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.