A Year Later

Wow...It's hard to believe it has been a year since my return from Japan. I had a very busy year as "ambassador". My Follow-on program went as planned, speaking to various groups and planning activities at school and within the community. I am excited that I will have the opportunity to travel back to Japan next year for three weeks with my family. Our neighbor will spend a year in Japan via a Fullbright Scholarship and has invited us to join her durning the summer. Needless to say we are looking forward to going. I will continue my ambassador role and will have so much more to bring back with me upon my return next summer. We will be staying in northern Japan, which will afford me the opportunity to compare and contrast my two visits. Of course we will be fully immersed in the culture as Alexis will be living within the community. How cool will that be? Stay tuned for more next summer!

Recapping a Few Facts

• Japanese people really do enjoy looking at your photos.
  
• Japanese people really do enjoy gift giving, wrapping everything.  Care is taken in wrapping and unwrapping each item. 
• You really do need an empty bag to return home with all the treasures you've been given.  If you liked the family fortune and mentioned so, it would probably be given to you!
• Sleeping on tatami mats with a futon is not all it's cracked up to be.  Basically, you're still sleeping on the floor.  OUCH!
• I love the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka with its beds and heated,noise making toilets!!!
• Beanbag pillows...forget it!
• No reading groups.  You either get it or you don't.  Thanks goodness for Juku schools!!!  Basically, after school, private tutoring, which many kids go to.
• This particular group of teachers fills in a lecture room from front to back....Some strong personalities I'd say!  My group prefers the back....Go Tanabe Group!
• Bees are big here...picture a three inch yellow jacket.  Scary!!!  You never have the camera when you most need it!  Imagine getting stung by it?  
• Turtle racing has become part of the Japanese culture.  Thank you BK.
• Our cute Japanese guide informed us many times to "Buckle your seatbelt."  The law changed on June 6th.
• In addition to taking a good deal of money with you while hiking Mount Fuji, JFMF insurance doesn't cover many other things.
• Always wave out the bus to the left when leaving.  There's a line up of well wishers waving back upon leaving every where you visit.
• Stilts and unicycles are really cool to play with at recess.  Mary, can we get it in our budget?
• There are no Japanese that can use chopsticks the way I can, but they all try!
• Baseball fans are more fun to watch than the game.
• Total confusion as to what slippers to wear and when.  I did get it down by the end of two weeks!
• Skyping keeps you sane.
• Not all toilet seats are heated, but even the squat toilets make noise while you're using them.
• Packing and unpacking becomes an art when you do it five or six times a week.  I finally mastered it on the final day of our rather hectic week.  Figures!
• It's okay to make a fool of yourself at Karaoke in Japan!

Tomorrow's agenda...group presentations. 

Picking Ume in the Rain...but so worth it!

Turtle Racing Comes to Japan

Back In Tokyo

What a week it's been!  To begin with, Sunday night was spent at a traditional Japanese inn or ryokan named Musashi in Shirahama, Wakayama.  It was right on a white sandy beach about 300 miles south of Tokyo, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Evidently it is one of the nicest in Japan!  It has the largest hot spring spa, which is over 1000 years old.  Needless to say it was beautiful.  For dinner we had a tradional meal, sitting upon a tatami mat, dressed in our kimonos.  Talk about good food, lots of sake and ume wine (my favorite), laughter and silliness...my goodness, it was all fantastic!  

The previous night I had a home stay with a family in which both parents were teachers.  Megu (the mom) is a fourth grade teacher and Masa (the dad) is a high school social studies teacher.  They both spoke english (we only had to get the Japanese/English dictionary out once).  They have two sons, both going to universities, so they weren't home.  They took me to Masa's elderly aunt's house.  She has a forty year collection of  very intricate paper Japanese dolls she makes, hundreds of them mostly displayed in glass cabinets.  She gave me two very beautiful dolls.  She wanted to put them in a box for me, but each one she opened had more dolls in them, some "under construction" as Masa explained.  We sat and had tea while Masa fanned her the entire time.  Can't wait for my nephew to do that for me!  We also went ume (green/yellow plumbs) picking.  I don't think we have them in the US, but the juice from them is delicious and the wine is even better.  Afterwards we took our plums to a place that's set up to make juice from them.  Basically what you do it clean them all the put them in a large jar and cover them with sugar.  For ten days you gently shake the jar..."like you would treat your husband" according the the instructor...twice a day.  After ten days you strain it and drink it, then make jelly out of the fruit.  I have some to take home, but don't know if it will make it through customs or not.

We also had a Japanese barbecue at a park.  We brought our own food, sat under a pavilion at a table that had a grill in the middle of it.  The charcoal was actually handmade on the sight.  It's an incredible process of wood fired in huge earthen ovens for six days.  Afterwards the blackened wood is removed, covered in sand to cool for a few days then ready to use.  It's very expensive to buy, about $30 for one three foot stick that's less than an inch in diameter.  Needless to say, Japanese don't barbecue much!  Lunch consisted of corn on the cob, cabbage, peppers and onions, chicken and strips of the most tender beef I have ever had, all cooked on the grill.  Oh and of course tea!  Mmmmm, Mmmmm. 

The flight back to Tokyo was uneventful.  It was a bright sunny day, so we enjoyed smooth flying.  Once back in Tokyo a group of us headed out to do some shopping and get a bite to eat.  We were all hungry for some good old fashioned American cuisine and did find a...Wendy's.  Not one for fast food burgers for the most part, but I do have to admit it was good!!!  Not that I have had my fill of sushi yet, but...!  Anyway, Kathleen, can't wait for the cookout!!!  I'd like my burger rare please.

Meetings today, but we finish relatively early, 3:30 so that will give us time for some late afternoon, early evening adventures.

Hope all is well at home and I miss everyone!

Substitute Shortage...take note Mary!

Kaiten-zushi is a sushi restaurant where the plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant and moves past every table and counter seat. The conveyor belt is narrow, but long.  Customers may place special orders, but most simply pick their selections from a steady stream of fresh sushi moving along the conveyor belt.  The final bill is calculated based on the number and type of plates of the consumed sushi.  Plates are color coded for price.  At the end of the meal the waitress uses a scanning devise along the edge of your piled dishes.  It calculates your final cost, then she scans a card similar to a credit card, which is your bill and you bring it to the register.  It was fun guessing what everyone's bill would be.  I imagine they have them in the US, and although they're relatively inexpensive here, that would probably not be the case at home.  It was pretty cool though!  We're in a seaside village so the sushi can't get any fresher than what we had.  It was by far the best I've ever had...you name it, they had it.  Mmmm, Mmmm!

We finished our school visits today.  Yesterday was elementary school.  Our custodians would love it here.  Well maybe not, they would probably be out of a job.  The students do all the cleaning!  Seriously!  They even do toilets and windows.  First graders don't clean to well, so they only do their classrooms.  The funny part is, the teachers aren't present while they clean and they all actually clean!  Okay, so if that's not wild enough, today while at the high school we walked into a history class.  When asked where the teacher was they said he was out on business...for the whole day.  In other words he wasn't at school at all...and there was no substitute!!!.  Just 35 or so kids (some classes have just over forty) all quietly in seats reading, studying or doing homework.  A couple of kids were talking, but very quietly and no one was fooling around.  Needless to say we were totally amazed.  Our escort teacher thought nothing of it.  Strange, but clearly it was working.  

Tomorrow, Saturday, we leave the hotel for our home stay, each of us with a different family in Tanabe.  I do know the couple I'm staying with have no children at home and are both teachers.  We'll be with them for one night.  Sunday night we will be staying at a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn.  Needless to say I'm looking forward to that....hot spa, massage, relaxing!  Monday we head back to Tokyo for the final leg of our stay.

Terry's introduction speech

Ohayo gozaimass.  Watashi no namae wa Terry Samokar dess.  On behalf of our group of sixteen teachers, all from different parts of the United States, it is my pleasure to thank the staff and students of Tanabe Daisan Elementary School for extending such a warm welcome to us as your guests.  We are both honored and excited to have this opportunity to serve as Cultural Ambassadors between the United States and Japan.

We are living in a period of time where world peace in not just a wish, but rather a necessity.  The people of Japan serve as role models in promoting world peace.  Your dedication to this venture is an inspiration to us all.  It is with great pleasure and honor that we have been awarded this opportunity to work together.  Our group has traveled half way around the world to learn about your culture, your schools and your beliefs.  With our enthusiasm and commitment to teaching, we are excited to be able to share our new knowledge of your country with our schools and communities.  Our lives have been changed as a result of visiting your country.  For many of us we will begin a life long journey working with the people of Japan to promote world peace.

As educators we share many of the same problems.  As educators we strive to instill in our students a better understanding of life to come.  As educators we want the best for our students.  World peace is an important component of this.  Our trip to your country has not only reinforced the need for peace, but also the need to teach it to our students, staff and communities.  It is our hope that together we are able to accomplish this.

Again, I would like to express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the people of Tanabe Daisan Elementary School, Tanabe and Japan for inviting the people of the United States into your country in hopes that together we can make the world a better, more peaceful place for us and for our children. 

Domo arigato gozaimass.