Back in Tokyo for the last two days of the itinerary the atmosphere is weird. People are happy to see everyone again and we excitedly tell about our adventures in the host cities and ryokan stay. At the same time we know the trip is coming to an end and people seem a little sad to know good bye is just around the corner. But it is back to the routine; breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m., meetings start at 9:30.
Wendy and I decide to go on a little side trip this morning. We got up at 5:30 a.m. and took a cab
to Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market. This was a site. People everywhere bustling around with carts or motorized vehicles hauling fresh fish and I mean fresh, some caught just this morning. It was a little dangerous, the workers did not stop for spectators. You could tell some were very annoyed that people were wondering about. I understood how they were feeling; there is nothing worse than trying to work and having people gawk at you.
We wondered up and down the aisles looking at containers of sea food. There was everything
you could think of; octopus, mussels, crab, shrimp, and every type of fish that swims in the sea. But what we were really looking for was the tuna auction. We finally found the building with rows and rows of frozen tuna. We watched the buyers inspect each tuna, and then the auctions began. It was so interesting to watch. I have been to many auctions before, but there was something about the intensity of this one that made it so serious.
After the tuna auction, we wondered around for a little while longer. We watched a man cut off the head of a huge fish with a very long 
knife. The knife must have been very sharp because it cut right through the meat and bones with no problem. Then we got bored and decided it was time to go back to the hotel to shower and eat breakfast.
Catching a cab in this neighborhood was not so easy. There were not many cabs around. Wendy went out and stood by the side of the street and waited until one came by. That made me nervous because traffic moves very quickly on the streets of Tokyo. The cab driver did not speak English. Luckily I had a card in my wallet that said in Japanese “please take me to the Grand Prince Akasaka Hotel”. He looked at the card and nodded with a smile. I sure he thought we were rich American tourists as the Grand Prince is a very upscale hotel.
After breakfast we went to our morning meeting. Art Education was the topic I had picked. Chihiro Tada, head of the Tokyo Toy Museum, talked about the need for children to play with simple traditional toys instead of the high tech toys of today. He talked of how playing is the first form of art education. Children need to be creative and technology does not allow creativity.
He was very concerned with how little people communicate with each other. Today people spend hours watching television and playing video games. We spend more time with media than we do with people. He refers to this as “malnutrition of communication” and it is causing huge problems in society. This lack of communication is causing people to become socially isolated and could be causing the increase in depression and suicide that is being seen in Japan.
Tada talked of the need for children to lean by using the five senses. When virtual reality is used as a learning tool children are not touching something genuine. Art education cultivates the five senses. Many educational programs take art out of the curriculum due to budget problems and emphasis on passing the entrance examination for high school. According to Tada art should be the last curriculum to be cut because it teaches children to be creative, teaches fine motor skills, encourages independent thinking, promotes communication, and reduces stress.
The Toy Museum is promoted as a way for children to play with traditional toys and to encourage creativity. The museum encourages teachers to volunteer their time to play with the children. Tada believes it will help reduce the high level of stress the teachers are experiencing.
This session was not what I thought it was going to be. But I walked away with many thoughts to ponder. Why do we cut art and music programs first in the United States? Why have we moved so far away from traditional toys that teach creativity? How can we change the way we teach to implement more independent thinking and creativity? Why do we shush students when we should be encouraging communication? Why do we think computers are the answer to all our educational needs?
A bunch of us chose to skip a sit down lunch. We had 1 ½ hours to explore another area of Tokyo. So off we go on the subway. I am starting to like the subway. You get on and then get off, walk for a short distance and you are there. The great thing about Tokyo subways is that they are clean, they do not smell bad, and are not creepy like the subways I have used in the states.
Where are we headed this time? Shibuya Senta Gai. This is a shopping area set up in the open air market style. The streets are like a huge maze of eclectic treasures. You name it, you can buy it. We stop at a yakatori stand to eat chicken on a stick. We ask the young man serving us if he speaks English. He tells us no, so we tease him that we know he does and we know he was taught English in Jr. High. He smiles and goes about his work, while he eaves drops on our conversations.
We don’t make any purchases, which is very surprising for us. We are a group that loves to shop. This was a great experience to see yet another aspect of culture in Tokyo. The venders working hard to get people to make purchases, “ladies, I have many things to buy”. We giggle and move on. It is time to go back to the hotel for the afternoon meetings.
The afternoon was a question and answer session with David Satterwhite, Executive Director Japan-United States Educational Commission, and Yukitsugu Kato, Professor Emeritus, Sophia University. The questions from JFMF teachers range from educational to cultural. Our guest speakers shared interesting information about life in Japan. They first talked about how culturally children are considered sacred. The average family has 1.3 children, but 2 children per family are needed to replace current society. Not many families are large because it is too expensive to raise children.
The speed limit is 80 km/hr. Police do not ticket until around 100 km/hr. and taxi drivers say you can go 119 km/hr before getting a ticket. Retirement pension is 1/3 of salary. Many retired people must have a part time job to supplement retirement. Life time employment is no longer common. People are changing jobs much like in the U.S.
The Japanese Constitution was written in 1946 and included an equal rights amendment. This is very progressive considering that an equal rights amendment has never been add to the U.S. Constitution. Women still are not hired in management positions and are solely responsible for the raising the children. Kato made the comment that “women vote with their feet”. What he meant by this was that women are leaving Japan for employment opportunities in other countries and this makes him very sad.
When the session was over, we quickly organized for another great exploration of Tokyo. This time we are off to Harajuku. This is a shopping area with many restaurants, boutiques, and specialty shops. There are times when the street is blocked off to make room for all the pedestrians strolling along window shopping. Our mission was to see teenagers dressed up for the evening.
Another successful expedition! We did a little shopping, got to see wildly dressed teens, and went to a four story 100 yen store. The 100 yen store is like a “dollar store” in the U.S. For dinner we went to the same pizza place as last night. We just cannot eat enough pizza!
After eating we returned to the hotel to make Scott a costume for our group presentation tomorrow. We had such a good time dressing him up like Inoh Tadataka, the map maker from Sawara.
Another perfect day of adventure in the “land of the rising sun”. Why do we have to go home?
Wendy and I decide to go on a little side trip this morning. We got up at 5:30 a.m. and took a cab
to Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market. This was a site. People everywhere bustling around with carts or motorized vehicles hauling fresh fish and I mean fresh, some caught just this morning. It was a little dangerous, the workers did not stop for spectators. You could tell some were very annoyed that people were wondering about. I understood how they were feeling; there is nothing worse than trying to work and having people gawk at you.
We wondered up and down the aisles looking at containers of sea food. There was everything
you could think of; octopus, mussels, crab, shrimp, and every type of fish that swims in the sea. But what we were really looking for was the tuna auction. We finally found the building with rows and rows of frozen tuna. We watched the buyers inspect each tuna, and then the auctions began. It was so interesting to watch. I have been to many auctions before, but there was something about the intensity of this one that made it so serious.
After the tuna auction, we wondered around for a little while longer. We watched a man cut off the head of a huge fish with a very long 
knife. The knife must have been very sharp because it cut right through the meat and bones with no problem. Then we got bored and decided it was time to go back to the hotel to shower and eat breakfast.Catching a cab in this neighborhood was not so easy. There were not many cabs around. Wendy went out and stood by the side of the street and waited until one came by. That made me nervous because traffic moves very quickly on the streets of Tokyo. The cab driver did not speak English. Luckily I had a card in my wallet that said in Japanese “please take me to the Grand Prince Akasaka Hotel”. He looked at the card and nodded with a smile. I sure he thought we were rich American tourists as the Grand Prince is a very upscale hotel.
After breakfast we went to our morning meeting. Art Education was the topic I had picked. Chihiro Tada, head of the Tokyo Toy Museum, talked about the need for children to play with simple traditional toys instead of the high tech toys of today. He talked of how playing is the first form of art education. Children need to be creative and technology does not allow creativity.
He was very concerned with how little people communicate with each other. Today people spend hours watching television and playing video games. We spend more time with media than we do with people. He refers to this as “malnutrition of communication” and it is causing huge problems in society. This lack of communication is causing people to become socially isolated and could be causing the increase in depression and suicide that is being seen in Japan.
Tada talked of the need for children to lean by using the five senses. When virtual reality is used as a learning tool children are not touching something genuine. Art education cultivates the five senses. Many educational programs take art out of the curriculum due to budget problems and emphasis on passing the entrance examination for high school. According to Tada art should be the last curriculum to be cut because it teaches children to be creative, teaches fine motor skills, encourages independent thinking, promotes communication, and reduces stress.
The Toy Museum is promoted as a way for children to play with traditional toys and to encourage creativity. The museum encourages teachers to volunteer their time to play with the children. Tada believes it will help reduce the high level of stress the teachers are experiencing.
This session was not what I thought it was going to be. But I walked away with many thoughts to ponder. Why do we cut art and music programs first in the United States? Why have we moved so far away from traditional toys that teach creativity? How can we change the way we teach to implement more independent thinking and creativity? Why do we shush students when we should be encouraging communication? Why do we think computers are the answer to all our educational needs?
A bunch of us chose to skip a sit down lunch. We had 1 ½ hours to explore another area of Tokyo. So off we go on the subway. I am starting to like the subway. You get on and then get off, walk for a short distance and you are there. The great thing about Tokyo subways is that they are clean, they do not smell bad, and are not creepy like the subways I have used in the states.
Where are we headed this time? Shibuya Senta Gai. This is a shopping area set up in the open air market style. The streets are like a huge maze of eclectic treasures. You name it, you can buy it. We stop at a yakatori stand to eat chicken on a stick. We ask the young man serving us if he speaks English. He tells us no, so we tease him that we know he does and we know he was taught English in Jr. High. He smiles and goes about his work, while he eaves drops on our conversations.
We don’t make any purchases, which is very surprising for us. We are a group that loves to shop. This was a great experience to see yet another aspect of culture in Tokyo. The venders working hard to get people to make purchases, “ladies, I have many things to buy”. We giggle and move on. It is time to go back to the hotel for the afternoon meetings.
The afternoon was a question and answer session with David Satterwhite, Executive Director Japan-United States Educational Commission, and Yukitsugu Kato, Professor Emeritus, Sophia University. The questions from JFMF teachers range from educational to cultural. Our guest speakers shared interesting information about life in Japan. They first talked about how culturally children are considered sacred. The average family has 1.3 children, but 2 children per family are needed to replace current society. Not many families are large because it is too expensive to raise children.
The speed limit is 80 km/hr. Police do not ticket until around 100 km/hr. and taxi drivers say you can go 119 km/hr before getting a ticket. Retirement pension is 1/3 of salary. Many retired people must have a part time job to supplement retirement. Life time employment is no longer common. People are changing jobs much like in the U.S.
The Japanese Constitution was written in 1946 and included an equal rights amendment. This is very progressive considering that an equal rights amendment has never been add to the U.S. Constitution. Women still are not hired in management positions and are solely responsible for the raising the children. Kato made the comment that “women vote with their feet”. What he meant by this was that women are leaving Japan for employment opportunities in other countries and this makes him very sad.
When the session was over, we quickly organized for another great exploration of Tokyo. This time we are off to Harajuku. This is a shopping area with many restaurants, boutiques, and specialty shops. There are times when the street is blocked off to make room for all the pedestrians strolling along window shopping. Our mission was to see teenagers dressed up for the evening.
Another successful expedition! We did a little shopping, got to see wildly dressed teens, and went to a four story 100 yen store. The 100 yen store is like a “dollar store” in the U.S. For dinner we went to the same pizza place as last night. We just cannot eat enough pizza!
After eating we returned to the hotel to make Scott a costume for our group presentation tomorrow. We had such a good time dressing him up like Inoh Tadataka, the map maker from Sawara.
Another perfect day of adventure in the “land of the rising sun”. Why do we have to go home?
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