Mrs. Ranney-Poole

Mrs. Ranney-Poole
Clark County School District

United States
mrsranneypoole@yahoo.com, jvranney@interact.ccsd.net

Japan-Osaki

I am so fortunate to have been selected to travel to Japan through a Fulbright Scholarship. I will be detailing my trip with blog entries. Please click on the following link to view my JFMF blog:

http://jfmf08.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=3dlelg14paft2

Shinto shrine in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture.

Steps leading up to the Shinto Shrine, there were a lot!

We ate dinner at this delicious curry shop, very yummy!

My posh new room at the Sendai Station Hotel, very nice!

Watch video of Sendai:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=57ae5451d45d8359664a

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8785405f9ef63d5d9040

Mayor Yasushi Ito, city of Osaki taking time out of his busy earthquake disaster emergency to meet with us.

Watch video of the Mayor:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8db5dd08cdfa112b1453

Making green tea at the tea ceremony in Osaki City.

Watch video of the tea ceremony:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f8ec4ff7e5eff7d14554

Traditional tea room with tatami mats. It really does not feel comfortable to sit like that for long periods of time!

Watch video of the tea ceremony:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=585614720e60776c95ad

All of us in the beautiful tea house garden.

School library at Fukarwa High School

Students were learning about Bob Marley in English class!

Samurai armor at the Iwadeyama Government Building.

Parent discussion at the Iwadaeyama Goverment Building.

Here we are painting our Kokeshi dolls, mine looks like a five-year-old painted it!

Now that's one BIG Kokeshi doll!

This resort at Onikoube is a famous ski resort in the winter.

What a nice welcome to the elementary school.

Traditional Japanese drumming class, very cool!

Watch video of a music class in the junior high school:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=403bf5b83f64726c3fd9

Notice how Japan is the center of this map?

All students buy the same backpacks, they are very expensive, but they will last them through sixth grade.

Students remove their outdoor shoes and change into indoor slippers. Slippers and I do not get along very well, I keep tripping and falling all over the place!

Me at the junior high school in the principal's office.

We always receive such a warm welcome at the schools.

Now that makes a huge bowl of miso soup!

My new student friend who wrote Japanese caligraphy on my fan. He wrote "stylish" for me.

This was a wonderful school full of bright, young, kind kids.

Students bring the food in from the cafeteria and serve lunch to their classmates.

My lunch was actually pretty good on this day, I ate almost everything, except the seaweed.

Traditional meets modern convenience.

I am not quite sure why they cover the statues with red.

The bell at the Shinto shrine, only to be used by the priests.

Watch video of the shrine and the graveyard:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5966d36a8c7c29c0167f

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=fee9789244aee08a28ca

I don't think they know what this shirt they are selling says. This is often the case, many Japanese people I have seen have shirts in English that make no sense.

Look at these cute little construction cone monkeys!

Meeting at Sendai University.

All of us at the local universtiy.

Me in the mayor's office.

The lovely tea and oragami provided for us.

I am not quite sure what the little toilet is for.

This was not plum tea, it tasted like chicken soup!

Tea ceremony ladies who served us.

My green tea that I made!

In the computer lab at the high school, students were importing Excel graphs into a word document to create travel brochures for Tokyo.

Students in the culinary arts class had amazing knife skills. Can you believe they allow them to use these tools?

Watch video of a Japanese grocery store:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=bdd40f73b2e94265ab89

These are tiny, little white fish the students were cooking with, yum!

My bento lunch at the high school, I mostly ate the rice.

This is the school lunch menu. Most students bring their lunches to school.

Watch video of a traditional bento lunchbox:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=013be03fa5a55d984983

Japanese grafiti! This was on the lunch table.

The mayor popped onto our bus to say hello!

I begged the Kokeshi artist to paint my flowers for me, he was kind enough to help me.

This area of Japan is beautiful with lots of mountains and rice fields.

The weather has been perfect!

This is my Onsen (hot spring) egg lunch, again I mostly ate my rice. The green vegetables in the bowl were really yummy and are only found in this local mountain area.