A visit to Japanese Girl's High School

Sarah Dickson is currently studying at an all-girl's high school in Osaka, and she helped me get in contact with the English teacher there to set up a special meeting at the school. So we left the rest of the EF group and took a train to this High School.

In Japan you can't drive until you're eighteen, so most students ride their bicycles to school or ride the bus or train.
The students are in charge of cleaning their own high school every day after school. This includes the bathrooms! In the process they learn responsibility and to respect their surroundings. If they make a mess, they're the ones who will have to clean it up afterwards! This concept definitely needs to come to America.

After we took off our shoes at the front entrance way of the school and put on slippers, Carl the English teacher gave us a short tour of the school. School had just been let out, and we could see students cleaning the campus and starting their after school clubs. Class electives we Americans take for granted like art, band, dance, etc. are all afterschool activities. A lot of the students stay at school until 6pm practicing. Carl then led us up to a tatami room where some students learn Japanese culture like the tea ceremony.

It hurt after a while to be sitting on our legs for so long, so most of us had to shift to the side. It was amazing to see how every single movement was choreographed precisely- even down to what you had to say and how many steps needed to be taken. After the tea ceremony, we went back to the classroom and chatted with the students. They especially got excited when they found out many of the students new their favorite tv stars, singers and manga characters.

Check out this link to see photos of our little meeting featured on their school website!
http://www.takii-h.oiu.ed.jp/re-news/archives/2010/07/010824.html

Gion- The hunt for the illusive Geiko (Geisha)

Gion is known as the district where the Geisha ochaya are. We went during the day to go shopping, and came back at night to see if we could catch a glimpse of the "floating" girls. More on geisha later. The girls in our group found a cute little boy with his parents and when they asked to take his pictures, he was so shy he didn't smile, but we started seeing a shy smile creep on to his face and it was so cute he was trying to hide it!

Our tour director Rie, showed us a quirky shop to eat lunch. We had to keep our eyes away from the wall, because there were random pornographic comic art that would make you (at least it did for me) blush, but the food was great!

Notice the sign- there were hand-pulled cars everywhere. I don't know how they did it- we could barely stand to be outside in the heat and humid. They were pulling people up hills and all over town!
This was outside a cute little shop we found in a side street. The owner makes little villages for tiny animal figures.


So... we did get to see three live Geiko (Geisha). They were about to step into a taxi, so we only saw them for a few seconds. Emily was fast enough to take a blury photo from afar so I'll have to ask her for it. Just within those few seconds, you could see how beautiful and graceful the ladies were. They were attended by an older "mamasan." More recently they prefer to be called Geiko instead of Geisha because Geisha has incorrectly been defined as high class prostitutes by the rest of the world. In fact, they are prohibited to have any sexual relations and are stricly trained to preform Japanese high arts like playing instruments, singing, and dancing. They are also excellent conversationalists.

Imperial Kyoto

We spent a day and a morning in Kyoto. I didn't think that was enough time, but since it was so hot, many students were less excited to be outside exploring the plethora of shrines the old imperial capital had to offer. We went to the Golden Pavilion with its beautiful zen gardens and tea house, Heian Shrine, and Nijo Castle with a local tour guide. She was a little hard to understand, but I was able to ask her a lot of questions in Japanese so it was helpful.






The next morning I took some of the students that wanted to up a long hill to a buddhist temple called Kiyomizu. The view from that temple was amazing, and we were surrounded by Japanese junior high school kids who needed to ask us questions in English for their assignment. Our girls were especially tickled when we were asked "which one of us is your type?" Emily had a hard time choosing and kept pointing from one little boy to another. It was hilarious.
We also visited the temple with a thousand buddhas. It's amazing that the structure survived a millenium, and it holds fierce warrior like gods and their boddhisatva attendants.

Sayonara Tokyo (*tear)

Today we left Tokyo and headed up to Hakone National Park. On the way, we drove along the coast which showed us a variety of scapes. From the dirty, huge, man-made concrete wonders to luscious green mountains to quiet yet playful beachsides. We stopped by Kamakura, which is a very old city, and holds huge statue of buddha, called Daibutsu. This statue weathered fires, tidal waves, etc. and still is standing today.

Fujisan Konnichiwa... Fujisan? Fujisan???

On Saturday we rode the bus to Hakone National Park. Unfortunately, the mist of darkness had fully shrouded all around us, and we did not get the famous view of Mt. Fuji. The boat ride and ropeway had the potential to be awesome except for one fact. No Mount Fuji! We actually really couldn't see much past a few yards, really. Nonetheless the drive up the mountain was still fun- full of narrow twisted roads, carpet of green, clung with heavy puffs of mist and clouds. Still beautiful.





That night we stayed in a traditional style hotel in Atami, a seaside resort town. The hotel provided yukata (traditional Japanese robes ) to lounge around in, and the students got their first experience in an onsen, or natural hot springs. They were surprised to find out you can't wear swimsuits in an onsen, but that didn't stop any of them. It was a welcome reprieve for our sore feet and backs from walking around so much.

Shibuya! Japanese Time Square

Many of the girls' first experience with a Japanese train was during rush hour! The train was packed, and I was worried we would be separated if all of us couldn't fit in, but we somehow managed. I've seen worse, but this was pretty bad. Let's just say it was a bonding experience for all of us. You really have to squeeze, shove and push yourself out of the train, Lauren bravely took the lead when I yelled "this is our stop!" and soon as I was about to step off, I noticed we were getting off one station too soon, so we ended up having to shove ourselves back into the train again. I don't think the people around us were happy, but I just say, it was in the name of practicing survival skills.

The famous statue of Hachi, the dog who waited everyday at the train station for his master to come home. It is the favorite meeting spot amongst locals and tourists alike. Lauren's friend Cameron met us there to show us where a local game center was.


In the 90's, humongous game centers started popping up everywhere, but as technology became more affordable, and people started owning game stations in the home that were just as sophisticated as those found at the game center, its popularity has slightly gone down. Don't get me wrong they're still there and doing well, but I noticed they are not as huge as they once were. Luckily, I could care less because I don't like games, and my students don't know the difference. It was still a huge arcade fantasyland for them.

A part of Japanese culture you cannot escape when you come to Japan is the "purikura", or print club. These are booths that are specialized to take pictures that make you look gorgeous. They print out as stickers, and you collect them and trade them with friends.

Partly because of the lighting they use, the pictures come out having your skin looking flawless and glowing, and your eyes big and shiny. Since caucasians already have bigger eye shapes then Japanese, some of our pictures ended up looking alienish because of how big our eyes turned out!

After you're finished taking the pictures, you can decorate them worth words, electronic stamps, etc. It took us a really long time to do each picture, and they were simple at best, but Japanese young girls (and some boys who would never admit it) have this down to an art.

Emily actually won something from those grabbing machines! I've never seen anyone actually get anything before.

Scramble crossing. intersection is shaped like a hectagon (almost), and all the lights for pedestrains turn green at once. Meaning, a whole lot of people scrambling across the intersection from all directions all at once.

A poster of one of Lauren's favorite JBoys. I forgot his name, but I know he's on Hanayori Dango at least. She was ecstatic to notice their hats made them twinners. Oh, Lauren.

The students girl's first experience eating REAL ramen. Yea, that's right. Those little prepackaged instant noodles you can buy at local grocery stores in the U.S. are IMPOSTERS! You need to try Japanese ramen at least once in your life in order to say you've lived.

Lunch was a much needed break from off the feet and out of the heat. Several were groaning about how much their feet and backs hurt. We Americans are not used to walking around so much!

We were the only ones on the second floor of the small ramen shop, so we decided to stretch and do some yoga to invigorate ourselves for the second half of the day. Good thing Sarah is a yoga instructor, we got some good tips from her.

I just wanted to show how small Japanese things can be. Everything from water cups to bathroom doors and sinks. Everything is fun-sized. Thanks for being the model Heidi!

A busy day

After driving through the city and visiting Meiji Shrine and Harajyuku,

we took a cruise down the Sumida River. The old boat took us sailing by the business districts as well as housing areas lined with rows and rows of 20 story high apartments. From each veranda people's futons and clothes were out to hang dry in the warm/moist air. I wonder how long it takes to get the clothes to dry...

We harbored in Asakusa, and older district of Tokyo. There we soaked up the tourist atmosphere as we explored the Thunder Gate, the maze of streets with shopful of Japanese souvenirs, yukatas, shoes, etc.

Lauren, Heidi and I were on a quest to find Heidi a yukata that would fit. Apparently, most shops only hold one size when it comes to yukatas (traditional Japanese summer kimono robe).

We were ecstatic when we finally found one store that had one that fit, and the cute little store owner gave her a HUGE discount. One cheer for bargaining!

For dinner, we all ate at a tempura restaurant, which the area is famous for. It served vegetables, squid, shrimp and fish tempura. It was good no doubt, but I have to admit I still think the SLC Kyoto restaurant trumps when it comes to shrimp tempura.

Emily and Breanna stumbled across a little kindergarden where they apparently saw the "cutest kids in the world." I think they are determined to adopt an asian kid now. Unfortunately there were signs all over the fence prohibiting anyone from taking the little children's pictures (I guess they get too much harassment from the hordes of tourists that lose their way from the maze of shopping and find, to their delight, the little Japanese pixies. Who wouldn't want pictures of those toddlers?).