Our first visit today was a meeting with the Mayor of Himeji, Toshikatsu Iwami, at City Hall. His father had been Mayor of Himeji during the American Occupation after WW II. Mayor Iwami told us that Himeji Castle, which we visited yesterday, was the only part of the city that remained unharmed after the war. He also provided us with the following statistics about Himeji:Population of 540,000
56,000 Students
65 Kindergartens
71 Elementary Schools
35 Junior High Schools
3 High Schools
1 Special Education School
Aside from this data, he stated the “Three Pillars” (initiatives) of the city: Welfare (improving the quality of life and addressing the aging society), Environment, and Education. Mayor Iwami also expressed deep sympathy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina (as Himeji has a sister city in the United States-Phoenix, AZ). He also recommended that we visit the War Citizens’ Memorial Peace Center/Park. 
After lunch, we returned to City Hall to meet with members of the Board of Education and PTA. During these sessions, we learned that the student/teacher ratio is 18 to 1 and the class size averages at 40 students! Other interesting statistics…90% of high school students in Himeji go on to college and 98% of students in Himeji walk to school (the rest ride bikes or use public transportation). The PTA members also shared their impressions of American schools. They felt that we enforce strict discipline in our kids when they are young but loosen restrictions as they get older. In Japan, this is reversed. In addition, they believed that class sizes in the US are much lower than in Japan, that classrooms are colorfully decorated, and that the classroom arrangement is typically not in traditional rows as in Japan.
Since museums and temples are closed by the time we end our sessions, we spent the night shopping. The highlight was the 100 Yen Store (comparable to our dollar stores). I ended up buying a bunch of stuff to decorate our classroom. We ended the night with a trip to the “konbini” (convenience store) for some snacks to take back to the hotel.
We set off at 7:30 am for our visit to Hyogo University of Teacher Education, about 1 ½ hours away by bus (beautiful scenic views on the way there). Because we were running early, we stopped at a rest stop for a short break. I was impressed by the careful set up of the conference room when we arrived. We each had a bottle of water, a packet of informational materials about the college, and souvenirs (a washcloth and sticker with the unidentifiable Hyogo University mascot). Do you remember the lesson on business etiquette during our unit on Confucianism…when we read the excerpt about the “Entering the Company” ceremony from Confucius Lives Next Door? During this lesson, I briefly mentioned how conference rooms were set up deliberately during business meetings (the senior members sit in certain seats and the hosts always sit closest to the door)…that his exactly what I experienced here. 
At the opening of our morning session (which was basically an overview of their teacher’s program…student teaching is done in just 2 weeks and 70% of their students are females!), we each had to stand up and introduce ourselves in Japanese…“Watashi wa Connecticut no Lin Chi-Ann des. O ai de ki te ure shi des” (“My name is Chi-Ann Lin and I am from Connecticut. I am very pleased to meet you.”) After a short break, we moved to the library classroom (where we treated to cookies and oolong tea) for a Q&A session with professors and students. “Jimmy” Suzuki, a professor at the college, served as the moderator. He was a really funny, warm, and a very memorable guy…he spoke English really well (having spent time at the University of Wisconsin). At the conclusion of our discussion, we took a group picture and our gracious hosts walked us to our bus waving to us as we drove away. This was a fun visit…I only wish that we were able to see the schools and classrooms before we met with the professors and future teachers.
There are several notable differences between western and Japanese hotels. In Japanese hotels: 
After getting settled in to the hotel room, we set off for the Nada Festival (Nada Matsuri) at Usuki Shrine. Although we received directions from Kato-San, it was almost impossible to tell where our subway stops were since nothing is written in English (like it is in Tokyo). Luckily, there were 2 teenage girls on the subway with us that were headed to the same festival so we just followed them. We got there just as the sun was setting and in time to see the procession of the 3 portable shrines carried by men. These portable shrines (palanquins) each traveled down different streets eventually meeting in the front of the shrine. Once there, they “fight” by colliding into one another since it is believed that the collisions please the gods. As we followed the procession of the portable shrine, many Japanese stopped to practice their English with us. Unlike Tokyo (which is full of foreign tourists), we really stood out here in Himeji. 
At the festival, there were many food stalls that lined the street reminding me of a town fair in the states. I tried these gooey dough balls with veggies, octopus, and some kind of black sauce. It was very good but it was probably the worst thing I could’ve ordered that night. The crowds here were the worst I’ve ever experienced. We were all literally shoulder to shoulder. After finishing my “octopus balls,” I realized there was no garbage can in sight…when I asked a man at a food stall, he handed me a plastic bag to put my garbage in and I carried it in my purse the entire night. The police were very visible that night but their efforts to push back the crowd were futile. At one point, our group separated since some of us needed to use the bathroom which was located next to the shrine. After our bathroom visit (coed bathroom!), we could not make it back to our group because it was so crowded. (One of the ladies in my group felt a kid reach into her purse so she was quick enough to stop him from stealing something.) We finally reached the front of the shrine in time to see one of the portable shrines stop directly in front of us. The men began swaying the shrine side to side…we really thought we were going to be hit since we were so close. Somehow, we reunited with our group and called it a night. Thankfully, we began chatting with a man on the subway platform as we were waiting and found that he was going the same way. He kindly offered to be our guide, we exchanged business cards with him (he seemed so honored to receive these and studied them carefully before putting them away), and he apologized that he did not have time to take us out for dinner (what an offer after having just met us!). 
I slept in this morning until 7 am…felt great. I mapped out my day at breakfast and set off for Yasukuni Shrine first. (We will talk about this famous shrine during our unit on Shinto and it will come up again in your final exam scenarios.) Yasukuni Shrine was built in 1869 to honor those who fought on behalf of the emperor. Among the war dead enshrined here are convicted war criminals from World War II. Therefore, former Prime Minister Koizumi’s annual visits to the shrine created much tension with China and Korea, countries that were both imperialized by Japan in the 20th century. After walking through 3 torii, I entered the large wooden doors into the courtyard. The shrine was straight ahead and off to the side was an open stage on which 2 women were performing a martial art exhibit. I happened to go at a time when a ceremony was going on in the shrine so I was able to get a picture of the Shinto priests walking by. I went through the Yushukan, a war memorial museum right next to the shrine. It was small but interesting in the way its “military aggression in Asia is glossed over” (according to my Frommer’s Tokyo Guidebook). 
