Thursday, March 15, 2007
This is the first of several retrospective blog entries chronicling our sojourn in Singapore: this year's 8th grade class trip that Barbara and I took with six students from March 15 to March 22. In order to protect the privacy of my students, I've given the students nicknames and the students will not be identified in the pictures.
This is the first of several retrospective blog entries chronicling our sojourn in Singapore: this year's 8th grade class trip that Barbara and I took with six students from March 15 to March 22. In order to protect the privacy of my students, I've given the students nicknames and the students will not be identified in the pictures.
We had three eighth graders on our trip, "Holly"(whose nickname carries over from REAL Christian Theater blog entires), and a quintessential Micronesian girl of Carolinian and Marshallese heritage who shall be referred to as "Micronesian Queen", plus one of three Korean boys who we referred to collectively as "Korea." This young man will be referred to as "KoreaY." Our ninth graders were "The Treasurer" (you may recall The Treasurer--who earned her nickname last year as the treasurer of last years 8th grade class--was denied permission to travel to Korea at the last minute and couldn't go on her own 8th grade class. It was for her that we opened up this year's trip to ninth grade students as well) and the other two members of Korea, who I will refer to as "KoreaX" and :"KoreaZ".
We met at the airport around 3:00 A.M. This year there were no disasters—no forgotten passports, no child left behind.
Our flight departed at 5:00 A.M. and we touched down in Japan at Narita International Airport just before 8:00 in the morning, Japan time. We had about 10 and a half hours in Japan so we decided to take the opportunity to get out of the airport and give the kids a brief taste of Japan.
We didn’t have the time or the money to take the train all the way into Tokyo (it would have cost our group almost $500 and about fours of total travel time), so we opted to see the sights of Narita instead. I’ve been to Narita several times, but always just passing through. The most I’ve ever seen of the city is the Radisson Hotel where Barbara and I spend the night on long layovers a few times. So it was nice to finally see what this little city had to offer.
We found a rich cultural tradition, ancient religions, and the graceful beauty of Japan.
Our main activity was a visit to the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple, a complex that included Buddhist temples and shrines, and a park area. We found the place fascinating, though essentially incomprehensible to our English-speaking, Western Christian minds. Everything was in Japanese, so we were left to look on with insensible wonder at the beauty and pageantry around us. Below a slide show of our Japanese interlude:
Our flight departed at 5:00 A.M. and we touched down in Japan at Narita International Airport just before 8:00 in the morning, Japan time. We had about 10 and a half hours in Japan so we decided to take the opportunity to get out of the airport and give the kids a brief taste of Japan.
We didn’t have the time or the money to take the train all the way into Tokyo (it would have cost our group almost $500 and about fours of total travel time), so we opted to see the sights of Narita instead. I’ve been to Narita several times, but always just passing through. The most I’ve ever seen of the city is the Radisson Hotel where Barbara and I spend the night on long layovers a few times. So it was nice to finally see what this little city had to offer.
We found a rich cultural tradition, ancient religions, and the graceful beauty of Japan.
Our main activity was a visit to the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple, a complex that included Buddhist temples and shrines, and a park area. We found the place fascinating, though essentially incomprehensible to our English-speaking, Western Christian minds. Everything was in Japanese, so we were left to look on with insensible wonder at the beauty and pageantry around us. Below a slide show of our Japanese interlude:
After lunch we tried to get over to a nearby cultural village/museum but after taking a train to the bus stop we realized we wouldn't have time to take the scheduled bus there and get back in time to catch our flight. So we hopped back on the train and went back to the airport, where we explored the airport mall for a bit before boarding our flight to Singapore.
The flight was long--almost eight hours, and Micronesian Queen quietly, without complaint or uproar, got sick a few times. The rest of us made do, sleeping fitfully and watching movies (I watched Bobby--which made me long for a man like Robert Kennedy on todays political scene--I guess they don't make them like that anymore, and Dreamgirls--I was struggling to stay awake near the end so I'm not clear as to how it ended). We landed in Singapore, bleary-eyed, at around 1 o clock in the morning and quickly found ourselves stranded on the street.
1 comment:
sounded like a rough start . . . but it looks like you had a great time! Good job with the pics! I can imagine myself walking the streets of Singapore=)
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