Dazaifu, Day 6 - More school visits

This has been a rather quiet day. As I mentioned previously, junior high students are taking their final exams for the remainder of this week, so rather than wander the halls and distract students, I have other things to do.

The morning begins with a visit to Mizuki Elementary School, next door. The principal greets us and takes us on a tour of the building. This is a big school, the largest in this district - over 800 students. As I walk through the classrooms, I am reminded of my previous visit to Japan (when I represented an elementary school and worked in one); first graders are bouncy, 4th graders are working hard, 6th graders are serious - all very much like their American counterparts. Since elementary students do not wear uniforms in most public schools in Japan any more, these classes look remarkably like similar ones in the U.S. The major difference is in the size of each class - 30 to 40 students, instead of the 20 - 25 students more common in the U.S.

One class is special - several older teachers are watching in the back of the room as a uniformed instructor speaks up front. I thought at first that this might be a general observation class (a common practice in Japanese education, where fellow teachers watch a lesson and offer critiques), but this is a bit more - a student teacher doing one of her first classroom lessons. (Thus the uniform - she is still attending university.) As I join the ranks of those watching, I can see that she is nervous (hey, you would be, too, if you were doing your first live lesson with teachers, principals, and a foreign teacher all looking at you), but she gains control of her young students and starts the lesson - an observation activity that requires the students to look at several pictures of transportation types and try to remember which ones were seen most frequently. The students seem to be interested in keeping track of how many cars, bicycles, etc., they can spot, so the lesson proceeds smoothly.

Then we return to Gakugyoin, and I have some free time, which I use to catch up on e-mail, journal entries and finally an IM chat with my family! They are fine, and we enjoy the chance to see each other (on our webcams) and catch up on daily happenings.

Members of the school board have arrived for a meeting; as that meeting finishes, the head of the school board asks me to meet him in the principal's office. As a thank-you for the cup I presented to him, he wishes to give me a traditional Japanese thread ball, very intricate and handmade by his mother, and a basket wrapping cloth, a decorated piece of fabric used to wrap packages for carrying (lunches, for example, are often wrapped in these, because the fabric provides some insulation as well as basic protection from the elements). I am deeply touched by the thoughtfulness of his gifts and thank him profusely.

Then it's time for lunch, which I share with another teacher and her class. The students seem to be interested in the fact that I made my own sandwich; when I tell them that it has peanut butter inside, another student smiles and opens her own sandwich a bit to show a similar filling.

After lunch is another open time. I knew that I would be involved in fewer activities on these few days, so I have planned to use this time for computer work, and I am just about caught up.

Finally it is time to go home. I need to do some shopping - I have spotted some straw hats at a local store and want to get one to keep the sun off my head when I walk around town. I have other items to buy as well.

Random Thoughts

During my last stay in Japan, I took to watching evening TV, channel-surfing to see what was available. Even with a language barrier, the images shown offer a good representation of popular culture. And I must confess to a fondness for Japanese anime, mostly the kids shows (and a few of the darker adult series).

So I've been watching TV in the evenings this week. Lots of baseball, plenty of news reports, all kinds of new anime' series, U.S. movies subtitled or dubbed, and - makeover shows! Hmm, this should be interesting.

I do not know the name of the series (it's on TVQ, according to the programming list in my weekly inn) but its premise seems to be based on Iron Chef, but for hair stylists. Two salons do a hair and make-up re-do on two different people, and a panel of judges decides which makeover was the best.

Interesting concept and the make-overs are fun to watch (ranging from wow! to what were they thinking???), but what caught my eye was some equipment being used by one of the stylists. This particular salon apparently prides itself on doing on-the-spot microscopic hair analysis; the stylist was shown using a computer and a USB Shot Microscope, displaying the pictures on the computer screen for the customer to view. This is the same microscope used by all of the MTP participants as part of their BUGS collection and classification projects.

Gee, and we thought that microscope could only take pictures of bugs! Amazing what you can learn on popular TV.

(Oh, and that particular salon won the night's competition. Science at work........)