Summer in Hyogo

Hey, all! American CIR Liz reporting in again. I thought I would let you know a little bit about some of the most fun events I've worked on this summer.

I love working at the Hyogo International Association (HIA), because it gives me lots of opportunities to get out into the community and do some firsthand international exchange.

June

The highlight of my June was helping out with the Washington-Hyogo Teacher Institute tour, which I wrote about in this blog post.

July

In July I was busy!  On the 13th I visited Mikage High School to give a talk about Seattle to a group of students who would be visiting Seattle as part of a school trip!  I'm always happy to talk about my hometown, and the kids at Mikage H.S. were great.  They asked me tons of questions and even gave mini-presentations in English on Seattle topics they had researched.

On the 18th, I took part in a festival near my apartment - Nagata Matsuri, the summer festival held at Nagata Jinja, one of the three great Shinto shrines in Kobe.  I dressed up in a summer kimono made of ro, a lightweight type of silk.  I stood on the festival stage and helped select prize drawing winners, and I also told the crowd a little bit about the myself and the HIA.  I'm always looking for more opportunity to raise awareness of who the CIRs are and what we do.

On the 29th, I helped put on a tea ceremony event for foreign residents of Hyogo - another opportunity to dress up in kimono for work!  (I love my job.)  I interpreted while the tea master performed an abbreviated tea ceremony for all the guests and then explained the history of this Japanese art.  Finally, all the participants got a chance to try making tea themselves.

August

August is a time I look forward to every year - it's when all the new ALTs arrive in Japan.  The new ALTs are always so excited and full of enthusiasm, and of course dying of curiosity about their placements in Hyogo.

First, I go up to Tokyo to pick all the ALTs up after their three-day Tokyo Orientation.  My Japanese colleagues and I then accompany them on the shinkansen and bus ride to central Hyogo.

There, it's the moment they've all been waiting for - they meet their Japanese coworkers for the first time and head off to cities and towns all over Hyogo, where they will live and work for the next one to five years.

They regroup later in August for orientations, where we try to give them information on everyday life in Hyogo and hints on how to make the best of their time in Japan.  From then on, each of them will have a completely distinct and individual experience.  Sometimes I find myself jealous of them.  I don't think I would be particularly good at teaching, but I always wonder what it would be like to be suddenly plunked down into a rural area of an unfamiliar country where no one else spoke my language.  It sounds like an adventure.

And, with that, I'll sign off for now.  Hope that gave you an idea of some of the things I've been doing lately.  September is on the horizon, but here in Kobe the heat is showing no signs of letting up.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!