This is Barbara:

On the way home I asked the students to write comments about the trip and to give advice to students who might be going on future exchanges to Ishigaki. Here are their comments:

Austin: Don't eat shaving cream (he learned this from the "pie" throwing contest).

Be careful of what you do in the shower since the drains are weird.

Goya is...ok.

Get lost, it's fun.

Mention my name, they all love me.

(Forgot to write his/her name):

Be really photogenic.

Be ready to try new things.

Do kareoke.

Devon:

This is a trip that was filled with ups and downs. Highlights with friends and family, and lows with culture shock and stress. During the trip I most enjoyed the more touristy parts like snorkeling and on the tour bus. In fact, right up until the end, I felt like I had never fit in with my family. I did my best to be polite and unobtrusive while still being part of the family. However, I felt like an outsider. As my returning date arrived, I felt a breath of fresh air. I could get out of the their hair. But the last night, it was different. My host father and older sister and I played cards, and talked, and stayed up too late. Even still, I wasn't really sad about going.

And then we went to the airport, we took our last photographs, and spent over an hour saying everything but goodbye. I looked up, and my host mother was crying. They handed me a little folder, and sent me off. When I opened it, there was a picture of all of us sitting on the couch. I almost cried too.

Andre's tips:

Bring more money than you think you will need. You don't need to exchange it all, but the extra security is nice.

Be ready to eat a little bit of everything your family gives you. Even if you don't like it, they will be very excited that you tried it.

Make an effort to get to know your host parents, and other siblings, if possible. The parents are usually very interesting and are very happy to talk about themselves.

If an opportunity comes up to do something, but you have to pay for it (we had to pay for snorkeling), it is almost always worth it.

Feel comfortable when you're at school. The attention my be a bit off putting sometimes, but it's just because people want to meet you.

Don't do the smile and nod technique, don't be afraid to tell someone you don't understand. They'll appreciate that you are at least listening.

Pick up a few words of the dialect because everyone you talk to will be very impressed and amused that you're learning parts of their culture.

I hope more comments will still come in since not all students handed theirs to me.

What I want to remember about our trip:

--Devon being so generous with her time and starting this blog, downloading hundreds of pictures for everyone, being so cheerful and capable and adding to the blog throughout, especially since my laptop never could get internet connection at my host family's home.

--John coming one hour late to check in first thing when we were leaving Eugene and my thinking Yes, there will be some problems.

--Lots of cards games during our many layovers at airports.

--Austin coming up to me 5 minutes before boarding our flight to Okinawa and telling me he'd lost his ticket. The 2 minutes of panic and all of us wondering what to do and then the stewardess coming up to us holding a ticket and asking if it was ours.

--Cherise, Austin, and Tristan running up the stairs along the 12 story high series of escalators in the Kyoto Mall. Running the whole time.

--Devon being totally surrounded by hungry deer in Nara and barely getting the wrappers off the crackers for them and how she kept saying No, they're really gentle.

--Evan every time I asked how he was doing saying Fine, except for being too hot. And always having a smile on his face.

--Tristan and Devon being my speech writers when I had to address the entire student body at Yaeyama High School in Japanese and also later the mayor of Ishigaki too; later how they politely told me they thought I might have been understood.

--Oliver announcing to the whole school that he liked girls. Later, always being surrounded by girls.

--Tristan playing soccer on Games Day in 95 degree weather and probably 90% humidity and running really fast.

--All our 8:30 AM meetings in the Language Lab and Jade always arriving last.

--Snorkeling at the coral reef and being absolutely transfixed by the beauty, the colors, the variety of shapes of the coral and the fish and thinking how lucky we were to experience this. That every discomfort of the heat, humidity, not being able to communicate well, etc. etc. was absolutely worth every second because of the world I had been allowed to see under the water.

--Andre always cleaning the same landing on the stairs after school and being surrounded by girls. How thoughtful and interesting he was about his observations of all he was learning in Japan. One of my favorites was when he told me he was finally acclimated to the weather which I thought was impossible. I asked him in surprise if he had stopped sweating like a pig like everyone else. His answer: No, I haven't stopped sweating like a pig. I just don't care about it anymore.

--The contrast between Will stepping up to the mike at the beginning of our stay and at the end when he addressed the whole student body for us in Japanese because his confidence had grown so much. How happy I was to hear him address the parents the last night when we gave them a dinner party to thank them for hosting us. How they so totally loved him since he was able to use some of the local dialect.

--Tristan announcing to the student body on the last day that it was Will's birthday and leading them in singing Happy Birthday to Will.

--Our circle together for the last time at the airport on the last day with everyone saying Thank you and good bye, how Austin walked into the circle when it was his turn, raising up his arms, and being the first one to say his thanks in Japanese. How Kurara san told us all how much she appreciated us all, even Austin and Jade. How just about everyone cried to have to leave.

--Seeing all the the host families, the teachers, and the principal standing on the observation area waving goodbye to us as we got on the plane and even the whole time we were taxiing down the runway as we left Ishigaki.

--Feeling really proud of all the students- how they supported and looked out for each other, how they were responsible about exploring and enjoying themselves, how they understood what a valuable opportunity they had to experience the Japanese and Okinawan cultures as well as to share their own culture in this exchange between Ishigaki and Eugene that has lasted almost 25 years now. How Yaeyama High School has already chosen the next teacher to bring a group of students to Eugene next February and how our 10 students all want to host.

--Lastly that I want to thank South and Pam Scott for asking me and my husband David to chaperone and to the parents for entrusting their students to us. All of us learned a lot traveling so far from home - how to negotiate airports, to be patient, to watch out for each other, learn our way around new places, how to adapt to new situations and people, and how to make new friends. Thanks very much to all the students for their respect and patience with me. You were very fun to be with and I appreciate having gotten to know you.

Some stuff happens

This is DEVON.

So last week, we helped out in the Englis classes, playing excitig games such as "Down by the banks of the hanky panky" ad speed reading games. We did this about a hundred times.

We go home in two days, which I must say, I'm excited to do. Its been a fun time, but iI'm more than ready for American food, my friends, my kitty cat, and some delicious wi-fi.

In other news, we went to Iriomote island, which sounded really exciting on the itenerary, but I felt was sort of lame. It was fun, but lame.
The "Night Walk" which seemed like the best part, was not in fact a walk through the jungle where everyone's life could be at sake rom the poisonus snakes. They made it out ot be this way. It was not.
Instead, we walked down the street to the vending machine for a late night drink. And then walkd back.

No biggie, the next day we had a river tour, which conssted of riding in a sketchy looking bot a few miles upriver. It wasn't a total waste, though. We got see this trewhich was over 2oo years old, and MASSIVE. Not just any tree either, but this special jungle tree. It looks pretty freaky, I can't even describe it.
Anyhow, I have pictures. I don't think I will be adding any pis to our photobucket, as I stillhave 100 pictres on my camera, and we go home so soon. you will all just have to wait.

Today, I got to watch a Japanese tea ceremony, which was really neat. In a little while we willgo up to Kabira village for a festival, and I tink I might end up wearing a Kimono. I'm pretty excited.

I would giv a bigger update, but this chair is REALLY uncomfortable.
See everyone soon.

Independance Day in Japan

Andre here,
Today was the 4th of July, but no fireworks or barbeques here.
Today my family took me to Kabira Bay which is apparently known as `the most beautiful spot in all of Japan`. Which is saying something. There we took a glass boat ride, which is a boat, with the center cut out and made of glass so you can see beneath the water, and look at all the fish swimming around. There were some amazing fish down there, long, fat, skinny, small, bright, dark. It was awesome.

Afterwards we went to a resturant next to the glass boats, where we got Okinawan soba, which is absolutely delicious. This kind had pieces of pork in it, and was very tasty.
Speaking of delicious things, whatever my host mother is cooking at the moment smells absolutely amazing. Kinda garlicy, but anyways.

After eating and some more sight seeing, we returned home. But we werent there for long, because Kenta`s class was having a party at the beach. Kenta and I hopped on our bikes and headed over there. It was really nice. The water was the perfect temperature to counter act the eat. We played around for a few hours, there, and then came home. It was deffinetly the most entertaining thing I`ve done on this trip.

Tomorrow I`m having dinner with Taiga, the student I hosted last year. His family invited Kenta and I over the other night, so I am looking forward to that.

This is Devon

Yeah.

So.... lots of new pictures on the photobucket.
lie is pretty good. Since our host students have been in finals, we have been tooling around the island, and doing other touristy stuff. We went yesterday on a bus tour of the island, and saw such nifty things as a chinese tomb, and tropical fish. We went swimming iwth the tropical fish in a coral reef! It was pretty cool. There r pictures of these things on photobucket.

Today, we went to the beach, and went sweiming, but there was no fishes this time. I got realy sunburnt. When I came home, my host famil was like "Red! red!" And they started lauging until they realized it hurt. I tried to ask for aloe, but htey didn't know the word, and my dictionary didn't have it. I finally did a google image search for aloe vera.

My host mother returned from the store with pieces of aloe about 4 feet long! I guess its some sort of tree. Also, you can eat it. We're having it for dinner tonight.

All in all on this trip so far I have eaten Goya, tongue, tripe, and (very soon) aloe.
Its odd to think of what might come next.

Tomorrow we are due to see the fish market, and some other things that don't sound partcularly thrilling to me, though I'm sure it will be a little bit fun, at least. I almost got heat ehaustion oday, but caught it in time to recover. Then we went down to the harvest festival in Kabira Village.
The festival had several religious activities, including this thing where a man balances a 30 foot pole on end on his stomach, and where a man lifts and carried a rock. They're like trials of verility or something. I'm not entirely sure, but it was pretty cool. The atmosphere was really country fair-esque, so I felt mostly at home, except for the humidity. I still kind of miss home, though.

Having a good time. Will mail post cards soon, I promise! But didn't manage today...

-- Devon

Hey guys, its Andre. I thought I`d throw up a post summarizing whats happened so far in the past two days for me.
This is a long post, and is just about what I`ve done

The first thing we did after leaving the airport was go to Kenta`s (my host) sister`s school field day. She was running in a relay race. There were 3 teams of students, and 1 team of teachers. They ran around the track several times. It was very amusing, but sadly the teachers came in last. Standing outside during the hottest part of the day is not extremely fun, but we got a snowcone, and it was a little better.
Thankfuly my host father speaks English rather well and can communicate things to me when I dont understand, which sometimes happens with the mom, who speaks only a few words. But The whole family is very nice. Kenta has a 15 year old brother named Kenji and a 13 or 14 year old sister, Kano.

The first thing that happened when I got home and had changed out of my jeans into shorts was I was offered food. Mochi (a sticky rice ball) and obento. In the obento was a piece of fried chicken breast, rice, vegetables, a meatball of some sort, an omelette esque egg thing and a hasbrown like thing made with rice. After that we went to Sakiko`s house to have a welcome party with all the students and hosts. The food there was very good. I ate some of the most delicious pineapple I have ever had there. The boys played basketball together and the girls watched and talked.

After the party it was time to go home and take a shower. I don`t think I`ve ever sweat this much. The showers in japan are quite different from america, I`ll try to upload a picture in the future. After a nice cold shower I hit the hay... or bamboo mat rather. Instead of a futon cushion like I had in the hotel in Kyoto, I am now sleeeping on a rather thin cushion on top of a tatami mat. Tatami mats are special mats that are made from bamboo. Luckily I like sleeping on hard surfaces. My bed is in a loft above my room. It seems like rooms in Japan are so much cooler than in America. I may have to design any future home I have after a japanese home.

Kenta and I got up at 6:45 to eat breakfast, and then biked to school around 7:30 so he could make it to his early (before school) english class. There I was asked to introduce myself, but I didn`t have anything prepared so I just kinda said my name, how old I was and that I like all food. Thankfully I`ve hosted students from Ishigaki twice (one of them being my host now) so I know several of the people, which made me feel much more comfortable.

After that first class, all the students from SEHS were introduced to the teachers at Yaeyama high school. After that we went to the gym to prepare for the welcome assembly for all of us. We had to walk onto stage, and stand infront of the entire school as the Principal gave a speech (in japanese, which was translated to english for us) Then we all went up to the mic and told everyone our name and how old we are. Surprisingly, I wasn`t as nervous as I expected to be.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, aside from being asked to answer a question in the english class (which is surpsingly hard when you cant read the directions) and being asked to predict the score of the Japan Vs. Paraguay game in the world cup. (another thing thats difficult when you`re tired in a class in another country).

After school, several people went to Sakiko`s house to place video games on her ROTATING TV! It spins and is sooooo cool. Doesnt really enhance the game or anything. But it was fun. Also, one of the snacks that Sakiko`s mother gave to us (prepackaged mind you) were just plain hot dog buns with mayonaise on them.

When Kenta and I got home, dinner was almost ready. Dinner that night was sashimi-ed Ahi. (cut pieces of raw tuna) That was the first time I had sushi, and I thought it was rather good. There was also a salad esque item, with cooked tuna, hard boiled eggs and some other unidentified, delicious red thing.

The TV seems to always be on in this house, which I dont mind, because japanese Television is very amusing. So after dinner we watched some game shows, where I could kind of figure out what was going on. They seem like they are much easier to win than american ones.

Another cold shower, and a nice tatami mat sleep later, it was back to school for an early math class. The amount of work done in said class is questionable. I was looking around and it looked like several people were falling asleep. Not very good with final exams starting tomorrow. Luckily, the math class/homeroom had moved from its previous location in a room with a broken airconditioner, to the coldest room in the school. Ive never appreciated air conditioning that much. PE was the first official class of the day. Kenta even had a spare set of gym clothes that I could change into (the actual school ones that everyone wears). On the way to the gym/field several girls said my name from behind me, and I turned around to wave. This caused them to start saying `kawai` which is the japanese word for cute. Anyways, in PE I played soccer with kenta and a large group of other kids. It was fun, despite the heat, and my team won. But it was fun even when no points were being scored.

Once again the rest of the day was uneventful, until homeroom period at the end of the day. I saw several kids wrestling and chasing each other around the room, with the teacher watching and laughing. It was amusing. I was also asked to help come up with sentances to put on their class t-shirts. I was little help with that, but since the sentances they want to put on are in english, I corrected their grammar.

That was the last thing I did of any interest today, aside from eating a good, green apple flavored popsicle. Thats pretty much what I did before getting online to post here. Tomorrow we meet the mayor, and get to go swimming at the beach. I`ve been looking forward to that for quite awhile now.

Well, Toodles.
-Andre

Nara and Ishigaki

This is Devon Martin reporting on behalf of all the students from South Eugene, as I am lucky enough to have computer access.
After seeing Kyoto, we spent another night in the traditional hotel, before heading off to Nara, another Japanese city. Our guide in Nara was Mr. Sada. He took us to a museum to give us an overview of Nara before the tour, in order to better bridge the language gap. Then he took us on a tour of Nara Park and the temple nearby. There ar all these tame, sacred deer that basically own the park. (I made the mistake of trying to feed them crackers.)

The temple also housed the largest indoor Buddah in the world. The thing is huge. At the back of the hall there is a supporting post with a hole in it the exact size of the Buddah`s nostril. Its said that if you can squeeze through the hole, you will have good health for a year. Several members of our group drew up a crowd by trying to get through.

After Nara, we rested for one last night at the hotel, before returning to Osaka inorder to fly down to Okinawa Airport in Naha. From there it was antoher hour flight to Ishigaki.

When we arrived in Ishigaki, our host families were lined up in the foyer of the TINY (way smaller than Eugene`s) airport. There was a sort of opening ceremony thing, and some speeches were made by the Yaeyama school principal and a few students.
After a few hours with our host families, there was an opening rooftop party that include a potluck, basketball, and general visiting.
Today was Monday, and we shadowed our ost student`s at their school day. Tomorrow we will do the same thing, but starting on Wednesday, the students have final exams. It was last speculated that we will go swimming on the ocean for osme of that time, but there is no real plan yet.

Everyone has lots of pictures, but right now it is difficultot upload them. We will post a blog and let everyone know when the pictures have been updated.

-- Devon Martin

From Kyoto

Check below for individual messages.

We arrived in Osaka after an 11 hour long flight. From Osaka we took a taxi van to Kyoto. The trip was about an hour. We are spending our nights in a traditional style Japanese Inn. The rooms have bamboo tatami mats, and you have to take your shoes off when you go in.
In Kyoto, we have spent one day with a Guide named Shoto. He showed us some of the temples and shrines, and the train station. We saw some rickshaw drivers, and a large outdoor strip mall. The train station has a series of about six escalators that went up a total of around 10 stories.

Tomorrow we will see more of Kyoto, and then go down to Nara and see the tame deer. On Sunday (Saturday for you) we will go to Ishigaki and meet our host families.

From Devon:

Hey everyone! Having much fun in Kyoto. Its not really hot here, only about 70 degrees, but its really humid.
My phone isn't working so far, but I hope it will start soon. Tomorrow I will get post cards for everyone. I will try to send them if I can. I have been able to take a lot of great pictures! I miss you all. And BTW Finny, I GOT TO SEE RUSSIA OUT THE WINDOW OF THE PLANE!!!!
Muahahaha.

From Evan

Hey mom and dad! It is WAY too hot here...but we got the A/C to work and it is AWESOME. It may be a long three weeks but things are going ok. We leave for ishigaki on sunday (your saturday). Hope that everyones ok, ill be posting more as the trip goes on as will others. I miss you guys!

I now know how high, in earlobes, our plane was. heres to boring flights and calculators.
p.s. Im not dead
p.p.s. yet
-Erskine

From Andre,

Captains Log, Stardate.... 2

Dearly Departed,
We hath landed our vessel in ye olde land of the rising sun. The weather hath been clement, and humid as h-e-double hockey sticks. I would like to say thank you to the academy for giving me this chance to partake in such a life breaking experience.
I'd also like to thank Mrs. Meyers my Kindergarten teacher for teaching me English, because she made me realize how much I enjoy other languages because english is so boring.
Please note: I do not have access to teh intertubz. Please send Ethertubes. I am writing this with a hammer and chisel, into the side of an whale, which I hope will wash up on the Oregon coast, which will then make its way onto the internet when they try to blow it up, and realize my message has been carved into the side.
As Abraham Lincoln once said; "Goodbye everybody" I'm pretty sure he said that.
btdubz
Hi Mally.

Hey mom, im a man of few words could put my frequent flyer miles on my account for for me because i cannot...
-jade

Will - what everyone else said. Plus, I saw that green monster thing that people like. So that was cool.