Special Guest Post - My Dad's Visit 2013

So, my dad came to visit last week and it was really great to see him.  I brought him to one of my elementary schools to meet the kids, we climbed a local mountain (Mt. Tatsugane), we went to Sendai, and even went to  Matsushima...  Well, basically we stayed in Miyagi prefecture and were blessed with fantastic weather which made the sightseeing all the better!

My dad (whom I will call "James") promised to write a guest-post about our experiences which I have pasted below with a few minor changes (changing names to pseudonyms).  I suppose that I will call myself "Erin" for now.  And so, without further ado, here is his post (with a few stray comments from me in green):


So I arrived in Tokyo during Monday afternoon rush hour (that would be called “poor planning”) and took the Shinkansen to Kurikoma-kogen.  I had purchased a 3-day rail pass (to be used over any 10 day period) so the train costs were very reasonable.  The trains were clean, punctual, and very fast (approaching 200 mph)!  Erin met me at the station and we drove about an hour to her apartment in Minamisanriku.  

On Tuesday, Erin took me to her school.  Unbeknownst to me, Erin had prepared a "James Worksheet", in which her students (three classes of 5th and 6th graders) were to guess my favorite color, sports, foods, etc.  After the initial awkwardness, the exercises went really well.   (I noted that correct guesses were rewarded with a “James” sticker, apparently to further mock me.)   Some of the guessing was pretty funny.  For example, after learning that my favorite country was Panama, one student promptly placed it directly in Europe.  Glad to see that American students are not alone in their geographic fog.

Part of the worksheet that the students were given.

It was very entertaining to see Erin interact with her students.  She appeared completely at ease with them and the language.  And they really seemed to appreciate her enthusiasm, which was contagious.  At one point, she described “American football” by acting out how to throw and catch a football.  Later, one of the teachers acted out “Frisbee” by tossing a disk across the room to me.
During the guessing exercises, an incorrect student guess would get a casual and teasing “Nope!” from Erin.  

Lunch was interesting, or maybe lunchtime in a Japanese school is a little different than what I recall.  Students eat right in their classrooms.  The students line up, cafeteria-style, and get served by other students, wearing aprons and masks.   Afterwards, they clean up their own plates, then literally wipe off the desks and sweep the classroom floor.  

In the following days, we visited some cultural sites, and some beautiful seaside towns.  The photo below is from Matsushima, which reminded me a lot of Gloucester, MA.  Matsushima is a fishing village, which was not heavily damaged in the earthquake/tsunami.  The offshore islands (in the background) are beautiful tourist destinations in the nice weather.

Erin at Matsushima.

The most memorable part of my visit however, was seeing the transformation which has happened over the past year.  When I visited Minamisanriku in March 2012 (one year after the earthquake/tsunami), the entire town center remained covered with huge piles of debris, separated by material (metals like cars and washing machines, wooden structures, concrete rubble, car tires, etc.).  This year though, there has been an obvious rebirth.  There are cranes everywhere, rebuilding structures and dredging harbors.  The picture below shows this happening in the background.  

Cranes working by Shizugawa Harbor.

In my last night in Minamisanriku, one of Erin’s principals had us and some other colleagues over for dinner.  In a touching remark at the end of the evening, he noted how inspirational it has been to have Erin (and Anne) help in fixing their “broken” town. 

OK, now back to "Erin" - I'll post a few more pictures of the trip:

Beautiful Matsushima with its many sandstone(?) islands!  It reminded me a bit of the "Twelve Apostles" - rocks along the Great Ocean Road near Melbourne, Australia.  Though in Matsushima there were hardly any waves.

A view from Mt. Tatsugane in Minamisanriku.

See my father, James, on his way up the trail on Mt. Tatsugane.

Some つつじ (azalea) in a local park.

Hopefully I'll post more next week, though I'm also studying for the upcoming JLPT N4 exam, so we'll see...

Golden Week Vacation

Last week was "Golden Week" - a week in Japan where you often get around 3 days of vacation depending on how the holidays fall (unfortunately they're not all in a row).  But many people take the remaining days of the week off and travel since the weather is pleasant and not too hot yet.  This year's schedule was kind of weird- we had a three day weekend followed by a three day work week and then a four day weekend.  I decided to save some money and stay home for this Golden Week but it was nice to have some days off.  This year I managed to take some pictures of the sakura (cherry blossoms) around town.  The sakura only bloom for a short time (around 7-8 days) so it can be hard to take pictures of them.

A view of the bay from a hill.  You can see some blossoming trees (not sakura) on the left.

Some sakura blooming around a shrine.

A close-up of some sakura in my neighborhood.

I think that the sakura tree on the slope is incredible since it survived the tsunami and continues to bloom beautifully.  In the foreground is a field that used to be a rice paddy, but now it's too salty for growing rice.

One of the holidays celebrated in early May is 子どもの日 (kodomo no hi) or Children's Day.  In the weeks before Children's Day families hang some 鯉のぼり(koi nobori - carp-shaped streamers) outside of their homes (though you can also see them hanging in other places too).  The colors of the carp represent the members of the family.  The big, black carp represents the father, the medium, red one is the mother and the small ones are the children.  The color of a child's carp-streamer varies depending on the gender of the child and the area of Japan, though blue is the most common color for the oldest male child.

Some carp-streamers near a local market.  Can you find the father, mother, and child?

That reminds me, I wanted to mention gender-associated colors in Japan.  Just like the carp-streamers, black is for guys and red is for girls.  This is especially true for restroom color-coding; I once went to a restaurant and there were no signs or symbols on the bathroom doors, one was simply painted black and the other red... so be careful when traveling in Japan!  This color system is true for children as well, that's why elementary school girls often have red backpacks and boys have black ones.  Though at my elementary schools I have seen girls with pink and light blue backpacks as well - I guess since pink is related to red it still works out, and it seems that blue is more of a "children's color" since there are a few boys with dark blue backpacks as well.

Anyway, during one of my days off I took a walk down to the local shopping area to buy some vegetables.  It was a sunny day so I had on my sunglasses, and since it was a holiday I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.  Along the way I saw three of my elementary students (all 6th grade girls) walking towards me as they were coming back from the shopping area.  They saw me approaching and started whispering among themselves, as if they were psyching themselves up for something.  When I was in hailing range they all said, "Hello!" together.  I greeted them back and by that time we were next to each other.  One of the girls looked surprised and said,「ちょっと、先生?」 "Wait... sensei?" (sensei means teacher so any teacher can be called 'sensei').  They had apparently not recognized me in my informal attire and mistook me for a random foreigner visiting the town, and yet they had still greeted me in English!!!  I've gotta say, I was proud of them for doing that.

Now for a few more pictures:

Some more metal-sheet art near one of my schools.  There is some Japanese writing on the upper one a bit to the right of center.  I believe it says,「ここで生きてきた幸せ。ここで生きていく喜び」"We were happy to live here.  We live here with delight."  (It's read right to left and top to bottom in the traditional Japanese style).

A neighborhood cat sitting in my apartment parking lot.

Notice how the cat is sitting right where a tire usually rests.  He doesn't care as long as he's in the sun.

And now for a special picture.  Way back I mentioned that some traffic lights in Japan appear blue instead of green...

Here is a legendary blue traffic light!  This particular traffic light is nocturnal and lives in the mountains between Minamisanriku and Tome.

Well, that's all for now - I'll be busy in the coming weeks but I'll try to write again in good time.