My family has come and gone now. I'm going to meet them on Saturday in Kyoto. I have to buy my ticket still though. Should be simple enough, since I am not planning on having a reserved seat. I think I can even buy it from a machine.
On Friday I dragged them to elementary school, a tour of city hall, and a welcome reception at the Toyama Cosmopolitan Association. On Saturday Takemaru-san and Shima-san took us to Ishikawa prefecture, where we visited an origami museum, Matsui Hideki's house, and Kenroku-en in Kanazawa. I had only been to Kenroku-en before, so it was interesting for me, too.
On Sunday we went to Takayama. We had thought about going to Tateyama, but you have to get up very early (7am) to do that. We preferred to sleep in some. Plus, visiting Takayama was free for my family since they had railpasses. Victoria came with us to Takayama.
Monday, everyone buy Keith came to visit my school. Keith stayed at my house since he had a bad cough and wanted to relax some. The family participated in two lessons at school, which was interesting and probably confusing for the kids. Monday night the Sister City Committee put on a farewell dinner for my family. It was a traditional Japanese dinner, and I think my family enjoyed it very much. Everyone was quite friendly and kept giving us gifts.
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Today our vice principal made a ten minute announcement, which doesn't happen very often. He talked about a recent event in Nagasaki, which is big news in Japan, but hasn't seemed to make it onto the world press at all. A 12-year junior high school student has admitted to trying to molest, and then killing a 4-year old boy. Obviously, people are quite shocked about it. The vice-principal said stuff about how the students have to be well-behaved and considerate of each other, and other such stuff. If you want to read an article about the boy, here's one:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030710a1.htm
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030710a1.htm
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
My family is arriving in Japan tomorrow evening. I'm quite excited and a little nervous about herding them around everywhere. It looks like some of my friends here will help me out, however. The sister city groups here are quite excited about my family coming and want to give them tours and presents, etc. I think it's going to be a little crazy.
My aunt and cousin are supposed to arrive tonight in Tokyo. I think they might try to call me if they're not too tired. Perhaps not. I don't have any information about their hotels, so I don't really know what they're doing. It would be interesting to hear from them and have them be in Japan, albeit far away. They were going to go to China first, but changed that part of the trip because of the SARS epidemic. Luckily, it seems like SARS may be disappearing. It's interesting to think that we have enough communication to be able to successfully contain and eradicate a new disease. That got me thinking about why we couldn't stop HIV. I suppose it took them awhile to realize what it was. I think it also takes about 6 months before you start showing symptoms or even positive test results. If SARS took longer to show up in people, we might not have realized about it until too late.
It's been raining recently, and I am afraid that it may continue to rain. I hope that it doesn't rain too much when my family is here. I want to take them to Mt. Tate or Shomyo Falls, which are both outdoor places for sightseeing. Plus, touring any city pretty much requires you to be outdoors. Today it only rained briefly then stopped. That would be okay, too.
My aunt and cousin are supposed to arrive tonight in Tokyo. I think they might try to call me if they're not too tired. Perhaps not. I don't have any information about their hotels, so I don't really know what they're doing. It would be interesting to hear from them and have them be in Japan, albeit far away. They were going to go to China first, but changed that part of the trip because of the SARS epidemic. Luckily, it seems like SARS may be disappearing. It's interesting to think that we have enough communication to be able to successfully contain and eradicate a new disease. That got me thinking about why we couldn't stop HIV. I suppose it took them awhile to realize what it was. I think it also takes about 6 months before you start showing symptoms or even positive test results. If SARS took longer to show up in people, we might not have realized about it until too late.
It's been raining recently, and I am afraid that it may continue to rain. I hope that it doesn't rain too much when my family is here. I want to take them to Mt. Tate or Shomyo Falls, which are both outdoor places for sightseeing. Plus, touring any city pretty much requires you to be outdoors. Today it only rained briefly then stopped. That would be okay, too.
I finished the Harry Potter book last week. I liked it a lot, but it left me wanting more. If the last book is any sign, I'll have to wait another 3 years for the next book in the series. Oh well. I wonder what they'll do about the actors getting older and older. I hear there's no movie this year, though.
I told my student from the Phillipines that I had the book and she asked if she could borrow it. I didn't think her English was that good, but apparently it is. The day after I gave her the book, I asked her how many pages she had read. She said "two hundred!" I was floored. I knew she was good, but not that good. I wonder if the half-American student will want to read it too.
Yesterday Victoria and I managed to buy tickets to Hokkaido for her birthday. They have a deal at the airlines here that you can buy tickets within one week of your birthday for only?@‚P man yen. That's about 80 dollars. That's a per-leg cost. This applies to all flights from what I've seen, even ones that are longer distances, like Okinawa. Anyway, there are limits on the number of tickets and the dates when you can fly, etc.
We wanted to go Aug 22-26, but we couldn't buy the tickets during that period, because it is too close to Obon, a popular travelling season. Instead, we bought them for the 27th-31. There weren't any return tickets on the Sunday, however. So we had to take a return flight to Tokyo on Saturday and then another flight Sunday evening. This means we actually have to pay for three tickets. Toyama->Hokkaido, Hokkaido->Tokyo, and Tokyo->Toyama, so it's not as cheap as a two leg journey. It's still a great deal for Japan though, where the same tickets would probably cost about $800 instead of the $240 we paid. We get to spend a night in Tokyo, so that will be fun.
Our plan is to try to go to Okinawa around my birthday, if possible. We'll see if they let us take vacation then since it is during the school year. Victoria's vice principal isn't very nice, so I am worried that he won't want us to. Also, we want to take a Friday off, which would mean missing elementary school. If that won't work, we could try to take off the monday, tuesday, and wednesday afterwards, but we won't be able to take advantage of a holiday on the Wednesday before my birthday. Anyway, that's still a long way off, so we can't worry about it now. You can't buy the tickets until 2 months before the day you want to fly.
I'm excited about Hokkaido. It's supposed to be gorgeous and full of national parks. They say it is the only place in Japan with a nice temperature in the summer. Based on my apartment's temperature last year, I believe it.
I told my student from the Phillipines that I had the book and she asked if she could borrow it. I didn't think her English was that good, but apparently it is. The day after I gave her the book, I asked her how many pages she had read. She said "two hundred!" I was floored. I knew she was good, but not that good. I wonder if the half-American student will want to read it too.
Yesterday Victoria and I managed to buy tickets to Hokkaido for her birthday. They have a deal at the airlines here that you can buy tickets within one week of your birthday for only?@‚P man yen. That's about 80 dollars. That's a per-leg cost. This applies to all flights from what I've seen, even ones that are longer distances, like Okinawa. Anyway, there are limits on the number of tickets and the dates when you can fly, etc.
We wanted to go Aug 22-26, but we couldn't buy the tickets during that period, because it is too close to Obon, a popular travelling season. Instead, we bought them for the 27th-31. There weren't any return tickets on the Sunday, however. So we had to take a return flight to Tokyo on Saturday and then another flight Sunday evening. This means we actually have to pay for three tickets. Toyama->Hokkaido, Hokkaido->Tokyo, and Tokyo->Toyama, so it's not as cheap as a two leg journey. It's still a great deal for Japan though, where the same tickets would probably cost about $800 instead of the $240 we paid. We get to spend a night in Tokyo, so that will be fun.
Our plan is to try to go to Okinawa around my birthday, if possible. We'll see if they let us take vacation then since it is during the school year. Victoria's vice principal isn't very nice, so I am worried that he won't want us to. Also, we want to take a Friday off, which would mean missing elementary school. If that won't work, we could try to take off the monday, tuesday, and wednesday afterwards, but we won't be able to take advantage of a holiday on the Wednesday before my birthday. Anyway, that's still a long way off, so we can't worry about it now. You can't buy the tickets until 2 months before the day you want to fly.
I'm excited about Hokkaido. It's supposed to be gorgeous and full of national parks. They say it is the only place in Japan with a nice temperature in the summer. Based on my apartment's temperature last year, I believe it.
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