What a wonderful trip...

... but it's good to head home. After a few days' rest, I'll update the blog with pictures and stories of my Japanese adventure. Thanks for your prayers. I sure am glad to be home.

Having trouble

Sumimasen! I'm having trouble uploading my pictures since every prompt and instruction on this computer is in Japanese characters! I'll get help, add my pictures, and get back to you soon. Thank you, I mean arigato, for reading my blog and sending me comments at the bottom of the posts. It makes me feel like you are right here with me!

A Nine-Story Bookstore

Every librarian loves a good bookstore. Well, this bookstore was nine stories high! The entire 8th floor was full of children's books. There are probably 10 or 12 librarians in our group of 160 educators, and several of us made ourselves at home sitting on the floor, pulling books off the shelves in this wonderful store. I can hardly wait to show you what I bought for our library! Do you think you could read The Very Hungry Caterpillar in Japanese?

Now that's a BIG fish!

Yep! I got up a 4 a.m. to go to the Tsukiji fish market, a wholesale place filled with tons of huge fresh fish and hundreds of buyers looking for the best fish, crabs, shrimp, eels, octopus, seaweed, and lots of other ocean products that I surely didn't recognize. I'm afraid I do recognize a live eel when I see one, and I saw lots of live ones in people's buckets tangled all around each other just waiting to be on someone's dinner plate that evening. I really enjoyed the tuna auction where some of the tuna were bigger than I am. You can see that, too, on the earlier blog entry about the Tsukiji fish market.

Gardens and more gardens

Miss Lucas and Mrs. Putnal would love this place. There are big gardens and little gardens and teeny, tiny gardens and gardens all sizes in between, many with little or big ponds filled with HUGE koi. Many of the same plants we have in Georgia are grown here. Since I can't remember how to spell correctly some of the plants found here and there is no dictionary to look up the spelling, I'll just abbreviate them, and you can pretend that you are on "Wheel of Fortune" and figure out the rest of the words: hydrang. azal. chrys. marig. peon. and many more whose names I don't know, but Miss Lucas or Mrs. Putnal could name every one!

Theatre performances

There are several types of theatre here. Some use masks or music; some are comedies or tragedies; some use puppets almost the size of real people. All types use MEN actors, many dressed and wearing make-up like women. You can't even tell that they're all men. We saw performances of all types, and Flat Stanley and Waddles insisted that I have their picture made with an actor.

It's a beautiful night in the neighborhood!

Tokyo is beautiful during the daytime. There are no graffiti and no trash. I even saw a city worker with a net scooping leaves out of small waterways. But at night...wow! Tokyo is lit up like Christmas!

Oops!

This is me just before my food fell out of the chopsticks, left stains in several places on my shirt, and landed in my lap. Oh, I forgot to tell you...most Japanese restaurants don't supply napkins. We are supposed to bring our own in our purses or pockets. Hmmmm...I'll try to remember that! I wonder if it would be OK to bring a bib instead.

Another stowaway!

What! Another stowaway! No wonder my luggage was so heavy. Waddles ran away from home in Mrs. Scott's class and sneaked into my jacket pocket. He is struggling with his chopsticks at meals just like I am! He seems to be having fun in the mountains where we are now because it is so much cooler than Macon. Did you know that Japan is over 75% mountains, and the islands are always moving a tiny bit? It's because of the plates deep inside the earth. The plates keep moving, pushing together, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountains. We can't feel the movement now, but the people surely do when there is an earthquake, and those happen frequently. Sometimes we feel a little bit dizzy in our hotel, and our guide said it's because our hotel is on rollers so that it can handle the earth's movement better. It must be rolling a bit when we are feeling dizzy. (I heard that! You just said, "COOL!")

The Diet

We went to the Diet. No, I did not say that we went ON a diet, but we went TO the Diet in the capital city of Tokyo. That's what the Japanese call their government and their government building. It's like when our 5th graders go to the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Their Diet is made up of a House of Counselors (like our Senate) and a House of Representatives. We can't seem to get away from elections, political posters, and speeches. It is election time now in Japan for some House of Representatives positions, so we see lots of posters and hear speeches from loudspeakers on vans traveling the roads.

Look who was hiding!

When I was unpacking my suitcase, guess who was hiding between my raincoat and pajamas...Flat Stanley! He was a stowaway on my flight. What could I do but stick him in my backpack and take him along throughout my days? He is dressed like a Samurai, so he fits right in. He was as impressed as I was with this meal, but we both are still having A LOT OF TROUBLE with the chopsticks!

Mrs. Darnell is ALIVE AND WELL!!

Konnichiwa, everyone! First let me apologize for not posting on my blog for a week. I have a great excuse -- I don't have a computer! About half the teachers brought one, and half of us did not. Those who brought computers promised on our listserve that they would share. Well, we don't get in from activities, meetings, dinner, etc. until about 10 p.m. Then those with computers want to update their blogs, Skype their classrooms, check email, etc., and the rest of us are too worn out to wait and don't want to appear rude twiddling our thumbs waiting for them to finish, so we just say, "Oh, well...maybe tomorrow." So, I'm sorry (sumimasen). I'll try updating everything tonight on this computer that I rented overnight from the front desk of our new hotel in Nagano.

Children's Day

When I was a little girl, our family celebrated Mother's Day and Father's Day, but I always whined, "Why don't we have a Children's Day?" My mother's reply was always the same, "Because every day is Children's Day," and she was right! BUT did you know that in Japan there is a national holiday on May 5th called Children's Day, Kodomo no hi, in Japanese? A long time ago they celebrated Girls' Day in March and Boys' Day in May, but now both celebrations have been combined and are held on the fifth day of the fifth month. The Japanese celebrate their children and honor their mothers on this day by hanging beautiful, colorful kites shaped like carp (koi, fish) from the tops of tall bamboo flagpoles. The father's carp kite is always the biggest and flying the highest. Then comes the mother's carp kite, a little smaller, and finally all of the children's kites in order of the children's ages and sizes. The carp kites blow and fly in the wind, looking a lot like fish swimming in the air. The carp is a symbol of courage and perseverence because fish must have strength and determination to swim upstream. Families hope their children will grow up strong, courageous, and determined, too.

P.S. Do you see snow-covered Mt. Fuji in the picture? People actually HIKE up the volcano in the spring, summer, and fall!

My schedule in Japan

Do you want to know where I'll be and when I'll be there? It might be fun to look at a map or a globe while you follow my travels. Here's the schedule:

Oct. 12 to Oct. 13 San Francisco
Oct. 14 to Oct. 19 Tokyo, Japan
Oct. 18 is my free day. I will take the Shinkansen, the bullet train (200+miles per hour), to a nearby city called Kamakura.
Oct. 19 to Oct. 20 Nagano City, Nagano
(Nagano is a prefecture, kind of like one of our states.)
Oct. 20 to Oct. 25 Iida, Nagano, my host city (Iida, at the foot of the Southern Alps of Japan, was the home of the 1998 Winter Olympics.)
Oct. 25 to Oct. 26 I'll be with my host family in their home, two parents, a daughter in college, a 15 year-old son who loves baseball, and a 2 year-old daughter.
Oct. 26 to Oct. 27 Iida, Nagano
Oct. 27 to Oct. 30 Tokyo, Japan
Head HOME to the USA...it will be like a time machine going back in time 13 hours!

Japan's Flag

Japan is often called "The Land of the Rising Sun." That's because the characters (pictures in Japanese writing) that make up the word "Japan" mean "sun-origin country." The flag is white with a red disk in the center, symbolizing the sun. The flags of the countries of the world are so varied and so beautiful. Click here to admire the flags of the world and see if you can spot Japan's flag without looking at the countries' names. Which country's flag looks the most like the Japanese flag? Which flag looks a lot like the U.S. flag? Besides our flag, which flag do you think is the most beautiful?

Pro Sumo Wrestlers

OK, guys, you asked for it. Here's your sumo wrestling, performed by two professional wrestlers. This match is on YouTube, so make sure an adult is watching with you. (Parents, close the "Ads by Google" that suddenly appears at the bottom of the screen.) The object is to push the opponent out of the ring or to make a body part other than the soles of the feet touch the ground. Apparently it's OK to grab the "belt thingy" to push and pull. Since it might take only seconds to win a match, there are many matches in a tournament. I hope I get to visit a sumo stable where the wrestlers live in groups and where their food intake, exercise, and practice are closely monitored by coaches.

Chopsticks are getting the best of me!

I'm trying so hard to learn to use chopsticks, but so far all I've gotten out of my practicing is lots of shirts with stains all over them! Maybe you can do better than I can. Hey, you could even practice with two pencils at carpool or while you are trying to fall asleep at night. Click here for some great instructions.

What's an archipelago? A bird? A Japanese food?

Japan is an archipelago, which means a string or a chain of islands, but it's not the only one. Click here to see where archipelagos are located all over the world. Where is the largest archipelago according to size? Where is the one with the most islands? Wow! How many islands?

HOW many did you say?

The Japan archipelago consists of four large islands and over 3,000 teeny, tiny islands. Click here to read all about the Japan archipelago. (Say that word 5 times as fast as you can. It's really a cool word and a tongue twister!)

A U.S. archipelago? Really?

Hmmm... I wonder if the United States has an archipelago or two. Click here to find out.

Do we have another one?

Click here to see if there is another archipelago in the United States. You might be surprised!

Best Kids' Site on the 'net

Wow! If you want to learn about Japan, you've got to visit this site called Kids Web Japan. You can do EVERYTHING here: read some manga (Japanese cartoons), play Japanese games, learn about sumo (wrestling), take a virtual tour of a Japanese home, pack your own virtual bento (lunch box), learn origami and the National Anthem, learn about Japanese religions and food, and so much more. Take your time and have fun, but be sure an adult is with you while you are on the Internet!

I've been practicing my Japanese. How about you?



Here are some words you might want to know:

Hello -- konnichiwa **********Hello on the phone -- moshi moshi

Goodbye -- sayonara *** Yes -- hai ***No -- iie (sounds like EE --eh)

Please -- kudasai or dozo *****Thank you -- arigato

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten

Ichi ni san shi go roku nana hachi kyu ju

I am American. Watashi wa Amerikajin desu.

My name is _____. Watashi wa _____ desu.

What is your name? Onamae wa nan desu ka?

I'm hungry. Onaka ga suite imasu.

How much does it cost? Ikura desu ka?

Chopsticks -- hashi **************Hamburger -- hanbaga

Hot dog -- hotto doggu ***********Fried chicken -- tori no karaage

Shrimp -- ebi *******************Spaghetti -- supagetti

Ice cream -- aisu kurimu ***Chocolate candy bar -- ita chokoreto

Tsukiji Fish Market

I've been told, "DO NOT miss the Japanese fish market, the largest in the world!" I will have to wake up at 3 a.m. to be at the fish market when it opens at 4 a.m. It is a site to behold! Click here to see a short video made by "60 Minutes."

Your name in Japanese

This is how my name looks in Japanese.







Click here to write your name in Japanese.

Macon, Georgia Time and Tokyo, Japan Time

(Japan is 13 hours ahead of Georgia)

Counting in Japanese

I've been practicing Japanese numbers and words. You can, too, by visiting these sites. Make sure you have an adult with you when you are on the Internet!

1-10

1-20 Rap

Big Bird in Japan

List of things to do:

aGo to the bank to get some Japanese yen and American traveler's checks.

a List of things to do:

Pack 50 pounds or less.

This includes omiyage, gifts for host family, teachers, and other people we meet. Giving of small gifts is important in Japan, especially to the host family in whose home I will stay for a couple of days. My omiyage will include an autographed copy of Macon Sketchbook and some Macon Cherry Blossom t-shirts and pins.

List of things to do:

a Get 50 meishi

This is my meishi, my business card. It's a real big deal to exchange meishi with Japanese people. They are to be exchanged using both hands while bowing. Then the meishi are to be carefully put in a special place, not just tossed into a purse, and are NEVER to have notes scribbled on them. The meishi is considered an extension of one's person.

List of things to do:

a Get a passport.

JFMF Badge

Click here to learn more about the JFMF program.

View my page on Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program