Scott's Japan Trip Diary |
Saturday, March 23
Had a great walk early this morning with Darrick and Meg, and Chigo, the pupster, along the greenbelt to the bay.         Then Atsuko cooked us a lovely breakfast of french toast, bacon and the sweetest strawberries I think I've ever had: One doesn't even have to core the white out, just wash and eat 'em. Atsuko had a squeeze tube of condensed milk she drizzled onto the berries for the kids, and I just had to try it. Yummmmmmy. Now I'm over at the relatively deserted Canadian Academy, trying to make sense out of this Mac keyboard. We plan to visit Harborland today, a shopping and eating district of the island, then to mosey back home to lay about b4 a grilling out party with family friends. Darrick will drive me up to HUTE tomorrow by 2, where I'll tour the campus then move into my home for 2 nights. So, when you see the new link in the navbar, right by the "Flights" link, that'll be the place to see new photos. I'll name 'em for ease of viewing. Happy day to you wherever you are!
Friday, March 22 1:11 USA Central Time-- Traveling through Time To put this all in context, let's remember that our major home remodel is avalanching toward completion: Much of yesterday was spent preparing the two old rooms of the house (family room and kitchen) that will be rebuffed and re-polyed in concert with the whole new expanse of upstairs hardwood floor. That's going on now, this moment, as I hurtle off toward Osaka, and my family camps out in style at Lee Ann's mom's house/manse. I slept not very well last night, having fallen asleep with Colin in our large guest bed, only to awaken at 12:40 with a list of as yet unfinished tasks: update the online ppt/htm Web version of my planned presentation, send three important emails, set up AOL on the laptop, make sure my sync cables for the three peripherals I'm hauling around (eBookman for audio books, Palm for many things--writing, news, and contact information; and RaveMP3 player for music and voice dictation) were in my carry-on luggage. I also had the nagging sensation that I had squirreled away my tiny penknife in my briefcase, a situation I wanted to avoid. In the long-run, one supposes, being up for three hours in the middle of the night should serve me well, since I've already slept 30 minutes on this big ol' 747, and I anticipate that the Sapporo I'm drinking at the moment will help me get a little more shut-eye after the meal is served. The lines at the airport were not impossible, but long. It took about 30 minutes to get through check-in, then 45 or so to get through the snails-pace security line. I was surprised not to be stopped, with all my little electronics, but there were sufficient body searches going for me to be satisfied. The line wait at check-in gave me time to locate the penknife, too: I'd have hated to lose that, since it was a gift from my father-in-law, Gerry. (Still have it, Gerr!) The flight to Detroit was on a little DC-9, which made me a bit apprehensive for the long flight. Legroom was at a premium, despite my having arranged for an aisle seat. I sat next to a very nice guy from Nashville, on is way to Osaka to inspect/oversee progress on some custom designed machining equipment for Nissan. I never got his name, but we had good discussion. Seems his 3 month trip is toward Nissan’s acquisition of the equipment necessary to do the whole thing right here in Nashville, which should be good for Nashville Nissan and for USA manufacturing. Cool! On this flight, I sit next to a quiet young Asian fellow to whom I have yet to exchange words: I think that there probably aren't any mutual ones for us, which promises a quiet long flight--exactly what I was hoping for. I've already drunk two bottles of water and several glasses. Don't intend to have beer (even though those glasses of Sapporo look pretty darned good, just much more water, and I'm hoping I can find that sleep place again.
Thursday, March 21
Wednesday, March 20
Contact Info:
Contact numbers for Scott while traveling in Japan: March 23, and 24th: Darrick Mosser's home: 078-857-3929 (81 is the country code) His address is 4-1 Koyo cho Naka Higashinadaku, Kobe 658-0032 then: March 25 and 26: Kamogawa-no-sato (Tel: +81-795-45-0111, FAX�F795-45-0116) March 27: Kyoto Garden Hotel (Tel: +81-75-255-2000, Fax: 75-255-2389) (You can use Internet at this hotel) March 28: Hotel Green Plaza Tojo-ko (Tel: +81-795-44-1300) Professor Kogawa's phone numbers: Office: Tel: +81-795-40-2212, Fax: 795-40-2203 Home: Tel & Fax 795-42-6036 Flight Information is available at: Virtually There Web site
Here is the itinerary while in Japan!
March 23 4:30 pm Arrive at Osaka/Kansai Airport (Mr. Mosser cometo see at the airport) (Lodge at Mosser's house) March 24 (Lodge at Mosser's house?) March 25 2 pm Arrive at Hyogo University of Teacher Education (HUTE) 3 pm Campus tour 6 pm Arrive at Kamogawa-no-sato and have dinner (Komogawa-no-sato) March 26 Morning Visit to Attached Elementary School of HUTE and preparation of your presentation Afternoon Colloquium: Your presentation: SCOPE and USN: Increasing Student Focus and Teacher Creativity through VTC (Kamogawa-no-sato) March 27 9 am Sightseeing : Himeji Castle Afternoon Move toKyoto (Kyoto GardenHotel) March 28 Sightseeing in Kyoto 9 pm Arrive at Hotel Green Plaza Tojo-ko (Hotel Green Plaza Tojo-ko) March 29 11:30am accounting settlement HUTE. 11:45 am Leave HUTE via Osaka to Osaka/Kansai Airport Professor Jimmy Suzuki will take you to Shin-Osaka Station You can go to Osaka/Kansai Airport by train. 5:15 pm Leave Japan for the U.S.A.
Here's a link version of that URL I typed in the first post: Scott's HUTE presentation. And here's a copy of the original letter of invitation:
Welcome. I am (perhaps not unexpectedly) drawn to this "read-me-backwards" diary entry format. Today I begin. I will add to this as I get Internet access and time to post, and I hope that between my little Aiptek digi-cam and my laptop there will be something to read as we go. I'm hoping that this will be a good repository for later reworking of my thoughts, too. Time will tell.
My presentation, or a draft form of what I plan to deliver in the "best-of-all-worlds-enough-time-and-everything-works" scenario, is posted at www.usn.org/scott/curriculum/vtc/merrick_hute.htm . And I'll go out and snatch a copy of my itinerary from my email next. This might be fun, ya'll... I'll need to see how I can get pics posted. Probly I'll ftp 'em to USN or to my scottmerrick.net site and link to them from my blog. CU on the 'net... |
right on time, made it nicely through immigration and custom with minimal lines, exchanged some money, and found Darrick. What a joy to finally shake Darrick’s hand, after 5 years of working together with our 3rd and his 4th grade classrooms, a long-running and many faceted running collaboration. While waiting for me, he had run into a former student of his, Mark, and so Mark rode with us back to Rokko Island to the Sheraton, where he was to meet a friend. Even though Darrick was in a hurry to get back home and out to dinner (children’s bedtime schedules can do that to a feller), Darrick still went that extra bit out of his way to give a former student (visiting friends over his NJ spring break) a ride: That’s just the kind of guy he is. 
After driving for about 45 minutes, 
