Today is Wednesday so I have a few days to catch up. On Saturday I arrived about 1:30 at my hotel, met my friends for a quick dinner and shopping for our Fugi trip. It was an early night - in bed by 9:30.
We left for the bus on the subway about seven o'clock and arrived at Shinjuko station to catch the bus. Yamada san, our guide, was such a sweetheart. He had given me his cell phone number to call when we arrived at the station. He came looking for us and made sure we got on the bus. Yamada San had spent seven years in Australia so his English is very good. I had made the reservations so all six people in our group were called Cindy San for the rest of the trip. It was a National holiday weekend in Japan so the traffic was horrendous going to Mt. Fugi. When we arrived at Fugi we ate the lunch we had brought and started to hike.
Mt. Fugi from level 5
Luckily it was not raining, the sun was out and it was beautiful. There were 44 people in our group and we started out walking very slowly. It seemed weird to us but we later realized why - the low part of the path was flat but the path very quickly got very steep and at times rocky. The silly Americans started walking way too fast and I, for one, paid for it later. We hiked for four hours and stopped at a level of 3000m. At one point I would walk a little ways and then have to rest (Mindy carried my pack.) Yamada san would always wait for me. The head guide asked him to bring me to the front of the group and the guide helped me by setting a slow pace. So, I led the group. He would say, "Slow, slow". It really did help to walk a slower pace and I was able to keep going. An amazing thing in Japan, when the guide asked me to come to the front, the Japanese were telling me "Hang in there!"
Pretty steep

Now one of the memorable times on the mountain. We were to stay at a hut which I had heard had bunks and futons. Well, I did not expect group bunks with 120 people sleeping in the same room. When an employee showed us to a futon where five of us would sleep that was about the size of a double bed we all got the giggles. Not only did we have that size of bed but the people on the next futon were placed so that their feet reached to our waist. Needless to say, we laughed many times and did not get much sleep.
Sleeping quarters

We went to bed at five in the afternoon and the group was going to leave at ten o'clock at night to hike six hours to the top. Even though I had had some trouble I was still considering the hike until my better judgement took over. The group hiked in pitch dark, it rained, it was about 40 degrees with 20 mile an hour winds. The route was pretty straight up and the three that made it said it was very dangerous and the most grueling thing they had ever done.
Fugi sunrise from level 8

Rick and I went back down the mountain and met Toni who had ridden part of the way up on a horse and stayed at a hut at a lower level. We started down at six o'clock in the morning and arrived at the level where we started at 7:30. The three that made it to the top arrived at that level at 9:00. The bus was to leave at 9:30 but did not leave until 11:00 as three older people did not get down from the mountain - Yamada san was very worried. We arrived home on Monday at five, stinky, tired and elated. Even though I did not make it to 3676 m I am proud of what I accomplished and will forever remember our Fugi experience.
Tuesday in Tokyo a group of us got up and went to the fish market at 5:30 in the morning. What an experience! Every kind of fish you could imagine, so much activity and all of it is over by mid-morning.
Tuna
Eel
Octopus

Later in the morning Mr Otsuka arrived for our meeting at the National Science Museum with all teachers in the project. We got on the subway during rush hour and for the first time I experienced the fold yourself into the subway car. We were the last two on the subway - you stand with your back to the crowd - push yourself into the car and suck in your stomach to get the door closed. It's a common practice when the subway is crowded. At the museum a researcher demonstrated soil study techniques and talked about how the museum could help in Japanese classrooms. We discussed our projects and clarified the requirments and got a package of fast plant seeds. We spent time exploring the museum and saw a demonstration on toys that were constructed during the EDO period of history six hundred years ago. The wooden gears and mechanisms were amazing.
After the museum a trip again on the subway to the Japanese paper store - fun! They even have paper that is made with leaves.
A fun farewell dinner party and a night at the Irish Pub - I'm tired today as I had to finsh my ten page paper that was due today.

The last two days at school were busy and quite emotional. Thursday I taught an eighth grade class about North Dakota and worked with the other eighth grade class that will be our partners next year. I took pictures of each the students – they decorated name plaques to hold up in the picture and some of them were quite creative – they sent English messages to the student in ND. My gift from the school is a beautiful Japanese doll. They asked me to go with Myumi and Miyako to pick it out. The doll shop owner opened the shop especially for us. I picked out a doll of a Kabuche character. This doll is fully dressed in kimono with traditional hairstyle. The doll actually is representative of the men that play women characters in Kabuche theater. You can tell by the expression on the doll’s face otherwise you would think it was a woman. The school is having the doll shipped or I would add a picture. After a tempura lunch I went home to work on the movie. I finshed the movie about 2:00 a.m.
Friday morning was cool and cloudy. Miyako helped me put together a short Japanese speech to say before I showed the movie at school. AS I said, this day was quite emotional. It started with a farewell party celebration given by one of the eighth grades classes. Each of the students wrote me a letter in English and gave me a picture taken from the trip to Kyoto as well as a bouquet of flowers. Then it was time for the closing and awards ceremony as well as my goodbye. The principal first talked to the students and gave them many rules to follow for the summer. The PE teacher talked to them about good decision making in keeping themselves safe. Students were given awards and student council members talked about what the classes had accomplished the first term. For my farewell, the principal talked about my stay and a student also gave comments. I received another very beautiful bouquet of flowers. I gave my short Japanese speech and told them that the video represented memories of the students. After the video the principal asked me to follow him – the students in the auditorium divided in half and I walked down the middle of the auditorium with the students clapping – I will definitely miss them. Myumi and miyako took me to the Zund Bar, one of the top Ramen shops in Japan
The real weird thing that happened was the video made a connection to not only the students but to many of the teachers. In the evening there was a farewell dinner held in a restaurant for me. Many teachers sat at the table and talked to me through Miyako and Myumi. They said how much they liked the video and it really showed how much I cared about the students. Many said they felt badly that they had not talked to me sooner but their inability to speak English made for a good excuse not to. Yes they were very busy but they said they should have made time. They asked questions about technology and how it is different in Japan. Already many video projects are in the works. The one eighth grade class is going to do a video project for the cultural festival and the principal wants to have the students put together a video about Morinosato. The dinner was to end at 8 but most teachers were still there at 9. It was amazing to see how video, pictures and music could build such a bridge. The vice principal said again and again that her embarrassment over not knowing English made her miss an opportunity to learn more about education in the US. I think the door is open for some great long distance communication in the future – they asked me to come back next year.
Need to pack – on to Toyko today – we are going to Fugi tomorrow and climb in the evening to see the sunrise – a real bummer, my video camera has a tape stuck in it and I won’t be able to use it. Our tour director called yesterday – all the documents he sent are in Japanese but Miyako translated the most important things. He was so nice on the phone and said to call with any questions. His English is good and he sounded so encouraging about the climb. There are a total of 44 peole on this tour - a total of 44 peole on this tour - six of us of 44 peole on this tour - six of us from MFM. He told me two climbers would be going with us so if I got tired one would take me back.

Tuesday night was a short night as I was preparing for a presentation to the ninth graders today. I decided to use a new piece of software (Keynote) and was up until 2:30. I woke up this morning, put on my glasses – I couldn’t see as I had fallen asleep with my contacts on. Amazingly they didn’t hurt my eyes but my vision was pretty blurry with glasses until I realized that I also had my contacts in. It looked like we were going to have projector problems but got them solved. I think students were the most amazed by the differences in prices of things. Japan’s prices are much higher. They pay almost $30 dollars for a music CD. I am taking pictures of all of the students that will be involved in the project so our students know with whom they will be communicating. Some of the students got quite creative with the signs they made telling their names. I spent time talking with the principal about my stay in Japan. He was worried that I was missing the food – actually I have liked some of the food. I then got my chance to not only witness the martial art of kendo but also put on the protective clothing that is worn in this sport. It is quite fascinating to watch. I have only two more days at school with many things to get done. I ‘m editing a movie to show the last day. Too tired tonight to stay up.
Kendo
I'm ready!

These days have been very busy days at school. On Tuesday I visited the English classes. I had brought different colored jellybeans, M&Ms and licorice from the States. The students in the English classes practiced ways to politely ask for a specific color of candy and then they ate it. One student got an extra piece because instead of following the pattern of the sentences he said, “May I please have all of the candy?” They often don’t deviate with their English around me. Mr. Otsuka and I did some planning for the upcoming year’s project. We have different age groups that we are working with so the need for flexibility is necessary. We agreed on a number of activities- we will promote a cultural exchange by having our students answer questions about daily life or topics that are interested in. After spending time here I understand the necessity to be sensitive to the language differences. By keeping the questions simple the Japanese students will practice their English but the project will not become a burden. I am hopeful that our students can ask some simple questions in Japanese. We have also agreed to monitor the temperature and humidity of our two locations using the Hobo data loggers. The first Monday of every month we will download the data and exchange our findings. We also agreed to find a natural environment location to take a picture of on the first Monday of every month. We should be able to observe the change in seasons by always photographing the same location. We will use the probeware to measure water quality – turbidity, pH, flowrate, temperature, nitrates, ammonia and dissolved oxygen. We will each conduct an insect collection in September and analyze soil in October. Our students will be involved in the Future Cities project as well. The video conference sessions will be planned through email as Morinosato is just getting new equipment installed. We agreed on the need to prepare ahead of time so that the sessions are productive. Our weblog will be used for ongoing communication.
English Class
English Class
Serious discussion
Technical difficulties

Monday of my last week at Morinosato Junior High was spent mainly with the ninth graders in the morning and listening to the seventh graders give presentations to the other seventh graders and parents who could attend. By the time Japanese students are in ninth grade they are in their third year of studying English. In ways I think that makes them shier as they think they should be able to communicate in English and they don’t trust their ability to do that. I attended math, English and social studies. The math class was divided into two classes, otherwise the classes are 38 students.
The first week I was here the seventh grade students spent the day working in various businesses throughout the community. Today each group of six students delivered a five minute presentation on this event. Each group made a poster and all students spoke about the experience. The organization of the event was superb. There were two students that acted as timekeepers, two students who put up the posters for each group and took the previous group’s down and as one group presented the next group was lined up in chairs along the side ready to go when the other group finished. This was the first time the students had worked in the community and also the first time they had given presentations like this. One group did an especially good job, they brought actual examples of the stone the monument maker used and role played a conversation between the monument maker and an interviewer as part of their presentation. It was obvious that students put a lot of work into this event and everyone played an equal role in each group.
It’s rainy and cloudy today but nice and cool.
Seventh grade students giving their presentation.
Students clean the school each afternoon.

As today is Sunday I decided to sleep in. Eight o’clock is late when I normally get up at 5:30. I did laundry, email and watched a little MTV. At 3:30 Mr. Suzuki picked me up to take me to a small festival near his home. The festival seems to be like a small carnival at home. Kids and adults can play games, eat food, listen to music and watch as the portable shrine is carried through the streets. I got a chance to meet Mr. Suzuki’s family. He lives with his mother, father and grandmother. His grandmother is ninety years old. Her husband was a sailor killed in World War II. She reminded me so much of my grandmother, a small lady with eyes that twinkle with caring and laughter. We couldn’t understand each other but language did not seem to be a barrier. When I left, she told Mr. Suzuki to tell me to be careful the rest of my trip and please, come back to Japan. I also met Mr. Suzuki’s sister, niece and nephew. His niece is in seventh grade and his nephew in fourth. When Mr. Suzuki brought me home his niece and nephew came along. He told them that they needed to study English very hard as English is the universal language. They shouldn’t just study grammar but use conversation as much as possible.
Festival Pictures
Portable Shrine
Festival in front of shrine
Flipping goldfish into a bowl
At six tonight I decided to walk to the supermarket and get some groceries. This was the first time I had gone shopping without one of my interpreters. It is quite a challenge to buy groceries when you can’t tell for sure what it is. Fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t too bad but the meat was a little difficult. I hoped what I bought was cooked teriyaki chicken but it might have been pork. Anything in a package is a little difficult. The weather is so humid here that my hair curls up so I have tried to buy hair spray and mousse. The first hair spray I bought a couple of weeks ago said Super Hold – well, it must mean something else here as it didn’t hold anything. So tonight at the grocery store I am trying to figure out hair products. I finally found something that said “Gel” and something else that said VO5. I’ll see what happens tomorrow. Oh, the mystery meat was chicken and it tasted pretty good.

Today Miyako, Mr.Otsuka and I headed to the seashore and it was so much fun. We drove through the Hakone Mountains and drove along the shoreline. We stopped and took the many steps down the cliff to the rocky shoreline. Everywhere you looked there were sea animals, anemomies, sea urchins, crabs – you could look in one tide pool and find all kinds of specimens. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, I could have stayed there all day. On the way up we saw the most gorgeous butterflies – huge black wings with beautiful colors on the wings. All those stairs in the heat were definitely worth it. We stopped for lunch and it was the first time I had eel. It was much better than I thought it would be. From there we went to Odawara Castle. The castle was originally built 800 years ago but was eventually destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1959. The area has a small zoo and other concessions for families. We went to Mr Otsuka’s house for dinner. I met his wife and two children, 4 and two years of age. We had a wonderful meal – I ate salmon egg sushi for the first time – it was good. I’m a pro at crab, salmon, shrimp, and tuna. I didn’t care for sea urchin. His four year old son played the violin for us – WOW!
What a great day – I was pretty exhausted when I got home. The weather is very hot and humid at this time of the year.
Beautiful seashore
Mr.Otsuka did his graduate work identifying snails and spent many hours at this seashore. He pointed out many animals.
Sea urchin Odawara Castle
View from top of castle

The teachers have worked so hard on grading this week. One teacher was still there at three in the morning this morning. I brought in some North Dakota foods today – buffalo jerky, sunflower seeds and butter, soy and cornnuts, sundried tomato dip and chocolate. The sundried tomato dip was a big hit – I think it was mainly the cream cheese and sour cream. I had to go to the import store to buy sour cream as they don’t have it in their grocery stores. Dips are just not common here. I promised to send packages of the seasonings when I get home. I spent time with the science class doing a hands-on experiment with light reflection, watched the students swim in the outdoor pool for PE, worked with a Japanese computer program that is a complete integrated package for kids. I want to buy it for the graphics but the computer teacher checked and you would need Japanese Windows to run it – the company gave me permission to just copy the graphics – there are many with Japanese characters that will allow our students to create simple things that the Japanese partners will understand. I have also purchased three Japanese paper stories and Miyako is translating them for me.
The volleyball girls came to see the video of the Central volleyball team and also wanted to see the video I took of them. I have to edit that this weekend. We took a picture and printed it out on the small photo printer. They were amazed but also concerned that I did not have enough pictures of the ninth grade. I told them that next week was my chance to visit their classrooms. It’s Friday and I left at 5:45 – the teachers were all still there.


North Dakota products

Swimming Class

This is the teacher workroom at Morinosato. All teacher's desks are located here - they do not have one in the classrooms. Teachers move from class to class.

Today Mr. Suzuki, Miyako and I took a trip to a nearby high school where a fellow FMT teacher is located. The high school has almost 800 students and is about 15 years old. The focus of the school is International. The students have two 90minute classes in the morning and three 45 minute classes in the afternoon. It seems that the 90minute classes are still all lecture. I was surprised to learn that the school does not have guidance counselors – instead teachers take responsibility for helping the students make career decisions. It seems that high school students need to make major educational decisions at a very young age and it is difficult to change them later. It is very important to get into a good high school as that will help the student get into a good university. Students were all carrying cell phones and text messaging each other during class – seems strange. I visited the eighth grade class meeting. The students are divided into groups and each group leader works with their group to evaluate the day. Then group leaders take turns running the class meeting. Many students in the homeroom take on different responsibilities – one person for each class is required to get an evaluation from the teacher of that class. The range is 1-5 with five being the best. Each student reports to class the results. This particular day they received a 2 in art as they did not clean well enough at the end of class. They received a 5 in Japanese, etc. A student from each class is also required to review what homework is for that class and all students write the information in their notebooks.. The leaders then discuss the schedule for the next day and make additional announcements.
I then visited basketball, ping pong and volleyball clubs. In many instances the coach gives the students their workout routine and they follow it without the coach being there. The students stay on task and listen to their captains.
Mark got our new video conferencing camera set up at home so I got to see him as well as talk to him tonight. I even got to see Rigley, our dog.

As each day goes by I realize how lucky I am to be in Morinosato Junior High School. Today the science students practiced sampling the soil for soil animals. They divided into four groups - under the bamboo, tall grasses, medium grasses, and forest floor. They will mark off a fifty cm square and dig ten centimeters of soil from this square. They will count the insects they find and place the soil under a lamp. The heat will force the microscopic animals from the soil and they will identify them using a microscope. From this study they will determine how healthy the soil is by the insects that they find. The students will go on summer vacation from July 19 - August 26. The students are one third of the way through the grade level at this time and have homework over summer vacation. The students that are conducting the soil tests will come back to school three times to work on their projects. I sat in on a session where summer vacation plans were discussed. The students have assignments in each subject. They are general like keeping track of books that you read, creating posters around certain themes, cooking, writing letters, keeping a diary in English - but the expectation is clear. They are required to keep a schedule and turn in their work at the end of vacation. The eighth and ninth grade students had class meetings discussing the mission statement of the student council "No more bullying". Good discussions were held and students filled out self-evaluations on their own behavior. I am so impressed by how much self-evaluation the students in this school do. In the 8th grade class one of the students broke his leg playing baseball. The students are creating one thousand origami cranes for him. The each are making 29 cranes and the thousand will be taken to his hospital room. At the end of the day I watched students involved in Club activities - basketball, PC club, Kendo, and ping pong. Often students were practicing on their own without a coach (teachers are preparing report cards) and they were very focused.
The teachers at this school work very hard and are constantly looking for ways to help their students learn

Today we took a trip to Kamakura. Kamakura is a area of many historic sites and one of the teachers we were with said it would take about four days to visit all of the temples and shrines. Our group included the vice principal from Atsugi, Michelle Wu (FMT teacher from nearby school), technology teacher from Michelle's school, Miyako, and two representatives from city hall who drove the van and directed the trip. We visited Engaku-ji - a Buddist Temple, (Miyako explained that temples always end in ji and shrines end in gu), Hachumangu Shrine and the Great Buddha. It is always so amazing to me to think that these structures have existed more than eight hundred years. Although I had seen a bigger Buddha in Nara this one seemed so much larger as it stands alone outside. The one in Nara is in a building. We went inside the Buddha - the technology used to create this structure seven hundred years ago is pretty impressive. It is made from copper that is shaped and welded together.Earlier I had purchased a book that is signed by a calligrapher at each temple and shrine - it will be quite a keepsake. We had lunch at a Spanish restaurant and had piella. One dish was made from squid ink and it was black in color.I also purchased some local artwork. Kamakura is known for its woodcarving that is then lacquered and polished.
Giant Buddha
Michelle and I inside the Buddha
Shrine
Golden rayed lily
We visited Meisgetsu-in known for its hydrangea - unfortunately most had been cut two days before our visit
Tea leaves
Squid Ink Piella

A warm, foggy and rainy morning greeted us all as we headed to school this Monday. I had a totally fun day visiting classrooms, taking pictures and talking with students. I visited both seventh and eighth grade English classes, watched moochi being made in a home ec class, witnessed the steps to creating shelves in Tech skills class and saw students create a plan for their shelf using a CAD program in computer class. The students also completed a very thorough self evalulation for this semester which Miyako translated for me. I then observed the 8th grade class meeting. The students gather together each day to evaluate the day. I plan to spend more time at the class meeting so I can really understand what they are doing. The students seem to control the whole activity with group leaders running the sessions. The 8th grade ended their meeting practicing a student selected song that they will sing for their parents at a special presentation.

Sunday morning I talked to Mark like we were in the same room using Apple's new iChatAV. We talked about 45 minutes and it didn't cost anything - all through the Internet. There was no delay or we didn't seem to talk over each other. Apple also has a camera that goes with this system called iSight. I decided I would go to Tokyo and see if I could buy it. This was my first venture out on the trains alone. I took the bus to the station and I realized how much of a follower I had been as I couldn't even find my way to the station even though I had been there three times. At the station I took the train, changed trains in one of the largest and busiest stations in Tokyo - Shinjuko. Took another train to Akihabara - they call it electric town as there are so many electronic stores there. I did not have any luck finding the camera but decided to buy a small photo printer so I can print out the photos and have the students label them. I then ate at my first McDonald's since being here. Time to return home - ok on the first line but get to the station and do not know which line to take back to Atsugi. Some nice young man helped me but then I thought I was going the wrong direction. I made it to the bus station BUT it was dark so I couldn't tell what bus stop to get off. I only went two bus stops past my stop and got home OK. I will say that my blood pressure must have been quite high during that experience but Hey! I made it and next time will be easier. I did decide to make a film of my trip - it should be hilarious.

Friday was spent visiting classrooms and taking the trains to Sendai for our regional conference. It took about four and a half hours to get to Sendai -a city located on the Pacific Ocean. The famous food of this region is grilled cow tongue. We ate at this restaurant that offered many kinds of cow tongue. We started out with a seasoned tongue that tasted like summer sausage, had soup with tongue and noodles and then the barbecued tongue that was fixed right in front of you - mmmm good. Sendai has many enclosed streets for shopping.
Grilled tongue
Sendai street



The next day (Saturday) we met at Myagi Educational University. This whole university is dedicated to the preparation of teachers. FMT teachers reported on their first two weeks while Japanese teachers planned for the upcoming projects. A discussion on Fractal Building followed. Fractal Building means making connections with universities and science centers in order to bring expertise into classrooms as well as helping universities better prepare their teachers. At present, undergraduate teachers only get three to four weeks in classrooms. Universities want to make closer connections to the schools in order to better prepare their students. A specialist (name) gave us great information on helping students understand the balance of nature. He specializes in studying seaweed.
Kinds of seaweed

After lunch we had a video-conference with the other half of the FMT teachers that were meeting in Hiroshima.
Video-conference



I bought souvenirs in Sendai representative of that region - clay dolls, wooden carved doll, and green tea. I bought enough green tea powder to have the students taste the tea in the fall. The train arrived home about 10.
Sunset from train window

I have talked often about the size of classes - well today was a very different experience. I visited a junior high school with 3 students and nine staff members. Connected to the junior high was an elementary with seven students and eight staff members. This school is located near a dam that was completed two years ago. There used to be about 100 students in this school before the village was flooded by the dam that was built. For the last 14 years there have been just a few students in this two story school with gymnasium and swimming pool. I asked if anyone eve questioned the resources that went into keeping this school going (the teachers who teach here even get paid more because they have to drive a ways to teach there) but the attitude is that every child is entitled to an education - teachers are specialists so that's why they need that many staff. By bus it would take less than a half hour to send those children to another school. Again, elementary and middle school students walk to school and so these students live too far to walk. No one considers a bus. Now that is an amazing situation. I just kept thinking how much smaller classes could be in some of the other schools if the resources weren't being spent this way.
The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon were spent touring the recreation areas surrounding the dam and also visiting the dam. I guess it took thirty years from the beginning of planning to the completion two years ago. This dam helps supply water to the Yokahama area.
I need some sleep tonight as I was up way too late last night with broadband Internet in my apartment. It was nice to catch up on US and Grand Forks news.
Dam
Area near dam

This morning was the meeting with the Mayor of Atsugi and the Superintendent of Schools. The Superintendent in Atsugi is appointed by the mayor and is usually only on the job for four years. There are 36 schools in the Atsugi district so I would think it would be difficult to accomplish much during that short period of time. The Superintendent and the mayor were very excited about an upcoming exchange with New Brighton, Conneticut. Seven middle school children will spend ten days the end of July and the beginning of August visiting New Brighton. The Superintendent talked about the need for school reform. I have promised my interpretor's sister-in-law who teaches 38 third graders that I would suggest smaller classes whenever I got a chance. So I talked about smaller classes with the superintendent..... The mayor was interested in North Dakota and Grand Forks. I gave him some booklets that I had brought from the Chamber of Commerce. City and school officials are always amazed at how few people live in North Dakota. On the way back to school, we visited the river and saw fishermen fishing for sweetfish. They use a nine meter pole with many hooks that snag the fish. The students finished their term tests today and had a large pep rally for all of the school teams that will participate in the sports festival this weekend.
I came back to my apartment and found my broadband Internet access working. I plugged in my trusty Mac and it connected immediately. TV is also broadband but guess what - it's still in Japanese. I'm far from understanding a complete sentence yet.
Superintendent of Schools
Mayor of Atsugi
Pep rally for weekend festival
Sweetfish fishing

July 1
Today the principal took us to a 15 room farm house built in 1891 that has been preserved. This was a house of a big rice plantation. The house and gardens were beautiful. I learned that rooms are built to fit tatami mats not the mats to fit the room. An average room is usually six mats. Some of the rooms in this house had 12 mats. We then visited an elementary school. The principal first gave me a calligraphy lesson and then we visited classrooms. Most classrooms had 36-40 students. We observed fourth grade writing (the students were creating a newspaper around the topic of water quality), second grade math (the students were learning measurement), third grade integrated studies (different small groups were working on projects focused on hatching silk worms in the classroom, paper stories, shadow boxes….some sort of presentation), first grade alphabet, fifth grade music (they were singing Swanny River in Japanese) and then we had lunch with the sixth graders. The students take turns serving the lunch in the classroom and then all of the students clean. The sixth grade students were interested in sports, climate, rules in school, etc. I plan to spend more time with the principal at a later time to find out more about his school. He obviously enjoys his job and loves to talk about his school.

Farmhouse built in 1891
Garden surrounding the farmhouse
Calligraphy lesson

June 30
The junior high students were reviewing for term tests so another Fullbright teacher, a teacher from her school, the lead teacher from my school, Myako and Myumi and two city officials traveled to Hakone about an hour and a half away. There we visited historic landmarks from the feudal era, oldest road in Japan, Lake Ashi, Hakone Hot Springs, and Chakoku-no-mari (Open Air Art Museum) and observed an artist doing Hakone-Zaiku, an inlaid and mosaic craft. There was no rain and the weather was cool. What a fun day. At the Hot Springs they would boil eggs in the water, the sulfur would turn it black but the egg itself would be a nice hard boiled egg – tasted good
Hakone-Zaiku
This strip of wood art is then used to create objects such as boxes,fans, jewelry,etc.
Hot springs
Open Air Art Museum
Stained glass inside one of the sculptures
Warning about wild boar