Yokota Middle School--Home of the White Tigers

Pam and I led a school accreditation team to Yokota Middle School.  This school has grades 6, 7 and 8 with about 320 students.  It is pretty much like school in the United States, but they have a "host nation" class taught by a Japanese teacher.  Students can learn about Japan as well as learn the Japanese language.  In middle school students can take Japanese I, Japanese II, and Japanese III.

 

Teachers in DoDEA schools are almost exclusively American.  Many have taught in DoDEA schools all over the word.  Also, the students of military families move around a lot, so there is a lot of change in DoDEA schools with both teachers and students moving around.

If you go to the school link, you can see a picture of the front of the school, and you can check out information about the school.  Our accreditation team had an assistant principal from a middle school in Okinawa, an assistant principal from Yokuska Middle School here in Japan, and a central office instructional specialist from the Korea district.

Visit to Yokota Air Base

When we arrived at Yokota Air Base, we checked into the Kanto Lodge.  This is not only a hotel; but when military personnel are transferred to the base, they sometimes stay here until their housing is available.  So we have mini suites with little kitchens and living rooms.

Here are the commanders of Yokota Air Base.  You see pictures of these commanders all around the base. On Monday morning we were able to meet the wing commander and have a short meeting with him.  He told us about how the military supports the DoDEA schools on the base.  His name is Colonel Douglas DeLaMater.

The base is like a town.  It's actually almost as big as Lander.  About 6000 people are part of the base.  It has its own grocery store (where we went to buy a few things for our rooms), shopping stores, and restaurants.  For instance, there is a Burger King, a Chili's and a Subway.  Here is a picture of the mountains at dusk that Pam took from the parking lot at the grocery store.  If it was a clear day, we would be able to see Mt. Fuji.  We have not been able to see it since we've been here because of the overcast skies.  It's not as clear here as it is in Wyoming.  It's also a lot more humid here.

Tokyo National Museum

Before we got to the museum we came upon this display of the Flame of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  This flame has been kept going as a remembrance of those who died when the US forces dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an attempt to end WWII.  You can read the whole story of how the flame came to be at Ueno Park on the link.

Here is the Tokyo National Museum.  We spent a few hours looking at artifacts of  Japanese history and checking out the national treasures of Japan.  Here are few photos Pam took from inside the museum.  

 Many of the statues were made of wood, and have been preserved for thousands of years.

 We saw a lot of scrolls.  These scrolls are written in Japanese and tell stories of the history of Japan.  Some of them had ornate pictures painted on them as well as the written records.

 Remember when we told you about the tea ceremonies that are held in the tea rooms?  Well, there was a section in the museum all about the tea ceremony through the ages.

 Here are a couple of tea pots.  The brown one is actually made of metal.

There was also a section about Japanese military history.  This "armor" is actually made of leather.  That is pretty amazing, isn't it?  There was also a large array of swords and weapons.  Near the end of our museum tour, we saw 40 of the 41 national treasures of Japan that were named in 2015.  Each year the nation chooses a set of national treasures that represent certain aspects of Japanese history.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in that part of the museum.  One of our favorite displays was of a very old saddle with ceremonial decorations.

Ueno Park--Tokyo

On Sunday we visited Ueno Park.  It is kind of like the Central Park of Tokyo.  We rode the subway, and then walked through the park.  When we first entered we saw Kiyomizu Kannon Temple.

Notice how the shrine has a big balcony on it?  From that balcony, I took a picture of this amazing tree growing in a circle.  I've never seen anything like that in Wyoming!

Ueno Park has temples, shrines, amusement parks, street performers, a zoo, and several museums.  After the temple, we visited this shrine with all the lantern posts out front.

Look at this long line of bronze lanterns along both sides of the path toward the shrine.

After walking up the long path, this shrine was at the end.

Also, there was a woman performing some traditional Japanese songs.  I took these pictures, but I do not know what kind of instrument she is playing.  Perhaps you can ask Mr. Wilson.  I bet he would know.  Look at that big piece of wood (at least that's what I think it was) that she is using to strum the strings.

The park has an amusement park with kids' rides and a zoo.  The zoo has had giant pandas since 1972, but in 2008 the last panda died.  The attendance at the zoo dropped drastically, but in 2011 they were able to get two other giant pandas.  The lines were so long when we were there that we wouldn't have had any time to see any animals after we got in the gates!

Kamakura Trek

On Saturday we were joined by our friend John Metcalfe from Lander.  I think many of you know John because he used to work for the school district, and his wife, Ms. Woodruff, still does!  We decided to go south of Tokyo to a town called Kamakura.  Kamakura is rich in Japanese cultural history.  For awhile, Kamakura was considered the capital of Japan.

But in order to get to Kamakura, we had to figure out how to first ride the Tokyo subway system, and then how to transfer from the subway to the JR train.  Luckily, when you go to the machine to buy tickets, you can press a button to have it display in English!  Also, there are helpers by the ticket areas who can help you buy tickets.  Check out this subway map.  But you would have been proud of us...we didn't get lost or take the train in the wrong direction:-)

And speaking of directions, once we got off the train in Kamakura, we began walking toward a shrine and we came across this sign.  We were walking uphill a bit and away from the beach; so if there had been a tsunami, this would have been the evacuation route for people to get to higher ground.

We stopped at a lovely little restaurant for minestrone soup, buttered toast, and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  When we left, the owner gave us some origami cranes as a gift.

As we walked toward the shrine, we came upon this small farm/garden.  See how some plants have been harvested, some are growing well outside, and some are under the plastic tents to protect them?

After hiking up a big hill, we came to the Shinto shrine.  About 40% of people in Japan identify with an organized religion.  Most of those people are either Buddhist or Shinto or practice elements of both.  Here is an explanation about the shrine.

Here is a photo of the shrine entrance.  Can you tell we had to walk through a stone tunnel to get there?  We didn't get a good picture of the tunnel.

Here are some photos of inside the shrine.

Those are some big goldfish, aren't they?

These shishi dogs often guard the entrances to temples and shrines.  The dogs guard the path from evil, and sometimes they wear red bibs or are painted red.  Red is the color to expel demons or illness.

After we left the shrine, we went on a hike through the thick woods and up and down some pretty steep hills on our way to see the Big Buddha (wait until you see him!).  On the way we saw this beautiful view of the ocean.

It took us quite awhile to hike along a back trail to the Big Buddha.  It's very humid here in Japan compared to Wyoming.  It's not real hot, but you can sweat a lot when you are walking steep trails in this humidity!

We loved it when we finally got to the Big Buddha.  This statute was originally built in the year 1252.  Can you figure out how many years ago that was?  And since the very late 15th century, the buddha statute has been outside because a tsunami destroyed the wooden temple that housed it.  That's a very long time to survive outside in the elements.

Touring Tokyo-Asakusa

Asakusa means "low city," and is a district of Tokyo.

 Check out this way you can tour around the area if you so choose.  Do you know what these are called?

They are called a "rickshaw."  There were some really strong guys pulling these around!

We entered a long shopping district through this gate, the Kaminarimon Gate.  It had two big Buddhas, the wind god and thunder god, on either side. 

The Buddhas are protected (we think from the birds) by wire mesh.  There is very little crime and vandalism in Japan, so we don't think they need protected from humans.  But here is a picture of one of them anyway (you can't see it too well because of the wire).

Here is a description of the gate that will give you more information about its history.  A lot of the things we have seen in Tokyo have been destroyed and reconstructed over the years.

Once you pass under this big gate, you walk down a narrow street/path lined with little shops.  You can see the shops on the right side of this next picture.  We stopped along the way to eat some ice cream.  I had purple sweet potato ice cream, one of my favorites!  Pam had mango, and Jill had banana and chocolate swirl.  All excellent choices.  But you have to eat the ice cream in the little shop; you are not allowed to take it out and walk down the street with it.

So this gate is at the end of the street lined with shops.  This shopping street is called the Nakamise. It's very much like the first gate you go through to enter the street.  This one is called the Hozo-man gate.  Here is some information about it.

Near the end of the street and to the right, there is a temple with two Buddhas.  Here are a few photos of it, along with a description.

On the left after going through the big gate at the end of the street is this five-storied pagoda.  These pagodas are common at temple sites, and apparently they are earthquake-proof.  Not even an earthquake can knock them down.

After you pass through the first big gate, down the street lined with shops, and then through the second big gate, the pagoda is on your left and the two big Buddhas on your right.  But directly in front of you is this beautiful temple, the Kannon Temple, also known as Sensoji Temple.  It is Tokyo's oldest temple, built in 645 (wow, that's old, isn't it?)!

See what looks like a little covered stand in front of the temple?  That is an area where wood is burned to produce smoke.  The smoke is believed to have healing powers.  So people stop and waft the smoke on themselves before entering the temple.  You can read this link to learn more about visiting temples and shrines in Japan.

Touring Tokyo--The River Cruise

After we left the garden, our next stop was the wharf where we boarded a boat for a 30-minute tour.  When we got to the water we saw this cool craft.

Unfortunately, that wasn't our boat:-)  We were on a much more plain one that you can kind of see behind this beautiful, ornate one.  Nevertheless, we all got aboard and headed up the Sumida River.  Here is what it looked like when we left the wharf.





 We went under 13 bridges as we cruised up the river.  At the end of our cruise we saw this structure, the Tokyo Skytree.  It is the tallest structure in Japan.

Our boat turned around in the river and we exited in an area of the city called Asakusa.  This is an older part of the city that has some historical landmarks.  When we got off the boat, we were greeted by this guy.  Do you know what he is?

If you guessed samurai, you would be correct!  Here is Pam with the samurai!