July 24, 2001

Here’s an update on what’s been happening since last update:

Saturday morning, Yoshi picked me up at the Guest House where I was sent of in fine style by the night watchman....they had always been very concerned about me since I came in quite late on some nights, and had even learned a little English in order to communicate with me. When I arrived at school, the nurse gave me a lovely bag full of little treasures, some teachers gave me cards in which they had written notes in English, a student that I had given an Oklahoma pin to made me a calligraphy with my name and added some notes in English, and the student council presented me a `Jamie-sensei` picture in which they had written (in Japanese) how much they enjoyed my coming, how much they had learned, and that they hoped I came back soon. I spoke to the staff during the morning meeting, and then to the students via their broadcasting center on TV...very hard to do both without tears. I left my shoes in my locker so that I would have to come back to get them, and told them that I would not say `goodbye`, but rather `see you soon`.

Ms. Yamada then drove me to the Chitose airport where we had a quick bite of lunch then she left, again almost with tears. My flight was very smooth and I arrived to the heat of Tokyo. After taking the monorail and train to one of the subway stations, pulling a suitcase and carrying 2 bags, I decided to spend the yen on a taxi and arrived about 4:30 pm. It was nice to see several of the American teachers there, and Sean Hart and I went to McDonald's for a hamburger.  It is the little things!

Sunday, I spent the morning getting my shipped suitcases in order, then I met Brenda (from Alabama) and the daughter (and a friend) of her partner here in Japan and we went back to the Senjoshi temple (the one on the first web page) and then to the Oriental Bazaar for some shopping - foresee another box being shipped soon!

Monday we met with the FMF people to go over how things went - lots of wonderful reports from most everyone. That afternoon, a group of us went back to the electronic district (didn`t find anything I liked though). Today, I am in meetings at GLOCOM and then back to FMF to meet w/ Japanese partners (Koda will come instead of Yoshi), then I think I’m heading back to Oriental Bazaar.

Hara-san (language teacher that worked with us before we went) and Glenn at meeting

Hara-san

All of the language teachers who worked with us before our trip

Mary Ann and other teachers

Sean Hart, Jim Rickman, and other teachers

Kyoko and GLOCOM

Boys and their toys

Dwight making a point

Ed Jones and Mr. Yamaguchi

Cyndi and Ed

Tomorrow, we go to the Nat’l Science Museum then have a party w/our Japanese partner tomorrow night. Thursday, I’m thinking of taking the Mt. Fuji one-day trip (did see it from the hotel) if the weather allows you to see it...if the humidity is up you usually can’t-even from the base of the mountain. Then, on to the airport and the 20-hour flight home!

When I recuperate from the flight, and get organized with all the changes underway at school, I’ll try to get a PowerPoint presentation made and show some digital and regular pictures to you all. I hope you have enjoyed the journal type updates - thought that might eliminate some of the many questions - but I know you all have more. Thanks again for all the words of encouragement and emails...while my time here was wonderful hearing from home was great! (They were all concerned that I was homesick, which I might have been except that emails from home where waiting for me nearly every day!)

Think of me about 6pm on Friday.... that’s scheduled touchdown time for United...and I’ll see you all soon!