Tomihiro Hoshino

On Culture Day, November 3rd, I went to the 富弘　美術館　Tomihiro Art Museum, which I've been wanting to go to since last year when I first heard about it. In 1970, Tomihiro Hoshino was a 24-year-old, 1st-year P.E. teacher and gymnastics coach at Kuragano Jr. High, just a few miles from my school. Two months into the school year, while demonstrating a gymnastics move for students, he took a bad fall and became paralyzed from the neck down. He spent nine years in the hospital. During those nine years-- out of a desire to express himself and connect with people, as well as an antidote against boredom-- he began writing and painting, holding pens and paintbrushes in his mouth. He also became a Christian during that time. Hoshino and his story have become famous throughout Japan. I am awed at his paintings. I am touched and entertained by his reflective and humorous writing.

A few favorites...
What are you looking for?
What are you seeking?
What do you want to see?
After all it is an encounter with the Unchangeable One, isn't it?


You were not the One I had imagined.
You did not come where I had expected.
You didn't do the things for me that I asked for.
But You did the things many times that I had hoped for.


Let's go up to the mountain
and see the scenery You created

Are there any fences around the flowers?
Are there any guard rails on the top of the cliff?

Yet I'm guarding myself
with fences around my small heart

I'm happy-- in a "happy with the simple things in life" way-- to know about and to be able to enjoy this part of Gunma history and Japanese life.

See some of Hoshino's work and read more...
http://www.hoshinotomihirousa.org/greetingcards/greetingcards.html
http://www.tomihiro.jp/profile/english.htm

Sources: In the Palms of Your Hands and Road of the Tinkling Bell by Tomihiro Hoshino; English translation by Yoshiaki and Fumiko Yui. Kaisei-sha Publishing Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

Happy Days

The past two days have been two of my favorite days at school since coming to Japan-- yesterday at sho gakko (elementary school) and today at chu gakko (jr. high). So happy to be here! Simply pleasant occurences. Laughing laughing laughing all day with many students and then later with a couple teachers when I explained (all in Japanese!! :)) that I really was planning to eat my lunch...despite it being fish and wakame gohan (rice seasoned with salty seaweed) sick!...and that the reason I broke the "Eat all your lunch" rule (Note: Rules are REALLY not supposed to be broken in Japan.) and didn't finish, truly was because I didn't have time-- because I was focusing too much on the conversation I was having with Riki and Shizuru-- not because I was being picky. I also tried to pass the blame to Riki, saying that it was because he was shaberisugiru...talking too much!! ;D LOL! It was hilarious! I think Nakazatomi Sensei is still skeptical of my story though... ;D

The Correct Answer is Sixteen

One of the 2nd grade teachers planned that for today's lesson we would reinforce the kids' knowledge of the multiplication tables and of English numbers by teaching them how to say multiplication facts in English. I'm careful to clearly enunciate when I'm teaching new words to students...especially with elementary school kids, who have a greater chance of acquiring near-native pronunciation than jr. highers or adults. However, despite my exaggerated pronunciation, most of class 2-1 concluded that two times eight equals sexy.

How do they even know this word??!!

Socks and Technology

I'm wearing snowboarding socks. Not because I'm going snowboarding or because I'm about to play in the snow. I'm wearing them because I'm in my Japanese apartment. It's freeeeezing! And it's only November 16th!

I don't understand how a country that has electric toilets with 8 buttons and 21 different options...and cell phones that can read a bar code and instantly open the web page that corresponds to the coded product...and washers, tea pots, and rice cookers that can be pre-set to go on at a designated time...I don't understand how a country with all this superfluous technology can not have residential central heating. As is true about almost everything here, this runs contrary to my logic.

It's not actually freezing yet...but soon, very soon, will come the day when I will start to wear my hat and snowboarding neck warmer to bed every night. I'm not joking! (But, Mom, don't worry! I don't really mind wearing a hat to bed.)

TT (=To Tokyo, according to Kotomi)

Tomorrow the 8th graders are taking a field trip. To Tokyo. Groups of 4 or 5 kids will scatter, unsupervised, for 4 hours, in one of the largest cities in the world. Sure, they each have an itinerary and a guide book and a rented cell phone to contact a teacher in case of emergency...but they're going to Tokyo!! This is incredible to my American teacher mind. Tokyo's only about 2 hours away, so you'd think they'd have all been there lots of times...that this is old news to them. But today Fukuyama Sensei tells me that they have to be taught how to buy subway tickets. Apparently they aren't all that adept at navigating their way in Tokyo. Do field trips like this happen in America? I don't think so.....but I'm always comparing to teaching in elementary school-- where kids aren't even allowed to go to the bathroom unsupervised during a field trip where they're all contained on the same floor of a small museum where there are 5 supervising adults for every 20 kids-- and what I can remember from my own jr. high days. Despite my disbelief surrounding this whole experience, I'm confident that all 158 of the students will complete their assignments and show up at the designated place and time. No one will be hurt or separated from their group or using the cell phone to call the teachers and tell on anyone. How does this work? Why can't this work in America? Lots of factors, I suppose...

$90 field trip to Tokyo-- every teacher should sign their class up!