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Shower of Confetti
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The small village of Azumi lies nested between the mountains of the Japanese
Alps in Nagano Prefecture. Azumi Village has a population of 2,500, and the combined elementary and junior high school has only about 100 students. The
mountain scenery viewed from the school's classrooms is quite beautiful.
I spent most of the day with the sixth-grade students, but I also had the
opportunity to meet and talk with the other elementary school students. When
I entered the sixth-grade classroom, the students asked me to pull a string
attached to a box hanging from the ceiling. I pulled, and the unopened box
fell to the floor with everyone laughing. Since the contraption did not work
as planned, I had to stand as one of the students poured a boxful of confetti
over my head in order to welcome me.
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Showing Photo of
Blue-eyed Dolls
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During the last half of Japanese language class, the sixth graders each
had to think of four kanji (Chinese characters) to represent my name. Each of
the students then wrote the characters on the board and explained to me why
they chose them. All of the students' ideas were quite good, but I was asked
to choose the one I liked best. I selected the four characters that could be
used to describe my company, a jet engine manufacturer. Later in the day, Mr.
Shinichi Soyama, the sixth-grade teacher, wrote these characters and the
school's name in beautiful calligraphy and presented it to me.
Before lunch I spoke to a school assembly for the elementary school
students. Many of the students, especially the younger ones, had never seen
the school's Blue-eyed Doll named Mary, which was sent from America in 1927.
I found out later that the doll usually is kept in one of the two large safes in the
principal's office. I was not able to show the doll during the presentation
since during November and December the doll is at the Shinano Education
Museum in Nagano City, where there is a special exhibition of all 23
Blue-eyed Dolls in Nagano Prefecture.
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Singing "Blue-eyed
Doll"
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The sixth graders knew a great deal about the Blue-eyed Dolls.
One girl mentioned how much she enjoyed reading about the history of the
dolls. Each of the sixth-grade students had signed a sheet supporting the
homecoming of Miss Nagano, the Japanese Friendship Doll sent to America in
1927. The sixth-grade students of Watauchi Elementary School in Nagano City
are coordinating this signature campaign to bring Miss Nagano back from the US
to Nagano Prefecture for a visit. At the end of the school assembly, the
sixth-graders sang "Blue-eyed
Doll."
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View from Classroom
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During the day I had a chance to chat for a
short time with Ms. Hiroko Maeda, the librarian of the school. She has a lot
of knowledge about the Friendship Dolls, and she created the web page on
Azumi's Blue-eyed Doll Mary.
After the students finished cleaning the school,
I faced one of my greatest challenges of my three-week trip to Japan. I joined
in a soccer game with the fifth and sixth graders. The game was played in the
gymnasium with modified rules, so I did not have to run as much as a regular
soccer game, but some of my muscles were still sore a couple of days later.
During the last period of the day, the
sixth-grade students had time to look at some of the items I had brought from
the US, such as picture post cards, stamps, photos, and money. The students
presented me with some beautiful place mats woven by hand on a loom. They also
gave me some recycled aluminum bars with my name or some other word, which the
students had engraved on them.
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Sixth-grade Class
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