Scavenger Hunt and Shinjuku

Tuesday - June 4th, 2013

Today we had a late start to our official schedule so I went for a run with Mara Tieken who is the faculty rep for Bates College.  I always like running in different countries.  Sure it's fun to hop trains and buses from famous site to famous site but when you run through a community I notice "little things"...  shops and random businesses and random little parks etc.

So we ran for an hour and then prepped for a rather short itinerary at Technos.  The students at Technos created a wonderful game to allow the international people to learn about the college... they created a sort of a scavenger hunt.  Each school was given a list of 25 questions and we had free reign to run all over the campus (even into active classrooms) to learn about its history, its facilities, and its general layout. 

Dayana and Alex were determined to win.  Alex worked the maps that were given to us while Dayana was in charge of the question sheet.  Truthfully, I just tagged along while I watched these two in action.  What impressed me most is how willing they were to engage with the people of the college.  Both of them have taken some basic Japanese language courses and they are much better armed to communicate with people in Japanese than I am.  They double-checked their answers and when our 90 minutes were up, we handed in our answers and went to lunch.  Lunch was at the college cafeteria and there were lots of fun options.  I had some sort of breaded chicken dish with a sauce on top that was similar to ranch dressing.

Navigating the cafeteria at Technos.  Note that Oxford Mike and Big Mike are both sporting the official Technos International Week 2013 pink t-shirts that we were given our first day on campus.

There was just a bit of tension amongst the international students and faculty at lunch.  After lunch we were scheduled to give presentations on our own colleges.  This doesn't seem like a big deal but every school seemed to have a different idea as to what we were supposed to do.  Some schools had presentations that were led by faculty.  Others had presentations that were led completely by students.  The group from AUT University in New Zealand had a dance prepared to share with the group.  Other had multimedia presentations.

So... if you are going on this trip let me give you a few tips for your presentation...

1)  The type of space you will be presenting in could be from a wide range of classrooms located on campus.  I was in a traditional classroom.  Another group was in a theatre space.  Every group is in a different room.

2)  Depending on what class you present to, you may or may not have an interpreter.  I taught in an English class so we had no interpreter.

3)  Pictures and visuals are good.  Maps showing where your college is... pics of the college... the community... etc.

4)  Just have fun.  Share a  few items about your school.  Bring some brochures or postcards or college trinkets to hand out and just have fun.

So as I mentioned, the HWS presentation was taught in an English class.  The teacher of the class was another Canadian named Matt... Matthew Golem.  First, Matthew had his students do a presentation for us on Technos College.  We learned a lot about the history, the courses offered, and that there are actually two different branches of Technos College within Tokyo.  Our presentation talked about our location in the Finger Lakes, the Wine Industry, the fact that the first accredited female doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell, came from Hobart College, and we talked about sports and daily life on campus, etc. 

Afterwards we broke into three small groups and Dayana, Alex and I answered questions that the students had.  It was a real nice hour or so of interaction.

Alex, Dayana and I talk with Technos students about HWS and Technos College.

Later in the class I had a chance to chat with Matthew Golem, Supporting Instructor at Technos.

 So that was it for the scheduled activities for the day and with many of us relieved that the mysterious presentations were over, it was time to explore.  About half of the faculty and two students ended up heading down to Shinjuku.  So maybe now is a good time to talk briefly about Tokyo.  Tokyo is freaking massive.  I've been to London, Rome, Paris, New York, etc...   None of them compare to Tokyo.  The most populous part of Tokyo is in the eastern third of the city.  This chunk is broken down into 23 wards.  Shinjuku is one of the wards and this ward alone has over 300,000 people living in it.  Think about that...  Shinjuku is one of 23 wards that make up about 1/3rd of the city... and Shinjuku alone has 300,000 people.  Unreal.  Shinjuku station is the busiest subway station in the world.  

This is Shinjuku.  It looks like a city in and of itself but it is just one small part of Tokyo.  Notice Mt. Fuji photobombing the picture in the background.

Seeing this city by day and by night is two totally different experiences.

So off we went.  Big Mike had a book with a recommended walking tour around the station so we went and did that for a bit before Bob Dobrow, the faculty rep from Carleton College got hungry.  Bob's a cool guy.  He's a math professor and has a really fun level of curiousity.  He's a foodie too and it became pretty clear that he was dying to get some sushi... perhaps because he missed out on the surprise gift sushi from that great older man from the day before.  So Bob walks into some random sushi joint on the corner and it looked like we walked straight onto a movie set.  I had a feeling this would be a lot of fun.

Most of us ordered this....

but Bob and Big Mike ordered this!

Sushi in Japan is just different.  It's better... and that's not because you are in Japan.  There is a freshness to what you are eating that is unbelievable. After our meal the students stuck around Shinjuku some more and the faculty headed back to the hotel.  It's about a 30 minute train ride because we are staying in the western part of Tokyo. 

Tomorrow we leave the city for a 3-day excursion!