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