George visits a Japanese school library

George hangs out in the library at Motoyama Elementary School.

I went to see a school in Japan.
It was an elementary school.
It had a kindergarten.
It had grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, like CMDS.
George went along.
He wanted to meet the kids.
He thought if would be fun.
And it was!

We went to the school library.
George looked at the books.
He opened a book.
It was different from our books.
The front cover of the book was different.
It was where the BACK cover of our books would be.
The pages of the story were different.
They were supposed to be turned from left to right.

George picks a book, and discovers that the back is really the front!

To see what I mean, hold a book.
Turn it over to the back cover.
Start at the end of the story.
Imagine that it is the beginning of the story.
Turn the pages backward.
Imagine if the story went in that order.
That is what Japanese books are like.
They are backwards to our books.
Our books are backwards to the Japanese.

So George turned the pages from left to right.
I could not read the story to him.
It was in Japanese.
But we looked at the pictures.
We tried to imagine the story, from the pictures.

George looks at the pictures and tries to guess what the characters are saying.

Look at the page, in the photo.
The story has a bear, a panda, and a rabbit in it.
George thinks that they look very worried.
What do you think they are worrying about?
Can you make up a story about the picture?

George sings karaoke

George singing karaoke.

LeAnne, Kenji and Sam singing "Funk Fujiyama"

One night I went to a fun place.

I went with some of my new teacher friends.

I also went with our new Japanese friend.

His name is Kenji.

He works for the city of Sanyo Onoda.

He helps us to visit places in the town.

He is very nice.

We all went to a karaoke studio.

I had never sung karaoke before.

George wanted to come.

He had never sung karaoke before either.

I took George with me to sing karaoke.

We had a lot of fun!

First, we went to a 7-11 store.

There are many 7-11 stores in Japan.

We bought snacks and cokes.

The karaoke studio does not sell food or things to drink.

But they let you bring your own!

The karaoke studio had many rooms.

We had our very own karaoke room.

We had a singing party.

We sang some American songs.

Then Kenji sang some Japanese songs.

One song he sang was called "Funk Fujiyama."

We could not read the words.

They were in Japanese.

But one part just went "oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!"

We could sing that part!

George had fun singing.

He picked a song for us to sing.

It is a song by his favorite band.

Can you guess his favorite band?

The Monkees!

George makes some pottery

A member of the Rakuwaen pottery club shows us how to shape a cup around a tube.

George and I make a pottery dish.

On Tuesday, George and I had fun with clay.
We went to a community center.
It was a community center for senior citizens.
Senior citizens means older people.
We met some people there who made pottery.
They had a pottery club.
They liked to make things with clay.
They were very nice.
They gave us some clay.
Then they showed us how to make things with it.
Some teachers made bowls.
Some teachers made cups.
Some teachers made mugs.
George and I made a dish.
It was a rectangle.
We used a sharp stick to write on the clay, in the dish.
We wrote in kanji.
Kanji is a kind of Japanese writing.
We wrote the kanji that means “Japan.”

George shows off his dish.

After we made the pot, we looked around.
The community center had other rooms.
We looked in some rooms.
One room had tables.
On the tables were things that people had made with their hands.
George met some friends on one table.
He met a black cat and some rabbits.
I took his picture for you to see.

George rides the bullet train

George saw this bridge from the airplane window.

This is the bullet train George and I rode.

George riding the bullet train.

George poses as a manga character.

Do you like my blue hair?

On Sunday, George and I left Tokyo.

We left with a group of teachers.

We went to another part of Japan.

We went in an airplane.

George likes airplanes.

He wanted to sit by the window.

He looked out the window as we flew in the airplane.

He saw the city of Tokyo, far below.

He saw the sea.

The we flew over many mountains.

We flew to Yamaguchi City.

First we went to our hotel.

Then we took a train to a different city, called Hiroshima.

We went to see a museum and a park.

We had to get there fast, before the museum closed.

So we rode the bullet train!

George was excited.

The bullet train is very fast.

It goes about 180 miles per hour.

It got us to the city in time.

We looked at the museum and the park.

Then it was dinner time.

We looked for a place to eat.

We passed a funny place to take pictures.

It looked like big comic book characters.

There was a hole where the face should be.

George and I put our faces in the holes.

It made some silly pictures.

In Japan, comic books are called manga.

But manga are much longer than our comic books.

They are like long chapter books.

George liked posing as a manga character.

Then we found a place to eat.

They had ramen noodles.

George loves noodles.

Noodles are a popular food in Japan.

The noodles were in a broth.

We ate the noodles with our chopsticks.

But you can't scoop up broth with chopsticks.

And there were no spoons.

So we picked up our bowls to drink the broth.

That is how they do it in Japan!

George goes to Kamakura

This is Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, in the city of Kamakura.

George loved this building.

George saw this from a high hill.

These are houses in Kamakura.

Double-click on the picture to make it bigger.

Find the sailboats that George saw.

George is in front of the main hall of Hasedera, in Kamakura.

He is waving at you.

On Saturday, I went to Kamakura.

Kamakura is a small city.

It is by the sea.

Hills are all around it.

The hills are covered with woods.

So it is a pretty place.

It is a very old city.

Long ago, it was the capital of Japan.

It has many very old buildings.

They have interesting shapes.

They have beautiful gardens.

George likes Japanese gardens.

He wanted to come with me.

So I took him to Kamakura.

He liked one building the best.

It was red and yellow and green.

It had pigeons sitting on the roof.

You can see the bright colors and shapes in the picture.

George liked the colors.

He liked the pigeons, too.

One place we went was high on a hill.

George looked down from the hill.

He saw the roofs of houses below.

Far away, he saw the sea.

He saw boats sailing on the sea.

He wanted to go ride on a boat.

But we did not have time.

On the street, George looked at stores.

We passed a man in front of a store.

The man was selling snacks from the store.

He talked to everybody who walked by.

He spoke in Japanese.

I do not understand Japanese.

George does not understand Japanese.

But George and I still understood him.

He was saying, "Come try these good snacks!"

So we did!

George visits a Japanese garden

George takes a nap while I attend lectures.  Lazy little monkey!

The history of the garden at Hotel New Otani.  (Double-click to enlarge image.)

George in front of the garden's waterfall.

Koi in the garden pond.

George waving at you from the Kaneiji lantern.

Today I was very busy.

I was listening to teachers from Japanese universities.

They talked about the schools in Japan.

They talked about the government in Japan.

They talked about other things as well.

I listened and learned.

I found it very interesting.

George did not.

He got tired of sitting and listening.

He wanted to go back to our room.

So that is what he did.

He has his own bed in our room.

First, he took a nap.

Later, he went outside.

Our hotel has a garden.

The hotel is new and modern.

But the garden is very old.

It has been a garden for 400 years.

It has a waterfall.

It has a pond with big orange fish called koi.

It has pretty red bridges.

And it has big stone lanterns.

Japanese gardens often have this kind of lantern.

George is sitting on one lantern, in the picture.

This lantern is even older than the garden.

It was brought here from another garden.

It is called the Kaneiji lantern.

It is 700 years old.

George had fun climbing on it.

George sees a play

George meets a kyogen actor, Don Kenny

Mask used in some kyogen theatre

Today George and I saw a play.

It was funny.

It had two actors in it.

One actor played a servant.

The other actor was his master.

The servant did not want to work.

He tried to trick his master.

But his master tricked him instead.

After the show, one actor talked about the play.

He said it was called a kyogen play.

Kyogen plays are old.

They have been performed in Japan for 600 years.

They are always performed in the same way.

And they are always funny.

The actor showed us some masks.

The masks are used in some kyogen plays.

They are carved from wood.

The actor had a video of the kyogen play.

George thought that I should buy the video.

He wanted me to show my students the funny play.

I told George, "What a good idea!"

And that is what I did.

Now we can share the kyogen play with you, in the library!

George flies to San Francisco

George is excited.

We are in San Francisco.

We are at the airport.

We will leave for Japan in an hour and a half.

Yesterday we flew to San Francisco.

George had fun on the airplane.

He liked the movie.

It was the "Chronicles of Narnia, II."

He remembers that we have the books in the library.

Now he wants me to read him the "Chronicles of Narnia."

I am happy to do it.

I love those stories.

George liked the view from the airplane window.

It was fun to fly over the Rocky Mountains.

They were dusted with snow.

Can you find the Rocky Mountains on a map?

George took a nap when we arrived.

I went to meetings all afternoon.

Then we went to dinner.

We were with all the other 157 teachers who are on this trip.

We met Mr. Yasumasa Nagamine.

He is the Japanese Consul General.

Dinner was at his house.

In 12 more hours, George and I will be in Japan.

We can't wait!