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.
