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Waiting to leave for Kyoto Train Station
Kyoto Train Station Platform...We are riding
the Shinkansen!
Chesterton fellows on the Shinkansen.
En route to Fukuoka, we stopped at Hiroshima.
The Castle High Group is standing among thousands of paper cranes made by children
all over the world.
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On to Host Families and Back
Friday the 13 actually marked an auspicious beginning to home stay
experiences for the NP:J participants. Host families were spread out from as far
north as Sendai, roughly two hours from Tokyo and as far south as Fukuoka which is
the first time that NP:J participants ventured outside of the island of Honshu and
onto the island of Kyushu. Departure times from Kyoto for each group varied. The
earliest to leave Kyoto was the group heading to Fukuoka since the Shinkansen (Bullet
Train) ride was over five hours. To break up the journey, this group made up of Blackhawk
Middle School, Castle High School, and Chesterton High School students and teachers,
made a brief stop in Hiroshima and visited the Atomic Bomb dome and the museum. It
was a somber experience for the group but all agreed that while it was a brief stopover,
it was worth the time. Other groups had less of a hectic morning getting out of the
hotel. The last group to depart Kyoto was West Bloomfield since their home stay families
were located in nearby Osaka.This article and accompanying photos highlight some
of the groups that headed south.
Here are the hosting schools and their locations:
- Aldo Leopold Community School - Okayama Prefectrual Tamano Senior
High School, Uno
- Blackhawk Middle School - Fukuoka Jo Gakuin, Fukuoka
- Broad Ripple High School - Tohoku High School, Sendai
- Cape Henry Precollegiate School - Higashikanamachi Junior High
School, Kanamachi
- Carroll High School - Anjo Gakuen High School
- Cass Technical High School - Funairi High School, Hiroshima
- Castle High School - Dazaifu High School
- Chesterton High School - Okayama , Fukuoka YMCA
- Felix Festa Middle School - Hosoe Middle School, Kureishi
- Forest Area High School - Fujishiro Shisui High School, Fujishiro
- Lindbergh High School - Kitakami High School, Shizuoka
- Marina High School - Yatomi High School, Nagoya
- Old Trail School - Moto Yoshiwara Junior High School, Yoshiwara
- West Bloomfield High School - Sakai Girls' High School, Sakai
- Wissahickon High School - Noah Foreign Language Institute, Sano
- Woodworth Junior High School - Ofuji Junior High School, Fujinomiya
The week with the home stay families flew by. Participants simultaneously
feel that the time has gone by quickly and yet since they have experienced so much,
it seems like they have been together for more than the short twelve days that have
gone by.
As is usually the case with our NP:J participants, the homestay
experience and the week spent with families and host schools were memorable for all.
Invariably, the anxiety and tears that come with the first day of meeting new "families"
are replaced by tears that were shed because our NP:J students and teachers don't
want to leave their Japanese friends.
Friday, July 19 was the day when the United States-Japan Foundation sponsored group
left their host families and host schools and made their way back to Tokyo for the
final three days of the study tour.While most are happy to be back together as one
big group, it is also true to say that the past eight days have been incredibly enriching.
We frequently use the phrase "step out of the classroom and into the culture
of Japan" to describe the homestay week. It could also be described as a time
when the students and teachers step out of the classroom and into the heart of Japan.
Friday was a day spent in travel and in getting settled in to one of the two housing
venues for NP:J. The Japanese language teachers and students will spend the final
weekend at the Shiba Park Hotel. Their NP:J Fellow counterparts are staying at quite
a historic spotñthe facilities used by athletes during the Tokyo Olympics in 1964!
Fortunately, it has been updated and remodeled and has air conditioning, a very important
convenience when temperatures reach well above 33 degrees Celcius. The students are
constantly told to drink lots of water to prevent dehydration.
After taking a shower, or an ofuro (bath) or sento (communal bath), the teachers
and students got their plans together for their final few days in Japan. Various
and sundry groups each have their own specific plan for exploring Tokyo. Some gorups
are venturing down to Kamakura to see the famous Buddha there. Others have been saving
their yen for an excursion to the electronics center of the world, Akihabara. Still
others will be taking a Toyko river boat trip or investigating the Edo Museum.Given
the short amount of time left with the study tour, the one desire common to all our
school groups is thisñlet's make use of every possible minute in experiencing Tokyo,
one of the world's most exciting cities! (And have time for shopping, too.)
We'll be back in touch in another day or so with our final article for this, the
third study tour of NP:J 2001. Until then, sayonara!
The Forest Area High School group has a uniform
of their own to greet their Japanese host families.
On the way to our host families, Blackhawk teachers and students enjoy the Shinkansen
ride at 150 mph!
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