Catching up on blogs!

Japan Trip Log Day Six

While everyone else is on vacation this week, our Japan trip kids were in school! That's right, today we spent the entire day at Nanae High School, where our students were greeted by the principal and assigned to homerooms, and then to shadow their sister-school counterparts through their day of classes. Even familiar subjects like Math, Science, Literature and Art looked somewhat different in a Japanese school. In Calligraphy they were instructed how to paint Japanese Kanji characters with brush and ink. In Music class, our kids got a chance to play the koto (a traditional Japanese stringed instrument). Vicki, who had played a synthesized version of the koto in the pit orchestra for CC's production of Miss Saigon, was extremely excited to play a real one here, and at the Principal's request, played "Sakura, Sakura", a Japanese song which Vicki had learned in America, while a Nanae HS student sang the lyrics. Carrie and Noa, who are in the CC band, were invited by the Nanae bandmaster to stay and practice with the Japanese brass band, and did so in the later afternoon.

The highlight of the day, a surprise to all of us, was phys-ed! Our kids played volleyball with and against the Japanese, and came back roaring with stories. "If Phys Ed was like this at CC," one of the kids said, "it would be my favorite class."

The final class of the day was a double-block where the English and Cultural Studies teacher, an old friend of mine named Ms. Ueshima, paired her students and ours up in groups to engage in cultural exchange. They discussed their favorite foods, movies, hobbies, and, apparently, who they had crushes on. Laughter is a universal language, and our kids and the Japanese kids laughed together seemingly nonstop.

In our breakout session for processing, our kids talked about how many of their stereotypes were shattered today. Many had expected the Japanese school to be rigid and formal, and their peers there to be unapproachable, "but it's really just school," said one of our students, "and they're really just kids." In turn, our students had the experience of being the "other", the "exotic" - receiving stares, requests to touch their hair, and endless questions. The Japanese kids were particularly interested in dating habits in America, since gender relations in Japan are indeed more restrictive. "They had all kinds of ideas about what dating was like in America that were way off," one of our students reported. "They were kind of obsessed with the topic."

I reminded the students that breaking down preconceptions and learning from one another was the whole point of this trip - that these were the real mechanisms of diplomacy, and that all that separated them from "real" diplomats were fancy suits and bigger budgets.

The most moving and memorable words of the day were spoken by a Nanae student during the group presentations: "Before coming here, when you thought of Japan, the images you had in your head might have been sushi or Pikachu. Now, when you leave, I hope when you think of Japan, your images will be of us."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

- David Nurenberg

(oh yes, and we visited the one and only Seaweed Museum. Seaweedy!)

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Japan Trip Log Days Seven and Eight

Today was our day to explore "traditional Japan", beginning with the local historical museum, where students learned about Nanae's agrarian past (including a chance to gawk at football-sized apples from the local orchard). We then visited Zazen, the local Buddhist temple, where the curating monk led us on a tour of the various altars, drums and bells that provide context and focus for Buddhist practice, as well as the ashes of deceased Nanae citizens, preserved in urns for their descendants to visit and commune with. Then he led us in a meditation session - it's harder than you think to close out all distractions save your own breath and a count in your mind. The minute a thought enters your brain, you're supposed to begin the count again.

Just when we were beginning to get the hang of that, the monk upped the ante by whacking Bobby (CC class of 2004 and Nanae's Coordinator of International Relations) with a stick! We were told a true Zen master would be able to concentrate even through that...Bobby, apparently, has a ways to go on his path towards enlightenment. In a somewhat gentler moment, the monk let each of our kids ring the giant bell outside the temple.

For lunch, we joined the local elementary school, whose students made and served us our meal! We also played "fruits basket" with them and other games such as hula hoops, unicycle riding, stilts and badminton. Adorable! We couldn't help but notice the display case full of mementos from the Willard and Thoreau schools, either.

We then spent the later afternoon in a tea house out in the Onuma woods, where kimonoed women taught us all the elaborate and precise movements, gestures and rituals involved in a Japanese tea ceremony, from the laying out of sweets to the actual making of the tea to the presentation and drinking. Every step of the way requires an incredibly deliberate, orchestrated series of motions, and our kids did an admirable job keeping up. Even the opening and closing of the teahouse door was a complex ritual which the kids were challenged to perform. One might never have thought a group of 17 high schoolers could be deeply engaged for almost two hours in the simple act of making tea and serving it to one another, but they were - what a group!

Following the tea ceremony we held a discussion where I asked the students what connections they saw between these ancient traditions and the modern Japan they had been exploring for the past few days. The ideas of social obligation, collective responsibility, and deliberate, precise action seemed consistent. When I asked if it was just coincidence that Japan is a leader in the contemporary environmental movement, Noa responded quite adroitly, "If you can spend years taking the time to learn how to pour tea, you can take two seconds to turn out a light when you leave the room."

We then relaxed a bit by dunking our feet in the hot footbath waters near a local geyser, then returned to the town center for our farewell dinner (already!), a giant potluck attended by nearly the entire community. Our hosts treated us to Bingo, a movie-screen-projected Skype session with old friends back in Concord, and, of course, the ever-popular "Ikka Squid Dance." The event was truly gala, with speeches, songs, dishes of all varieties and people of all ages (many wearing squid hats!) - it says so much about our sister-city relationship that the town spared no expense for this event, and that so many people in Concord got up at what, for them, was 4:00 AM in order to join us via the internet!

The evening concluded with the host families taking the kids on a relaxing trip to the onsen baths to de-stress before their departure...because, yes, it was time to leave again. This trip has been a powerful lesson in the Buddhist concept of impermanence...we attach, make friendships, and then the wheel turns and we have to leave. I repeatedly told all involved that I hope this marks the beginning of another turn of the wheel, and that the kids continue to stay in contact with the new Japanese friends they've made so far.

Still, it was with a collectively heavy heart and, yes, more tears, that our bus pulled out of the Nanae town hall the next morning, windows down and all of us waving as the town itself waved back, wishing us a safe journey and a prompt return.

What followed was another morning at the airport and a flight to Tokyo, an entirely new side of Japan. Larger and more densely packed than New York, impossibly urban and international, the city is a challenge and an unforgettable adventure for anyone who visits. I'm proud to report that our students negotiated the subways with little difficulty, with everyone sticking tight to their chaperones and no one getting lost along the way (so far!) We're staying in the reconstructed old city of Tokyo, Asakusa, the only part that looks like Japan used to before the American firebombings burned the largely wooden cities to the ground. Narrow streets decked with paper lanterns, squished full of people on foot and bicycle, passing shops of hawking merchants...Asakusa does seem like a step back in time, especially when you see old women wearing kimonos strolling down the sakura-lined lanes. Clouds of incense surrounded the local temple, a more massive version of the one we saw in Nanae, and the stores nearby offered everything from clothing to ramen noodles to katana blades (which, much to the chagrin of many, I banned the purchase of - sorry, kids!)

Later in the day we visited "geek quarter" of Tokyo, which sadly seems to have changed for the worse since my last visit. Fortunately, we managed to still find a great, inexpensive tempura place for dinner, and ended on a high note by visiting store selling plush Totoros and other Studio Ghibli characters.

We returned to our hostel pleasantly exhausted, but the kids apparently had enough pep in them to throw me a surprise birthday party, complete with Japanese-style cake! I let them know that this really was a grand way to spend my birthday, exploring Japan with them!

Only two days until we return!

- David Nurenberg