Day 16: Mountain School

I had breakfast on my own again today, and I was lucky enough to catch a few minutes of television news in English. This morning’s commute from the Shiga Prefecture to Notre Dame Elementary went smoothly. I was not nervous at all, unlike yesterday’s trip through Japan’s crowded public transportation systems. Right as I walked into the door of the school, Mr. Yukita grabbed me for the morning conversation class. In one week the school is sending twenty-three students and several teachers to the United States. Notre Dame Elementary has a program they call “Discovery,” which takes students to countries around the world to visit schools. The hope is that they will find a school that suits them and arrange to study there for some period of time. Notre Dame Elementary is very international, accepting students from, and sending students to countries all over the world. I led a class discussion about hobbies, names, birthdays, sports, and other simple topics. I showed a map of the United States and Wisconsin to help the students understand where I am from and where they will be visiting. At first the students were tense and scared to speak to me in English, but they soon opened up and made good use of the opportunity.

At 9:00am I joined room eight and the other second grade classes for a trip to the Mountain School. We rode the bus for about thirty minutes and then hiked up a steep driveway to Notre Dame Elementary’s Mountain School. Basically, the Mountain School is a large cabin with several classrooms, a tatami room for the teachers, and a separate tea house for tea ceremonies. The best part of the school is outside: trails through the woods, fire pits, small plots of crops, and a great view of the rice fields below. This school seems to have everything and the kids are lucky to have learning opportunities and facilities as awesome as this.

We took a hike up the hill and through the woods. This place had everything that kids this age are fascinated by as they discover the world around them: ants, worms, butterflies, caterpillars, forts, straw huts, and many types of insects. One student found a Golden Beetle and ended up carrying it nearly the whole day. I have been told that there are even monkeys living up on the mountain near the School! The crops near the Mountain School are surrounded by electric fence and covered by netting to keep the monkeys from eating the crops. The students and I picked the weeds from the rows of potato plants. Similar to yesterday’s assignment in the garden, we had the students record data about their crops and draw pictures.

For lunch, I ate with the other teachers. We had miso soup, rice balls stuffed with tuna, tea, and Japanese sweets. Junpei kept coming into the teachers’ room to talk to us…everyone thinks he is a funny kid. After lunch I passed out some fresh red raspberries to the students. The last objective for the day was to capture live specimens and draw them. Each of the kids brought their own live container and started to search the woods around the Mountain School for small creatures. I helped some of the students catch grasshoppers, caterpillars, and other exciting things to observe. This place is a science teacher’s dream! Oh, how great to be a kid again! If only every school could provide its students with such great adventures. Some rain began to fall in the early afternoon, so we moved indoors and the students continued the drawings of the organisms they captured. On the bus ride back in the afternoon most of the kids were slouched down in their seats in a deep sleep. It was a humorous sight to see, but I slept some too.

At 4:30pm my brother Justin, my brother Casey, and my sister-in-law Krissy met me at my school! They are sightseeing in Kyoto for a couple days so we planned to get together after school. It was great; the four of us being together in Japan, and our first stop was the Kiyomizu-dera Temple. I had been there once before, but it is my favorite spot in Kyoto thus far. This visit was actually quite different than the last because it was near closing time and the temple was practically empty. It was cool to share one of the best places with my family. We all drank from the Otowanotaki Falls (“Sound of Feathers”) and then walked down the hill from the temple.

Our dinner was the main event. Justin made a reservation for 7:00pm at a restaurant on the most famous street in Kyoto, Ponto-cho. We had our own small room at the restaurant with a view of the Kamo River and the city beyond it. We definitely had our fill of sukiyaki. We took several resting periods to help us finish all the meat and vegetables we ordered. It was awesome spending some time with my family here in Japan. I was not positive that all the things I am experiencing here in Japan were real until I spent some time with my family. Things are a bit clearer now. The Nagasaku’s were kind enough to invite my family to stay with me at their house in the Shiga Prefecture! We were all a bit tired to do much of anything, but just having them around was great.