Travel Plans

Tomorrow I leave for my winter trip so here is my schedule for all of you!

December 19 - Leave for Hiroshima
December 20 - Hiroshima
December 21 - Leave Hiroshima for Tokyo
December 22 - Mt. Fuji
December 23 - Tokyo
December 24 - Tokyo
December 25 - Tokyo
December 26 - Leave Tokyo for Kyoto
December 27 - Kyoto
December 28 - Day trip to Nara
December 29 Kyoto
December 30 Kyoto to Himeji, Himeji to Yamaguchi

I will post lots of pictures and notes when I get back!

R.I.P. Mary Ann Fleckenstein. 1932-2008

Yesterday I found out that Grandma died. It just went bad suddenly when she choked on food her lung collapsed. They tried to code her but she didn't make it. Being in Japan has made it very strange because she had been dead for longer than 14 hours before anyone was able to reach me. I am feeling better now and my host family and my friends have been taking good care of me. People have gotten me so much food that I don't really know what to do with it. So don't worry about me, I am being taken care of.

The hardest part was knowing that I would not be able to bury her. I feel that I really need to do that. So, Schalkoff Sensei, who is in charge of the international students, contacted St. Xavier's church and the Priest said he would say a Mass for her. It is going to be tomorrow at 3:00. The teacher got me out of my classes so I can go to it. Then my friends went and talked to their teachers so that they could be able to go too.

My host family has been really good about it. They told me to call my family on their house phone and they even looked up the country codes for me. I said that it was too expensive but they insisted that I do it. Later they had to go get oil for the heater and, when they came back they had a box of pastries. Being very Japanese, Okaasan said that they bought them because Otousan was hungry for cakes. They split one between them and then said that the rest were for me because they need to go on diets. (Being Japanese, they don't need diets of course)

I am very glad that I can at least have the Mass tomorrow. I have one thing that I need to ask of my friends. Yuroshiku onegaishimasu. In Japan there is a very strong and very apparent belief that the family is a binding and inseparable single unit. The individual only has value as part of the whole. Please take care of me, please take care of my family. They are all very busy. They are busy even moreso now that they are planning the funeral. Also, I know that all of my aunts, cousings, grandpa, and my mom are very sad and probably stressed out. I don't know exactly what they need but they probably need someone to feed them, maybe to drive places, maybe to feed or take care of the dogs. If anyone can please help them I will be very thankful. I wish I could be there to do it but I cannot so right now I need you guys to be my hands and my heart for them. Please see what they need and try to help. I will be praying for you and I hope you will be praying as well.

本とにありがとおございます。
Thank you very much.

Beth

暫くでしたねえ！

Hi guys, sorry it has been so long! I have been taking an introduction to Japanese culture class that included trips every weekend. This made it very difficult to find time to blog but now I can tell you about all of the awesome trips we went on.

This post will be about Iwakuni (曰くに). We went to Iwakuni to teach for a few hours at a grade school. It was so much fun. The kids were soooo cute. There was this one little girl who was so tiny and had such a big uniform coat that it almost dragged on the ground. We talked with them about the US and then we played some Japanese games. After that the kids gave us origami gifts and we left. It was a really fun school visit.

The next thing that we did was to go to the Iwakuni Bridge. This is a really cool bridge made up of 5 arches. It has existed in the same location for hundreds of years but they keep having to rebuild it. The typhoons often knock it down. After we crossed the bridge we went up to Iwakuni-jo. This is the castle in Iwakuni. It is on the very top of the mountain and looks really impressive. We climbed up the mountain to the castle and, to our disappointment, discovered that this castle, like most others in Japan, is actually just a really bad concrete reconstruction of the original. Still, it was really cool looking and we went inside where there was a really nice museum of Japanese swords and armor. There was an entire suit of samurai armor and even short swords for seppuku (ritual Japanese suicide also known as hari kiri). Suicide has long been an established tradition in Japan. It is seen as the final way to redeem oneself and to preserve one's family honor. At one time, it was a penalty for several crimes. Today you still hear about it, although it is usually done in front of trains rather than by sword. Today it is viewed as something that is pitiful but could not be helped. The top of the castle featured a great view. We could see all the way out to the ocean, which was pretty cool.

After that we took the cable car back down the mountain. This was a rather difficult situation for poor Sam, who is terrified of heights. He had to sit onthe floor with his head between his knees and we all stood around him so that he could not see out of the windows. He managed to survive and we all drove him in the van with Miss Nakashima, our teacher from the international office. While we were up at the castle, the school had delivered a box of cakes to the van driver to thank us. We ate them on the way home and we made sure that the van driver and Miss Nakashima got cakes too. They were really good!