A Few Notes about Technology...

I’m wondering if it has something to do with being in smaller coastal cities, so time will tell… The principal at Kamaisha Elementary said they have 38 computers in their school, and then kids have a technology class once a week. The classrooms were not equipped with interactive white boards. I haven't seen a child on a computer yet. This is a significant difference between the schools I have seen and ours in the United States. 

The hotel rooms do not all have wifi Internet access. I’ve been to enough conferences and different countries that I remembered my long blue cord. Phew! However, the lights in each room are still connected to the room key, which I think is quite smart and high-tech. I've seen these in several different countries, though not as much in the us. This one made me laugh, as there is an actual room "key" attached. 

I really haven’t seen clocks hanging anywhere. Fortunately, the beds in each hotel have a clock in the headboard of the bed, along with a radio. It looks pretty outdated, to be honest, but is pretty great, as I've been waking up throughout the night with a bit of jet lag. 

There have been flat-screen televisions in each room. My current room has a little hot plate built into the desk for boiling water for tea. It doesn’t turn on without the metal pot on it- I tried!

Elevators… I have been squished in the doors of the elevators about 10 times already. They close very quickly, and don’t have sensors quite like ours. Japanese people must be very fast movers!

I’ve seen a few kids with something like a Nintendo DS system. A few have telephones. I’ve seen iphones and a few other smartphones too. Everyone, young and old, has trinkets hanging off their phones here. 

The toilets are pretty complicated here. Each of them “turns on” when you sit. There is a control panel on the side of the toilet that looks a lot like the panel of a massage chair or a seat on an airplane. One of the buttons makes a flushing sound, though there is no flush that occurs when you press it. Another button plays music. There are buttons for the bidet, and I’m not quite sure what the rest of them do. I debated on trying, but I’m not usually the luckiest person on Earth, so I decided to leave them alone! I once heard Ian Jukes (Director of the International 21st Century Fluency Project) talk about "toilets of the future" at a conference. He said they would be connected to your refrigerator, would analyze and measure your "output", and then your refrigerator would communicate the required "input" you should have. This must already be available somewhere in Japan!

Kamaishi Elementary School

I’m not entirely sure I’ve done the country of Japan justice in my descriptions yet. I have to say that with the visits and activities that we have participated in thus far, I am most overwhelmed by the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami, and the response of the communities afterwards. I should also share the beauty of Japan- it’s tree-covered mountains and the bay areas. I think I will see more of this as we leave the coast tomorrow, but today, we explored the city of Kamaishi a bit more. First stop, Kamaishi Elementary School.

We arrived at the school, put on our slippers, and headed into the principal’s office for a 30-minute presentation about the school and the evacuation of students on March 11^th, 2011. In Kamaishi, people were ready. About five years ago, the city hired a consultant to prepare evacuation plans for the people, and they had been practicing the plans. According to the principal, the entire community had practiced the plans well, with all of the evacuation locations on higher grounds assigned to different people and organizations. Team leaders had also been assigned, with jobs etc. In fact, each year, the students review the evacuation plans at school, and then are required to walk around the city to identify safe places and dangerous areas around the city that they should avoid. They create large maps of the city, labeling areas such as “has much traffic, so can be very congested during evacuation” or “beware of bears” (which can come down from the mountains). Even information such as “large sign seems loose and could fall” is identified and labeled on the map.

The principal explained that the system worked for two reasons- they had learned and practiced it many times, and as a community, they knew the system would only work if they trusted one another. They had to trust that all members knew the plan, knew the evacuation and relocation spots, and that they would meet one another at those locations rather than try to find one another in the midst of any type of evacuation event. The school was able to evacuate quickly that day, as it was an early release day and only about fifty students were in the school for after-school activities. After three days, everyone was accounted for.

We visited the classrooms after our presentation by the principal, watching third grade students play dodgeball in gym class, some fifth graders learning math, and a writing class for a student receiving special education services. 

When I asked the principal about what they were doing to help kids develop the skills necessary to be successful in a global economy in the future, he shared that they are increasing their rigor in math. This is the only subject in which students are broken into smaller groups, though the groups are NOT based on ability level.

When our school visits Futabakai Japanese School, we also see the kids ride unicycles at recess.

We finished our day with a lunch of rice, miso soup, a bean salad, and tuna fish, eating with a fifth grade class. Communicating was tricky, but I learned that these girls love the color pink, rabbits, and they love to draw and listen to music- Lady Gaga!

Food in Japan

It's always an adventure to eat in a new country, particularly because I might be considered a picky eater by some! We have had breakfast at our hotel each morning, which has been an interesting buffet-style spread of breads, ham, seaweed, rice, and salads. While I enjoy a good salad, I can't say that it is appealing for breakfast for me, so I have had a piece of toast and coffee each morning. My breakfast plate looks a bit more like a French meal than a Japanese one!

The only lunches we've had so far have been on the airplane, at the school, or munchies that we've had during our Chicago Days (hot dogs and crepes included for those who wanted them!), but dinners have been delicious! Meals have been served in a bento box (with tiny compartments) or in various small plates. Most meals come with miso soup and rice, even breakfast!

Joe and I were grossly entertained by the display of dried fish as snacks- no thank you!

Candy bar that Mikiko claims is the most delicious in Japan- it tasted like an Oreo cookie!

Vegetables over rice that I had for dinner.

Seafood tempora that Matt ordered.

Miso soup with clams. I prefer mine plain!

On Saturday night, everyone went out for sushi and sashimi, but when I arrived, my already-upset stomach couldn't handle the smells of the fish, the cigarette smoke (they smoke anywhere in restaurants), etc., so I headed home early to a dinner of Ritz crackers! They are delicious anywhere!

Chicago Days in Japan

On Friday night, we went to the Sendai train station to board a chartered bus to Ishinomaki.  There was a group of about 30 of us on the bus who were heading to Onagawa (Miyagi Prefecture) for our first Chicago Day! The Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Chicago had been busy preparing for our two Chicago Days in the Tohoku region of Japan. Our group of volunteers consisted of those of us who came directly from Chicago, Japanese families who had previously lived in Chicago, a famous Japanese Enka singer named Jero, and a famous Hawaiian-Japanese man named Konishiki, who is a retired Japanese sumo wrestler, a children’s television host, and a singer.

Chicago Days occurred as a result of our wonderful Miki, who works as a manager for JCCC. When planning for this year’s JEEP trip, those at JCCC thought it would be a nice idea to have Chicago Days in a few communities that were affected by the tsunami as an opportunity for the people in those communities to have an activity/event to look forward to, and as a way for those communities to receive a bit of media coverage to further their rebuilding efforts. 

When driving to Onagawa and to Kamaishi (Iwate Prefacture), we had the opportunity to drive along the coast, through miles and miles of piles of debris. It is truly overwhelming to see the mass amounts of debris, and pictures don’t begin to capture the magnitude of devastation and loss.

One woman we spoke with talked about the fact that there are over 100 miles of mountains of this debris along the northern coast of Japan. She talked about the smell that was in the air for months as a result.

When we arrived each day, we spent our time filling our red eco-bags with free donations of pens, t-shirts, magnets, additional bags, noodles, chopsticks, dental floss, etc. We filled a thousand bags each day, working with many other volunteers, young and old, in an assembly line. We handed out the bags to all of our guests as they entered the Chicago Day events. 

Volunteers from the US and Japan!

Guests were invited to receive a free Chicago-style hotdog, a drink, and a delicious crepe, which was a pretty incredible thing to provide for a thousand people. Miki had spent time requesting donations in Chicago, and the creation of a Chicago-style hot dog in Japan was no small feat. The people were very appreciative, and seemed to enjoy them, though the jalepenos weren’t necessarily a favorite topping!

Matt, Joe, and I took the stage for about 10 minutes each day, facilitating a little “north side/south side” game show about Chicago. People were quite surprised at the fact that we were principals, as principals must be at least 50 years old in Japan. We felt a bit like celebrities on Saturday, as we were interviewed by at least 5 newspapers that day and also recorded our own television commercial! (I don't have pictures or videos of either of these, yet!)

People either sat on the floor or in seats.

We were amazed when people took off their shoes to be respectful of the space provided to them.

Many of the visitors were senior citizens, which is common for many areas hit by the tsunami. 

We also had over an hour to teach English through origami at a tiny little table, though I think all of the kids really should have been teaching us origami! Even the littlest kids were able to fold the paper with accuracy to make something. We made small fortune tellers that I remember making in elementary school, and the kids enjoyed them. I was surprised that the kids weren’t familiar with them, and the kids seemed amused that the Americans were teaching them the Japanese art of origami. 

My new friend Yuka actually lived in Wilmette, Illinois until she was 5 years old.
She is at the University of Tokyo, heard about Chicago Days, and decided to come volunteer.

Jero took the stage each day, and being an African-American man from Pittsburgh who sings Japanse Enka (folk) music, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. His voice was absolutely beautiful, and he had quite a fan club with the more senior members of the audience.

The real star of the show was Konishiki. He and his wife, and their “team” of five or six others, sang, danced, and laughed on stage, bringing an energy to the event that is not a regular part of these families’ lives. I have to say that they were quite a couple, even on the bus to and from each location. I had to look Konishiki up, because he is well-loved by children and adults for the various jobs he has had- as a top sumo wrestler in Japan for many years, and as a host for a children’s top television show in Japan for over ten years. I'm not sure how much singing he does in addition to the children's television show, but he and his team have been "on the road" for months, raising money and bringing communities together through his Riseup fo Japan efforts. He gave us each a Konishiki-sized t-shirt the morning after we met him. We'll be visiting with him again on Tuesday in Tokyo!

I think you’ll enjoy the following link to “the dump truck” Konishiki.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muIq6xbLiDc&feature=related

We heard many stories from the people of the Tohoku region of Japan during our Chicago Days. We received heartfelt thanks from the people for organizing a special event for them, for bringing them together, and for coming from great distances to see them. We saw tears and laughter. One senior woman even gave us place mats that she had made from her grandmother's kimono as a thank you gift to us.

At the end of the day, a certificate from Mayor Rahm Emmanuel on behalf of the city of Chicago was presented to the town planner and mayor of each town, read by two high-school age Japanese-American boys. They did a fantastic job and made me proud of Chicago’s work in Japan.

Here is a link to one of the newspaper articles published about Chicago Days. Unless you can read Japanese, you'll just have to enjoy the pictures! http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZZO42951010U2A620C1000000/