We changed into slippers on arrival. It was raining, a lot. We admired the sign they made for us and took pictures.
When we entered the school the principal immediately passed out the agenda and jumped right into his power point presentation. Contrary to every other school visit where first we all introduced ourselves and then presented or discussed.
The principal passed out his business cards almost blackjack style. After Husband I followed routine, I took his card with two hands (even tho he was giving it with one between his finger knuckles) complemented his photo and tried to say his name. I gave my
Card the proper Japanese way and bowed while saying my schpeal in Japanese. He was surprised but kept up his gimmick. I was left with the impression that he thinks this is how Americans do things and he's imitating what he feels is correct.
Agenda fresh and hot off the press (the paper was warm)
10:40 arrival
10:50-11:20 calligraphy class
11:25 - 12:10 class observation
Telling us who is in which class for lunch William 2nd, Katie 3, Sharon and Joanne 4th.
Etc. no "discussion time" was built in.
He is very organized. He's a 2nd yr principal at this school, he was at first the Kamaishi jr high principal which
1/3 graduated students of school. Not the same junior hugh we saw on the tour yesterday. He knows both systems and students students of junior hi and elementary. After 2days of disaster he came to this school - before the disaster he worked at the junior high.
Modern power point presentation w remote control and laser pointer, this is the first one that we've seen in the school visits. (The Impression is disaster brings modernization.) He's so excited to show the presentation he Jumped right in.
Power point presentation notes: I'm scribing what is translated and what we've ended up asking.
85m high tsunami, record largest tsunami was 1771, 12,000 people died. We have so many earthquakes, we are well known as an earthquake disaster country. "Do you have rain?" you probably don't like it. Rain grows the rice, and its all natural. We always accept nature, so therefore we have disaster or earthquake we try to accept that because its nature. "
We have 3 major ports.
Shows tsunami video... Calling it "disaster occurred" and when "the tsunami hit."
We can't tell the children about what happened because they won't want to live here. We teach them to love this city, 2nd there's many people who lived here, for many generations and Has many good stories. There's many people who are descendants here, shows us many pictures: of a beautiful Kamaishi, has the morning shadow sunrise, noon time beautiful nature. A lot of flowers in their mountains and the trees, fisherman, the flag wishing good luck for fishing, many summer festivals, fall autumn, winter is beautiful too and Kamaishi station with seawave stores. (These are similar shots to the photos hanging in the hotel restaurant.)
1904 tsunami, 1933, when two major tsunami in the city, 90% of city washed away loosing 5,000 people more then half of the population was gone at that time. He shows a headshot of theTawny village president who merged his village with Kamaishi, to form the city as its known today. To make money the city had a particular tree and sold this tree to build the buildings with it. But that was illegal because he was cutting the government property trees. The village however did make money.
To replace the logged trees from previous years, in 1934 they planted 2,300 cherry blossom trees so now the festival is the biggest in this town. He contributed the village to making the illegal tree sales, he fled to the mountains and the villagers were hiding him and protecting him for 3 years. Then he turned himself in anyd the judge in the court ruled him innocent.
1st wave picture showed people driving cars across a bridge and the wave approaching in the background.
2nd wave picture.
White building and yesterday junior HS picture with waters. I recognized the "white house"
Last picture:
an older man in the picture is simply walking as the water flows right behind him, the next picture shows him standing on a curb on the side, but this wasn't enough, he didn't make it.
Staristics:
--School was a shelter and 70% of families houses were lost.
--1 student lost both parents
--2 lost a father
--2 lost a mother
--1 lost a sister.
--1 mother and sister.
-- There are 124 8th graders students and 24 teachers
--63% of school projects is sponsored.
--40 students still live in temporary housing.
--49 students use school bus. 38 from other side of district come here.
--Current student 1 family lost 1 father 2 lost mother and sister.
Before serious accidents there are thousands of programs.
Triangle picture. 7 hours 30 minutes before tsunami disaster hit, he never let the student back because there is a tsunami alarm. The earthquake was far away. There manual said keep the students in the school. Many calls came asking for the kids, to come home. why did I keep the kids? William said schools safest place. Many parents complained.
Did only students stay or parents were welcomed to. Students stayed here more then 7 hours. They stayed here longer then midnight. The parents were outside waiting for the kids, here by the school.
The next day: parents came the next day for classroom observations. he expected so many complaints. Tsunami didn't his this school.
Let the students think and decide about the disaster, trying to elevate the thinking process. Emphasis on life saving education. Think about there life, so learning about life. 3 steps: education 1. Life 2. Fortune 3. Living for others. Help each other some examples suicide is a way so save themselves. Thinking its the easiest way to cut life by himself, but its not.
Opinion about Kamaishi Miracle: our student never say that. Natural reaction they learn it and react naturally. He emphasize students to protect themselves first, save your life first then help others. (Not a traditional japanese thought.) newspaper article 11.23.2012 title: letter from a mother, last month was my birthday. Daughter lost her mom. My mom can't see well, I'm selfish all the time,...
So the principal asked us "What are they trying to do here?" Its a picture of 5 women surrounding a women who is laying down on a gurner. We all guess
Learning CPR, because the photo has NO other clear indicators, there not touching the body at all. He's excited to tell us the ladies a nurse and the other lady may be considered dead and are trying to reconstruct the face and put it in a cemetery. (This is another uncomfortable moment for our team). They show a story in a manual to try to show how to reconstruct his head. We provide a lot of materials like that and the thinking about it.
Students will show us the disaster prevention map.
Katie asked for a copy of the presentation and he said sternly "NO." This is not Japanese custom. Usually Japanese norms dictate to make excuses and not answer questions directly. I think he realized our reaction to his abrupt answer & then he started making excuses, the proper Japanese way. He said "The feeling of the presentation is the most important thing not the data." I also think he has pride in his work and he didn't want that diluted or taken away from him.
We are whisked away to the gym so a presentation on their Disaster Prevention Plan. It's the school annual review of their program. The principal is very proud strutting around the gym, fixing his belt, clearly proud about his students presentation. In the gym he approached Mikisan, where I was coincidentally. He explained a few things which she translated for me. He said the student presenting saved her grandparents. First he said the girl who was talking saved her grandparents. She told them to run, grandparents didn't want to run because they have bad knees. Their home was destroyed and they all lived. (I couldn't understand why the girl wasn't at school or in a club program, he said it was after school so she was home already?) Many adults didn't run thinking the water won't get them. But the children know to run. Obviously he means because of the school program. I still couldn't grasp why adults didn't run, but then it hit me. I asked if there are times of false alarms, the tsunami horn rang but not water came, he said yes many times! Similar to false alarms in the states. The news says: "There's a snowstorm coming, but food, be ready." And then it's a sprinkling of snow.
His presentation in the office came off as informative, but moments where he was unintentionally talking down to us. So in the gym I took a moment to chat and talk about there emergency planning and to get a better view on why so many died. We did share that we have "lock down" drills, & we have preparation programs. I wanted him to know we have familiarity with their schools goals. I would just say, "yes, I am familiar."
Unfortunately the office meeting left me and husband feeling frustrated, talked down to, and thinking (wrongly) the principals arrogant. He's just a really tough manager.
The Kamaishi area is rural, in the mountainside. I remembered reading about old Japanese methods of conducting business and I see them in action here. It's all a means of saving face. The principal sets the agenda, plans the day, and takes all the credit for everything. We as his guests shouldn't ask questions, especially anything that might embarrass him or he might not know the answer too. And to save face, in our attempt to truly have an "exchange" of information, so he could see we have some familiarity, the Principal would respond with sarcasm. But thats the old way, its notnmeant to be offensive. Husband said his school offers calligraphy to the little kids, "oh, you must be an expert then" the Principal replied. We shouldn't be offended by this because he's simply trying to save face and hold relevance. He may have seen our sharing and comments as competition. We felt "we ruffled his feathers" and he "bit" back. It was evident of the misunderstandings.
School has technology but older methods of teaching.
They videotaped the Student Presentstion of the Tsunami Disaster Plan. a student approaches the map board and points our where they live and their evacuation area. And then shows where their evacuation route is.
Students: "going to my evacuation area has many stairs, and there is much traffic. My mom is not familiar with the area, and once a year I go there with family to become familiar."
(Later on we watched the video excerpt coincidentally on the news.)
Students here wear uniforms, have good attention and better listening the. Urban areas. Interestingly he also mentioned suicide, not ever mentioned in other school.
Photos show what if?: and scenarios are reviewed by the students. "If earthquake hits street lights won't work. Street signs are made of steel and they can fall and hurt you." A Little Student about age 5 or 6 said "I was there during an earthquake and the signs didn't fall." Everyone laughed but No teacher in the room corrected his idea. Apparently in the classroom when the material is discussed that will be explained. But to save face the boy wouldn't be corrected in front of the group.)
Do principals in the area meet?
"The teachers meet with the BOE and have seminars." (Often our exact question wasn't answered directly, or something similar was offered.)
How are students mid conceptions handled. Like the little boy with his comments. "Teacher will go back to class and teach about worse case scenario." For the local community the "City conducts drills and they have speakers about it. BOE holds seminar for teachers. In the junior high the school encouraged community and parents to attend the readiness classes."
Have you seen calligraphy work before? We all have . Husband said at his school they teach the calligraphy. Principal said oh you must be an expert then. Husband said the students yes not Ko cho sen sai. After this we went to the calligraphy class.
"Ties to evacuation and prevention training are in all classes. Math has algebra questions, tsunami is approaching at 3m a minute, how long before it strikes. Also kids have swim class in their clothes because when tsunami hits they would be wearing there clothes."
Miki said in this area they might call us Gaijin, now I realize its because its such a small rural area. So here the worldly experience is not like other of Japan's cities.
After the school visit we went to the English Conversation class.
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