Much of the work for JS continued from May right into June. In addition, my class ended on June 30th, visitors from the US came at the end of June, and I had to write a speech for the Closing Ceremony for SILS on July 3rd. It was a hectic month but a positive one. It was a sad one, too, as the realization that we would soon be leaving Japan settled in for both David and me.
I had a great group of students in my course, Philosophies of Education, who worked hard on their websites of schools reflecting the philosophy the group had selected. The menu to the TEN different schools created by my students this year can be found at http://www.f.waseda.jp/kgourd/Courses/Philosophies/home.html.
I am very proud of our work as it was a big undertaking for all of us. I considered changing my syllabus after I found out I would have nearly 60 students in my course. However, this project always helps the students really understand the use of philosophy. After a few days at the beginning of the semester to consider making a change I elected to go with it and to trust I could get it all to work out. It was a bit more difficult than at Knox when I have students do websites because I had to do most of the posting to the server. Space on the server was assigned to me as the faculty member, not to the program or the course. I could not give students access. In addition, I had to learn to do many things in Japanese (e.g., connecting to the server, getting a FTP program onto my computers, and using a Japanese keyboard while teaching students about creating their school websites). It was a steep learning curve, but I enjoyed it. Mostly, I enjoyed it because the students worked so hard, learned so much, and enjoyed it, too!
Some of my students will be in the US next year, and two of them will be in Seattle, so I should get to see some of them again! One who will go to school at SUNY-Stonybrook has promised to visit us.
On the 24th of June, two Knox graduates came to visit Japan for about 10 days. David and I had fun taking them around Tokyo. It brought back memories of our first discoveries in Japan. It helped us recognize some of our learning, too. Although our Japanese is still so bad, it is better than it was last August. David knows the trains and subways better than most long-time residents of Tokyo. Jenn and Cindy stayed with us, and it was during one of the hottest and busiest times during June. David and I were both still teaching, but did a lot of sightseeing, too. Cindy brought us one of her latest beautiful paintings, which I quickly hung on our wall in Tokyo.
During June, David began reducing the number of hours he teaches and started to focus on making soap as soon as we get back to the US. He has the things he needs already delivered to Tina and Lorrin’s, so for all of you who are waiting for soap because your year supply has run out or is running low, David should have soap made and ready to ship by the end of September. One of my first tasks when I return to the US is to start our website for selling his soap on the Internet. Since neither of us has jobs lined up, we will give the soap making business on the Internet a try. You can tell all your friends and family members!