Linda Santoro’s Blog

Today we spent the day performing for all of the other teachers that went on this trip. Our group of twenty teachers went to Komaki, while the other 180 teachers went to nine other cities and towns. We performed and showed the other groups what our city was like. My group made our presentation like a game show.

After our performances I went out with another teacher, Mr. Barry-san, and took some photos of the buildings that are right around our hotel. I went up to the 45th floor in the next building and took some photos of Tokyo and my hotel.
The city

The building was across the street from my hotel. Mr. Barry-san and I went to the observation floor.

The Keio Plaze Hotel – This is the one I’ve been staying in. I’ve been on the 18th floor.

I am finally done packing and will be spending the day on a plane. I will leave on Thursday, November 30th at around 3:20pm (Japan time) and arrive in Hartford, CT around 4:33pm. Does my flight from Japan to Hartford take only 1 hour and 13 minutes? That can’t be right. I have to go to Chicago first and wait for two hours to catch another plane to Hartford. Can you figure out how long I’ll be traveling today?

Well, I have learned so much about Japan. This has been an amazing trip that I highly recommend to any teacher or administrator, regardless of whether or not you teach a unit on Japan. I have learned things about the educational system here that will improve my own teaching and that have changed my attitude about certain educational practices and/or beliefs. I can’t wait to get back to the United States and see everyone and share what I’ve learned.

Special thanks to the Japanese Government, JFMF, IIE, Keio Plaza staff, Glastonbury administrators, students and teachers (including Julie Campbell for doing such a great job with my class while I was gone), Komaki city officials, Komaki administrators, teachers and students, my host family, my family in the US, the patient Shinjuku/Tokyo Starbucks staff and to the other 199 November 2006 JFMF teachers/administrators who made my trip so incredible and educational.

The past two days were spent traveling to Tokyo and going to workshops. We are trying to use our evenings to shop and just enjoy the city. We only have one night left now and then we spend a day flying home. Yesterday I went to a new part of Tokyo and took photos of a cemetary.
Then we went and had soba noodles for dinner. Here are some photos of the trip that I haven’t posted yet.

Host family at Meiji Village ( a historical park)

Meiji Village Trolley

Meiji Village Theater

Host family fun

Kouta in the rice field near his house (my home stay)

Woman working in rice field

Budda in Cemetary with crow

Rory making jewelry at the technical high school

Today we are making presentations to all of the other teachers. My group has made a slide show and we are going to act out a game show. We will be telling all of the other teachers about our experiences in Komaki. Other groups went to different cities and towns in Japan. It will be interesting to see what those groups did.

Well, time to get some coffee. I can’t wait to see everyone again. I really miss all of my students, family and friends. I hope everyone is doing well.

Miss Santoro

It is Monday night and I am back in Tokyo. Saturday I met my host family and stayed overnight with them. It was a very busy house. There were two boys, Daichi (13) and Kouto (11) and two girls, Sakko (16) and Meiko (18). Meiko had to work on Saturday. She works at a shrine. A shrine is where people that believe in the Shinto religion go to pray. Every year Komaki has a harvest festival parade with sculptures from this shrine.

I got dressed up as a shrine attendent and was given a tour by one of the priests.

He told me stories about all of the sculptures that were around the shrine. By being around some of the sculptures they believe that I may now have more power. I think that they meant I would meet someone to marry. : ) We’ll see.

The family lives near a bunch of rice fields. Grasshoppers are a pest because they eat the rice that farmers try to grow. It is hard for me to think of these friendly looking insects as pests though.

The next day we went to a park and had lunch. The family and I had made rice balls that morning. They were made with sticky rice, a small pinch of salt and various fillings like shrimp tempura. They tasted great. After the park I had to be taken back to the group. I joined the teachers on Sunday afternoon and we all went to a ryoken ( a traditional Japanese inn). We spent the entire time in our yukatas (light robes). We had a special dinner and some people sang karaoke afterward.

It was a great weekend. Today we came back to Tokyo on the bullet train. Once we checked into the hotel we spent some time looking around Tokyo. It is so interesting seeing all of the buildings. Too bad it was too dark to take good photos of them. Maybe I’ll have some time to take more tomorrow.

Miss Santoro

Hello students and friends! Happy Thanksgiving.

Yesterday we went to a discussion with Komaki parents. We talked about the similarities and differences between the schools in the United States and Japan. Both countries seem to have more in common than I would have thought.

I added photos since the ones on the High School site aren’t up yet.

Today we went to the Komaki Technical High School. They have over 500 boys that go there and only 8 girls. The students work on learning specific skills for jobs they may want in the future. They can learn about computers, cars, machines that help make houses, and they can even learn how to build robots.

They make sumo robots that fight against one another in competitions and robots that walk on two legs like we do. I even saw a robot do push-ups. Our group of 20 teachers split up into smaller groups to learn how to use some of the machines. I used a machine called a lathe. This is my partner setting up the machine so that I could run it.
It is used to make precision cuts in metal. I was given a hexagonal prism of metal and made it into a bell with the help of some talented eleventh grade students. I also got to try welding. You can’t look at the light when you weld and a lot of sparks fly around so you have to wear protective gear.

This is the finished product. Impressive isn’t it? : )
This is like a child who is learning how to write and just scribbles. The JFMF teachers (that’s me) were just learning how to weld.

One of the most exciting parts of the day was seeing some construction workers doing renovations. It was exciting was because they were reinforcing the building and adding big metal supports to prevent damage in an earthquake. It made me think of all of those things we did in science.

At the end of the day we got to watch some of the students play instruments. The drums were my favorite. I even got to play the drums with the students.

Here is the website where you can find photos of our trip to the high school. When you look for me you should look for the woman in the thick, black glasses. I wanted to protect my eyes when I was using the big machines. http://www.komaki-th.aichi-c.ed.jp/
Enjoy.

Tomorrow I will meet my home stay family and spend the night at their house. This family has a mom, dad, dog and four children. The children are ages 11, 13, 16 and 18. I know it will be fun but I’m still a bit nervouse because they might not speak any English and I’m not so good at charades.

Miss Santoro

Yesterday we went to Toryo Junior High School. It is for students in grades 6-8. You can see a bunch of photos that a staff person at the school took. The website is
http://www.komaki-aic.ed.jp/toryo-j/ The site is all in Japanese but you’ll be able to find the one part in English. Click on the Japan Fulbright Memorial Delegates pages. There are four pages of photos.

The students were wonderful. They were so nice and patient with us. They practiced their English with us and carried our lunch down to the classroom. Lunch was noodles in soup and corn on the cob. I took my laptop with me and showed the students photos of our school. They were surprised that our Conneticut students in grades 6-8 often don’t get a recess, only study halls. The students were interested in hearing about the music I liked. I asked them about their favorite music. They recommended some music for dancing that they liked. I’ll have to see if I can find it to bring home for our movement breaks.

Today we went to visit the Hikarigaoka Elementary School. We got there just as the children were arriving. Everyone had a hat on and a black or red backpack. The girls have red backpacks and the boys have black.
I overheard someone say that they thought the backpacks were 20000 yen each. That is about $200.00. Can anyone figure out about how many yen equal a dollar?

As the children entered the school they had to take off their shoes, put them in a cubby and put on slippers. This is what they looked like.

We had to take off our shoes too. I bought a pair of Japanese slippers to wear in the schools.
I noticed that many of the children were carrying bags of cans. I later found out that the children bring all of their recycling to school.

The Japanese students are very interested in protecting and helping their environment. They also recycle by making art projects out of household items.

The classrooms looked very similar to ours. Each room has one computer and they also have a computer lab. Look closely at some of these photos and see if you can see some things that are the same and other things that are different.

I even saw some lessons that are the same ones we teach. Here is a balancing lesson and a lesson on rounding numbers!

It was fun to participate in the lessons and games. I made origami and played a game to help children learn English.

I got to eat lunch with a fifth grade class. The students served everyone. I had a vegetable stew with what looked like hotdogs in it. We also had yogurt, milk and bread which tasted like a donut. After lunch I took out my laptop and showed them photos of our class. They were amazed that I only have one student who walks to school. They all walk to school, even if it takes them an hour! They were also a bit envious at the fact that you get to buy lunches (like pizza) and bring a snack. When I showed them the photos of us building structures I explained how were talked about earthquake loads. They asked if we had earthquakes, and I said no. They asked if I had ever been in an earthquake. Again, I said no. They said it was terrifying.

At the end of our visit the fifth and sixth graders did a performance. They played the American National Anthem on recorders and then sang it. They also did a dance that was a mixture of Japanese and European dance. It was amazing because every sixth grader danced. (about 80 students)

We’ll go to a middle school next.

Miss Santoro

PS The total cost of my meal at the sushi place the other day was 990 yen. Congratulations for those of you who got the right answer or an answer that was very close.

I am finally on the internet again. Yesterday we took the bullet train to our new location – Komaki. On our way we stopped at a shrine where people were still taking their children to celebrate the 7-5-3 festival.

It was raining but it was great to see the umbrellas and outfits that the children had.

After we got to our hotel we went out shopping at a big mall. There was an interesting hair salon.

Do you think you would like to get a haircut at this salon?

Our new location is a city where they make a lot of cars and motorcycles. We are going to visit a school tomorrow and I can’t wait to get more pictures of the children. The pictures I have shown so far are all of children who are dressed in very special clothing. Tomorrow I’ll be able to get photos of children wearing the clothes that they normally wear.

Miss Santoro

Well, I finally got to see Mount Fuji up a little closer! Unfortunately I only saw it from the bus. On the way there the weather was nice and clear. It started to get cloudy as soon as we got off our bus. The clouds covered the top of the mountain for the rest of the time we were there.I went with six other teacher friends.Jen and SabrinaJennifer and CoryChad and AprilWe did get to walk around at the base of the mountain. The first thing we saw was monkeys running around on some of the homes. The residents were all coming out of their houses to chase them away. We went to one of the five lakes near Mount Fuji. We used paddle boats to go around the lake.That is my boat.  Then we had lunch in a restaurant where you sit on cushions, on a tatami mat, all around an open fire pit. We had to take our shoes off before going to sit on the mat. That is the custom. Once you are on the mat, you order your food and then cook it yourself. We were all hoping that we cooked our food long enough, especially the fish that came out wigging. Yes, there were fish that came out on the skewer sticks alive. We were told to put them on the fire as soon as they stopped moving. Cory was posing with the fishJen was a little nervous about eating the fish at first. After trying it she said that it was her favorite thing. I had a little bite too. It was a very mild fish.We also cooked mushrooms, little round corn cakes, corn on the cob, gellied potatoes, tofu, quail, squid and chicken. It was all fantastic, but I think my favorite thing was the squid.At the end of the day we rode the bus back and then had dinner at a sushi place again. We went to a place that had a moving belt. You look at the pieces of food moving around the belt. You pick up the plates of fish that you want to eat. We had to guess what each item was. Yesterday I tried snails and loved them. This evening we didn’t see any snails. I think I had tuna, octopus, clams and . . . something else that was a white fish. There are usually two pieces of sushi on each plate. The plates are all different colors. You end up with a big stack of plates at the end of the meal. Then a person comes to your spot and counts up the plates. Each plate color means a different price. So, for example, you might eat two blue plates of squid that cost 200 yen each, one red plate of clams that costs 150 yen and two orange plates of octopus that cost 220 yen each. How much would the total of all of your plates be? Can you make up your own sushi story? (by the way, one dollar is about the same as 100 yen)Tomorrow night I might not be able to write to you. We are leaving Tokyo to go to Komaki. Komaki is a big city but we won’t arrive there tomorrow night. We are staying in a different town because it is close to a school that they want us to visit. So we will travel (on the bullet train!) tomorrow (Sunday), stay at a small hotel with no internet Sunday night, and then arrive in Komaki Monday after visiting the school. I should be able to send emails and blogs from Komaki on Monday night.

This morning I couldn’t sleep so I went to the Fish Market at 4:30am. As soon as you get near it, the smell of the fish hits you. We walked down busy streets where market owners prepared to either sell or buy fish. There were buildings to sell live fish and buildings where frozen fish was sold. The tuna were auctioned off. Do you know what people do at an auction? I got video of some of it. The sound of the man in charge of the auction was amazing. He spoke so fast and almost danced as he spoke. When he was done selling all of the fish, he took his hat off and bowed. This is me, stopping to have a snack.

And yes, it is a real tail – from a tuna. They are huge. Here is another picture of me at the market. Can you tell what I am trying to get a photo of?

I will post photos tomorrow but for now I’m going to go to sleep a little bit early. I am going with a small group on a bus to spend the day near Mount Fuji tomorrow. It is our one day off. We won’t be able to climb up Mount Fuji because it is too cold and there is a risk of avalanches. We are hoping to take a cable car ride to the top of a nearby mountain and maybe go on a boat ride on a lake. We might hike and kayak. We won’t be able to do everything but at least we’ll see some part of Mount Fuji up a little closer.

I hope everyone has a great day and a great weekend. Make sure you write.

Miss Santoro

PS I’m on the 18th floor.

This sign was on the side of the highway. Some of the highway roads in Tokyo are seven stories high. When we drive in the bus we can only see the roof tops of the shorter buildings. Today we stayed in the hotel all day. We were learning about the Japanese government and educational system. Here is a photo of the teachers listening. Some of the people spoke in Japanese so we were given a little headset. Can you see it in the ears of some people? There was a person who would speak into our headsets and translate for us.

The toilet in my hotel room.

You really need to look closely at this toilet. Do you see the strange piece on the right? Those are the controls for the toilet. Here is a close-up of the controls.

Did anyone want to guess which floor my room is on? Remember, I have 47 floors in this hotel. I’m not sure if looking at the photos I took out the window will help. Let me know what your guess is and I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Miss Santoro