Fall in Ijira 

We have been in Japan for a little over two months now and have gotten very good at finding our way around the spread out, (3 villages combined into one), Yamagata City.  I have spent much of my time driving to the 13 different pre-schools, elementary, and jr.high schools in Yamagata City.  It has been lots of fun and very enlightening at most of the schools.  The Japanese students are smart but their educational system which is geared towards test taking to enter a preferred high school, has many students under constant stress by Jr. High School.  English is a fun class in elementary school, but once they hit 7th grade, it all becomes memorization of the English text, writing, and grammar.  Far too little conversational English is practiced or learned, so it is not surprising in a culture that is reticent to make mistakes, that many students leave high school with very poor conversational skills in English.  I have started to visit all the pre-schools in the district which has proven to be great fun.  Little 3, 4, & 5 yr. olds, have sang songs and danced for us, done complicated plays, and let Charly and I join in their games.  Great Fun!

Exploring more of Yamagata City and the surrounding cities is getting much easier for Charly and I to navigate.  We have visited a delightful old town part of Mino where they make traditional paper called washi and turn it all into many kinds of art.  The lighted paper lanterns that line the streets of old town Mino are all very unique and beautiful.  We are also exploring all the different temples, waterfalls, onsens, and other attractions in Yamagata City as I will be translating the cities attraction map into English.  Below is a Goddess statue here in Yamagata City.

The Florence Friendship Groups, past and present, are all very strong here, and we have had the pleasure of  seeing many pictures of past visits to Florence as far back as 16 years ago.   We had a delicious traditional Japanese meal with members of the first Friendship Group just last week.  One of my main endeavors here will be to rebuild the Florence side of this friendship and hopefully start to send Siuslaw students back to Yamagata City by the summer of 2015.

The weather is starting to turn cold but so far no snow.  I am not looking forward to driving these narrow, windy roads when they are snowy.  We are planning to explore much more of Japan during winter vacation but we will be the bullet train instead of driving.  Below are just a few of the beautiful paper lanterns in Mino.  The pictures don't do them justice.  They are exquisite.  Here is wishing you all a peaceful, happy, and healthy holiday season.  

Happy Holidays

Julia & Charly

Ijira / Yamagata City / Gifu / Japan

Young Taiko Drummers at Chestnut Festival 

Charly at Community Sports Day doing the difficult hoop &
stick relay

One month now in Japan and the changes have already kept this old brain a whirling.  The first change has been the weather.....it has gone from hot and humid to cool and cloudy within a week.  Granted there have been numerous typhoons that have hit the island.  Luckily we are inland enough that we don't get the devastation that the coast gets.  Other changes are numerous; lack of understanding & reading the Japanese language (going food shopping is a hoot), learning how to operate the microwave, stove, car, even the toilet, driving on the left, going to 13 different schools in the Yamagata School Dist. and reading a simple map, all in Japanese.  Charly and I are both in the adjustment period but all in all, we are very happy that we are here.  

Our friend and interpreter Ayako has been invaluable.  She found us a great house to live in, sold us a great car, and helped us at every unfamiliar turn.  She has gone to all the schools with me this month, and organized many social activities and welcoming dinners and luncheons.  So far we have participated in a community sports day, biked all over the region, visited a sword museum in a near by town, eaten many wonderful new Japanese foods, like octopus, squid, soba, jelly fish, and many unusual fruits and vegetables, baked sweet bread at the local community center, Charly is taking calligraphy classes once a week, and I tried my hand at Japanese flower arranging.  Below are a few photos from these activities. 

Seki Samurai Sword Museum 

These flowers bloom everywhere in the fall & spring

Our wonderful landlady who fixes delicious lunches when she
comes from Nagoya for the day

As far as my lofty goals of a true cultural exchange between the Siuslaw School Dist. and Yamagata City Schools, I have pretty much given up on making any real impact.  I visit 9 elementary schools, 3 Jr. Highs, and 2 pre-schools every month.  I spend one day a week at city hall writing for the city's newsletter and website about my experiences and teaching English conversation to anyone interested.  My original plan was to try an internet exchange of projects or programs using the National Geographic site called e-Pals. This is not going to happen.  The Japanese system is very rigid and with little time for anything that doesn't come from the English textbook.  So my plan now is to get Siuslaw Schools to send me any videos, power point presentation or field trip experiences to share with the students here in Yamagata.  I am going to do something that pertains to my glorious title, "Coordination for International Relations"  from the city of Florence.  

The Japanese people have been very welcoming, and for the most part, very helpful and kind with our limited Japanese.  We are looking forward to exploring Japan, but we are very happy in our home in Ijira with rice patties and forested hills around our house.  Charly and I find ourselves talking about Bhutan more than we do about the United States.....given the current events back home tis no wonder.  Let peace and goodwill return to our government so we don't need to feel embarrassed  by the foolishness that has been happening.

Sayonara for Now  

New Adventure.....Japan!

It has been a year and a half since I've added to this blog.  I don't feel like I have much to share unless we are traveling or embarking on another grand adventure.  Another grand adventure is fast approaching.  Last spring I was substitute teaching at my old elementary school, when the principal ask if I wanted to go to Japan.  Florence's sister city is Yamagata City, in the Gifu Prefecture, (not the large Yamagata up near the nuclear mess). The Siuslaw School Dist. had an exchange program for high school students every summer for many years.  Unfortunately, due to increasing cost of travel and the group responsible to fund-raise for the Siuslaw students, disbanded, so the exchange became one sided.  Last summer when the Yamagata delegation came to Florence, the mayor of Yamagata proposed a new position in the city government's Life Long Learning Department. Therefore, after much paper work, complicated translations, and a very non-specific contract with the City of Yamagata, Charly and I are heading to Japan in two weeks, for a year.  

It is my fondest hope that my title "Coordinator of International Relations," (given to me by Yamagata City), will truly become a cultural exchange.  After our wonderful experience teaching in Bhutan, we are again wanting to immerse ourselves in another culture and be a small part of better understanding and cooperation in a global community.  I am trying hard to set up some project exchanges between our two school systems.  The Japanese curriculum is very rigid and I will have to be pretty creative to convince the Japanese English teachers that science, technology, engineering, math, and art are what our young people will need to succeed in this global economy and how cultural sharing is paramount in our planet's ecological survival.  As usual I go in with lofty goals, but I am smart enough to know that slow baby steps are necessary to make any lasting changes in an educational system.  Wish me luck!

Charly is going as my volunteer "every-man."   He has already been ask to read English picture books to pre-school children at the local library, walk our wonderful translator's dog, drive me around to the many schools, shop, garden, and explore Japan.  Hopefully he will draw and read which he doesn't seem to find time to do when we are at home.  

We are trying hard to learn some basic Japanese before we arrive, it is a slow process for our "old brains."  Below are some photos of the Japanese students who came to visit last week.  We had two fifteen year old girls and an English teacher stay with us.  They giggled every time I tried to speak Japanese.  Ah, well, I like to make people laugh.  

Pictures and blogs will come at least monthly while we are in Japan.  Doumo Arigato Gozaimas, Yamagata City, for this wonderful opportunity.  

Our visitors from Yamagata City

Yamagata delegation with Florence's Mayor Xavier