I started the day with a "typical" Japanese breakfast which included rice, salmon, miso soup, pickled vegetables, and some fresh fruits (fruit is VERY expensive in Japan). No eggs, bacon, and pastry to be had, and I didn't miss it at all! People eat so healthy here, and it shows! The first half of the day was spent in lectures where we learned some of the basics of the Japanese educational system and it's approaches to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD from here on out). Later in the day we got to take a city bus tour of Tokyo, which is a vast urban jungle of 13 million people, one of the most densely built cities in the world. The tour featured visits to the Emperor's Palace (could only see from the outside gate) and a large Buddhist temple in the heart of the city. Before going in people must wash their hands in a ceremonial fountain and pass incense across their bodies to purify themselves for the temple. Afterward a group of us stayed on and explored the area around the temple at night. We caught the subway back to the hotel, and even at 10 pm it was so packed you could barely move (I'm told that the Tokyo subway moves more people per day than any other transit system in the world)!
Tomorrow we spend the day touring a few different schools (their academic year starts in April, so they are in session) to observe and learn how they teach ESD curricula. I'm really looking forward to this first of many school tours over the course of the next two weeks.
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