Greetings from Kobe. It is 6:15 a.m. and we just saw the group off with "Indiana Jones" Patrick, on the bus to Itami Airport in Osaka. In about 40 minutes, they will arrive at Itami, and take a domestic flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo. At 11:00 a.m. today, they will board their ANA flight to Washington Dulles Airport. So, all is well and everyone's family members will be seeing them soon.
Our thanks to the teachers for being good sports throughout our three weeks here in Japan, and for learning an amazing amount. I was so impressed by their reflections the last couple of days during meetings, their observations about Japan, and their ideas for teaching about Japan. They have "kept on trucking" despite heavy rains and hot, humid weather. They have ridden just about every form of transportation that Japan has to offer, and walked miles and miles. As I told them this morning, the special part of all that was their ability to interact with Japanese of all walks of life, on a daily basis, in a variety of situations. Throughout, they were good ambassadors for the U.S. and were graciously received by the Japanese they met, in part, because they made a good impression themselves as visitors to this country.
Hiroshi and I leave our adopted city of Kobe today for his home area of Nagano. Patrick will blog again after the group's arrival stateside. So for now, goodbye from Kobe and we'll see all of our group again in October in Pittsburgh.
Brenda and Hiroshi
Brenda G. Jordan
17 July 2010
Old NID
957