Every morning I get to bicycle to school about 4 kilometers. I ride on different types of roads and paths. Now that I have done this for over a month, I'm beginning to bump into the same people. I can tell whether I am later or earlier based on where I meet these people. I begin bicycling down the street I live on. This is "the hood." There are a few families with young children. I can hear and see children playing in the evenings and on the weekends.
It is a good neighborhood.
I bicycle past a park. I haven't been able to figure out what the name of it is, but here is a sign at the entrance, which I assume is the name.
Anybody able to read this Kanji?
It's wooded and also has some open space. This was taken on Saturday, not on a weekday morning.
Each morning by the time I get to this park, there is an exercise group for what looks like older folks. They are all wearing white hats and doing what looks like stretching exercises, but it may be the "cool down" part of the routine. I am impressed that so many show up on any given morning. I haven't seen them there when it's raining, though. There are also some children with adults, who are practicing their baseball, usually pitching, sometimes they are swinging a bat, or some are kicking a soccer ball around. I also ride down the Suido-doro. This is a road that goes along a canal that was built to bring water to the farmers, a long time ago.
Street sign.
This is the actual canal. I have seen fish in it.
I also ride along the river for much of the ride. It has bicycle/walking paths on both sides. Some parts are quite smooth but there is a rough patch. I find it quite interesting that here in Japan they tend to manicure the rivers, meaning the erosion is controlled.
There are fish in here also, but you can see how they control the erosion.
When I first get on the river path, there is a High School that I pass. It has great fields and there is a lot of activity there, although not when I ride by in the morning, but after school there is almost always some sort of sport activity happening in the field. I have heard that this school has had some very successful teams and as a result a fair amount of money has been given to this school and the facilities look pretty good.
Today there was soccer.
I turn off the river path and head into Higashi Kurume, where CAJ is. I ride right past the City Hall and every morning they also have a group of older folks that stand in a circle and do their morning exercises.
Here they are bending down reaching for their toes.
Some close-ups of some of the participants in Higashi Kurume.
So, all to say, what do I do for exercise? Well, I do have to bicycle 4 km each way to and from CAJ each day. I really do like that opportunity, except on those cold, cold days or those rainy, rainy days. I also have tried to go to the VanderHaak's and walk Hana once a week. It's so nice that she gets excited when I come, although I wonder if she just gets excited when anyone comes. :) Either way, it makes my day! :)
Hana and I walking along the river path. Don't you see that smile on her face?
May 10, 2013 was a long day. I was ready to leave to go down to the Kanto Plain Middle School Principals meeting by 6:30 a.m. I was back in time to eat lunch and teach period 6 and there was a pep rally during period 7. I also had playground duty after school, after which I graded Math tests that the students took in the morning. The evening had the Parade of Bands concert at CAJ. I did have some fun by going out to dinner with a friend between grading papers and the concert.
I am always amazed at the variety of skills students that attend CAJ have. They are not perfect, but it is great to see their dedication to academics, as well as music, art, and sports. Here are two videos of two selections from the Parade of Bands.
CAJ High School Band performing Firedance by Bill Whelan, arr. Carl Strommen
CAJ Middle School Band performing The Hundred Pipers by Lady Nairne, arr. James D. Ployhar
The Grade Five Band played as well as the Jazz Band. They all did a terrific job. The bands were not perfect, but I believe God has blessed CAJ with good Music teachers that give CAJ students good musical experiences. Next week Friday evening will be the Spring Concert.
Since I teach the grade six class, I do not get to interact very much with the class of 2013. There is one Psychology class that meets in the room that I teach Bible and Math and I have my desk there, so I've been able to recognize a few of them. They seem to be nice students. Apparently there is a tradition where the graduating class does some sort of prank at school. This year the class put cups of water all throughout the Atrium, with a blue 13 in the middle. They were kind enough to leave small paths where students and teachers could navigate through the Atrium to go to their classes.
This was taken from the outside door into the Atrium.
This is taken from the second floor looking down on the Atrium.
One interesting thing about teaching at an International School is the different events that happen. Last week Wednesday was May 1st. Some of the students in the elementary school were doing a folk dance around the May Pole.
Elementary Class getting ready for the folk dance.
Friday, May 3rd was a holiday from school. It was actually Golden Week here in Japan. I believe the Japanese schools have more days off during the week, but CAJ had no school on Friday for Golden Week. I took advantage of the extra day off by traveling with Brian and Bette VanderHaak up to a Pottery Festival. We had to wait in a long line before we could enter the parking lot. While we were waiting, I was able to watch, up close, the planting of rice in the rice paddy's.
This is one of the machines used to plant the rice plants.
You can see the rows of rice plants already planted. They flood the fields at the beginning stage.
This person is so bent over.
These were rice plants that were slid onto the planters.
Here one of the workers is walking the rice planter down to the other end to enter the rice paddy.
One rice planter has already begun putting down plants and a second one is getting ready to line up next to the first one.
Here they are on their way back. This field was totally completed by the time we left.
Isn't this interesting pottery? A conversation starter. I wonder if the sunglasses came with the piece...
I was impressed with the terraced flower beds.
After driving up to the cabin, I was able to relax quite a bit on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday evening I move down to another cabin for the Leadership Retreat. We did take a couple of excursions. One was to a Look Out.
CAJ Leadership Team, (taken from the back to protect their identities, ok, not true)
Besides working at the sessions, we also took a trip up to Ishinomaki-shi, one of the areas devastated by the March 11, 2011 tsunami. It is right on the sea and flat, so many of the houses were wiped away and many people died because they could not get to higher ground when the tsunami came. We were able to visit the Nozomi Project which was started in Ishinomaki. It is a project where a number of women have learned to make jewelry from broken pottery they found after the tsunami. We were able to visit their place of work and purchase some of the jewelry. You can check the website for more details (just click on the link above) or if you wish to purchase some jewelry, you can buy online as well.
Here the women were grinding the pottery. They would take the pieces like you see on the left and break them into smaller pieces and grind them into sizes appropriate for earrings, necklaces, rings, cuff links, etc.
These women were busy putting different pieces together to make the jewelry.
Some of the finished products.
Purchasing some jewelry.
After visiting the Nozomi Project house, we also looked at some other places where mission groups, such as Samaritan's Purse have come to help clean out houses or rebuild houses, or build new houses. We also visited a brand new church building. There was still quite a bit of evidence of the devastation. There were piles of debris that they were still cleaning up.
We just went over a bridge and to the left in the picture you can see piles of metal, much of it seemed to be from vehicles or the like.
A little closer view.
Some more piles.
Each morning I was at Tak, I went for a jog. I really enjoy running down the beach and seeing the little villages. I had some amazing views of the ocean. What a great way to begin the day, seeing God's beauty in creation.
Surfers are there all year round.
This was a cold stormy day.
Looks dark.
This morning, I ran up into a neighborhood and took this picture from up on a ridge.
Last day at Tak. This was a cargo ship from Fuji Transport.
It has been a good week or so, busy but good. I'm learning a lot about how to be a good principal. Prayer will remain as my constant activity as I begin to think about taking on the Middle School Principal position at CAJ. There are good people to work with and that will help a lot. I am looking forward to the challenge and the way in which my skills will be used. Thank you for your prayers and I continue to covet them.
