Long Day But Exciting

The day dawned at Logan Airport; it ended with a lively reception and dinner at a San Francisco airport hotel for all of us heading for Tokyo tomorrow. The afternoon was filled with interesting facts about the JFMF program (91% of us are public school educators, 9% private school; 98.5% of us have no prior direct experience of Japan) and good advice from teachers who have participated previously (go with the flow, take advantage of unexpected experiences that come your way, be prepared for a new bathtime experience during your home stay, try carefully to observe Japanese customs while knowing that your hosts will be extremely gracious no matter what you do, have fun but always be on time for the bus!). We are ready.

We had a special welcome from Kazuyoshi Yamaguchi, Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco, who welcomed us with enormous good humor and reinforced the value of person-to-person exchanges in maintaining good will among nations. Each of us felt a bit like an ambassador, and indeed that is what we are. The Government of Japan made a decision, ten years ago when the JFMF program began, to invest in educators as their guests in this endeavor, honoring the Japan-U. S. relationship begun by over 7,000 Japanese nationals who have studied in the United States as Fulbright Scholars.