Questions and Answers for Room 22

Aistis wants to know what your favorite city is so far in Japan? How many different alphabets do they use?

Hi Aistis, I think my favorite city so far is Chigasaki, because that is where we spent most of our time and the people were so kind to us. They use 4 different alphabets.

Mallory and Aistis want to know what kind of birds are there? Hi Mallory. I think I talked about this yesterday. You can check the previous entry.

Hannah M. wants to know if they have lily pads in their ponds? Yes Hannah, they have lily pads and also other pretty plants.

Aly wants to know what do they put their hair up in? Hi Aly. Their hair and hairdos are just like ours. One difference is that so many people have black or dark brown hair.

Are there any bears in Japan? Not in Tokyo!

How much does it cost to go to movies? I didn't go to the movies. I'll see if I can find this answer.

Mrs. Dodd wants to know if there are any estate sales or rummage sales over there? There was a big flea market at Odwara Castle, but I didn't have time to go there. Boo Hoo.

Lara wants to know how to say How are You? in Japanese. Hi Lara, I don't know the spelling. It sounds like Genki desu ka? We will all need a few Japanese lessons.

Mrs. Langhus wants to know what is a favorite toy in Japan? I am bringing back some samples of favorite toys and games. I have seen a lot of children playing Cat's Cradle with string and doing origami.

I am on my way to the Origami museum now. See you soon.

Paula

Back to the Blog

I am sorry you haven't heard from me for a few days. I was at an inn in the mountains. It is a relaxing place with natural hot springs and pretty forest and mountain scenery. There was no internet and no computers were allowed.

Then I came back to Tokyo and the computers in the hotel weren't working right. I couldn't even talk to Ms. Abigails class. Boo Hoo.

Mrs. Ruehl sent some more of your questions. I am going to answer them and send along some new pictures. If I already answered your question I didn't answer it again. You may have to go back to previous blog entries to find your answer.

Dear Paula,
Do they have stores like: 1. Dots 2. Fashion Bug 3. Walmart 4. Target
5. Burlington
Are there birds like the ones we have here?
How do they have their hair?
Angelina

Hi Angelina,
Yes there are a American stores in Tokyo, but not so many in smaller cities. I haven't seen the stores you named, but I have seen a giant Gap store. A lot of teenagers wear shirts with English words on them.

I have mostly been in cities, so there aren't too many strange birds. I have seen crows, ducks, herons, egrets, pigeons and sparrows that look like our birds. They are similar, but I think some are different species. Birds are tricky, because a lot of them look the same and they can also fly long distances so they might be the same.

Birds are a fairly popular pet. You can see them in cages on the street. I also saw a beautiful swan in moat around the Imperial Palace Garden yesterday. Very pretty.

You see every kind of hairstyle in Japan. One thing that is different from the US is that almost everyone's hair is black or dark brown and fairly straight. Of course some people use highlights and bleach or curl their hair.

Dear Mrs. Paula,
Do you have to speak Japanese to talk to the people in Tokyo? Will you miss Japan when you leave? How do you say "goodbye" in Japanese.
Sincerely, Jack

Hi Jack. It sure would be nice to be able to speak Japanese here, but I only know a few phrases. I hope that Mr. Endo will teach us a little Japanese when he comes. You can practice introducing yourself. It sounds like this “Watashi wa Jack des”. Almost all of the children study English in school and most people try hard to understand you if you speak English to them.
I will certainly miss Japan when I leave, but I am bringing home many wonderful memories some souvenirs and hundreds of pictures. Sayonara.

Questions for Ms. Paula by Leoni

1. If I wake up at 6:00 a.m. what time is it in Japan?
I already answered this question. Look back and see if you can find the answer. You may have to look in the area of the blog called Previous Posts.

2. What do you mostly do during the day? Every day is different. We get up early and do a lot of sightseeing, visit schools, eat, meet with officials from the cities, and write up our information for our schools back home.
3. Can you take a group picture of who you hang out with during the day?

This is my Chigasaki group. At the Ryokan we wore kimonos and slippers all day. The picture is a little fuzzy. Can you recognize me?


4. Are most Japanese people's hair long or short? Everyone is different, just like in the U.S.

5. Do they have big grocery stores like we do? They have giant-size grocery stores, but they also have little tiny shops that just sell fruit or bakery. The curved building is a grocery store called Jusco. They sell everything there!

6. Are the people there nice or grumpy? Maybe they are grumpy sometimes, but noone has been grumpy to me. The people I meet are very friendly and helpful. I think that people are friendlier in the small towns than in Tokyo.

7. Do they have a mall in Japan? Tokyo is paradise for shoppers. There are hundreds of malls here. I try to stay out of them because shopping takes too much time. Also, a lot of things are very expensive here. I took a picture of a play area in one of the malls.

8. About how many stores are there in Japan? I don't know, but there are a lot of them. People in Tokyo love to shop.

9. If you are staying in a resort or a hotel, what is it called? I have stayed at the New Otani hotel in Tokyo, The Hokke Club in Fujisawa, and Tenseien Ryokan in Hakone.

10. I love that dress you said you were learning about. Is it yours or were you just trying it on? That Kimono belongs to my host family. They taught me how to dress in a kimono, but it would be too expensive to give to me. I bought a few used kimonos to bring to Fernwood to show you.

11. What does their food there taste like that we have here? Most of the food is pretty familiar. Lots of rice and noodles, for example.

12. Do you know some Japanese? See above.

13. Do their bikes work just like ours do? Yes. They also have a lot of unicycles and motorcycles.

14. Do they have cars at all there?(It does not seem like it.) I don't hink youhave been reading the blog very carefully. Japan has tons of traffic. They make many kinds of cars here including Toyota, Nissan, and Honda.

Dear Ms. Paula,

Is it fun being in Japan? because it sounds really fun. Ms. Paula, do you know some of the words they say or does somebody have to tell you what they're saying? I just want to know and I hope you having a great time there.
Sincerely,
Brielle

Hi Brielle. Thank you for your good wishes. I would love to be able to share the fun with all of you. We have an interpreter who travels with us. Her name is Naoko. She translates English into Japanese and Japanese into English whenever our group is meeting with Japanese people. It is wonderful to have such a skilled interpreter.

From Deva
Dear Ms. Paula every one at school really misses you!

Hi Deva. We missed you when you were gone last year, too.

1. Does Japan have any art museums? Yes. There are many excellent artists in Japan, and they also like art from other countries. We have visited several museums. I especially love the Japanese Wood-Block prints.
2. The whole newspaper club is revolved around Japan. Do you have any suggestions? I would 3. Can you put something about art on your website? be happy to do an interview for the newspaper when I come back. You might also want to include some news about Japan. The Emperor just had a new baby son. Also, they just got a new Prime minister named Mr. Abe.
3. Can you put something about art on your website? That's a good idea. I don't have time now, but I plan to keep writing after I come back to Milwaukee.
4. Do you think Japan is a good place to live? I think so. It is very clean and safe. It would be hard to live here if you didn't speak Japanese.
5. Did you meet any people from Milwaukee in your group or are you the only one? I am the only one,but I met 2 other people from Wisconsin.
6. Do you rent a car or how do you get around? We travel around as a group by bus. We also do a lot of walking. When I go out by myself I take the Metro (subway).
7. Are you looking forward to coming back? Of course! It will be great to see everyone at Fernwood again. I also miss my grandson and the rest of my family.
8. If you had a choice who would you choose Japan or Wisconsin? I love Japan, but Wisconsin is my home.


Dear Mrs. Paula,

I know you're busy in Japan, but I would love for you to answer some of my questions.

1. What's the best part of going to Japan? I loved everything, but the best part was probably staying in the home of my host family. They were so kind to me.
2.Is it hard to follow all the foreign language? YES!
3. Is there technology more advanced than us? That's a hard question. They have a lot of technology, but they don't have a lot of computers in schools.
4. Do they have a different way of doing math problems like division? Nope. Arithmatic is arithmetic around the world.
5. Do their numbers look different than ours or are the same thing? They use our numbers (arabic) and Kanji numbers.
6. Its rumored they eat dogs. Is this true? NO! But they eat a lot of fish.
7. How tall is Mt. Fuji? You'll have to look that up. I don't know. I do know that it is very beautiful.
8. Do they have monks there? Yes. There are many buddhist monks.
9. What was your favorite sight? Mt Fuji and the surfers.
10. What town(s) did you stay in? Ask Ms. Abigail. I sent her class the whole list.
11. What religion do they follow? There are many religions here including Christianity, Shinto, and Buddhism.
That's it for now. Thanks! and have a great trip.
Tori

That's it for now for me too. Until the next time,
Paula

Homestay, October 14 and 15, 2006

I spent the past two days with a wonderful family in Chigasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. I did not ask them for permission to put them on the Internet, so I will respect their privacy by not naming them. I will tell you that the homestay experience was wonderful. This family welcomed me into their home, so that I could see what their lives were like.

They fed me delicious food and took me wonderful places. They made me feel like a member of the family.

I climbed up a high hill to visit Odowara Castle and mandered around shinto shrines and photographed 3, 5, and 7 year old boys and girls dressed in beautiful kimonos for the celebration of the children's festival.

I ate juicy fruits, salty seasonings and lots of delicious raw fish.

I learned a technique for making beautiful collages out of torn paper, practiced my Kanji calligraphy and learned that it takes 11 separate steps to dress in a kimono!

We went to the biggest grocery store I have ever seen. Everything was beautifully displayed, including ther fresh fish.

Many of my fellow teachers and friends think that I have a lot of energy, but my beautiful hostess put me to shame with her whirlwind of activity. She cooked delicious meals and served as my sensei (teacher) for my Japanese culture lessons.

My host picked persimmons off the trees in the garden, drove me to many fascinating places and shared his books of Japanese Art and language.

What an amazing couple, and what a remarkable weekend. I'll let a few of the pictures tell the story.

Loving those questions, October 13, 2006

I have been having so much fun talking online to students from Rooms 5, 23 and 32. I love hearing your voices and answering your questions. Here are some emails I got from Fernwood.
I am also posting a bunch of different photos that I have taken around Japan. I hope that you enjoy them.

Dear Ms. Paula,

Did you have a great day?

Rebecca S.

Hi Rebecca. I am so lucky. Every day is a great day for me on my adventure in Japan. I get up early in the morning so that I can get the most out of every day. For breakfast I have coffee and rice with yogurt and a little sugar. I often have some fish with that. It doesn't sound too good, but I really enjoy it. Rice and fish are very traditional Japanese foods any time of the day.
After breakfast I go to visit a school or an interesting place in the area. This week we visited three schools and met with the mayor and the superintendent of schools of Chigasaki City where we are staying.

Everywhere we go people treat us like stars. This is hard to see, but it is a story about our visit in the Kanagawa newspaper. It tells about our meeting with the mayor.

The days are busy, but very much fun! Tomorrow I am going to meet a Japanese family and stay in their house. Look for more about that on Monday.

Dear Mrs. Paula,

We hope you are having the time of your life in Japan. But we were wondering a couple of things:

1. What is their food like? Is it like ours in Wisconsin? Or is it like Asian food?
2. How do they dress in Japan? Do they wear the same thing? Or are they all colorful and fancy? 3. Are their houses like ours? Do they have roofs like ours?
4. What kind of shoes do they wear?
5. How is the weather in Japan?
6. Is Japan fun?

Sincerely,
Serenity, Angelina O.

Hello Serenity and Angelina,
Thank you for your letter. Wow! You have asked a lot of questions. I have already answered some, but here is a little more information. You can get American food in Japan, but it is often a little bit different. For example they don't serve sour cream with baked potatoes. Also they serve hamburgers for breakfast.

I already talked about clothing on a previous blog entry. I hope you saw it. Mostly Japanese people wear clothing and shoes thati s just like ours. Traditional clothes like kimonos are quite colorful, but modern Japanese business clothes are usually black or grey and white. Teenagers often wear very colorful clothes and platform shoes or boots. We also see a lot of t-shirts with English words. Sometimes the words don't make any sense.

I have seen a lot of different kinds of houses and many different kinds of roofs. The traditional Japanese Houses are very beautiful. On newer houses I especially like the blue tile roofs. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

The weather is gorgeous. It is warm. It is like Milwaukee in June or July.

Dear Mrs. Paula,

I hope you aave good time in Japan. If you see Mount Fuji, please tell me and also please tell me if you have seen a panda bear.

Sophia and Selena

Hi Sophia and Selena
Thank you for your letter. I won't see any pandas here because they live in China. I am not seeing many wild animals because I am staying in cities. I can see Mt Fuji some days, but most of the time it is too cloudy or hazy. When I can see it, Fuji is very beautiful. I hope you like the picture.

Hi Ms. Paula,

How is Japan? I always wanted to go there. Is the place huge? Did you dress like the people? Did you see the Great Wall of China?

From Marisa

Hi Marisa,
Japan is not huge. It is really four big islands and many very small islands. I have to wear very nice clothes every day because I am visiting schools and meeting with important people. I don't wear blue jeans or shorts even though it is warm weather.

I would love to see the Great Wall of China, but it is very far away from here in another country. Maybe for my next trip I can go to China.

Ms. Paula,

Is Japan a nice place or not?

From Melody.

Hello Melody,
Japan is very beautiful and the people have been very nice to me. I love visiting here because there are so many beautiful temples, shrines and gardens.

From Edward: Why did you go to Japan?
Hello Edward. I went to Japan to learn as much as I could about the country and the people who live here. When I come back home I am going to teach you what I have learned. I think it is going to be fun and interesting for you.

From Thalia, Kegan, Maggie, Jenny

What is the time difference?
What is the name for currency besides yen?
We also would like to know what the cents are called and what they're worth.

Hi girls. I hope this isn't a sneaky way of getting me to do your school work.
The time difference between Milwaukee and Chigasaki Japan is 14 hours. Tha means when it is 8:00 in the morning at Fernwood and you are hearing the announcements and saying the pledge it is 10:00 at night here.

A yen is already smaller than a penny, so they don't really use another currency. I understand there is such a thing as a sen but I haven't seen any. The smallest coin I have is one yen. Maybe you can find out something about Japanese currency that I don't know.

Paula

Oh and by the way Ashlynn. They definitely have french fries in Japan. They even serve them for breakfast!

Even More Answers to Questions, October 12

I am having fun talking on line with students from Ms. Abigail's Class and Ms Mallo's class. It makes me feel at home even though I am so far away. I love answering your questions just as much as love eating green tea and soymilk ice cream cones.

Diego asked: What is your favorite Japanese meal? What is the tallest building? Do they have the same vegetables as us? What is the most common pet there?

Hi Diego.
All of the Japanese food is very good. I am a little bit afraid of sushi, but I still like most of it. It is raw fish, rice and seafood. It sounds kind of icky, but it tastes delicious.

I especially love tempura. It is mostly shrimp, fish and vegetables that have been breaded and fried nice and crispy. It is served in a pretty little box with some vegetables and Japanese pickles. It is almost too pretty to eat. We eat tempura in special restaurants where you have to take off your shoes and kneel on mats on the floor. All of the Americans have trouble sitting this way for a whole meal, but it is easy for the Japanese.

They don't have many really tall buildings in Japan, because there are too many earthquakes here. It used to be the law that no building could be more than 6 stories high. That is not true now. You can see from this view from my hotel window that there are many tall buildings in Tokyo.

I have also seen very tall Ferris wheels here. I think these are some of the tallest in the world. You might be able to find out about this on the Internet. I saw Ferris wheels in Tokyo and Yokohama cities. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go for a ride on one.

They have some of the same vegetables as we do, but also some vegetables that I don't recognize. It is pretty common to see pumpkins as a vegetable and in soup. I was surprised to see that the children carve pumpkins for Halloween here! We got a chance to carve pumpkins with the students.

I am not sure which pet is the most common, but we have seen many people out walking their dogs. There are a lot of different kinds of dogs here, but most are very small.

Jenny asked: Do they have the same classes as us?

Hi Jenny, The Japanese schools that we have visited have the same classes as we do, except that they have Japanese and English class. We do not learn Japanese in most American schools.

Jackie asked: Is the city very clean? Do they have French fries there? Do a lot of people in Japan have goldfish?

Hi Jackie,
Japan is very, very clean. People do not throw garbage on the ground, and they clean up their own messes. It is a good thing that people in Japan are so clean, because there are so many people in such a small space.

I don't know if a lot of people have gold fish, but I do know that many people have giant goldfish called Koi in ponds in their gardens.

Angela asked: Is the food good? How long is the school day? What is the biggest fish that you saw there?

Hi Angela. The food is wonderful here. I have eaten a lot of delicious food, including Chinese food. The Japanese love Chinese food and it is not too expensive here.

They have a school day like ours, but after school they have extra classes that they call “club activities”. A lot of students stay after school for sports, art activities and music lessons.

I saw so many giant fish at the fish market in Tokyo, I don't know how much they weighed, but I do know that even without their heads they are a lot bigger and heavier than I am.

Jacob asked: Do they have the same plants as us?

Hi Jacob. That's a good question. A long time ago their plants were very different from ours. Then people came and collected plants in North America and brought them to Japan. Also, people from Japan imported plants from North America. Now we have many of the same plants. The Japanese like to change plants to make them prettier. For example, they often trim trees and bushes into interesting shapes so that they are like sculptures.

That's all for now. I just want to finish by saying hello to the boys' and girls' reading clubs. Keep reading!

More questions answered

Here are the answers to some more questions from Fernwood Students.

From Ashlynn: Do the people in Japan wear the same clothes as us? and jewelry? Have you tried on some Japanese clothes? Do they have cars over there? Do they have different fruits than us? Are you learning how to write Japanese? What is the temperature? Does it get really cold there?

Hello Ashlynn,
Thank you for your questions. I have tried on some Japanese clothes. Everyone in my group is very interested in kimonos, because they are so pretty. I have gone into a kimono shop, but they are very expensive to buy. It costs hundreds of dollars (tens of thousands of yen) to buy all of the pieces.
In order to wear a Kimono you need kimono underwear. This looks like a kimono, but it is made out of lightweight cotton. You also have to have special shoes and socks to go with your kimono. Then there is the kimono itself. The most beautiful ones are made out of silk and have lovely embroidery.

On top of the kimono you wear an obi. It is a special kind of long, wide sash that goes around and around your body. I had a lesson on how to tie an obi, but I still don't know how to do it right. You have to have help to tie your obi because it ties in the back. When your kimono and obi are on correctly, you look like you have a rectangular backpack made out of beautiful cloth.
These pictures are not kimonos, but they are traditional Japanese clothing. This clothing is for a Japanese martial art called Kendo. Today I saw students practicing kendo. They had to wear fancy clothes with a lot of padding.

There are a lot of cars in Japan. Have you heard of Toyota, Mitsubishi or Honda? These are all Japanese cars. Many of the cars and trucks are very small. This is a good thing because they make less pollution. Also gasoline costs more than $5.00 per gallon!

They have delicious fruit in Japan. We have seen a lot of persimmons growing on trees in people's gardens. While I have been in Japan I have eaten Fuji apples, red and yellow bananas, 3 kinds of melon and pineapple.

I am only learning a little bit of Japanese writing. It is hard to do. I have learned to read a few important signs. Some signs are very confusing. I wish I knew how to read and write Japanese better. When I go to a restaurant I have to point to pictures of the food I want. Sometimes they also have plastic models of the food. These are very beautiful, but they are not always what you think they are. My friend thought she was ordering fried chicken, but it was really eel.

The temperature here is much warmer than in Milwaukee. It was 80 degrees today. In the mountains of Japan and in the north on the island of Hokkaido it is cooler. We are near the Pacific Ocean so the weather stays pretty nice all year round

That's all I have time for today. I'll answer more questions tomorrow. I want to end with a picture of Mt. Fuji. Those little dots in the front of the picture are surfers. Many days it is too cloudy or smoggy to see Fuji. I feel so lucky every time I see it.