The last major defining purpose of our trip was a visit to an elementary school. This was defiantly the most intense experience I had on this trip (except for a little problem in a train station in Tokyo) anywho... I got to experience what my comfort zone looked like from the outside. This is an important thing for me to be able to say because it means that this trip was a complete success in the category of psychological development. I had intended to use this trip as a way of getting out of my comfort zone as practice for the future where I will not only exist outside of my comfort zone for months at a time but perhaps I will even build a new comfort zone. Only the future will tell how much time I spend in Japan but I hope I have successfully used this trip as a foundation for the abilities I will need for more extended stays in the country and perhaps future employment.

この旅行はいい経験でしたよ。

At this point I am no longer sure what day of our trip it is.

We engaged in a tea ceremony today. I was rather surprised that the tea was hardly bitter at all. I have heard horror stories about the bitterness of tea at these ceremonies but it was quite benign. There is however the chance that the tea we were served was purposefully dumbed down for our benefit. I can’t say I would be angry if that was the case because it saved me a great deal of suffering. What did cause me a bit of suffering was the big sweet bean thing that was colored to look like some kind of fruit. I would have enjoyed the thing except I had mostly only had sweets that day and so that thing was a bit much for my system. Also I am curious how the Japanese manage to stand up after sitting on their feet for half an hour. I couldn’t stand up for a minute or two after that. My feet hurt too much to put any weight on them.

ちゃのゆは面白かったです。甘いものは圧倒的でした。

日十四

We had our first actuall class session of the trip today with 緑先生 quite the interesting woman especially with her taste in educational videos, which in this case took the form of nothing but “The Japanese Tradition”, these I consider to be almost perfectly distilled, pure scarcasm, yet quite funny nonetheless.

今日は The Japanese Tradition を見って日本語を勉強しました。私達の先生はファニーでした。

日十三

This day saw us departing from Kyoto to the final location for our trip. We would be spending the last week of the trip at the Aichi University of Education. This university is about 1/3 the size of Ball State making it a relatively medium sized university. This University is located in Nagoya, which means it is in a subtropical climate making it the sort of place that I would enjoy living. I much prefer being too hot than too cold. I felt quite special having a special bus pick us up from the airport. It was nice to experience living in something that more resembled a house instead of a hotel room. This was because you really had to experience having to take off your shoes every time you came inside. However one of the annoying problems experienced was the lack of available Internet for guests. This made it quite difficult to make posts such as this.

愛知教育大学はバスで行きました。大学のスタッフはとても融通がきくでした。

日十二

This day was for me (except for the day of our arrival) the single most important day for me on this trip. This was the day that I went to Toyosato to see the building used as the model for the High School in the anime K-On! （けいおん！）. This Anime was one of my first introductions to Japanese culture and so getting to go to a place like this was a very personal and emotional journey for me. I don’t have a whole lot more to say about this experience other than I would have come to Japan for this day alone.

豊郷小学校は歴史的建物です。

This will be the last image post I make in relation to this trip. All of these images were taken on the day of our return. 

More pictures from around Aichi

Smelled nice. 

The studios for the art students. 

Little sculpture garden. 

Hmmm...

The Ocean! 

At Nagoya airport. 

Lots of blue LEDs

Oil Tanker. 

Our trusty steed. 

Off we go. 

some very high mountains.

Finally I get to see it! Fuji-san. 

Still over Japan. 

Now over the Alaskan Rockies about 6 hours later. 

Back in Indy! 

All the stuff I bought. 

My rice bowl from Toyosato. (Again, watch the anime and you will get the joke.)

These images were taken over a period of about a week. We were at Aichi University of Education and so things worth taking pictures of were not quite so common. It was a more standard educational setting for us, which included class time. 

緑先生！

Us!

Typical education

Candy

Not so typical education.

The only American style outlets I saw on campus. 

Stuff previously brought over from Ball State.

This much sweet made me feel a bit sick. 

This helped though. 

Well, it is Japan after all I suppose. 

Extremely large Momiji, If I had one of these it would defiantly be the largest in the state. 

As soon as I begin to forget I am in a subtropical region I spy one of these things growing out in the open. 

Dry Stone pool. 

These fun little things are around 15cm long and quite poisons 

Being treated like visiting dignitaries at an elementary school. 

Said elementary school.

Us exercising with the kids.

 The kids.

Quite exciting for me to get a chance to go wandering through a sub-tropical forest. A first for me. The winter temperatures in this area usually don't do below 40 F. 

Hawk's nest.

there is a torii gate on this island which one can walk to in the winter when the reservoir is drained. 

Sub-tropical forest, fascinating!

In "class" 

Calligraphy to be precise. 

What happens when you give a 7 year old your camera. 

Saying goodbye.

Old lady cutting a field with a weed wacker. Not a job I would ever touch. 

archery club

Small shrine chained to the wall. 

Aichi Administration building.