Day Three Visiting Schools
Nerima Municipal Kouyama Elementary School
Trip to Hiroshima
Now is when it gets difficult. It's 11:37 p.m. and I am sitting in the Hotel Granvia in Hiroshima at the end of the most amazing day. It is going to be difficult to try and capture the full essence of the day but I will do my best.
Morning
We had a 7:00 a.m. wake up call so we could be packed and ready to go. Breakfast was at 8 and then we needed to check out and leave some of our luggage behind with the bell captain so we didn't have to lug it all to Hiroshima and Kyoto.
Breakfast. My usual-omelette, yogurt and cereal, juice.
View from my room.
Another view.
View in my room.
Time to check the Internet before we leave.
Sometimes when you check you find out things you don't want to know.
Gathering in the lobby before we head out for the day.
Travelling by minivan
Visit at Nerima Municipal Kouyama Elementary School.
We arrived around 10:25 and were greeted by Mr. Nishimiya, the school's principal.
As we walked into Kouyama, we noticed a tree with pieces of paper hanging on it.
Mitzi later provided this explanation. "I will tell you about the story of star festival again:
Star festival or "tanabata", it cerebrates the dating of two young lovers, who are allowed to meet only once a year on the 7th day of July.
Long time ago, Orihime (Weaving Princess), daughter of the Sky King, wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Milky Way.
Her father loved the clothes that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it.
One day, Orihime met Hikoboshi (Cow Herder) who lived and worked on the other side of the Milky Way.
When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter.
However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for her father, Sky King and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven.
In anger, the Sky King separated the two lovers across the Milky Way and forbade them to meet.
Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again.
Her father, the Sky King was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river.
It is said that if it rains on the night of the 7th, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet.
It won't have rain tonight, so hopefully they can meet tonight! Sent on July 7 from Tokyo.
The principal told us that on each piece of paper was a specific wish.
Back in his office we got to fill out our own pieces of paper with our own wishes.
Each of us filled one out .
Then we hung it on the tree. As Kevin said, "It's harder than it looks."
Thanks for taking my picture.
I love the shots when we are all in them.
Principal Nishimiya.
For all the fomer CaToys, here is Mitzis wish.
I now realize in a new way the excitement you all felt knowing that Mitzi was coming to California last February. She is amazing and is a special friend to us all. We need to keep bringing her back to California. We also nee to brainstorm ways to begin more exchanges with Japanese teachers and Japanese schools.
Visiting Classrooms at Kouyama
We are on the move. Notice the green slippers today.
The children exchange their outdoor shoes for ones they wear at the school.
Water friends.
We were told that some kids actually ride a unicycle to school.
Our first classroom.
Something was lost in the translation. The bag on the back of the chair would be used to cover the child's head during an earthquake.
This is the classroom that Alastair and I would come back to for lunch.
The story of "swimmy."
The fifth graders grow rice.
Above they were growing kiwi.
Back into the classrooms
They loved Deb's blonde hair
Having lunch with the kids
We were assigned specific classrooms wher were ot have lunch with the students.
We had been in the classroom previously.
Menu: Chirasizushi or vinegared rice with thin strips of egg, a piece of fish (prawn), vegetables, etc. arranged on top. Soup with "fu" piece of whet gluten. Fruits.
After lunch the kids swept me back to the principal's office. This was one of my very favorite parts of the trip.
Gift exchange with principal Nishimiya.
Goodbye Kouyama
Buying Tokyo Giant's stuff near the Tokyo Dome.
We headed over to the Tokyo Dome so I could buy some Youmiri Giants souvenirs.
I got my hat.
Driving through Tokyo to the Haneda Airport.
We headed to the domestic Haneda airport to catch out 6:15 flight.
Boxed dinners at the airport.
Pork cutlet sandwich
The ice cream cone for 250 yen was amazing.
Chocolate!
I brought my sushi on the plane. This might be all the sushi I get.
Granville Hotel, Hiroshima
We arrived somewhere around 7:30 p.m.
Kevin is tired.
Late night roundtable panel on assessment in California.
Meet in Jim's room for Internet!
It's a long story. The short version is "what happens in Hiroshima, stays in Hiroshima."
