The Adventure Begins

Konnichiwa (Hello), Today the adventure begins. 4 am came realllllllllly early so that I could make my flight out of Austin Bergstrom (ABIA). Yes, boys and girls of CTMS, I did say 4 am. I know alot of you may not know that time exists especially in the summer. If you are anything like my son Lane, 11 am is more your rise and shine time. I got on board at ABIA and journeyed three hours to San Francisco, California. I was one of the first ones in. Remember there are 199 other teachers converging on this city all bent on going to Japan. Ethan was our guy from JFMF. He got 30 of us loaded on a bus and sent us off to the hotel.

We are staying close to the airport because we have to get up reallllllly early again tomorrow to fly for at least 9 hours to Japan. We leave on Monday and because we cross the international date line, we actully get to Japan on Tuesday at 4:30 pm. Anyway, once we got to the hotel, we had an awesome lunch and met lots of people we only knew through email. Try making 200 new friends at once! It is hard to keep everyone straight. After lunch, there were presentations (student intrepretation - classes with speakers) for the remainder of the afternoon. We gots lots of information including: Don't lose your nametag or you will be in BIG trouble, and be on time everywhere you go. Unlike Americans, the Japanese are very punctual. If the bus leaves at 8:30 am and you show up at 8:31 am, you will be finding another way to the airport. Gotta be on time! We also got an agenda for the entire trip. People, I am talking about each day, scheduled to the minute in advance. And for those campers who thought this with a free vacation - I am here to tell you that I will be working alot - not to mention all while wearing a tie.

We also got information on our host families. Mine is Mr. and Mrs. Kiyoshi Wakabayashi of Itabashi-ku, Tokyo prefecture. I don't know much about them yet, but they probably don't speak English - can we say 24 hours of Pictionary? Good thing I can draw well. We also got to hear from some past participants who shared their experiences with us and answered questions. Here we all are waiting for the next session to start. Any of your CTMS teachers will tell you that teachers in general make bad students. We don't always listen well as you can see from this picture - everybody is talking.
When all the speakers had shared, we broke and went to our rooms to change clothes for dinner. Only business wear from now on. Jeans and sneakers are totally prohibited. Japan is a very formal society and teachers are highly looked upon. We were told this afternoon to get used to being the center of attention. When we visit our prefectures, the Japanese papparatzi will be on us and we will appear in the local papers. The schools we visit will have special performances and assemblies in our honor. The clouds will part before us and the light will shine through....... OK, I made that part up. We will meet with local city, prefecture and national leaders. In essence, we will be celebrities. You can all say you knew me when..... and there will probably be no living with me when I get back. Once you have had papparatzi, there is no going back! Do you think I can get Mrs. Negrete to hire me someone to handle my newfound fans? Probably not in the budget. Oh well----- can't blame a guy for trying.
Seriously, evidently teachers have a high role in Japanese society which explains why many of our speakers in the coming week will be for the top ranks of Japanese government. It would be like having Condolezza Rice speak to us. Now that is cool!
At the end of the day, we had a VERY nice banquet. See us all in our dress best. This is how I have to dress for the next three weeks folks. No shorts and sandals for this Texas boy ----- oh no-----ties and jackets rule in Japan. Well, it is very late and my roomie tonight is already sleeping so gotta go! Love to all in Leander, Flower Mound and Corpus. CTMS Cougar artists, hope you are tuning in! Send me some love and comments people - I may really like this Japan gig ----- I know you want me to return. Let me feel the love. I know I like to travel, but I do love home. I leave you all with this parting thought for today. Ich-i-go Ich-i-eh which means "Treasure every moment for it may never return." That is what I am hoping to do these next weeks and I explore Japan for myself and my students, community and family.

Sayanora,
Tim Lowke