School Visit

While in Nagasaki, I was able to visit Suwa Elementary School and observe children singing, playing music, studying math and cleaning their school. Yes, I said cleaning their school. There are no custodians in the schools so students (and teachers) are in charge of the floors, windows and toilets! It's an everyday occurrence in elementary and junior high schools.

The math lesson was my main mission. What I saw on my visit was repeated in every fourth grade classroom throughout the entire country. The standards for each grade are written in the text book and the entire nation uses the same text book. They were covering isosceles triangles during our visit. Two teachers worked together to teach the 40 students in the classroom. The children interacted with the teachers, showed a variety of ways to solve a problem and had individual work time as well. It was a wonderful experience which I would be thrilled to go into more detail if asked! I was almost as impressed with the clean, clear notes children took on the topic. Apparently they learn how to take notes in first grade. When I asked what they do with the sloppy kids, they said it just doesn't happen. Perhaps in junior high school, but children are not sloppy writers in elementary school.

Suwa Elementary Nagasaki

Travels before Nagasaki

Travels before Nagasaki

Since I last posted, I have been in a whirlwind of activity. I did visit the Osaka Castle and will post photos at a later time. For now, do a google search and see it for yourself. I also went to Arima Onsen which is set in the mountains outside of Kobe, Japan.

Kobe experienced an enormous earthquake around 12 years ago or so. It is now rebuilt and is an amazing city. I went to both Arima and Kobe with my friends Yuriko and Irene. I have known Yuriko since 1983 when I was a student at ICU in Tokyo for my junior year of college abroad. Irene was a student teacher at Jackson Elementary last year and was in my classroom daily teaching.

I made it to Osaka, Japan safe and sound. I changed my money into yen. Right now is not the best time to change dollars into yen. The dollar is worth 96 yen. In previous years, it was 220 yen to the dollar. My friend met me at the airport. We took a fast train to Osaka City. It is very clean and beautiful. We ate a bowl of noodles and I went to sleep. Traveling from Minnesota to Japan takes about 15 hours. When I arrived it was 2:00am in Minnesota but 5:00 pm on the 14th in Japan.

Today we will visit Osaka Castle. Later we will go to visit Arima Hotsprings. On Sunday, November 16th, I will fly to Nagasaki.

Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman leading delegation to China and Japan

by Joe Kimball,

published Monday, Nov. 10, 2008 in MinnPost.com

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman left for the Far East this morning - China and Japan, not Minnehaha Avenue and McKnight Road.

With his arts and culture policy associate Joe Spencer, the mayor will visit St. Paul's sister-cities of Changsha, China and Nagasaki, Japan. They'll be gone for 10 days. Private funding is paying for the trip.

They're scheduled to meet with 3M and Delta (Northwest) officials there and look at some high-speed rail projects.

Others on the trip with the mayor are: Lenny Huie, president of Advanced Technologies Integration; Jenny Hsaio, member of the St. Paul-Changsha Sister City Committee; Karolyn Kirchgesler, president and CEO of the St. Paul Convention and Visitors Authority; John Kusske, member of the Nagasaki Sister City Committee and U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association; Ann O'Neill, member of the St. Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee; Robert Palmer, member of the St. Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee; Bill Pesek, senior landscape architect for St. Paul Parks and Recreation; Jeff Rageth, national manager at 3M; John Mueller, vice president of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers; Mark Schneider, acting associate director of the U of M Office of International program; Elizabeth Simmer, president of the St. Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee; Jeff Stirling, music director of the St. Paul Civic Symphony and Mike Xiong, a business analyst for Thomson Reuter.

Map of Nagasaki, Japan

Japan is made up of four large islands and many smaller islands. Nagasaki is located on the southern most island of Kyushu. I'll be flying into Osaka on this trip and immediately heading to Kobe for a night at a Japanese inn with a hot spring. I'll then fly to Nagasaki and meet up with the rest of the delegation.

Lantern Lighting Festival at Como Park in August

It seems like yesterday that we were enjoying summertime. Now we're heading into winter and the long awaited trip to Nagasaki with Mayor Chris Coleman is nearly here. The Mayor will travel to Saint Paul's sister city of Changsha, China prior to Nagasaki. 

The trip to Nagasaki will promote cultural, educational and business connections. Please stay tuned for updates while we are there.

Upcoming travels to Nagasaki

Plans are underway for SPNSCC members to join Mayor Chris Coleman and others on a trip to Nagasaki, Japan in November. Please continue to check this blog for more information.