On the work front year 3

Since our time here is not ALL about travel and adventures because I am here to work I thought I would share some "Miles-stones" of this time of year, now my third year as principal of BSCIS. 

The school is quite a vibrant center of learning for our students with a whole range of learning styles and environments. We had balloon powered cars in Physics 11...

We studied about and responded to Residential schools in Socials 11...

We integrated aboriginal concepts and visuals in most of our subject matter...

And we also continue to celebrate the bi-cultural education that we provide here for our students. This is the grade 12 students taking their tea ceremony class, the "final exam" being a tea ceremony for their parents. 

We also continue to invite a series of presenters to share their lives and inspire our students as to what is possible. This is Ambassador Ishikawa, who was the Japanese ambassador to Canada, to Egypt, who represented Japan in G8 negotiations and who graduated from Ecole Nationale in Paris.

He had a very powerful message about the most important skills in his life was to learn to be flexible, to work with opportunities as they arose and to celebrate all cultures... not just Japan. 

We were thrilled to have Akiko Kuno come to do a workshop with the grade 11 English class. She wrote a book about her great-grandmother who was sent by the Meiji emperor to study in the US at the age of 12. She lived there for 10 years then returned to Japan to marry a great war hero and Minister of War and to educate Japan about ways in the West. Students were mesmerized by her stories. 

Here are pictures of her great-grand-mother in full Western outfits. 

Our grade 10 students honed their presentation skills by presenting to the entire 200 grade 9 students about their summer in BC.

Mid-October is also our annual inspection time. This is the time that the BC Ministry of Education sends an inspector to our school to review every aspect of the function of our school including finances, curriculum, contracts, teaching methodology, assessment methods etc. It is a busy time before the inspection with lots of ground work to prepare and then an intense week when both the MOE inspector and my supervisor from MOE are with us.

Ed, our inspector this year, had the chance to visit many areas of our school.

He met with our team at various points. Here is part of the team at the morning meeting. 

At the end of the inspection our school for the third time in a row received an excellent report with only commendations and no requirements!

Ah yes... three excellent inspection reports in three years; yeah!

And then, of course, Halloween hits us like a storm... even here in Japan. Students had a great time:

While we enjoyed having some of our Japanese and BC staff get into the spirit as well:

Most recently we are participating in a promotional film by the BC MOE about Offshore schools where they had professional cinematographers film both interviews with our students and some of our parents. 

I continue to have amazing opportunities to connect with people from around the world, this time hosted at the Canadian embassy (again) for the Study in Canada Fair. Here again, in the main hall maybe 500 people.

The honoured guests at this event were the JP Minister of Education and the Assistant Minister.

In the beautiful gardens I had the opportunity to meet the Minster and to talk about our school.

It is a beautiful setting in Tokyo and the garden spread was striking. 

Inside the residence it was fun to meet up with a young Pole representative. 

And to enjoy the view of downtown Tokyo from the top floor. 

As I bicycled the 12 km back to our home I picked the specific route through the fall colours to really enjoy this season here in Tokyo. I also reflected on the wonderful opportunities I have had in my work here and how much I have enjoyed my time as principal of BSCIS. 

Weather events in Japan

 We had another opportunity for a long weekend trip down to the Art islands of Naoshima and Teshima for our second visit. Click here for a more complete discription. We had a good friends visiting from Kaslo and we knew that they would enjoy the art so we booked lodging and transportation several months ahead because things are so crowded in Japan on long weekends. 

 As the weekend approached we watched the weather with great consternation. The news was full of the weather events in Texas, and Florida, and we read that this typhoon coming up from the Pacific was a huge one.  Hello to Typhoon Talim.

 We debated back-and-forth whether we should go or not. If we didn't go we would lose our reservations and a good trip. If we did go we might be heading into the path of the typhoon.  Japan has excellent storm tracking sites which we could follow hour by hour. Click here to view the site. It look like the typhoon would not be hitting the area that we were headed to so we decided to go ahead. 

We arrived under heavy but regular rain and enjoyed viewing some of the art on our first day on the island. (note the open house happening for the Japanese destroyer in the background as Japan saber rattles for the North Korea crisis). 

As we toured around the island we noted that people were VERY clear about the arrival of the typhoon. The ferry was canceled for Sunday. All of the museums were closed. The bike rental shop was closed. The onsen was also closed for Sunday. 

Dramatic art museums and art installations... viewed under pouring rain but not a typhoon. 

The next morning, after an amazing breakfast, with everything shut we toured around the island under grey skies, constantly debating whether the typhoon was, or was not coming. We checked out the public art that was on display in the streets as all museums were shut for the typhoon... Maybe a clue?

Based on our experience of the sketchy weather reporting in BC, we just couldn't see the signs of an approaching typhoon. We even went swimming... then we felt the water being drawn away from the beach; sign of a storm surge preparing itself. 

We decided to head straight back to our lodging as the first few drops began falling... and the warning system set up all across Japan began blaring. Though we couldn't understand, it certainly was insistent. We asked our host who said; "Typhoon coming"!!!

The rain started gently, then the wind began... and then the deluge; this is a series of three videos sent from our lodging as the storm increased. 

We experienced the power of the early warning system in Japan. Click here for details about the latest warning alerts for incoming missiles. 

It was quite nerve racking as we settled into an afternoon and evening of howling winds and dumping rain, accompanied by regular announcements on the PA and fire trucks driving by. Around 9:00 PM our phones began ringing regularly with messages from the security alert system. Again, all in Japanese so we used Shelley's phone to scan and translate my phone. Each announcement was for a new area to be evacuated due to land slides. Was it our area? Then we would get out Google maps to find out that no... our area was not being evacuated.

They alert system is amazing but... as a foreigner, we had real trouble understanding the information!

After a stressful night of listening to the howling wind and pouring rain, the intensity of the typhoon decreased gradually until...

the next morning which was a beautiful, mild and sunny day. The only reminder of the typhoon was areas where the tidal surge had swept over the concrete barriers. 

We resumed touring the art islands under sunny skies. Once again we were thrilled to see the work done by artists to re-vision abandoned houses into art pieces. 

A glimpse through the re-visioned window to the traditional port...

And a pumpkin with polka dots? Why not? Our rental bike helmets designed to "match"...

We left the area with a renewed sense of awe about human creativity when well-funded... and a renewed sense of awe about the power of nature in our own "back yard"!

Collections in Japan, take 2 (or is 3? or 4?)

I am always fascinated by what makes for a "collectible". People all over the world collect all kinds of thing of course: stamps, coins, baseball cards, etc. In Japan, my awareness of what is considered to be collectible has greatly expanded. My latest introduction to a "collection" was at the Cruise Lodge where I spent a wonderful night during my last bicycle tour.

The lodge is a unique blend of Western/Japanese tastes:

And the owner, as it turned out, is a collector of a wide range of fascinating things. He spent the evening sharing whiskey with me and explaining his collections. Because of my interest he reached into his cabinets and showed me how each of these items worked. 

One of his big collections is of toys made in Japan right after the end of WW2. Note the box that says "Made in Occupied Japan"

The toys are fascinating because all of the characters have blue eyes and are designed for the American market (back when Japanese items were considered "cheap junk")

They all twirled, banged and whistled when wound up. 

I was fascinated but some of the gross characterization of different races. 

Check out the toy aircraft carrier, the site of so much carnage during the Kamikaze campaigns. 

Then there were the earliest sacred cat statues...

The special tea cup collection including a cup that shows the picture of a geisha through the china on the bottom of the cup. 

There was the type-writer collection as well as the CD collection. 

There was the Wedgewood collection (including plates as well) 

Ah yes, there was the teddy bear collection and... the cork screw collection:

What a fascinating window into what is "important" in this world.