Brian's Japan Adventure

Quick third day report:

I didn’t go with the students on their trip to the 2nd Street Market this morning, but from what I gather, they got bored very quickly. I’ve never been there myself, so I don’t know what went wrong. Something there turned them off pretty quickly. They then went shopping at the local mall for just a few minutes. After that, they stopped for a break and I joined them for the rest of the day.

We immediately learned that the school cafeteria is closed in the summer on Saturday, so it was off to Wendy’s across the street. That was an experience! There was no problem, but it took close to 20 minutes to get everyone’s order sorted out, and that was WITH an interpreter along!

Then we drove to Columbus. Columbus is the biggest city in Ohio, or so I was told by someone who lives there and led us all around. We drove through the downtown area with the big buildings, and everyone was puzzled why such a big city was nearly deserted. We explained about business districts on Saturday, but things must be very different in Japan, they didn’t really seem to understand. We stopped at the Ohio State University stadium for pictures, and they were pretty impressed at the size of the place.

The big event of the day was the Ohio State Fair. We arrived around 5pm, so we weren’t able to stay for a great deal of time, but I think they got a good feel for what a Midwest state fair is all about. We saw the “Butter Cow” and had ice cream. Everyone tried some “fair food”; funnel cakes, lemonade, roasted corn, popcorn, and the rest. Nobody tried any of the rides due to the prices and the fact that we are scheduled to visit a large amusement park later in the trip. One student stepped in Cow poop, and everyone but him got a kick out of that. We saw a prize winning cow and a few horses. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Surprisingly, one of the most popular things they liked were these little chair things with foot-vibrators on them (foot massage chairs) that cost a quarter. They all tried it, and everyone bounced as they walked for the next half hour. We parked about a thousand miles from the entranceway, and then ALMOST lost the van, but we all survived and arrived home safely, late and ready for sleep.

On day one, we went to the Carillon Park, a historic place with many artifacts and exhibits related to Dayton history. I didn’t take my camera, so I don’t have any pictures, but other than the 97 degree heat, all went well.

Here’s a picture of the whole group. I’m the “giant” second from right:

Day two was more interesting. The day started with an English class. During the class time today, a blues player came in and explained “The Blues”, a uniquely American form of music. He’s a teacher here at the university, and he was actually very good; much better than I was expecting.

He played and spoke for about an hour, but it really flew by.

Here’s the whole group again, posing with him:

Of course that alone wouldn’t be much of a day. After lunch, we took a tour of the campus, and everyone was able to see the various facilities that they can use while they are here. During the tour, I caught this picture of the group’s advisor who is along to watch out for the others as well as pick up a little English for himself:

And here he is again, this time on a downtown Dayton street corner getting ready to take a picture. One of the funny things that keeps repeating is that whenever any one of them sees something interesting, someone gets handed ten cameras to take a picture for everyone. You can see the cameras dangling from his arm here:

And here is the shot he took. I’m not in it because I was busy taking the shot above.

And that was day two.

Today we’re going to the Ohio State Fair, which is huge and hot. I am not going to lug my camera around all day, so I won’t have any pictures. I’ll probably take the camera along on tomorrow’s trip, so there will be more to come.

OK, I promised to explain my next project today. As of today I am a teacher!

Our university has an exchange program with a big school in Japan, and every year they exchange some students; some of our students visit there, and theirs visit here. This year, we have nine students from around Japan coming to our school here in the Dayton, Ohio area. They’re staying in a dorm, having breakfast in the cafeteria, and one weekend they will each be staying in some volunteer’s home to experience American life.

They’ll be here for sixteen days, and with the exception of their two-day homestay, they have a pretty busy schedule. Every morning, they have a 2-1/2 hour English & Culture lesson, followed by some field trip that takes most of the afternoon and evening.

There are two teachers, “C” and ME! “C” will be handling most of the classroom lessons, since she’s done this before, but I will be teaching in the classroom a couple of times. Most of the time, however, I will be handling the field trips, acting as teacher, tour guide and “cultural expert.” There’s a long list of places we’ll be going like the Ohio State Fair, King’s Island, Art Institute, Air Force Museum, and lots of shopping trips. It’ll be fun for everyone, I hope.

Most of them know a little English, but I don’t know how much yet; some probably know very little. I’m HOPING some of them will be able to help translate; unfortunately with my crazy class load this summer, practicing Japanese language was usually pretty far down on the priority list. I’m hoping to learn as much from them as they will from me.

The classes and field trips start tomorrow. Tonight I have to meet them at the airport and help them get everything loaded and unload from the bus from the airport to the dorm. There is some kind of “box lunch” planned for them tonight, and then I assume they’ll want to get to sleep as soon as they can. It’s a LOOOONG flight.I just checked the weather report. It’ll be 97 when they arrive tonight, and a high of 95 tomorrow for our first field trip with high humidity both days. I’ve heard it can get pretty warm in Japan, but I bet they’re going to be a little surprised.

I hope they all make it without any problems. One teacher told me the story of a student who got bumped from his flight in Detroit last year. One of the teachers (that’d be ME if it happened this year) had to drive to Detroit in the middle of the night to pick the student up. I’ll do it if I have to, but I’d really rather not if you know what I mean!

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