Home Again

As you can tell from the title, I made it back home and none too soon. Shortly after we left a typhoon came into Tokyo and flights were cancelled. My week in Japan was wonderful. The people I met were marvelous and the schools and sights that I visited made an impact on me. I am far more impressed by our similarities than by our differences. I have even more of a desire to understand people from other countries and cultures, and I appreciate all of you even more. It is a joy and privilege to work at Clovis Grove and was a joy and privilege to represent you and the Menasha School District while in Japan.

Let me share a few pictures and, with some luck, a video of what it is like to ride on a bullet train. Here we go!

 Here was one of the choirs that I heard while in Maebashi, a fine group of singers!

 A group of students hard at work practicing their calligraphy - remember, it's not how smart you are, but how hard you work.

 Math class in Maebashi

 Here is a class at work on an art project and, yes, I saw a color wheel in this class, too.

Here's a happy bunch of hard working students.

 You aren't the only ones who need to practice your math facts.

 The elementary school that I visited in Maebashi - hmm . . . the school looked much bigger when I was there.

 I'm not sure if these students were happy about being models, but this is what their school uniforms for P.E. look like. Notice that the hats are reversible.

 Here is the bullet train pulling into the station. I'm not sure how fast we were going, but I think that it was somewhere around 180 mph.

Really dad, nothing up my sleeve.

 Kawaii! It's a good thing that the camera that I was using was fast. This little girl did not want to slow down at all. Her parents just kept looking at me, smiling, and saying "sumimasen."