The Journey's begun!

Ohayo gozaimas! (good morning!)
Yesterday (Sunday) was our first day together as a group. We are currently in San Francisco and will be flying out to Tokyo this morning.
Yesterday afternoon was spent in meetings. We were addressed by the U.S. Staff from the JFMF program. We were each given a book that has every day of our trip organized. Our first lesson about the Japanese was that they are ON TIME. If a session was supposed to begin at 2:00, it began at 2:00, not 2:01. They are extremely punctual, which makes everything work, and we were done on time.
The Fulbright program was started by the late Senator Fulbright, who traveled abroad on a scholarship to Oxford and saw the merit in educators learning about other people/countries. He believed that educators could make students see a people through their eyes. The Japanese government fully funds the program, and will spend about $10,000 to fund each of the 100 educators that are attending. They truly believe that one person can change the world. Sadly, the Japanese economy is poor and their government is cutting this program. We found out yesterday that we are the last group of teachers that will be going. They are working on a possible exchange program for teachers between our countries to replace this program.
They are treating us like royalty! We were bused to the Japanese consulates house in San Francisco – it is a mansion, I can’t believe someone would feel comfortable living there. The consulate and his wife were very friendly, greeted each of us, and then he gave a welcome speech, and our group greeted he and his wife. There was a reception with traditional Japanese food. I’m kind of squeamish around things I can’t identify, and there were a lot of gelatinous masses of stuff! I did try eel – and it was edible. (not something I would seek out to eat again, but not terrible at all). There was sushi and lots of different pickled things, and different types of smoked fish, and dumplings filled with vegetables that were pretty good.
I’m excited about landing in Tokyo – I know that it will be an immediate culture shock.
We were told a few rules of thumb etiquette at our meetings. For example, it is culturally unacceptable to show tattoos in Japan. They believe they are associated with the underworld. If they know you have one, you wouldn’t be allowed to get in to the public baths. Chewing gum while talking is also socially unacceptable. They pointed out that our social norms are different, and we may find that weird, but ‘common sense’ is different for different cultures. It is our job during our trip to understand and appreciate what that is for the Japanese, and to help others ‘see’ the real heart of their people.
The most interesting part of the meetings was a panel discussion from past Japan Fulbright teachers. They told about their experiences and gave us some advice. The funniest was a girl who talked about the Japanese baths. You should wash with soap and water, get all the soap off of you, and then get in the bath. They will want you to get in the bath BEFORE supper! She felt strange because it was so different from our customs here. Then, DON’T DRAIN THE WATER! Everyone in the family uses the same water. My question was, how long do we stay? 5 minutes, 30?
We also were able to meet in our groups that will be traveling around Japan. I will be traveling to Unzen, Nagasaki. We introduced ourselves and wrote some goals and questions we have for our stay. We will be hosted by the city, we will tour the schools, and get the opportunity to speak in front of their schools. The children in the schools actually are working on an assembly for us! They will sing and everything. I’m really excited about that. When we go in the schools, we have to put on our slippers. Another thing that I found really interesting was that the teachers switch classes, not the students. They have lunch in their classrooms, and the students are responsible for cleaning the school! I’m not pointing fingers, but as an art teacher who gets frustrated because I often have dirty brushes in the sink, I think that students cleaning their school might give them a greater appreciation for their school and education.
Tomorrow – Tokyo! We actually land in Tokyo on Tuesday, keep in mind that Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Missouri. So I’ll be flying in to tomorrow, and when I fly back, I will be flying ‘backwards’ in time.
Have a great day!