Japanese Dinner!

Well, unfortunately the momentum from the trip has finally ebbed, but I'm trying to hold on!
Last week I took three of my students to dinner at Musashi, a Japanese restaurant in Allentown. It was the reward for a bonus project that I offered to my classes.
I treated them to sushi/ sashimi, beef sukiyaki, udon noodles, and tempura, complete with miso soup and salad with ginger dressing! I wanted them to get a fair taste of the many types of dishes I ate during my weeks in Japan. All three of the girls were very brave and tried everything! They even used chopsticks! I don't if they'll ever opt to eat it again, but I know I left with a very full stomach!
The follow-on plan/packet was also due last week so I mailed out everything to Tokyo and New York. I included copies of an essay explaining the influence of the Japanese Culture unit on them written by two of the students that went with me to dinner.
I can happily say that after our discussion at dinner I'm reminded of how much my students enjoyed being introduced to new things as well as how fun it was to share my experiences with them. This summer I hope to finish the video portion of my follow-on and maybe in a few years I'll see if any students want to take a long journey with me. Maybe they'll even have gotten a pen pal letter back!

Keeping the JFMF momentum going!

With the trip now being almost three months away, I'm trying to find ways to keep the momentum alive! The question is... How?
I have stayed in touch with quite a few people, I've taught my Japanese Cultural Unit (of which the posters are still hanging in my classroom), and I've even created a movie night to show The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Geisha. I'm even still slowly consuming Learning to Bow, the book about a teacher's year teaching in Japan, and I'm loving every page of it!
My American friends have gotten back into the flow of our regular lives, including myself, so we aren't as connected as we once were. Although, I can say that my teacher friend, Matt from NJ, is willingly keeping in touch, probably due to the convenience of being able to get together for breakfast and such, like we did on Saturday. We were able to step back in time as we looked at my 500 page picture album. yikes!

However, I want to do more. As a matter of fact, I've been looking into the idea of an EF Tour to Japan. I've always wanted to travel with my students, some more than others, of course, but what a perfect opportunity! The current catalog has a tour to Japan that covers both Tokyo and the region of Fukuoka, where I met the most wonderful people. The problem is, how do I get students to raise that kind of money? It's 2,400 dollars, which really is quite good for airfare, meals, and accomodations, but it's still a lot of money. Maybe once our pen pal letters arrive my students will be more interested, hmmm....

Then, at Saturday's track meet, as I lugged my big album around with me, I introduced the concept to my college athletes. Wow, was I pleasantly surprised at their reactions! They thought it would be a great idea. Some even said they would love to go. Seriously? My mind is now on overload thinking about how in the world I could bring such a trip to fruition! If I could go with my college athletes first, and then begin making plans to previous students to travel back to Japan with me, wouldn't that get the ball rolling? I realize it's far away, and I'd need to get time off school, and do fundraising and all sorts of stuff, but I think it would be a great way to start appreciating another culture as well as focusing more on our own.

If anyone reading this, either from Japan or the US, has some strong feelings about this, from athletes to parents, to students, I'd really love some ideas on how or if I can make this work, please let me know! I hate to see this interest stop at a yearly lesson and stories about a trip I once took!

JFMF Reflections

This, assuming it is the falling action to my blogging experience, will be one of my most difficult to write, I think.
I'm not sure how to express my sentiments for this whole trip without crying. Yes, especially for those of you who were on the trip with me, it seems I do cry at the drop of a hat. For instance, you mention my students when I'm standing in front of a class of Japanese students and bam, tears. But I didn't always used to be this way, so chalk it up to menopause or something!
Moving on, yep, it seems it will take me a few days to think about my friends from this trip without shedding a tear too. I think it must be the once in a lifetime opportunities that do it to me. I do remember crying at my job interview to teach at Northeast, but that's another story altogether. For good reasons, of course, in case any of you were laughing!

The previous paragraph was written almost immediately after my return and, as you can see, I was a little emotional. I've been back for a month now and have had plenty of time to experience my life as it was before the trip, and yet, now things seem quite a bit different! I think I'm going to have a hard time explaing this.
The initial experiences after my return, such as meeting the Japanese woman from Lehigh and keeping in contact with my friend from NJ, enabled me to postpone the ending of my trip, to an extent.
Being off this last week for Christmas forced me to get back to reality. Seriously, it was a really great way to actually settle in again. I had time with my fiance, at last, since he is in the heart of his basketball season, but also his family and mine too.
We had a great Christmas, first at his house, then mine when my family came up, and the next day his sister came home too. She went on the JFMF a year before I did. As we talked about our experiences I quickly discovered that we seemed to have similar thoughts about the people and country. It also helped to start sharing the pictures on my computer; I've even had them developed now too. I think I'm finally ready to reflect.

Taking into account only my experiences, (I have to say that as a disclaimer so my Dad doesn't make a comment about brainwashing) I clearly believe that the people of Japan are a kind and generous people. Their beliefs are evident in every air about them, their genuine concern for humanity, their need to please people and their amazing hospitality. This JFMF experience is so well-organized, planned and executed it's easy to believe that every teacher in their ten year history has come back without being in awe of their culture. I should, of course, add that I am very proud to be an American. However, I think it is more american of me to say that while we do have things good here, we could learn from their society. Quite a bit, I'm afraid.
Where are our manners when it comes to new technology, such as cell phones, or our love for learning when it comes to education? When did we become so afraid of the taxpayers that we can't teach the way we want to anymore? Will my students not learn about culture, honor and discipline from my trip? Or should I feel guilty that they haven't memorized "How to take a standardized test" questions and save my trip for later? Talk about teaching higher level thinking skills, I have seen my students allow their curiosity to take them towards questions I could never have taught! They are impressed by the schooling and the kindness that I tell them about. They are also interested in the kyogen masks and the fancy kimono that I brought home, but none of them are going to move there anytime soon. Let's be realistic. I can only hope they are learning to be a little nicer to someone that looks or lives differently than they do, to think before they speak and say something they can't take back, and to grab life's many opportunities before they slip away.
Do I sound like a teacher on a soapbox? Maybe. But I will stand on my box, crying, of course, proud of the fact that someday down the road one of my students will have learned something from me that they do remember. (I guarantee how to get the right multiple choice test question answer, won't be one of them.) Or, better yet, when one of my students opens his or her pen pal letter from someone half a world away, they might think that their teacher taught them some pretty cool stuff. Maybe, some day, they'll even share that with someone else.

Lehigh University S.T.A.R.T Program

My friend Matt, from New Jersey, drove in today to attend the program with me. I think we are both suffering withdrawl from our trip experiences together in Tokyo. In about an hour he got here in time to meet me and head over to the South Side, with a brief tour of Historic Bethlehem, for lunch.
Keiko was already waiting for us at Jazzman's Cafe, which made me remember the punctuality of the Japanese. I felt bad for barely being on time. We got some salads, sandwiches and coffee and happily sat down to chat.
Keiko is here with her husband, whose company sent him to complete his MBA. Keiko is taking classes at Lehigh Carbon Community College and wishes to become a teacher when she goes home. They've been here for 1 1/2 years and go back to Japan on the 27th. What great timing for us to have met at all. It turns out it was her last night of work at the Ichiban.

We shared many of the same experiences in regards to the visits of our new countries. She wished she had taken her camera to the grocery store too! She said that when her friends visit they can't believe how small the fish section is or how large the milk containters are. Portions are much larger here, attributing to our obesity problems, I'm sure. Transportation was also an interesting discussion because they depend on the subway or bikes and we don't really have either here, so they both got driver's licenses.

After lunch we walked to the building where the students in the program were already working with their tutors. The program actually runs all day, Keiko's group of Japanese and American students does just a one hour session in the afternoon. They broke the students up into groups, showed them a map of Japan and taught them more Hiragana letters. They also played some hands on rock, paper, scissors as a tournament. They students seemed to remember a lot from their last class, and really enjoyed themselves.

The class seemed like it was over really quickly and I was sad to have to leave. I'm really happy to have gone and to have met Keiko. She was so friendly and I look forward to keeping in touch with her. She gave me her Meishi, or business card, and I'll email her pictures from our day.
I think this whole experience continues to touch me in ways I wouldn't have imagined. I have developed such a deep appreciation for this culture of people who seem to be so gentle, sincere, and kind in all that they do. They are so eager to make friendships with total strangers; I hope that through my experience my own students can be open to developing friendships with new people. This is an opportunity that I would never have thought to explore had I not attended the JFMF experience first.

Japanese Class!

Last night, Matt, my fiance, and I finally got to go out to dinner for the first time since I've been back.
With his basketball season and my parent conferences we both had a busy week!
As you can imagine, I was craving Japanese food!
I ordered some awesome sashimi when the waiter inquired about my Japanese! Well, to make a long story short, I met another wonderful person.
The waitress, studying here at the local community college, has invited me to come to her class tomorrow at Lehigh. She is teaching Japanese to a group of underpriveledged kids on the South Side.
I'm so excited that she emailed me, we're going to meet up for lunch first, too!
If any of my students are reading this, and you are interested in coming, please email me for the information. Since I have had some unfortunate experiences with this blog lately regarding inappropriate material, I would like you to contact me personally before I post the information.
Thanks so much!
And, yes, I will post another blog afterward to report on my experiences!

Kamakura

I'll be posting more pictures for today's blog when I get them from Rachel, I forgot to charge my camera last night... but read on anyway.

Another day of travel! We're flying back to Tokyo!
We got back early enough in the afternoon that Rachel and I were able to catch a train to Kamakura. Even though we were pretty tired from the night before, we couldn't leave Japan without seeing "The Big Budda!" Ok, it's really called DAIBUTSU, but look at the picture and you'll totally understand!

It was a great day overall, but pretty sad flying back from Fukuoka. The friendships I developed there were much more of what I expected from the overall trip.

We met up to head out for the night and ended up at an Irish Pub over by the big 100Yen store. I had hoped to pick up more gifts for my students but missed it. Instead we enjoyed the quaintness of a small pub to reflect on our individual trips once rejoining our friends from before our Prefectures. It was great to hear how Jason, Katie, and even Kristi from Wisconsin had enjoyed their trips. Roger went upstairs a few times to listen to the Jazz music, and they've offered that he can come back tomorrow night to play with the piano player. I hope he gets his chance; it sounds like fun.

Roger, Matt and I finished off the night back at the hotel bar to celebrate before retiring for another day of large gatherings. Tomorrow will be our first group seminars in over a week of being in small groups of twenty.

Ryoken

Let me start with one word: Karaoke! While some of us got the chance to test the Karaoke waters in Tokyo, this was a real treat. A Ryoken is the idea of a traditional Japanese Hotel or Inn. We stayed in rooms with tatami mat floors, beds that are really futon mattresses neatly placed in the closet, tables with cushions on the floor ( yep, no chairs allowed) and like a real family would, three or four to a room!
This was obviously meant to be a group bonding opportunity! The bath rooms were very large, very warm and pretty comfortable, but I had already done that with my host family, and it just wasn't the same without the natural smell of sulphur. Some people took the opportunity to try their first Japanese stone bath, where you lay on hot stones for a half an hour to relax your muscles. I wasn't big on that idea after two of my roommates returned with bright red faces and a lot of cooling down to do. Instead, a few of us made tea and reflected on how our trip was winding down as we waited for dinner to begin.
We got all dressed up in our traditional hotel "robes", remembering to fold left under right, the other way is reserved for wrapping the deceased, put on our toe-d socks, our slippers, then headed off to dinner. We were served in a large room, ten facing ten with a walkway in the middle so our servers could access our individual tables more efficiently. Thank goodness, the cushions were on half chairs, no legs, just a back to lean on!
We ate sushi, miso soup, pickled vegetables, sukiyaki (I think), rice, and a few other things I can't name, but were good. Only the picky eater went home hungry. They had warm saki to serve with dessert, and then, it was time for Karaoke!
Our group might have started out a little nervous but soon enough we had a good time and everyone got up to finish the night with a little rendition of "We are the World." Ok, a little cliche, but it seemed to fit our experience! And it was lots of fun!
A smaller group of us weren't ready for bed yet, fearing that our time together might change when we returned to Tokyo the next day. So we ordered some sake to go and told more stories about our states, our schools, our families, and of course, our trip.
I have had such a great time with some of the most wonderful people here. It's amazing how close people can become over what may seem to be a relatively short period of time, but we are spending every minute together.
While I know I'm going to really miss some of my new friends, I look forward to the 'reunion' we've already started planning so those of us on opposite ends of the US can see each other again. New Jersey seems easy, that's right next door, but could we cover more distance from Florida to Texas then way up to Alaska? Wow, new places to visit!
I think our sleepover at the ryoken solidified our feelings about how different, and yet, how the same our cultures can be. We are all still human beings who thrive on building relationships with good, kind people.
Miss you, Fukuoka friends; and Thanks!