June 19 Visiting Tokyo schools

Today we visited two schools in the Tokyo prefecture area.  Getting to the schools was an adventure in itself, and it was amazing to drive for 1 hour and see the city just go on and on and on.  The first school was a middle/high school called Shotoku Gakuen, a private school within the urban Tokyo corridor.  In Japan families must choose between public and private schools, both of which the students must test into so they are both very competitive (more so for the public schools, as they are more affordable so many more families apply for the coveted spots in the better schools).  After being given an introduction to the school by the principal, we were assigned to classrooms in small groups to talk with the kids and share our home schools/cities and what and how we teach.  I was with a classroom of 15 year olds, and they were very polite and curious about American culture (music, food, etc).  It was fun to talk to them, although their English was pretty difficult to understand so we had to "talk" through many gestures and drawings!  I was asked to give a short speech of gratitude, and received a picture of a Japanese shogun who is connected to the school in some way I couldn't quite pick-up.

The second school was a public elementary school called Inagi Daini in a more suburban area, much greener and scenic.  These kids were beyond cute.  When we got there each student gave us a welcome card they drew on and held our hand as they walked us into the gym where they sang to us and recited a poem.  We toured the school's garden area, where they grow and tend to grapes and learn about the environment.  We were also treated to a ceremonial tea service hosted by the 6th graders who are learning this important cultural element.  This was a very enjoyable visit and they kids were just amazing... so friendly and eager to talk with us despite their limited English.  You could tell they were really exicited about our visit!

After the long ride home, we met up with some Japanese teachers and went out for some Okinawan food.  I'm not sure what half of the stuff I ate was, but my taste buds are still tingling with all the flavors.

Tomorrow we board a plane and the group splits up into two, half of us heading to Kushiro in the northern Hokkaido Island, the other half to Hashimoto City in the central part of Japan (I'm with the Kushiro group).