Japan 2017

May 1, 2017 The first day of May was a rough one in terms of travel. I had to cut my afternoon class short in order to get the bus in order to get the train in order to get the bus or train to get near Narita (airport) for Tuesday's morning flight to Hong Kong, where I will be giving a presentation and working with a friend on her great comparative education research on global education in HK, the US, and Singapore. It took us 4.5 hours to go from Soka University to our hotel near Narita. Tokyo Station is huge, and the signage is, well, challenging at best. Meanwhile, my neck/shoulder is at a pain level of about 7/10. I hadn't eaten since 10:30am, and all the restaurants at the airport closed at 9pm (we arrived at 9:10pm). Fortunately, the hotel restaurant was opened til 11. I don't like eating dinner at 10, but I was hungry! By the time I got to bed, the pain level had reached at least an 8, and it took a couple hours to finally get to sleep. We rose before 6 to catc...

May 2 - Hong Kong On Wednesday morning, I met with my colleague Tracey here at the hotel, and we did some preliminary work discussing themes of the research project she is leading, a comparative analysis of global education in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US. Several times she mentioned her concern about taking my time. I responded that it is a real pleasure to get to work with someone and discuss research together! I work in a vacuum too much - none of my USFSM colleagues are really interested in my work, so I can't team up with them. I'm not the world's greatest crowd and party person (an understatement!), but I love having someone to discuss my work with. It just doesn't happen, so I don't talk much. So this is a genuine joy for me. After working, we got Dick to join us, and we took the subway to an area in HK with lots of small restaurants. We picked the Metropolitain Bistro, a small French cafe where Tracey knew the manager. The food was delicious and plen...

This morning (May 4), Tracey met me at the hotel, and we began our hour+ commute to the Education University of Hong Kong. It is in a beautiful green space (kind of like Soka), with the giant Goddess of Mercy on a nearby hillside. We met with Marie, a senior research assistant on the global education research project. Then I met with Linni, a faculty member working on research about asylum seekers in HK. It was so interesting to listen to her explain the issues for them. As HK has not signed the refugee convention, they have no international obligations to these people. However, the government does not believe in just sending them back without first analyzing their stories to consider their danger. Linni explained that it can be difficult for the children to get into schools. At the same time, there are teachers who do all they can to assist them. The worst discrimination seems to come from the community itself. Linni and I went for dim sun at one of the univers...

This morning Tracey and Marie met me at the hotel to work together on the global ed research. I am realizing how enjoyable it is to work in a team. It adds to brain-storming ideas and to our motivation and enthusiasm for the work. I am finding the interview transcripts so interesting. I am working on the research done at an international school in Hong Kong, primarily made up of students (nearly half from the US) whose parents are truly part of the financial elite - world bankers, heads of multinational corporations, etc. As one teacher said (paraphrase here), "They may look different, but they're not very diverse. They are all children of the global elite." I have been wondering how/why the rich parents would reconcile sending their kids to a school where they could learn subversive education; that is, where they could question the ethics of extreme wealth, among other things. Turns out, the teachers ask themselves the same questions. One teacher reflects my cynicism as ...

May 6 Tracey met us at our Hotel Jen at 9:45 to take a walk around the south side of HK Island. The cab ride there was about 6 miles, taking us through the fishing village of Aberdeen (here's to you Bill Dalgarno!) We began near Ocean Park and walked along the coast to Repulse Bay, about 2.5 miles. Although it was not a cloudy day, it was so smoggy that it was hard to see the mountains in the distance. View along our walk Ocean Park Barbecuing at the Beach We passed through one beach area where families were beginning to use the public hibachis for their lunch, and we noted how it added to the smog. Tracey said that most of the pollution came from the mainland Chinese factories. She also talked about differences between public areas here and in Singapore, stating that domestic employees in Singapore were not allowed to use spaces like public beaches, while in HK, they are very welcomed and there are extra provisions made for all on Sundays to enjoy marke...