Scott's Japan Trip Diary

2002-05-25T18:35:00.000-05:00

This is a test!

2002-04-14T07:17:00.000-05:00

I received an email a couple days ago, from one of the particpants at the colloquium, that I wanted to post here to sort of keep everything together. It is important to remember that the unusual grammar and syntax results from the translation into English of (most appreciated) thoughts originally Japanese:

Dear Merrick

Thank you for your suggestive presentation. With your presentation, I feel
to understand what is remote teachings. Now, we begin to design our remote
teaching styles.
Thank you.

---------------------
ˆ”ü–Î–¾
Atsumi shigeaki

•ºŒÉ‹³ˆç‘åŠwŽ©‘RŒn‹³ˆç�u�À
(email and phone contact info edited out)

Thank you so much Atsumi. I hope that my presentation will prove helpful to your future efforts.

2002-04-09T05:49:00.000-05:00

'K. I know I said the last posting was my last posting, but I just got a roll of pics from CVS film processing and I want to be sure that Professor Kogawa can access them. So here they are, from his cam while we were traveling in Kyoto (sans laptop, hence sans all but 5 pics available on the pencam.

Thank you, Ko, for the use of your camera when I was bereft of tech toys!

2002-04-03T06:01:00.000-06:00

This may be my last posting. I am home and well and happy to be back at my work(s). I just spent an hour updating the "Raining Cats and Dogs" post with detailed description of the presentation--my last task. I may become motivated to reformat some earlier postings in order to place pictures with appropriate text, but, well, I can't promise that will happen: There is other work to do, and I'm back in the throes of it after a fantastic, rewarding, friend-making experience. My heartfelt thanks to Vince Durnan, USN Director, for having the faith in me to offer that I go; to Peabody at Vanderbilt Dean Jim Hogge, for all the coaching and for facilitating my journey; to Associate Professor Masafumi Kogawa of HUTE for inviting me and for so graciously and hospitably hosting my visit; to Jimmy Suzuki for his patience and his shepherding; to Darrick Mosser and his beautiful family for receiving me and for providing a gentle and enjoyable "decompression" from America to Japan; to Rei and Beatrice for capable tour guiding and companionable conversation; and finally to my wife and family and my school, for doing without me for a week, in the service of presenting the good work we are doing and sharing it with the world. Sayonara!

2002-03-31T05:05:00.000-06:00

Darrick and Atsuko's Photos
Up in the wee hours of Easter morning, raining cats and dogs in Nashville (I wonder if they're the same cats and dogs...?). I took some time to reformat many of the pictures from Atsuko's digicam, burned to CD for me by Darrick. There's also a neat 8 Mb or so movie, but I might not put that up on the Web (though it's great to have--I think I'll surely share it with my faculty and my family).

Here they are, and this time I'm going to do some explaining!

The pictures start off with a couple of Chogi (cho-ji), the Mosser's loveable pooch:

and move on to some taken at the yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant where the Mossers and their neighbors, Dave and Becca, took me the first night on Rokko Island. This was in Kobe, and wow, was the food good. Also, as you can see, was the company...

The last series was taken at Harborland, a vast mall where we saw the amazing perpetual motion sculpture I described earlier. Meg and Masato were fun companions, and they really enjoyed the big Japan Soccer League recruitment festivities. Soccer was certainly the theme that weekend in the mall, as Japan prepares for hosting the upcoming World Cup competition:

2002-03-30T15:11:00.000-06:00

Notes from dictation:
Wednesday early a.m.: Raining Cats and Dogs

I have finished with my presentaton (yesterday) and I'm up early in the morning, around 5:20, late for me, at least lately. The whole issue of time is so, well, so relative these days. Let's see: I left off with a posting from Darrick's lab on Monday morning. Leaving the lab, we walked back to his house, where I repacked, showered, dressed, and then we jumped into the car for a lunch run. He drove me to "City Center," several blocks away from his house and parked on the street. We then walked a couple blockes to...guess where?, McDonald's. Mickie D's is a very familiar place in Japan and also a very different one. The menu reflects the Japanese culinary predelection for spiciness, and I'm not sure my kids would be happy campers with a happy meal from a Japanese McD's. I liked it, though. I had a bacon-lettuce burger, pretty much what it sounds like, only with a "mayonaissey sauce" that had a decidedly spicy bent. There is also a "Teryaki burger" on the menu, and Darrick says it's very popular. One recurring element on a McD sandwich here is potato salad, sort of a mashed potato concoction with cucumber, used as garnish! I'm not even sure that mustard or ketchup is available. I asked if I could buy lunch and was summarily dismissed. I can only hope that my friend will one day visit Nashville to let me make an effort to repay his graciousness. I would love to be on the "Your money is no good in my town" side of things someday. At any rate, there I was without my camera, in a very visually interesting place, all the signs in Kanji and most of the people Japanese.

We ran the food home, keeping ours in the car, and said our goodbyes, but not before the family presented me with a set of presents for my own family: A lovely kimono outer shirt for my wife, a batch of Digimon things for Colin, an audio CD soundtrack from a new popular animated movie for Miranda, and a doorway curtain, a noren (a traditional door curtain, split vertically down the middle) for me. What a wonderful set of earthings, I think. Like children everywhere (and probably like myself as a child) these two lovely kids have no idea how lucky they are. Their parents are capable, devoted, and smart; and it's obvious that they would walk over hot coals to see their children grow to be those things, too: They are well on their way...and so were we.

Our drive through the mountains to HUTE was fairly uneventful, winding through trafficky roads and small roadside shop areas. I took some photos of a strip of what Darrick called "love hotels." When we stopped for gas, he finally did let me pay for some gas, which I was glad to charge. Darrick also stopped at an ATM on the way out of Kobe, but it refused to take my credit card for more spending cash. I shrugged and figured that I would deal with that later (little did I know how that all would play out). We pulled into HUTE for our 2 p.m. appointment at 2:05--pretty respectable timing, I'd say.

I expected to walk into the building looking for someone to help me, but as we parked, there came striding around a new Honda Fit (a sort of mini-minivan, I was later to learn) Jimmy Suzuki, host extraordinaire. After quick introductions, Jimmy led us (he invited D to stay for a brief tour of the campus) to the business office, where two dozen betied accountants were toiling busily. It looked like something out of a movie about a bustling newspaper office. Jimmy later explained, as I had suspected, that the end of March is the end of the fiscal year in Japan, so there was a scramble to both spend awarded funding and put together the paperwork to close the year: I noted very busy street crews later, yet another manifestation of the "use it or lose it" status of government funded projects and grants. Ah, thinks me, hence the short notice to Prof. Hogge at Peabody desperately looking for a speaker. As I say, I had honestly suspected as much. Perhaps the motivation for my invitation to speak was not as flattering as I may have liked, but as it turns out, I think, everyone won.

It was good to have D along to coach me in the very first of my Japanese experiences, which may be described as "sudden immersion." Finished with the initial paperwork to set the stage for reimbursement of my air flight expense, we walked across the '70's style (concrete rectangular prisms full of classrooms and public buildings) campus to a cafeteria about the size of Peabody's student center. Inside was controled pandemonium: Male students in suits and ties, female in traditional kimono (according to J, one of the few times in most of their lives when they'll actually don one) or elegant gowns: A graduation party was well underway. Tables were filed with bottles of beer and not a square centimeter failed to offer beautiful food. A faculty member handed me a jelly-glass sized beer glass and filled it with Sapporo. I started to take a sip but D touched my arm and gestured to the crowd of revellers around the main table, all patiently holding their glasses, awaiting the traditional toast before drinking. It came soon enough, "Kempai!" shouted the assembled, and drink they did.

I stood about chatting with Jimmy and D, then he ushered me toward an elderly gentleman in a tailed tuxedo. I was introduced to the university's president. J translated that he was without his business cards, but he graciously accepted my own. There. I had presented my first meishi. That wasn't so bad.

We escaped from the madhouse to the outside air again, touring other buildings and ascending the elevator to view a nice panorama of the surrounding countryside form a 7th floor balcony.

Then D followed us to the "attached school." J showed us around there, and I was especially impressed with the layout of the Kindergarten buildings, each with its own little garden and sharing a communal animal shed, full of rabbits and chickens. Tending plants and livestock is an integral part of early childhood instruction here, and it strikes me as wise pedagogy.

Jimmy took us over to the Middle School, where I traded meishi with its principal and assistant principal. I did not acquit myself quite so well there, failing to give quite the proper degree of attentiveness to the two meishi presented to me by the principal. I could sense that he was, though polite, somewhat nonplussed. I realized that almost immediately and drew the cards back out of my pocket, examining them in detail, which seemed to placate the man in some small measure. Ah well--another life lesson. Perhaps I needed that little faux pas to set the importance of the meishi etiquette firmly in my mind.

We then saw the labs, where it was assumed I would give my lecture. One Mac, one Windows lab. I chose the latter, naturally, and we made arrangements to be back at 10 the next day. That, it would turn out, would be just enough time.

Off to the hotel, but first we made a stop at the public spa. Jimmy said that he was unable to bathe at the hotel, as that spa was limited to guests only. He thought that some instruction was in order, so we went to the public spa for my first Japanese bathing experience.

Kneeling at the washing station I followed J's lead and splashed hot water on myself, privates and pits. This is where the washing is done, and the rinsing, before one goes for the hot bath. And it is hot. After a good soaking in the inside spa, its glass wall overlooking surrounding mountains, we walked out into the brisk air to the outside pool. I told J it reminded me of sauna bathing in Alaska, where we'd work up a huge sweat then go out and roll in the snow, then return to the sauna for another sweat. Outside, he gestured to the 8 foot stone wall that lined the pool, laughing that the women's pool was on the other side. We decided it would not be a good idea to try to climb it.

After leaving the spa, it was only a few miles to the hotel. a beautiful chalet like building on the edge of a lake flanked by rental cabins, something on the order of a really nice Tennessee State Park. He saw me in, I got settled, and it was time to work a while on formatting photos and getting text up to date for the blog. The room was small but comfortable, with two twin beds and without dresser (one was not expected to unpack, per se, I suppose), and contained a sink, but only one faucet, cold and a soap dispenser. Robes hanging in the closet. The bath was almost directly across the hall, and the toilet facilities were next to that. As always, the Japanese toilets lay down on the floor, not "seats," like we are used to. Not too late, around 11, I fell asleep in the very firm bed, my tired head resting on the very firm pillow (filled, I think, with cedar shavings).

the next morning I was up early even for me: Someone had a percussion-fest on a door down the hall, obviously locked out. I kept thinking it would stop, then it would start up again. Finally, it did stop, and I tried to fall back asleep. No luck.

In any event, I had the sneaking suspicion that I needed to rewrite my presentation, and there wasn't much time to do it. Up I was, cutting words and adding pictures from the PowerPoint, running through the thing and sequencing what I had to say with what would be a good illustration to show while I said it. I had done a number of Web page screen grabs, which, though they looked good enough on a computer, might (as Dr. Hogge suggested--Thank You!!!) just be confusing when presented to a limited-English audience on a large screen. As it would play out, the time was well spent. Finally I considered it "finished enough," and lay back down for a half hour. I would have gladly gone back to sleep, but I was unable to. Instead I meditated, thought about my family, and prayed a little, mostly prayers of thanks, heartfelt and honest. I got up, took a short private (only because I appeared to be the only one up, and because it is the Japanese custom to bathe in the evening) bath in the community bath down the hall, and decided to go for a walk.

Walk I did: Out the lakeside door, up through the empty cabins, then up into a trail that ran along the lake then steeply up into the woods. I had planned to make it up to a little hut at the top of the near mountain (hill?), but the turn I took near the top took me to another hill. Still, the view was lovely and I got some good pics. Again, the similarity to a hiking trail in a TN state park was striking. I took some pictures, sat and breathed the clear country air for a while, soaking up the view, settling my mind. I later discovered that if I had continued down the other side of the hill I would have shortly come upon a campground. I guess my hosts could have put me up in a tent if they had wanted to: I was pleased to have my comfortable room.

Returning down to it, I dressed in slacks, a shirt and tie, and my one coat jacket, made sure I was packed and ready to go, and went down to the restaurant for a Western style breakfast (plain egg omelette, very soft, with the (typically) undercooked (to the Western pallatte) bacon. High vaulted chalet style ceilings in the restaurant, glass walled exterior with a gorgeous view of the lake and countryside. Jimmy picked me up promptly at 9, as advertised, and I was off to my "colloquium." We drove to the elementary school, spending a couple hours in the Windows lab, Jimmy and the school tech staff powering through some problems getting the demo PC to hit the Internet, and finally we decided to get the laptop I had brought set up do to that and to load it with the requisite software to use the giant (maybe 8 foot diagonally) Hitachi "DigiBoard," a very clear television-set-like display. I created floppy disks for the attendees. I tested NetMeeting toward connecting with my friend and mentor, Dr. Susan Kuner (Director of Vanderbilt Virtual School), whom I'd emailed to see if she could "drop in" virtually on our session. Jimmy took me out around noon to a very cool place called the "Pink House," a coffee shop/restaurant/bar near the school that featured a pink baby grand piano with antique dolls, both Japanese and from other countries, on its top, in the center of the room. Also atop the piano was a pretty antique Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar (which though I admired closely, the restaurant's owner did not invite me to play). Jimmy had octopus pasta with a cream sauce, which looked quite good, but I only had a tuna salad--plain canned tuna over iceberg lettuce--very bland, but just what I needed.

We returned to the school lab, and I prepared to work. As I was setting up NetMeeting on a second machine--"Plan B," in case the CA connection did not come through for us--several teachers began to filter in, sitting on chairs we'd placed in the middle of the large lab room, always bowing before entering. Three women were first, and they did precisely what all people new to seeing themselves on a monitor screen did (I had my pencam set up at the laptop and NetMeeting up on the one lab PC so they saw themselves): They waved, smiled, and giggled, pointing out the screen to one another. This was a behavior I noted, to humorous effect, in the opening moments of my talk. I tried Susan's IP number and there was my friend and colleague Jan Zanetis! We chatted a moment as people continued to join the assembled group--which eventually numbered about 10 hearty souls--and solved some sound issues, then when I judged that I should begin, I asked Jan if I could call her back after my little talk, then hung up. I began.

The talk itself went marvelously, I think. One condition I credit for that is the fact that this was my first presentation ever delivered in socked feet. We had all donned slippers upon entering the school, and since the lab was carpetted those came off at the little linoleum entranceway. I think it is a technique I may have to adopt as a rule. I later mentioned this to Sharon Blankenship, USN 3rd grade teacher; and Sharon said she's always said that she "can't think with her shoes on." Makes sense to me.

I talked a bit about my unique working relationship with Vanderbilt and USN and forwarded this model as one that might be pursued between schools and colleges and even with corporations. This bit of the talk took about 25 minutes, since I was required to deliver a couple sentences at a time and pause while Jimmy Suzuki interpreted. The attendees were not only polite, but animated in their responses. I then illustrated my work with VU and SCOPE by sharing several brief movie clips I have created for just that purpose. The VideoTeleConferencing is such a visual experience that just verbally describing it doesn't do it justice. I emphasized its implementation in the service of, not in addition to, existing curricula. I talked about using it to build a greater sense of "other awareness," in effect supporting the social curriculum by helping to "decenter" young people--making them aware of other schools and cultures and that there is much more going on in the world than the daily drama playing out in their own schools and classrooms. And I emphasized the connections between professions and classrooms. One of the new and exciting resources SCOPE is beginning to plumb is the rich base of retired educators. Utilizing retired experts has so many "coattail-riding" benefits I hesitate to start listing them.

Happily, I remembered to call Jan back, and Susan answered (did you go off to bed, Jan?). We chatted for a few moments and said sayonara. It was really good to successfully do this, and one of the benefits was being able to compare the very clear, short delay video and audio the attendees had seen on the movies with the IP performance of NetMeeting. While it's better than it was two years ago, its quality is not anywhere near the performance of a Polycom unit over ISDN.

Finally, there were questions and answers. Quite a few questions, which to my mind was a good sign. The most challenging were the ones that enumerated several procedural obstacles, including scheduling, hardware compatibility, and pertinence to ongoing curriculum, as well as means of assessment. These I think I answered to my attendees' satisfaction. At the end, I was gratified that though I carefully stated that it was very acceptable to me for people to explore the links I provided them on their own time, since I knew they had already worked a full day, every single one stayed and explored for at least a half an hour in the lab. Most spoke to me, expressing thanks, and I reciprocated. I received a list of names and email addresses at my request, to send follow up resources, and Jimmy assured me that he would snail mail me a copy of the videotape of the lecture. The work was done. Tomorrow to Himeji Castle, then to Kyoto!

More later!

2002-03-30T09:49:00.000-06:00

Watchcam pics, comin' your way, ya'll.

These pics were taken on my little Casio WristCamera, a gadget I bought last year, uncharacteristically "early-adopting" a new piece of hardware. It takes little 120x120 pixel 16 tone grayscale photos, which sometimes can have interesting (though never clear!) results when enlarged. I present them here in their raw form, for what they're worth: It was good to have the little thing on my wrist whilst in Kyoto, since I had no access to upload any pics from my Aiptek cam. Hooie.

Had to take this little series: Water conserving technology--flush the toilet and the same water that flushes runs through a little attached sink...clever! In Vandle, the mega-department store, one of those little crane-grab-a-toy machines Himeji Castle pics, including Beatrice and Rei: In transit to Kyoto: Sushi bar! Prof. Kogawa well-fed: Kyoto hotel mirror: An elderly fellow at the bus stop Our high school "giggly girls" and the Golden Pavillion: Walk to the rock garden, and the rock garden itself: Bus ride to market: Sushi "fast food!!!": Market: The gardens: Our final temple, with posing geisha" Jimmy's back-up car cam:

That's it! Captions to come. I have more text, but I'm thinking that what I will do, sometime probably next week, is to take all this and lay it out day to day in a sequential way, no longer bottom to top, but the other way around. Good? Good, I hope.
BFN
Scott (happy to be home after a fantastic trip!)

2002-03-28T20:14:00.000-06:00

Raw Pics!!! I'll caption later! Note!!!!!!: I ran out of time b4 I could get all the pics fetched to the Web server, so they're not all here yet. I think you'll agree, though, that there are more than enough!!! I'll get the rest up later, I promise...even with captions so you know what yr looking at!

SHEESH!!! That's a lotta pictures! I have more, a roll taken with Ko's cam in Kyoto, and 75 or so low res watchcam snapshots, some of those actually pretty good! I'll organize all of this later and maybe have something worth keeping!!!

BFN, CUL8R, ta ta!!!

2002-03-28T20:12:00.000-06:00

Awakening in Kyoto--
Thursday morning I awoke at 5 in my little "mobile home stacked in a building" room, showered, and went downstairs to login to my email (still didn't work, and I asked Steve to get my forwarding going on First Class email. I have religiously deleted cookies and histories after using these hotel computers...

Ko met me at 7:30 and we ate breakfast in the Chinese restaurant connected to the hotel. A group of kimonoed women ate nearby. It was a good breakfast, the eggs cooked and the bacon not raw.

We left, stashing our bags at the desk. The number issued to us by the porter was 77. I thought that might mean we'd have a good day, and I was right.

Ko consulted a map at the street, and headed down toward a bus stop. A group of high school girls, obviously visiting Kyoto from another place, consulted the map and took off in the opposite direction. We walked several blocks down the already busy street, hopped on a bus, and rode it to Rokuon-Ji Temple, home of the Golden Pavilion. One odd thing: The high schoolers we left back near the hotel were on the bus! They must have gone off and caught it at an earlier place in its route. Uniformed in navy blue, they were cute: I found myself thinking that there is nothing so refreshing as a young girl's laugh...

Up the gentle slope we walked, until we rounded a corner in the short path to see a fairyland scene, a picturesque lake, bordered by cherry trees in full blossom, surrounded by smiling and laughing tourists (mostly Japanese) posing for and taking photos, fixing themselves, and their family and friends, in the scene forever (or at least as long as photographic chemicals hold out against the elements. Our Japanese high schoolers had “followed us” here, still giggling, and they made me smile for their exuberance.

The background object of choice, of course, for these pictures, was the Golden Pavilion, a three story shrine “floating” in the lake, its top two stories completely gilt in bright, sparkling gold. The sunlight bounced off of its walls and roofs so intensely that it must be visible from past the stratosphere. Built as a villa by a wealthy lord, Kintsune Saionji, around 1220, it keystoned the structureson the hill behind it that were built around 1400 by Yoshimitsu, the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga, he having abdicated the throne several years earlier. When Yoshimitsu died the property was made into a temple according to his will. I couldn’t help casting back into time to try to imagine how serene one’s life must necessarily be, living it out in these surroundings.

We decided to walk to our next stop, Ryoan-ji. Along the way we stopped on impulse at a Japanese wood block print gallery, Gallery Gado, where I purchased an inexpensive print of Kinkaku, the popular name of the Golden Pavilion.

About 15 minutes later we were walking up into the grounds of Ryoan-ji temple. Though early (around 9:30 a.m.) the parking lot was already beginning to fill with tourists, mainly Japanese families on holiday, but also some gaijin, foreigners. The cherry blossoms were breathtaking; and Ko told me I was very lucky (something of which I am nearly always mindful and thankful): the trees were blooming nearly two weeks earlier than usual, and many of these spectacular blossoms would be gone in another few days. They were already beginning to “snow” as we strolled across to the short path leading to the temple grounds.

Near the entrance to the temple, we stopped to buy some powdered green tea. The beautiful red-kimonoed attendant, who may have been a Japanese girl from LA, for the perfect American English she spoke, offered us each a little sample in a small cup, and explained that it was produced locally. It tasted delicious, sort of like a mildly herb-scented chicken broth, and Ko assured me that it was very good and bought some himself. I followed suit. I also bought a bottle of Evian from one of the ubiquitous vending machines that stood sentry beside the small booths.

The calling card for Ryoan-ji is its small but archetypal rock garden, said to be the ultimate example of the Zen rock garden. We reached it by skirting a lovely pond, this one too surrounded by photo-clicking tourists, only these were framing their subjects amidst the richly blooming cherry trees, or simply photographing the trees themselves. The garden does not disappoint. Long and rectangular, it contains only fifteen stones, and it is bordered by a five (or so) foot tall clay wall. We sat on the wooden platform beside it, and I believe I could have spent the day there. The wall, I discovered from the English brochure handed to me at the ticket booth, had been constructed from clay boiled in oil, so that over the centuries the seeping oil created its own random design on its surface. As the pamphlet says, “It is up to each visitor to find out for himself what this unique garden signifies. The longer you gaze at it, the more varied your imagination becomes.” I left reluctantly, Ko ever the kind and capable shepherd; but I took with me the resolve to design a miniature garden in my newly reclaimed back yard at home. So peaceful, so thought provoking, so restful.

The small Tsukubai, the stone wash-basin for the temple’s tea room, is a cylinder about a meter in diameter, with a square basin in its center. Into it a thin bamboo pipe trickles a euphonious gift of spring water. Around the basin are four Kanji characters, which according to the pamphlet are from Mitsukuni Togukawa (1628-1700): “I learn only to be contented.” That I carry with me, perhaps the richest spiritual gift of the trip. Thanks be.

We toured the rest of the buildings and then headed back down and out to the street, stopping along the way upon a little island with a small shrine reached by a path which jutted out into the lake. A single crow chided us with his eerily human sounding voice, perched as he was in the branches of a tree that looked too frail to hold him. This was the beginning of a little running joke. At every place we visited, a single crow would be intoning his throaty, chiding monologue. Each time we heard it, I would say, “There’s Mr. Crow--he’s followed us here,” or “Hello there, Mr. Crow.” It made Ko laugh, and he would always say in dead earnest, “I think, maybe, that it is a different crow.” I would matter-of-factly insist, and we would let the matter drop.

Now to market. A long bus ride took us into a completely different side of the city, through streets teeming with people and commerce, going about their lives in the ways that they will. Two men whom I learned (by rudely eavesdropping on their banter) were father and son engaged me in conversation. I learned that the elder was from San Francisco, and that he was visiting his son, who lived in Japan. They, too, were wanderers in this extraordinary city, and when they got off the bus, thinking that they were several stops beyond where they had meant to disembark, I wished them as much luck as I hoped we would have.

We arrived at our destination, a bustling intersection amidst an obviously senior commercial section of town. I needed more yen if I were to buy the gifts for my kids that I wanted to get, so we tried a bank: No luck. The card machine simply spit out my card and the attendant, in a clipped voice, said, “No cash, thank you very much, no cash,” and shuffled us out the door. Ko managed to extract from him the information that perhaps we would have better luck on the 7th floor of the department store across the street. The same thing happened in another bank next to the department store, and Ko, obviously a kindred spirit optimist, said, “You will get to see the department.” I smiled. That sounded like something I might have said. Up the escalators we rode, through a very high-scale department store that could have been Dillard’s in Nashville, though curiously, incongruently in all my other experiences in Japan, more spacious and open. Finding the automatic teller machines there, I tried again: Again no luck. I was beginning to think I had no credit, and I was subconsciously considering what options I might have for funds. But around the corner Ko located a machine that sported a Visa sign, and after some fumbling about I had a 10000 yen note in hand, around 90 dollars worth of Japanese money. I know that I will need 3200 for the airport “exit tax,” and I hope to have some more to exchange at the airport, too.

Alas, gentle reader, I must desist writing. I am having great fun writing this! But for now, I know that Jimmy Suzuki will be here at the hotel to fetch me for all the accounting settling at the university, in only two hours. I must be sure to be packed and ready to go, showered up for the long haul back home. HOME! I long for my loved ones, as wonderful as this sojourn has been.

So--These are some of the topics I hope to expand upon the plane, toward a more or less completed documentation.

Heian-jinja / garden ! Mister Crow
little girl jumping up and down
Handicraft Center--7floors
gifts for kidz: Lee Ann, wait ‘til you see the Samurai wig/mask I picked up for our boy. I put it on last night during the long bus ride and I thought Ko was going to have a fit, he laughed so hard.
country block
cab to Yasaka-jinja / park
tired
coffee in Chorakukan hotel (the 1st 6 dollar cup)
long walk to Kieyomizu temple up pedestrian rd.
SPECTACULAR VIEW of city (the “stage”)
geisha posing
cab to hotel for bags
subway, train, subway, highway bus, Ko’s car, to Hotel Green Plaza, to working, to sleeping, to now, to whatever follows…

Note: Contrary to what I wrote in the throes of the trip, I probably won't be waxing prolific upon the above list of topics. If any of them picque your curiosity, feel free to email. As of Easter morning, March 31, the further revision I plan to do on this li'l epic is to reset the thing so that it's sequential, instead of "read me backwards" and imbed the pics into the text. That should keep me busy in my "spare" time.

Love and peace for now, and happy Good Friday (though it won’t be so there for several hours…

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox,
Scott, Daddy, Mister Merrick

2002-03-28T20:11:00.000-06:00

The Kyoto Pilgrimage Begins--

Ah, a chance to post. Last night Ko delivered me to the Hotel Green Plaza in Yashiro, and I spent the late night watching Japanese p.m. soaps and busily downloading and formatting pics and prepping for the chance to get them live. I hope to do it in a couple posts. Here, from Wednesday night in Japan, typed on the palm and only now presented for your reading delight (or whatever):

On the bus to Osaka to catch the train to Kyoto with Ko (Professor Kogawa) I have about an hour to type. I'm working with the portable keyboard on a drop down airline-style table, and the bus is going fast: I keep having to stabilize the keyboard as the bus takes fast curves. It's the "highway bus, though, so since the scenery is pretty much the "interstate view" we might get in the states, maybe I can chronicle today's activity and paste in my yesterday after I transcribe what I dictated last night: Don't worry, patient reader, I don't really understand it, either.

I slept well last night after doing the formatting work on my pics from the day: Uploading those will have to wait, though, since we travel to Kyoto sans laptop. My little pen cam is full from Himeji castle this morning, so I've packed it away until I can get to a 'puter back in Yashiro day after tomorrow. Oh, it's Wednesday, 4:36 pm.

I awoke at 5 a.m. in my little room in the Konagowa-no sato park. I had multiple alarms set to wake me at 5:30, and my body clock must have registered that: I wanted to hike again this morning; make it to the view-hut I had spotted the morning before, but the torrential downpour outside my balcony told me that was not to be. Instead, I did a little more work on photos, then made my way to a marvelous hot bath. After a hot bath (I was alone, bathed Japanese style, kneeling at a faucet and splashing water from a plastic pail, rinsing, then soaking in a veryveryvery hot tub pool), I made some strong Sumatra in my borrowed coffee press, then I packed. I was ready at the door when Ko arrived to take me to breakfast. We ate in a little coffee shop down in Yashiro, near the school, a light breakfast of fruit, toast with almond butter, a single hardboiled egg, and coffee. A tiny bowl offered a little stack of clear gelatin seaweed bits, garnished with a dollop of sweet soybean paste. That plus a small cup of coffee made the meal.

We hurried over to the school offices, where I was introduced to Reiko Nagasawa, the wife of a HUTE professor who was to be my guide for the Himeji castle trip. This proved to be a fortuitous and well-considered choice, as I'll explain.

I quickly checked my email upstairs in an office, answering a happy-making one from Lee Ann, and then I bounded back downstairs (as lithely as one can "bound" wearing rubber sandals several sizes too small) to greet Rei's friend, Beatrice Okaba, who was to accompany us to Himeji Castle. Beatrice is a college teacher originally from France, come to Japan by way of Germany with her Japanese scholar husband, and though she claimed to possess a paucity of English, she was very good company. I learned from her that she has three children, and that she's recently built a house large by Japanese standards (Jimmy had told me that her husband had died several years ago, although that did not come up in our conversations) so that her teenage sons could continue to survive in her house "without conflict." During the approximatelyh one hour drive, we discussed everything from world travel to education while Rei concentrated on negotiating the busy and narrow streets.

The visit to Himeji castle was fabulous. The Rein abated to a light drizzle by the time we entered the building, our umbrellas in plastic sleeves and our shoes carried along with us in grocery-style plastic bags. Rei provided detailed information at every appropriate location: "Please stop here." She had explained on the drive there that she used to be a volunteer guide until she grew tired of the long drive. Beatrice, who had visited Himeji Castle many times but never with Rei, commented that she didn't know a fraction of the history that the knowledgeable and fluent Rei shared with us. She was charming, kind, and humorous; and I can't thank her enough for taking the time to guide us around. I learned about the architecture of the castle, first built as a fort in 1333 and completed in its basic original state in 1609. Rei also told us about the history of the families, the stages of the castle's building and the circumstances of its designation as a National Treasure of Japan. Around 1940, most castles in Japan were destroyed, since they were no longer viable as defensive positions due to the development of advanced weapons, and since they represented a feudal system which was no longer in place. Himegi was spared this through the work of one man, whose monument is prominently placed at the first entrance to the castle.

It takes quite a bit of walking to get to the "castle keep," since the grounds were laid out and expanded in order to protect the castle's Lord from attack. Once inside, a massive structure of stairwells and rooms leads the visitor upward, finally culminating on the 6th floor in a small room whose windows provide sweeping picturesque vistas of all of Himeji City and much of the surrounding countryside.

After we had descended (it always seems to take less time returning than it does going, doesn't it?) and once more achieved Rei's car, she drove us to a restaurant called "Alberta Dining," housed in a building that had once been a warehouse. I had a draft Suntory Black beer and glorious food, starting with a salad dressed with spicy Italian-like dressing, then soup, a clear-broth vegetable soup with more of what I took to be the same spicy seasoning. A nicely cooked (much of what I have eaten in restaurants seems undercooked to me: the bacon especially is an interesting experience) chicken thigh on mashed potatoes followed. Coffee followed that, good coffee, yippee, and then we got back on the road back to Yashiro.

Quick goodbyes and sincere thank yous aside, Ko and I drove to the Green Garden Hotel, where I will be staying my final night, Thursday, to check my two bags whilst we road-trip to Kyoto. I travel now with only my briefcase and my REI day bag, having squirreled the laptop inside my big suitcase during a fire-drill like shuffle of stuff at the back of Ko's van. I have my pj pants and my own silk robe, a change of shirt and socks (forgot underwear, durn it--"stop it, Scott, too much information"), my razor, and my gadgets. So I can't do any uploading but with the help of my palm and its keyboard I can update text and have all that ready to roll once I can get to a 'puter at the Green Garden. It'll be okay. It'll be okay.

Well now, we're rolling into Osaka, and wow, it's a city! Traffic is bumpertobumber, and I'm really beginning to see why Ko chose to travel this way. We'll catch a train into Kyoto (~40 more minutes travel time) then get to our hotel and check in, go to dinner, and Ko's got a cultural show that he wants us to see. Dancing, Tea Ceremony, history and culture. Gotta like it. This trip is as much for him as it is for me, I understand, and I made it clear to him that he should make choices not to ensure that we see everything to see (thus assuring we wear ourselves completely out and get back to Yashiro total basket-cases), but to see things that he also wants to see. Unlike Beatrice, who was green with envy I was getting to go to Kyoto because she's spent a lot of time visiting there, Ko says he has not been here very often. So we'll have fun, two tourists in Wonderland).

And we did tonight, in a modest way. After leaving the highway bus in Osaka, we took the subway to the train station, then the train to Kyoto, then the subway to our hotel stop, then we walked to the hotel, only about 4 blocks. We'll reverse the process tomorrow evening back to the Green Garden Hote; but for now, I am left with images of packed subway cars and an even more fully packed train, densely compressed rail-side Japan flying by, not a square centimeter of unused space to be seen. The windows on the train, like all the mirrors in all the hotels and bathrooms everywhere, ended before my eyes began; I had to sort of squat down to really see very much. I do clearly recall seeing, in the midst of all the buildings, cars and roads, one construction that really stood out for me. The best way I can describe it is that it was a stack of small single rooms, obviously apartments, with a spiral staircase around it, 6 or 7 stories only. But its compactness and its clean lines struck me as a metaphor for much of what I see is Japan. Modest, but stylish. Intelligent and artistically informed coping with the primary issue: Space, or The Lack of It. Compact, without apology... On the train, many of the men were reading books, and the women stared straight ahead or out the window, or dozed, like many of the men. The whole trek from HUTE to hotel took appx. 2 hours. Whew.

Our dinner was at a Kyoto style sushi bar, and Ko ordered a "course" dinner for us. 'K. I can't really say Iiked the flowered and lightly fried "little fish," but the baked snapper was one of the best things I ever put into my mouth. The sushi was good, especially the tuna, but maybe not the squid (reminded me of muktuk--whale blubber). And all three sakis we sampled were good. Chilled like white wine and each different. I liked the middle one the best, and I have to ask Ko to remind me of the name.

When we left, I consulted my palm to see the phrase that says "It was delicious," ("gochisoo sama deshita") and I spoke that to the waitress who processed our check. The results were gratifying: She instantly brightened and asked where I was from, and we had a little halting conversation. I can't stress enough how important enough it is for a traveler to make an honest effort to use the language of the country he or she is visiting, and if there's one thing I regret it's that I wish I had had time to better prepare myself on that score: I wish that I had had the chance (and the faculty with language) to better make my way around and to demonstrate the respect I feel. Maybe next trip. In short, I would highly recommend that anyone visiting Japan make an effort to learn more than "thank you," though "arigato" is better'n nothing.

After dinner we took a cab to the tourist show, the Gion Corner. It was a sort of a variety show sampling of several traditional performances. I admit to dozing, tired from the Himeji Castle today and dulled by saki tasting, but I did enjoy the show. Thank you, Ko, for taking me.

Home to the hotel, to sleep, perhaps to dream. Tomorrow, Kyoto.

2002-03-27T15:17:00.000-06:00

Something different, now, under the circumstances: a preview-with-some-_re_view:

Today we plan to sightsee. Ko has two specific tourist targets in mind, one of them a temple and I think the other a garden. There are purportedly four "treasures" in Kyoto that define its history, and I believe the garden we plan to see is one of those. Also, Darrick mentioned a crafts center and think that Ko is planning to take me there; at least he's been asking others about how to find it. He mentioned, too a couple of other options, so what we shall see is what we shall see. Kyoto is a city of ~2 million souls, and it is bustling and teeming. I was struck in the cab last night by the way all the buildings lining the river downtown have restaurants/clubs on floors in them, and the effect as one rides by them is of a series of stage sets, one next to the other, with their plays in progress. I will carry that image with me from Japan. The area where we saw the "Cliff Notes for Japan Cultural History" (my title, still a very interesting thing to watch, and I'm glad we went!) reminded me of New Orleans--narrow streets, partying people walking the streets and taxis weaving in and out of them, bar after bar and cafe after cafe all along the way. We were not among those, revellers, though: And I have to admit that I was the wimp. Tired from Himeji Castle and what might be a kind of let-down after the presentation, I was ready to hit the sheets, sawdust-filled pillow and all.

By the way, I neglected to mention how pleased I was with the way the presentation went. Perhaps I did so because I've written in some detail on the palm and I feel like I've said it. That post will come in a day or two: But I just wanted to state here that it was fantastic, more so because of the interested attendees than because of my own performance. We are onto something here, and it is of pedagogical (education-instructional) value. Let's keep on it.

I'm gonna run for a bit (maybe I'll be able to post tonight--for sure I'll be able to get everything ready for slamming up on the Web by Friday a.m. (Thursday p.m. your time...)

I miss my family and I wish I had you all here, Merricks. Perhaps one day we can all travel to Japan. I am thankful to be here and anxious to be home all at once.

Peace and Love,
Daddy

Oh, a P.S., I am also without my pencam. It's full from Himiji Castle and since my laptop is a number of kilometers away I can't offload the 26 pics. Sigh. Ko has brought his 35 mm cam for me and I'll just buy some film and shoot it up. So digi pics from Kyoto are not in the works. I will scan and pop them in once I'm home and get 'em back from the processor.

Richard and Mark, good on ye for going ahead with the VTC on Thursday without me. Boo-hoo, I guess you don't need me anymore...Guess I'll go eat woms. (Come to think of it, worms may be the one thing I haven't eaten on this trip--the deep fried chicken joints, "chicken knuckles" I call them, were quite interesting. Crunchy even...

xoxoxoxo to all,
me

2002-03-27T14:58:00.000-06:00

I love you, Lee Ann, Miranda, and Colin!!!

2002-03-27T14:57:00.000-06:00

Hello, ya'll, long time no see,

I'm at the Kyoto Garden Hotel in, yes, Kyoto, sitting at their little flatscreen monitor workstation in the lobby. A number of kinks in technology have put me in the position to be unable to either upload pics or to upload the considerable amount of text that I have entered into my palm. I hope that by Friday (Thursday, your time, I will be able to get that stuff done from a phone in the Yashiro hotel or nearby. I have something on the order of 60 pics from the past two days on my laptop, which is currently in storage in Yashiro.

We travelled light to Kyoto, parking Ko's car at the "highway bus" parking lot, climbing stairs to the interstate-like highway, waiting in a bus shelter (I did take a break to walk down to the flashy smokey gambling center to take a pre-emptive restroom ["toilet"] strike), riding an hour on that bus, taking a subway in Osaka to a train station, the train to Kyoto, then a subway to the hotel here. I've described all this and last night in pretty much detail on the palm, so interested parties will have to wait the upcoming massive posting to get more detail. Suffice it here to say that we had a great dinner and an interesting show and that I slept well in the small but cozy room. It's around 6 a.m. now here and I'm to meet Ko by pre-arrangement at 7:30 here. Heck, unless someone stands behind me wanting to use the 'puter (1 of 2), he may find me here. Gonna send this now, though. Oh, I'm also locked out of my USN First Class email: this browser won't run java, which is needed to get that little login pop-up (at least I think that's the problem). I'm going to try to negotiate a temporary change to enable that, but in case I'm not successful. If there are any tech folk at school reading this it would be helpful if someone would go in and set my mail forwarding to my scottmerrick.geo@yahoo.com address (I think it's already in there: You just have to check the box to enable the forwarding... Others who wish to contact me in the next day or two might be well advised to email me at that yahoo address. Ah, technology.

More in a moment:

2002-03-24T07:17:00.000-06:00

Sunday, 3/24--Family Fun

First cherry blossom in the Mosser's back yard

Okay, I've given up on uploading pics to another location. Too time consuming. This'll do, pilgrim. Disregard any earlier references to a new Pics link, if in fact you paid any attention to them in the first place...

After leaving Canadian Academy this morning Darrick and I walked home and gathered the crew into the van, then headed off for HarborLand, the shopping center of Kobe. Across the bridge from Rokko Island we drove, and along the Harbor Highway until we were in the midst of a good sized city, with a tall city hall highrise and an hourglass shaped, red, Kobe Tower, sort of the St. Louis "golden arches" of Kobe. We parked in a multi-level parking building and strolled over breezeway bridges to a mall, entering the department store, whose name escapes me at the late night moment, to buy a female to female telephone line coupler for me. I'm using it right now on the laptop, sitting in the tatami room typing away.

Harbor bay view

The shopping center was fabulous, high points being the Japan Soccer League recruitment event, where the kids watched balloon sculpturing and swam in plastic balls;

the motion sculpture, an amazing concoction of balls, percussion instruments, ramps, and slides; lunch at a fantastic Brazilian restaurant where one fills a plate from a buffet and waiters come around with meats on long skewers and carve them off onto your plate until you turn the little cylinder at your table from green side up to red side up to show you're full; and the children's arcaded in the department store, where both Darrick and I took those coin crane machines for a ride, scoring multiple stuffed animals for our children.

We came home, and after Darrick and I ventured out for a latte at Starbucks in order to keep our energy levels rolling, we had Mike and Oli, a British couple, over for a marvelous chicken and vegetables feast prepared by Atsuko (she did at least two full days of work today!). Atsuko, BTW, is the HS Japanese language teacher at CA, a very diverse international school. I can't thank them enough for sharing their Spring Break with me, showing me the kind of hospitality I might have previously expected only in the South USA.

After dinner D. and I walked Chogi then came back and I had to collapse: Tomorrow he drives me the one hour to HUTE, where I meet my official hosts and get set for my presentation (see schedule in an earlier post). Gotta get this posted and get to sleep. Ah, sleep.

Love you, my three Merricks; and I'll see you soon. I'll fall asleep whispering your names...

2002-03-23T18:16:00.000-06:00

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!

2002-03-23T15:56:00.000-06:00

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.

More later!

****************
Later! Got into Osaka
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,

we arrived at the Mosser’s cozy condominium and I met Chogi their 12 year-old “puppy,” and Atsuko, Meg and Masato (Darrick’s lovely wife and children—Meg is 5 and Masato 2!), as well as some neighbors, Becca and Dave, and drove back out to the yakitori for marvelous food. Yakitori means “grilled chicken,” and this place was fabulous! Darrick tells me that traditional yakitori tend to be dark and often greasy, but this cozy little eatery was designed by its owner, also an architect, in rough hewn logs (reminded me of a cabin in Alaska) and very bright ship-style lights (sort of looked like hanging cage work lights) with picnic-table-like tables of the same log. Atsuko deftly ordered, filling out a sushi-bar style slip with a pencil and the grown-ups partook of delicious lime-soda and “chu-hi,” a kind of potato liquor like vodka--highballs, mixed fresh at the bar.

The delicious food came in rounds as it was ready: many skewered concoctions, one I particularly liked—finely minced chicken rolled in quarter-sized spheres and deep fried on skewers. Though I had a few waves of “whew, am I gonna make it?” sensation related to jetlag, and I got full quickly, I tasted everything, and loved it all. What a great choice for a dinner spot. The pics here of the staff at the yakitori bar say it all

More later more later more later…

I love you LeeAnnMirandaColin! Going to sleep now, after talking to you on the phone and spending a half hour syncing (some of this was rewritten in the wee hours of the morning when I awoke—I’m going to try to go back to sleep for a while, formatting and uploading this stuff so tomorrow I can concentrate on other stuff tomorrow. We explore Kobe…

‘Gnight.

2002-03-21T09:18:00.000-06:00

Here's a low resolution picture taken with the pencam:

2002-03-21T07:43:00.000-06:00

A pic of the entrance to Hyogo University of Teacher Education:

2002-03-21T06:51:00.000-06:00

Working with templates to choose the best one for display and archive. Bear with me...

2002-03-20T07:56:00.000-06:00

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

2002-03-20T07:04:00.000-06:00

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.

2002-03-20T06:44:00.000-06:00

And here's a pic test post:

Just me in the lab. More to come if this works!

2002-03-20T06:39:00.000-06:00

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:

Dear Mr. Scott Merrick

I am pleased to say that Hyogo University of Teacher Education
would like to invite you as a lecturer of a special lecture or
colloquium in March, 2002. Could you give a lecture for us about
SCOPE or others. We are interesting how you try to solve
problems in schools and to improve education in schools.
Professor Jim Hogge said you are the best person. (He said he
cannot come to Japan because he is very busy and AERA meeting
will be held in the first week of April.)

Could you come to Japan? I would be grateful if you come to our
university. Our university will pay for your round fright tickets
and for your stay in Japan for 6 days. (Please bring the receipts
for your fright tickets, because they will pay for the amount of
the receipts by yen while you stay in Japan.)

I made a tentative rough schedule of your trip to Japan as below.
If you have some ideas about the schedule and the lecture, please
let me know. We will possibly comply with your wishes.

March 23 Leave Nashville
March 24 Arrive at Kansai International Airport
March 25 Sightseeing around Hyogo University of Teacher
Education (HUTE), observe graduation ceremony, and
preparation for lecture.
March 26 Visitation to University President
Lecture or colloquium in HUTE
March 27 Sight seeing at Kyoto
March 28 Sight seeing at Kyoto or Himeji
March 29 Leave Kansai International Airport
Arrive at Nashville

I hope I will see you in this March in Japan.

Sincerely yours,
Ko

Cc: Shibo, Jim

--
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Masafumi Kogawa
Associate Professor
Center for School Education Research
Hyogo University of Teacher Education
2007-109 Yamakuni, Yashiro
Kato-Gun, Hyogo, 673-#### JAPAN
TEL: +81-795-##-####-2212; FAX: 795-###-####
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

2002-03-20T06:37:00.000-06:00

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...