yasuko said in her school teachers clean with their students. In one school, we did not see teachers during cleaning time.
The students are arranged in teams and they clean everything, even washing floors and cleaning bathrooms.
1:55-2:45 Period 5
2:55- 3:45 Period 6 (On Wednesday this period is clubs, the other days it is regular classes)
3:55 - 4:00 Homeroom
4 - 6:30 PM Clubs (Summer schedule)
4- 5:00 PM Clubs (Winter schedule)
The teachers teach 5 of the 6 periods so they get one period for preparation.
Every teacher is involved with a club. They do get a tiny bit of money for their work but only a few dollars a week.
During summer and winter vacation, students have off but teachers are expected to work. They still have club activities such as sports and calligraphy and music etc. They also visit the home of every one of their homeroom students.
They might also have seminars and meetings.
There are about 200 school days for students.
Food:
Saturday evening we had Shabu-Shabu which involves a pot of boiling water and all kinds of things to boil in it at the table. I liked it very much. It is my favorite meal so far. We had very thin shaved beef and pork as well as a large tray of vegetables such as a thin long stemmed mushroom, a green leafy vegetable that looked a bit like spinach larger mushrooms, glass noodles which look like clear spaghetti, and a delicious tofu. I found that not all tofu is created equal. I have not been fond of tofu up to now but this tofu was very good. The meal was served with beer which I do not normally drink. I decided that while I was in Japan I would try everything and found the Japanese beer to be much more palatable to me than American beer. It was milder. I even had two glasses.
On Sunday, I knew I was going to finally have a Japanese breakfast. It was something I was able to avoid as our hotel has always had an American breakfast available. My students will remember in Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes, she had rice, bean soup and pickles for breakfast. Anyway, Yashiko asked if I would like to join her in bacon, eggs, toast and coffee for breakfast. I said, "You are kidding, did you buy that for me?" She said that it was her normal breakfast. She cannot be bothered to cook rice and make soup in the morning. I enjoyed my breakfast very much though having fried eggs, over easy was a challenge with chopsticks.
For lunch, she made spaghetti with squid, onions, peppers and another fish that looked something like tuna but she did not know the English for it. The spaghetti was cooked and stilled in with the other items and all was quickly cooked together before being served. This was served with a thin potato soup. It was an excellent meal. We did a little more shopping before coming back to the hotel.
The bathroom, toilet and tooth brushing room. The Japanese are way ahead of us when it comes to taking care of your body. They have three separate rooms. First there is the toilet. It is separate and is very deluxe. It has a heated seat so in the morning when the house was still cool, the seat is toasty warm. It has a whole panel of choices next to it. There is a spray to rinse your self. There is a second spray just for women. There is a knob to adjust the pressure of the spray. You can also adjust the heat. When your flush, you have a choice depending on if you went a little or a lot. When you flush it automatically turns on the water in a tiny sink over the back of the toilet so you can wash your hands. The water flows over a little round ceramic thing with slots in it that I think was a deodorizer.
Room two has a large sink, a medicine cabinet with mirror and has tooth paste and brushes and cosmetics in a cabinet. This room also had a small washer and dryer.
Room three is the real BATH room. It has a tub that is covered as everyone in the family uses the same water. It is not bad because you clean yourself thoroughly before you get into it. The floor of the bathroom has a drain and you take a hose on the wall with a shower head and wash yourself. There is soap, shampoo etc available to help with the washing process. There is a low stool and a small basin available if you want to use them. After bathing on what would be the floor in our bathroom, you get into the colored, scented, water with minerals added. It was a quite pleasant experience. In fact, it is probably what helped me to have such a good sleep. (By the way, I was asked when Saturday evening I would like my bath. If you counted correctly, I cleaned myself three times on Saturday. Once at the hotel, once at the hot springs and then the evening before I went to bed.)
I took a long walk with Yoshiko on Sunday morning. We visited her Buddhist Temple which runs a nursery school and her Shinto shrine which is only used on holidays.
We also visited her father's grave which is a place to put an urn of ashes and is where the whole family is put as space is precious in Japan. She said she would not be put with her parents, she will be put with her husband's family. Everything looked very well cared for and I asked who took care of the cemetery and she said that of course the whole community shares such tasks. They have times during the year that they all get together and clean or fix up various places around the town. They generally do not seem to have janitors or custodian in their culture. All workers or in this case residents share such tasks. In the school, for instance, I asked who did something like waxing the floor. She said when it needs it she and the students' do it.... of course.
Yasuko asked if I would mind if her students emailed my students. She also would like her class to do projects with my class. I took out the monster descriptions and she was very happy to have such a fun project to do with her class. She is looking forward to working on trying to teleconference with us as well. We would have to do it late at night at the school but we can arrange that and give it a try. I would like to have a link during the academic fair but would like to practice first. How exciting!
This evening several teachers had had enough fish and we went to McDonald's and had a hamburger and fries. Later we went to a place and had deserts.
Tomorrow we meet with a PTA to have a discussion and then we will visit a pottery place. In the evening we will go to a hot springs as a group. Some of the teachers are nervous about the getting naked part but I can reassure them that it does not hurt and the hot springs are very nice and relaxing. The next day we travel back to Tokyo and then I will meet with the Astronaut. I will probably not be able to email again until after I meet the astronaut as I do not expect to have Internet access at the hot springs. Even if I did, I think I should relax. It is now almost 2 AM and so I will be tired tomorrow.
Have a nice Sunday.
Mrs. Pearson
December 3, 2002
Monday
I returned from my host family Sunday, late afternoon and we just hung out as we were all happy to see each other.
Monday visited with a group of PTA members at the town hall. It was a very productive meeting on both sides.
Basically, the PTA is much like it is in the states. They raise money to help out the school with things beyond the ordinary budget.
They buy such things as books for library and uniforms.
We have been told by several people that about 10 years ago, the public schools in Japan were in crisis. There was a lot of bullying, students were even known to hit teachers and break desks and windows. There was also some stealing.
In Hamada, it was not that bad but still a concern. My question to the PTA was "How have schools been able to improve so much in the last 10 years?" You see we saw schools that were not perfect but certainly a lot of learning was going on in quite classrooms and the students and teachers seem to get along exceptionally well. I would even say in my observations that there was exceptional kindness and gentleness between teachers and students. Many students that I talked to liked their teacher a lot and said they were very kind.
The parents said that 10 to 15 years ago there was a business boom and in many families both parents went to work so the kids were neglected. Also there were less kids per family. There used to be 5-10 children in a family and now, only one or two so the kids were neglected and spoiled at the same time. At this time they said the dignity of the father went down. It used to be a strict family life with the father in charge but this is changing.
Hamada City invited fathers to come to the city hall. They invited the fathers to work together to improve the situation. The fathers union in the city is a model in Japan. Fathers went into schools to tell kids to behave. They brought in lecturers to speak to fathers and to children.
Drugs - We asked if there is a drug problem in Hamada. They said there are strong controls, punishment is severe and there were basically no drug problem. They have drug and cigarette training. Doctors and others come in to do training as well as showing the kids videos and having lecturers.
The drinking age is 20 and they felt not many teens drink but many do smoke.
Drunk driving causes you to lose your license automatically. There is also a big fine. A teacher would automatically lose their job, as would any officials.
In Hamada elementary, they have a program of elderly folks coming into the school and teaching students how to make traditional toys.
They do a lot with human rights in the schools. they are particularly concerned about student attitudes about students with handicaps and HIV carriers.
In Feudal Days there was a cast system. The Samurai were on top followed by Farmers, artisans, and merchants were the lowest because they did not produce anything, they just lived off the labors of others. They have been trying to turn around the idea of one group of people being better then others.
School refusal. They have some students in every town that refuse to go to school. If this happens, for a while, the teacher will come to the students home to tutor them so they do not get behind. In some towns they have a special school for such students. Often they are being bullied and do not want to go to school.
In the afternoon, we went to visit a potter. There used to be a lot of pottery shops in Hamada but now there is only one. We were allowed to watch as a man threw a pot or made a bowl on a potters wheel. Then we painted a mug with a design. This mug will be fired and brought to us in Tokyo.
In the evening we went to a Ryokan. It is called Hotel Kawasumi. We shared rooms and when we got to our room we found a large empty room with tatami mats on the floor. (Tatami mats are straw floor covering like a carpet.) You are not allowed to wear shoes on most floors inside but here you can not even wear slippers on the tatami mats. We dropped our luggage and went outside to take pictures. We saw an elderly lady gardening and harvesting huge radishes so we took lots of pictures. We also took pictures of the bamboo woods and volcanic rock on the hillside by the ryokan. After a nice walk we went in and took off everything and put on a cotton kimono. We then went to the hot springs. We washed on the low stools and those shower heads with a hose attached. They provided soap and shampoo. We thought there might be some shyness about all being undressed together but we were all friends by this time and it turned out to not be a problem. We soaked in the very hot indoor area then went outdoors to the even hotter outdoor spring that was rock lined. They had a bag of oranges floating in the pool of hot mineral water. The water makes your skin feel wonderful. You can only stay in for a few minutes then you have to sit up on the rocks for a while. The cool evening air was welcome after the hot water. In and out talking and laughing.
We then went to dinner in our cotton kimonos. The dinner was on a tatami mat so we sent in barefoot. They had a tiny low table for each of us. Something like bed trays we have in the US. There were maybe 15 different bowls and dishes of food on our little table. Then the waitresses came in in kimonos and served us more and more. I had some hot sake, a rice wine that is made locally. It was very good. It gave a warm feeling and was very relaxing. There was just more and more dishes brought to us and often we had to have instructions on what to do with what we were presented. There was a little soup on a fire that was meant to pour off the broth and drink it not to particularly eat the soup. It was wonderful. At 8:30 PM I went up to my room and after about 5 minutes I was asleep. I had a wonderful rest at the Ryokan and particularly enjoyed my last evening together with my Hamada group friends.
The next morning we got up at 5:30 as we had to go by bus to the airport to go back to Tokyo. We would all be there but the sessions would be mixed with the others that would be returning from their prefectures (states)