A Visit to a Rural Mountain Town

Hi dear friends and fellow travelers,
Today, we have a brilliantly sunny day with pastel blue skies and wipsy clouds. It is blustery, so some of my line-drying laundry landed on the ground over night. Oh well, there weren't enough clothes pins. I suspect the beautiful day conceals a chilly temperature.

On today's agenda, I get to hang out at my apartment until around noon, when I will meet Jerry (a Californian Taiwanese man in his early 30's) and his Taiwanese wife of 6 months. They will be taking me to the, yes, you are hearing this right, the dollar store (100 Yen store- hahaha!) for some shopping. Next, we will go to an Italian restaurant in the mountains that is their favorite. Interestingly, Jerry will order in advance so the elderly female owner has enough time to prepare the food. He says it takes a loooong time, if you don't call ahead.

In the meantime, I am having a bit of breakfast: a couple of croissants, fresh strawberries (that taste and smell divine- not genetically altered), and English-style Celyon tea. And I'm writing to you, dear reader.

Yesterday, I visited a small elementary school in an out of the way little burg with Jerry and John, a Korean graduate student at HUTE. Jerry was doing some research on task-based language learning with 5th and 6th graders. Since my research has to do with what works with Japanese students learning English, this was a good opportunity to glimpse whether this approach paid dividends in language acquisition. I'll not bore you with my research; rather, I will share the interesting highlights not related to my work.

When we entered the school there was a little foyer where one leaves one's shoes and uses slippers that are there for visitors. So, everywhere there are either little lockers for shoes or neat rows of them. :-)I really like this idea. I would love to have some slippers for guests in my home. I'm going to try this.

The teachers' room at each of the schools is packed with desks and everyone works quietly in the same area. Even the principal has a desk there; although, he had a private office, too. There was a space heater in the middle that made it very toasty in the room; I didn't realize it until we went to the classroom, but the heating wasn't very high in the halls and classes. I froze during the observation, but everyone else seemed fine.

The window-lined, hard-wooded floored room was large with many, many reading materials along the walls and colorful posters. The doors slid quietly on their edges. The chairs were brought in by the students, but there were rollable, trapezoid shaped tables that the students used when they broke into small groups for work. There was a rollable white board, document camera, audio player, etc. Toward the far back of the room was a Broadcasting Room, cool!

When I walked in the door of the class, a special needs girl immediately snapped to attention and came right for me. She thought I was soooo interesting. lol. :-) She introduced herself and shook my hand several times. She did this again when I left. She almost couldn't pay attention to the class, because of me. She was fascinated by me. I have no idea why. But how sweet she is.

Several other children were very interested in me. They approached me, but seemed unsure how to interact with me. I felt a bit of the animal at the zoo with folks just gazing at me. ;-) A couple of the boys would make silly faces at me from time to time, but I felt that it was in a teasing, looking-for-attention-and-not-knowing-how-to-get-it sort of way. Two pretended to pinch me when I wasn't looking, isn't that interesting?

After the lesson, Jerry had to chat with some students, so John and I went to the teachers' room. We were there 1 minute when the principal came out and ask for the Dr. to come to his office for relaxation. The principal, when we exchanged cards earlier, took it to his office to study, then came back and said, "Doctor?" He was quite impressed with my credentials. So, when we went to his office, I gave him a small gift of a UWEC calendar. He was so cool! He asked me all kinds of questions about Eau Claire, WI, and the U based on the pictures. He asked about the weather, the range of weather, the diversity of student population, the University offerings, etc. all with not much English on his part, and less Japanese on mine. I love making meanings in those moments; folks just expressing themselves openly, genuinely and trying their best to understand the other through pictures, numbers, gestures, etc. It was super cool. After Jerry came, we chatted a bit more since Jerry could translate. We then left the building with the principal and staff and took pictures in front of the building in the chilly breeze. They were quite lovely people and I will cherish this visit there.

On the way to the school, we stopped at a roadside rest stop that had all kinds of food. I had delicious udon noodles with pork. Yum. I also bought some incredible chocolates.

First Day in Schools at Kobe

Professor Hiroyuki Imai picked me up at 11am at my place yesterday for the hour long drive through the winding, mountainous roads down to the sea at Kobe. It was a gorgeous drive through the steep, curvy, greening mountains. There were deep, steep gorges on the sides of the road and at one point an almost empty water reservoir. The orangey-brown mud was stark against the gray mountain stone and the pine trees revealing an emptiness, a drought, a water shortage. I asked Hiro about it, but there isn't any movement socially or politically to do anything to curb water consumption. It worried me for them, but he said that in the fall the typhoons fill the reservoirs.

We arrived in Kobe, and city on the coast with dramatic hills rising in the background, and found the high school we were visiting for the day. The school occupied a narrow swath of land, but ran back some ways and had four floors. It was deceiving in appearance from the street, looking like a small school, but in reality it was maze-like and large. It had artwork strewn all throughout the building in interesting places. Tables and benches were located near the pieces of art. The building itself, we learned, was 76 years old and is being renovated soon. The complex had an inner courtyard with trees, plants and benches giving the campus a very open and out-doorsy feel.

The teachers and principal were very welcoming and friendly. They brought us green tea to settle in and the principal sat down and chatted with us. He was very friendly. I wished I had better gifts for him and the school. We visited four different classes during the day and later had an interview with 4 TAs and 1 teacher. For lunch, Imai and I sought out a little diner that served business people quick lunches. We ordered curry and rice which was spicy and quite good. It came with salad and pickled onions and peppers. Afterward, we ran back up the steep slope to the school for the rest of the observations.

Once we finished the interview, we said our goodbyes to all the very kind folks at the high school. The principal and one teacher escorted us to our car and waved goodbye. The kindness of the folks was quite overwhelming.

Imai took me to Kobe harbor where we walked on the pier, chatted and took photos. I did a bit of window shopping, but sadly the cutest clothes weren't my size :-( There was a cute Japanese handmade hippy clothing shop I loved, but... what can I do, right? We ended up checking out various restaurant menus in search of a place we could have Kobe beef. We finally chose a restaurant called, Sakura, after the famous flowering cherry trees of Japan. It was super cool looking. The interior was a modern take on tradition Japanese rooms. There were stout tables with mats that sat up off the ground, elevated by wooden beams and glass. You were supposed to walk on the glass to sit at the table. Under the glass was what looked like a Japanese rock garden, manicured and patterned. Other areas, were more private and intimate with walls that created mini rooms for tables. These walls had cut outs of sakura leaves. The candlelight made haunting, romantic shadows that danced along the walls. We had an outstanding dinner of sashimi and Kobe beef (lightly grilled) with Sake. Our conversations ranged from professional, social, cultural and personal. I think I made a friend. :-)After dinner, we drove back to Kato City chatting the whole way. How fun! I got back to my apartment at 9:05pm totally wiped out. That's why I didn't write last night.

Images and sensations from the day in no logical order: cobalt-colored roof tiles, miniature statues on home walls, rice paddies, sea air, the Turkish toilets, bowing, Hi as yes, the crowded teachers' room, brown-toned handouts, Imai's Mercedes, sculpted trees.