Student stories

I wanted to share some of my students with you.

Tsuneko: my first request. An older lady in her late 60s, who I met in November and have seen regularly every Wednesday since. Its a great way to start my work week. She reminds me of Baboo- the jewelry, and accessories and her floral blouses. Her laugh is absolutely adorable! She's a beginner and her daily activities include working in her garden in the morning, house keeping and having lunch with her husband. She always attends calligraphy class after our English lesson. We move slowly through the text and there are some errors she consistently makes, but its such an enjoyable hour for both of us! She brought me back a small treat when she visited Hokkaido (northern region of Japan) and we enjoy each other's company.

Taiki: He's four years old and always sniffling! He definitely needs routines. So I always greet him in the hallway when he arrives and after he has taken off his shoes, he comes running to me and grabs my hands. We head off to wash hands and then start our lesson. He is incredibly stubborn and gets obsessed with certain activities and couldn't care less about others. We once spent 15 minutes with a small plastic clock practicing telling time and he loved moving the hands of the clock around to change the time. As he moved the hands, I would repeat in a rhythm: "what time is it? what time is it? It's ___ o'clock!"
He loves letter writing and I'm trying to get him into reading 3 letter short vowel words by having him write them letters out and then say the sounds with me. He is slowly learning that he can't dictate the lessons completely and if he wants something, he must first ask for it in English.

Taku: a six-year-old genius! haha. He's awesome! His mom loves me and we usually have a double lesson (two 50-min sessions back to back). She stays in the room taking notes with his baby sister too. Taku keeps me on my toes and I'm always trying to come up with new things to fascinate him with and pique his interest. Hs lessons are always entertaining for me! He's got great writing skills, an incredible vocabulary base, and a keen interest in science and how things work. He is the very definition of the kind of student all teachers want in their classrooms.

Tiny Tots: This is what we call our 40-minute pre-school lessons that can have as many as 6 students (ages between 2.5 and 5). I usually teach two groups on Saturday mornings- that's one way to wake you up!!
It takes a while for them to get used to the routine- especially since its only once a week. As long as each activity is no longer than about 5 minutes- I've got them eating out of my hand. They listen quite well, and love to sing and dance. Exhausting, but fun! They love to make me laugh too! Tickling, or looking for praise for something they did. They often jabber away to me in Japanese- and I pretend to understand them...I'm pretty sure they know that I don't

Yukina: My favorite 8-year-old girl. She is so eager and willing to try anything and her effort is always 100%. I like that I can challenge her and she rises to the challenge. She cocks her head to the side in typical Japanese fashion when she doesn't understand something. Her reading is improving dramatically and I always look forward to working with her!

Naoya: Thank goodness another teacher and I share this moody 9-year-old boy! I am always trying to get him to smile or get excited about something- but he drags his heels on just about everything! He does love using the small classroom whiteboard and is fascinated by geography. So when all else fails, and he wont do the required textbook (mom requested) we look up information about Antarctica and wild animals- which he finds very interesting.

The Fukushimas: (Shuji and Atsuko) This couple- in their mid-50s, have become my regular semi-private lesson after their previous teacher left. They love chatting, and teasing each other and learning English. Their lessons are always light-hearted and fun, and they ask me questions about my life and are always super interested about learning new words. They are off to Vienna for the next week, and our last lesson before their trip consisted primarily of role playing the hotel check-in process and how to send an email to reserve tickets for the Vienna boys' choir performance. I can't wait to hear about their adventures when they get back!

More stories to come...

My favorite trail

I am definitely my parents' daughter...and its entertaining to me that I seem more and more like them as I grow up and especially since I'm so far away from them. I am always full of pride when I do get to talk about them, and I truly am blessed to have their words of wisdom and life experiences to draw from. All too often I hear my mom's words and my abba's calming logical response in my head, inevitably when I am not sure how to handle a problem. Like my mom, I am in this constant need for change-too impatient to sit still and wait for things to happen, yet there are certain things that comfort me in their familiarity-which comes directly from my abba. Basically, I love you both so much and think about you often!

Anyways, Mount Takao is my version of my abba's Mount Diablo. I've made it to the summit of Takao-san (and further) four times now- in an attempt to hit all the different seasons.

November Fall Color...

The dead of March...

The early heat of June...

The blazing glare in August...

The train ride from my apartment to the trail head only takes an hour, then from the base, there are several ways up the mountain, from cable car, to chair-lift, to my favorite- steep path!! The summit of Takao-san is about 3.5 km, and as I have discovered, it is only the start of a long line of mountain peaks connected by trails. So this last time I turned my hike into 20 km as I meandered over 5 peaks. This phallic statue greeted me at the last one!!

Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima

We took the shinkansen (bullet train) down to Hiroshima. Just over 3 and a half hours to cover 798km! (nearly 500 miles). Pricey, but totally worth it!!

The population of Hiroshima is just over 1.1 million. The city impressed me so much. Its a bustling port city that has made one incredible comeback! Several rivers run through the city and there are plenty of bridges and parks. The tracks of the street car have been revived and its an easy and convenient way to get around town.
Our hostel was just a few blocks away from Peace Memorial Park. Hiroshima has its own dialect, and a different style of Okonomiyaki. (The new words didn't stick, but we hit up the grilled noodle/egg pancake stack on 2 occasions).

We spent all day Monday at Peace Memorial Park- a triangular shaped garden surrounded on two sides by rivers that converge near the iconic Atomic Bomb Dome (one of the only structures to have survived the blast!)

One of my favorite memorials was the Children's Memorial with the famous paper crane displays. All day I was so touched to see this outpouring of peace and future good will that came out of such horrible devastation! With a quote that reads: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. For building peace in this world!" The statue of the girl at the top lifts a crane that holds the dreams for a peaceful future.

In another part of the park, The Bell of Peace has this inscription:

We dedicate this bell

As a symbol of Hiroshima Aspiration

Let all nuclear arms and wars be gone,

and the nations live in true peace!

May it ring to all corners of the earth

to meet the ear of every man,

for in it throb and palpitate

the hearts of its peace-loving donors,

so may you, too, friends,

step forward and toll this bell for peace!

The flame of eternal peace...

And the memorial to recognize the Korean victims of the bombing as well...

We spent hours at the museum, listening to the audio tour and slowly taking in the whole story. It is so much more than just a 200 word paragraph mention in a high school history textbook. Emotionally intense, but so important to know. From the making of the bomb, to the US's reasoning behind using it, to the explosion and intense aftermath and long term effects. All the personal stories, the misery and pain, the suffering and loss, the heart-wrenching photos, words and artifacts. 

Also given credit was the story of Sadako (from Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes). Having read the story with my 5th graders, it was special to see her photos and artifacts, and even some of her original cranes!

Fuji-san

First some statistics:

Mount Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan- at a height of 12,388 ft (3,776 meters).
Its a strato-volcano with its last erruption in 1708
It is sacredly the gateway between heaven and Earth.
It is the most climbed mountain in the world with over 100,000 people every year.
It is definitely one of the most symmetrical and beautiful mountains and is an icon of Japan. Commonly photographed in all seasons.
The official climbing season is only between the months of July and August- other times of the year there is too much snow, and it would be too dangerous to climb.
Most climbers prefer to climb at night in order to be at the summit to watch the sunrise.
The temperatures at the summit even in the summer can be as cold as 7 degrees C.


The hike we did from 5th station to the top- the most popular route, is on 6 km (3.7 miles), but with an elevation gain of nearly 1,500 meters (4,900 feet).

 The first thing everyone told me about hiking Fuji-san, was that it would probably be very crowded because it had recently been recognized as a World Heritage Site. As it turned out, the popular time to hike is at night- stay at the summit, and watch the sunrise. I was not interested in doing this, so we had the trail basically to ourselves most of the way up and down!

They were right! The crowds of hikers (primarily Japanese, although I hiked all day with a whole bunch of foreigners), made this natural wonder seem like an amusement park.

Our pre-climb lunch the day before. Delicious broth with thick noodles, tofu, and a plethora of veggies.

From our youth hostel, it was a 10 minute walk to the bus station, and an hour long bus ride to 5th station. At 5th station there were shops, parking lots, restaurants, hotels and a village of people.

Ready to start the ascent! It was a lot colder here than at lower elevations. (I even put on my wool leggings, and down coat at the summit).

So there are several 'rest stations' along the way to the top. As you continue to climb, the trees thin and eventually disappear and at points you are on all fours as you scramble up rock outcroppings and haul yourself over boulders.
 

Resting at one of the stations on the way up!



Finally you pass through the last two torii gates and you have reached the summit.



A plethora of people, buildings, and resting areas greet you- including an over-priced vending machine! The clouds rolled quickly over the summit in thin wisps blocking out the sun and plummeting the temperature. Then the sun would return and everything was crystal clear.


I had time to do the extra 3km perimeter walk of the crater at top. My excessive amounts of energy surprised me! I felt like I was above the world! Cumulous clouds sat in a blanket below me and the wispy cirrus clouds continued to blow over.

By the time I was ready to descend, it was already 5pm! Not wanting to hike in the dark, I half skated half sprinted down the steep switch-back descending trail. Across the way I saw the beginnings of a long parade of people gruelingly marching towards the summit.

Enjoying the sunset from 5th station as we wait for the bus to take us back down to town.