2011 Keizai Koho Fellowship Introduction

Visiting  Kinkaku-ji - The Golden Pavilion - in Kyoto, Japan

Hello.  This summer I went on an adventure of a lifetime.  I was selected this past spring to participate in the 2011 Keizai Koho Center Fellowship Program.  I had the good fortune of traveling in Japan between June 29th and July 8th with nine other social studies teachers from the United States. 

We visited a variety of cities in Japan including Kyoto, Hiroshima and Tokyo.  We toured schools, businesses, historic sites, factories, temples and shrines.  We have a home stay with a Japanese family.  We ate things we couldn't describe and sang Karaoke in downtown Tokyo for three hours.  We met the major of Hiroshima and rode the bullet train.  It was an experience I will never forget as well as the people I shared it all with for nearly two weeks.

I took a lot of pictures during the trip.  It would probably not shock anyone who knows me that I took over 1,100 pictures in 10 days and had my handy Flip Video cam along to collect some of the memories on video.  While we were in Japan it was difficult to update the blog and do a quality job of capturing the experience so I have waited until after the trip to really reflect and write.  My upcoming posts will include my thoughts on aspects of the trip, mostly organized into themes.  I will include accompanying photos and videos.  I hope my blog posts will accurately convey some of my experiences on this amazing trip.

If you are interesting in participating in a Keizai Koho Fellowship - and I highly recommend it if you have any remote interest in Japan - please check out their website for more information on how to apply for future trips.