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