Taking a bow

Wow, what a hectic week it's been. I'm starting to write this at my seat waiting for the aeroplane to begin taxiing it's way to the runway. In just over twelve hours we will be back at Heathrow after a fascinating, whirlwind five days in Japan. Here are just some of the highlights.

Perhaps my overriding memory will be the amazing politeness, good manners and hospitality of the Japanese. Their culture is much more formal than any I have experienced before, and took a while to get used to but everything is done so cheerfully and with a level of humour that took me by surprise that it was impossible not to fall in love with them. There is a lot that we in the UK could learn from the Japanese about respect, humility and good service. I found the custom of bowing to greet, say thank you or to bid farewell particularly charming, but after meeting so many people in such a short space of time, my neck felt as though it had extended to giraffe proportions.

Professor Hideo Nakata organised our schedule in Japan and accompanied us throughout. He  has spent much of his academic career fostering cooperation between Universities in different countries. One of his recent collaborations has been to support teacher trainers in Afghanistan to write their own training manual for special educational needs. Hideo loves british detective and spy novels and we spent a lot of time discussing Ian Rankin, Len Deighton and John le Carre amongst others.

In total we visited five mainstream schools, two special schools and the Board of Education at Tsukuba City Hall and ran a worksop at Tsukuba University. Everywhere we were treated almost like royalty. In addition to the already outstanding Japanese hospitality, we hadn't realised just how much of a big thing it was for them to receive two lecturers from England. They really considered it an honour to have been chosen, and wanted to give us the very best possible impression of their schools. Beautifully presented food and drink awaited wherever we went.

Two types of persimmon, beautifully presented

We were subjected to paparazzi levels of photography wherever we went, and soon found ourselves being featured on the schools' websites. Click here to catch us in action. Shoes worn outside are not permitted inside the school buildings, and on arrival we would be presented with a pair of slippers to wear indoors. Again, a lovely custom, but unfortunately even the largest pair I was offered was at least 3 sizes too small causing me to hobble around the schools like a penguin with corns. The children we met were delightful, ever ready with a "konnichiwa" (hello) and a beaming smile. My favourite was the nine year old who with a mischievous grin asked via our translator "How is Prince William doing?"

At one school, a Kindergarten, the outdoor area was set up to provide a place where the children could play and explore in natural surroundings. This school was towards the north of Japan, and although still some distance away from Fukushima, site of the nuclear reactor disaster, between 30 and 90cm of the topsoil had had to be removed from the outside area due to contamination from radiation. Another reminder of the environmental dangers ever-present in Japan was the slight but clearly felt rumble  during one of our interviews with a teacher. Hideo immediately identified it as a tiny earthquake. Sobering.

Skyscrapers in Ginza

Although we were fortunate to have such a wonderful introduction to the Japanese people and their culture, there was very little time for sightseeing. We did manage to squeeze in a couple of hours in the Ginza area of central Tokyo en route to a school visit. Ginza is Tokyo's upmarket shopping, eating and entertainment district, and looks spectacular with a very similar feel to midtown Manhattan. I would love to return to see it all lit up at night. It's certain a very cool and buzzy place, and my desire to come back was stoked further by the rather dreamlike experience of watching "Lost in Translation" at 2:00am one morning after downloading it in response to my jet lag induced insomnia. There is some absolutely stunning cityscape photography in that film.

Street signs in Ginza

An older part of town.

Tsukuba, on the other hand has the relaxed feel of a University city with plenty of green empty space and many people travelling by bicycle.

The area around the University guesthouse felt especially peaceful. The guesthouse didn't do breakfast so we would buy ours from a local store and eat it sitting by the small lake on the campus. The temperature, reportedly milder than than usual for the time of year, made this a very pleasant experience in a tranquil setting. We were joined for each of our five mornings by a beautiful stripy spider, whose web remained undisturbed and able to accumulate a growing horde of food as the week progressed.

Our stripy breakfast companion

We were treated to a wide range of traditional Japanese food during our visit. I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed the raw fish and the tuna was especially exquisite. I was less keen on the horse meat we were served one evening. It would have been rude not to try the raw horse kidney in particular, and although it didn't actually taste too bad it just didn't feel right and I won't be rushing to repeat the experience in the near future. All of the food was freshly prepared and felt healthy. For our Sayonara (farewell) dinner we sat around a low table and were treated to Shabu Shabu, wafer thin slices of beef that are boiled very briefly in a bubbling pot in the middle of the table and served with dipping sources and fresh vegetables, which are also boiled in the pot. Accompanied by copious amounts of beer, sake and another delicious drink distilled from sweet potato (I'm not sure of its name), this meal gave us a wonderful send off, albeit making getting up early for the journey to the airport the following morning far from straightforward.

Fresh looking accompaniment to our Shabu Shabu

What a week! I loved what I was able to experience of Japan, and it has left me desperate to return with more time to explore all of the country and Tokyo in particular. For now, though, the really hard work begins - we've got to write up the research.

(Please note that this is an edited version of my original post)