Same and Different!!

This whole amazing experience has been enriched by my frantically scribbling notes about things that I want to share with my students. One thing that I found interesting is that both my host family's cars have a GPS system that is very advanced. Not only does it do the regular GPS thing, when you back up the car, the GPS screen turns into a camera screen showing you the back of your car - there is a camera mounted on the back of the car to let you know how much room you have to back up! Also, you can push a button on your GPS screen and it turns into a television with many stations. Also, one of the daughters has a very advanced cell phone that also has a television screen.

Yesterday, we went to the grocery store. It looked very much like the grocery stores in Oklahoma except everything was in Japanese AND there were many kinds of vegetables that I had never seen before. The girls were very busy using their hand-held Japanese to English computer to tell me what all these things were. Yoko (the mom) carried in a canvas bag and when she paid for her groceries, she placed them all in the canvas bag - much more ecologically responsible than the way we do it.

I have to talk about how beautiful this place is. I have to honestly say that it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The town of Gujo is in a valley and the hills surrounding it are full of lush trees. I imagine that this is what some of our early settlers must have seen when they walked into the pristine valleys of our mountain regions. I have made a promise to myself to learn more about Japanese history and specifically this region when I get back. I have much to share and many pictures. I will try to post the pictures when I get back to Tokyo on Tuesday. Good bye for now!