Day 1 in Tama, Tokyo

Before I go onto my adventure on Monday, I wanted to let you know that I experienced a slight tremor on Sunday night in my hotel room. I was laying in my bed working on my computer and it felt like my room moved about a foot forward and then back to normal. In all of the hotels we have been in they have a flashlight and sometimes a helmet just in case an earthquake occurs. The hotels are built to sway and actually roll with the movement from the tremors and earthquakes. All is good.

Today, we were on the bus early in the morning to make our way to Tama City, Tokyo. On our way we made a scheduled visit to the University of Tokyo. The University of Tokyo is the most prestigious university in Japan and it leads the way in research among all other Japanese universities. After a presentation from the dean, we received a brief tour of the campus. It looked like a typical university campus. It had very nice facilities and a great outside area.

Once the tour concluded it was on to Tama City, Tokyo. There are 10 groups of 16 for a total of 160 teachers. We have all been traveling together, but now I will be with my group of 16 in Tama. Upon arriving we were brought to the city hall to meet the Mayor, Sachiko Watanabe. She was extremely warm and professional in her address to us. One of the big problems that Tama City, and Japan as a whole, is facing deals with the decline population. A large percentage of their population is elderly and the younger population is having less children. Thus the population will be declining in the very near future. The mayor is trying to make sure she can continue to adequately provide for the elderly, while also planning for the future reduction in population. One way to keep the elderly community involved with the community is to have them working with the clay in the area to create pottery. As a gift, we were presented with small piece of pottery meant to hold a plant. The clay is approximately 1.5 million years old and the piece of pottery was created by the elderly with the help of younger kids. It was an honor to meet the mayor and hear about the city of Tama.

After discussion with the mayor, we were onto the cities cultural center. It is here where we learned about the history behind the clay. They have discovered many artifacts revealing that Tama used to have a pottery business from 14000 B.C. to 400 B.C. It was here until the the end of the 10th century and then disappeared because trade became popular. More recently, as Tama was working on construction it had mountains of clay that was going to go to waste. Now, with the help of the city, Tama-yaki is being revived and the elderly are being greatly utilized in Japanese society. The cultural center also gave us a good picture of the people that used to live in the region. We were able to look at their housing, use their technique to build a fire, and eat authentic soup. It was a really fun time and the cultural center was well put together.

Then, we visited a very special Shinto shrine at the heart of the city. We had been to other shrines, but never received a good explanation of the rituals. Shinto literally means the way of the gods and focuses on nature and ancestor worship. Shinto shrines are buildings where Shinto deities are enshrined. Shinto priests take care of the shrine perform special ceremonies such as weddings. Offerings of money are usually made at an offertory box priory to praying or as a thanks for prayers that have been answered. The thick rope in the middle of the entrance is pulled down to ring the bell. The sound is meant to get the spirits attention so the prayer will be answered.

Finally, we checked into our hotel in Tama City and went out to eat. This is not like downtown Tokyo. Can you say suburb? Wendy's, McDonalds, Subway, Sports Authority, and more. They still have Japanese food and culture, but it definitely has the feel of a suburb. After wandering for a while and trying to find a good place to eat we asked some students in uniform where we should go. They kindly walked us to the place and spoke to us in English. It was a really nice place. We followed the waiter back to the seating area that was in a pit and blocked off from other people. On the way we had to take our shoes off and put our slippers on. I got it right this time by making sure I didn't put my foot down on the "dirty" floor, but rather I stepped up as I took my shoe off. It is really easy to forget because we were hungry and felt rushed, but it is important to try to remember. Today, was the official Sushi binge. Before today I had only a sample of Sushi. We all ordered Sushi, but I ordered the platter. This was definitely raw fish and I had a hard time swallowing it. I ate about half of the platter and felt a little green so I left the rest on my plate. It was the caviar (or what I think was caviar) that put me over the edge. Chewy and mushy with a texture that didn't slide down smoothly. Immediately after leaving we went to McDonalds and I had a McFlurry to get the taste out of my mouth. The McFlurry tasted much different than in the United States. It had a very orange taste to along with the chocolate, but it didn't matter because I needed something else other than the taste of sushi. We then went home and I finished the speech I would be giving for the school visit on Tuesday. If you would like to read the speech you may by clicking here. Upon finishing the speech it was off to bed where I hoped I would dream of anything besides raw fish. Enjoy the pictures.