JAPAN - DAY 2
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Kiddy park |
Near hotel in Ueno. Super clean and neat. A hit with the kids! |
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Nancy and Bear. |
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30' water bubblier. Real eye opener in the morning! |
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Public common |
Huge - lake, stream, waterfall, Science Museum, etc. Nancy, JA, and me at waterfall. |
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In rout to SHOWA |
Hiroko met us at 11 am and spent the day showing us around Tokyo. This is a 'T' station? |
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Japanese cartoon character. |
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Lunch! You can tell we hated the food. |
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SHOWA University |
K1 right through college at the same campus. These ladies were grouped around the bush behind them picking flowers. Not from the bush, the fallen ones under it! Their backpacks (next pic) cost U.S. $500+ and given by family as a gift. |
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Students don aprons and clean campus on Fridays, |
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Builds character and appreciation. Super idea! Note Nancy (and everyone else) is in stocking feet. Japanese custom is to remove shoes in a house. |
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After finishing cleaning, they talk about how they could have done better. Sound familiar? Yup, they are being taught the method that made Japanese business the most efficient in the world. We teach our kids a politically correct agenda. Hmmm... what's right with this picture? |
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Play area for younger children. |
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Imagine going to school here! Beautiful! This appears the norm for Asia. We even saw a similar school in Communist China. Not quite as flashy, but not that far away either. I was surprised. |
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The campus grounds seem to go on forever. |
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We just happened to hit the weekly fire drill & assembly. |
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Because of the drill we bump into some of our girls early. |
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We see one of the girls we hosted. Keiko Sunazuka, center, gray blouse. Another, Maiko Sugiyama, joins us right after the assembly. To our surprise Kikuko Oba, Ryoko Hirakata and Sayaka Sugiyama join us a short time later. |
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Our SHOWA Girls. |
Together for the first time in one place. For Nancy, JA and me it's a highlight of the trip. Here are Kikuko Oba, Hiroko Ohta, Maiko Sugiyama and Keiko Sunazuka. Keiko is one of the exceptionally rare Japanese Christians; we were very blessed to have her. The only lady missing is Yuki Fujisawa who graduated SHOWA and was out of the area job training. |
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Here are Ryoko Hirakata and Sayaka Sugiyama in the foreground. They visited us in the winter of '97'. The translation of the post is "SHOWA Pond." |
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SHOWA Pond |
The president of SHOWA loves Coy. Hence, SHOWA has it's own pond full of HUGE Coy. |
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There is also a breeding area for the President's prized Coy. Absolutely remarkable. |
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In the foreground the sign translates to "Duck House" |
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The only ones missing are Keiko (went to work), Linda Law and her son Ryan, and of course me. Ryan was having a nap. |
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I don't look too happy here do I? |
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Japan captured in one picture: Exotic, Colorful, Formal, Intense and Complex. It's a stunning country. |
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Five of our seven SHOWA girls at the entrance to SHOWA. |
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Reunion Party |
To celebrate the reunion we had an ice cream party! There is nothing happier than a woman eating ice cream! |
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JA was shocked to find the Japanese eat Corn Flakes with their Ice Cream when she dug into her "Sundae!" Nancy looked perturbed that I interrupted the feeding frenzy to snap a picture! |
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I wanted to get a picture of everyone with their Ice Cream treats. As fast as I was, these two were much faster! I said, "Oh no, they brought you empty dishes!" They looked very surprised, then realizing I was teasing them they started to laugh. |
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I asked, "You girls don't like Ice Cream do you?" Here is the answer. Did we have a good time? You bet! |
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'T' station |
JA, Jenny's twins and Ryan say good bye to Kikuko Oba. |
Return to Japan, Return to Top, Send comments to ThomasDoherty@WriteMe.com
