Two experiences

What a day.

Today had two distinct experiences that affected me in completely different ways.

#1:

This afternoon I had my second session at the International School, this time helping my teacher with “Humanities”. Currently, the 6^th graders were talking about intelligence and the brain and stuff like that, but before the lesson we all sat around in a circle on the carpet and had show-and-tell. I can’t remember the last time I actually participated in show-and-tell! So all the kids brought in something that they thought was special to them and were supposed to explain why it was special and who gave it to them. Some of these kids had amazing stories. For instance, one boy brought in a “Flight Book” his parents bought for him when he was a little kid, where he recorded data about every airplane flight he had taken. He had pretty much filled the whole book in 12 years and had logged almost 700 hours of flight.

Another girl (half Japanese, half American) brought in footprints from when she was a baby and her umbilical cord. It was funny, because the teacher was having everyone pass things around and tried to explain to Marissa that passing an umbilical cord around may be a bit much. Another girl brought in a necklace from her first communion in Africa. Anna, from Sweden, brought in her favorite stuffed rabbit. Every one of these kids had something special. Even the troublemaker Kyle, brought in his stuffed pig and said, I quote “When I get lonely all I do is hug it”. It was really cool to see all of these kids with their special items and how important they were to their lives. I didn’t really come prepared, so I winged it with the hemp necklace I was wearing that Renee made for me a few years ago. They loved it. I felt like a kid again.

After show-and-tell, we started to talk about proper interviewing technique, since the kids have an assignment to interview people about intelligence. So, of course, I was their practice interview subject. They asked me all sorts of questions: What is your favorite ice cream? Why do you like Tokyo? What inspired you to come here? After that, I was supposed to critique each of them and offer some tips. I mentioned that I was trained in interviewing at Cornell and gave a few general tips on eye contact, etc. What really made me smile was that Fiona (the teacher; the kids call her by her first name) wrote them on the board and titled them “Dan’s Tips” and everyone took them down in the notebook.

Before the end of the day, during cleanup, the kids were just running up to me and talking to me like I had known them for years, even though I just met them this week. It’s truly refreshing to have an experience like this, especially when I’m stuck around college kids all day. Hopefully I’ll have more fun stories to share.

#2:

I can safely say that this experience was the best thing, hands down, that I’ve done over the past 3 weeks (oh my god, three weeks already!!) in Tokyo. I went to the Tokyo Tower (see pictures) and went to the observatory to get another good birds-eye view of Tokyo. I spent a little while up there and looked through the souvenir shops but still had an hour and a half to kill before meeting someone for dinner. I decided to head over to Zozoji Shrine, which was right near by. I can’t really explain how it looked, so just looked at the pictures I posted. It was pretty incredible.

There were three or four smaller shrines and then big, main one. I decided to poke my head in and see what it was like inside. It was enormous. They were burning a bunch of incense at the door and it was quite warm, so it was really like walking into some sort of dream.

Here’s what made the experience special. The minute I walked in, a group of 7 monks came out of nowhere and just started to pray on the main prayer mat in front of the huge statue of Buddha. It was mesmerizing. I felt like I wasn’t even supposed to be there, even though there were chairs set up. They were all meditating and chanting and singing and ringing huge bells. At one point, one of the monks was hitting a wooden drum faster and faster to the chanting until it was like listening to the sound of a train passing by. I literally sat there for 45 minutes just watching these guys pray. I know it sounds corny, but it was really one of the first times where I was like “Wow, I’m in Japan.” I mean living in Tokyo IS living in Japan, but the city itself is quite like ones at home. I had a similar moment my freshman year at Cornell, when I was walking back to my dorm when the chimes started to play. This experience today really made me feel like I was here and was so moving, it nearly brought me to tears. I'm not terribly spiritual, but I felt like it, even if it was for just an hour.

Anyways, sorry for the long entry and the sappy stuff, but I definitely wanted to get these experiences down in writing, though I doubt I’ll forget them anytime soon.

This Saturday, we’re going on a trip to nearby Yokohama, which supposed is really neat and has a great Chinatown.

Keep in touch, ya’ll!

Jaa mata nee!