We spent a week in the land of dairy cows and natural hot springs, and now we are back in the big city. It’s fun to be in Tokyo again, and there’s so much more to explore. Last night I tried Pachinko, a kind of Japanese pinball type game.
Shinjuku Neighborhood is very busy at night!
The outside of the Pachinko Place
Inside was SO loud and smoky, but fun!
The real excitement is all inside the hotel though — we are reunited with the rest of our group! The 12 of us who went to Kushiro caught up with the 12 other American teachers who went to Hashimoto, and then we got to see the 24 Japanese teachers who we met in San Francisco. It’s so great to see everyone and it feels like a mini-reunion.
Our Kushiro group also got to share a presentation with the rest of the group about our time in Kushiro. We stayed up very late last night working on this! I don’t have the whole presentation to share but these are the videos that we made to be part of the show. They will give you a nice overview of highlights of our time up north.In addition to what you see above, our presentation shared our key learning about ESD (Education for Sustainable Development). Of course, we also showed the silly side of our group and did a little dancing…
Tomorrow is a big day because we will work with the Japanese teachers to plan our joint projects! There is a lot of work to be done before we all have to say goodbye. I wish we had more time together.
Categories: Japan
Innovation on Earth 
There it is again…that hilarious video with the breakdancer…
The videos summerized your experiences in Kushiro nicely. 🙂 I like them.
There was a part in the video about the Culture of Kushiro where a man was pounding something with a giant hammer. Was he pounding dough?
It’s sad that you’re leaving Kushiro, but you definitely had a good time!
~ Anna
Yes, it’s a kind of dough made of rice, I think! I’m not totally sure what it is, but it was fun to watch.
How does your trip reflect back on you? Does it make you feel happy or do you feel sad to leave.
I was sad to leave! It’s been such a great experience and there’s so much more to see. I hope to go back to Japan some day again. It’s a wonderful place and there are lots more cities to explore.