The first of April is a big day for many students in Japan. This is the first day of school for most schools. The cherry blossoms are blooming. There are many happy, joyous moments of seeing friends in the same class again. There are good-byes with parents as they tearfully see their children off amazed at how fast the time flies.

In America the first of April is April Fool's Day.

I think I must have played an April Fool's Day joke on myself today ^^; Let me explain... I was planning on leaving Suminodo, heading west to Hiroshima to visit the University of Hiroshima briefly and then travel all the way back east to Shizuoka. You probably don't get the joke and neither did I. If you were to consult a map and some train schedule times, then you might get the joke. But anyways I still don't get the joke.

Again I navigated through the tunnels of Osaka station, but this time I was victorious and didn't get even the least bit lost. It was easy now, like second-nature. Not really, but it is fun to pretend, isn't it?

At Hiroshima Station I left my bags (did I mention I had tons of luggage?) in a locker and jumped onto a local train to reach Saijo station. The trip reminded me of traveling by train to Fujinomiya or even Nagano, except for the really tall mountains with grave sights, the tall mountain with the special train trolley and the really large Buddhist statues on the tops of the mountain tops. But the rivers by the train tracks were familiar.

At Saijo station I tried to figure out what city it reminded me of ... perhaps the Yoshiwara area of Fuji City ... I don't know, but it had a good feel to it ... not a big city, like Hiroshima city, which I didn't even explore. But seriously Hiroshima City is huge (not like Tokyo or Osaka) but certainly there are lots of tall buildings with interesting architecture. Saijo is about thirty minutes away by train, so it is removed from the bussle of the city life. And there seems to be an older cultural feel to it.

Later I found out that sake production is really important in Saijo and there is a sake festival in October there annually.

Right. So there I was at Saijo station wondering what it would be like if this became my "home" for a while and soon there was a car to pick me up. Actually I called ahead of time and probably could have figured out the buses to get the university on my own, but one of the professors wanted to reach out to me and personally give me a tour of the area. An associate professor was also with him. The associate professor was driving and they both seemed relieved that I wanted to speak in Japanese. I figured it would be good practice and also a way to gage whether or not I could handle university level Japanese.

So first they wanted to drive me around Saijo. I was hoping lunch would be part of the drive and thankfully it was. And then we passed a kindergarten on the side of the mountain. More than anything I wanted to be able to stop by that kindergarten and have a look around. And again my wish was granted.

Honestly it was one of the interesting little kindergartens I'd ever been inside. Or should I say "outside" because of the natural surroundings that were also available to the students and teachers of that school. They had gardens for flowers, where each child had their own little area, gardens for the whole school to plant things like vegetables, animals they took care of, ponds that the parents had created, play areas up and down all around the mountain. It was called the Kindergarten of the Forest and looking at a map it looks like the forest part was the bulk of the campus grounds ^_^!

The staff of the kindergarten were really kind to me also. They welcomed me with open arms into their staff room and gave me some green tea to enjoy. It was rather bitter and I mentioned it. Then they all worried since they remembered I had lived in Shizuoka-ken before (which is famous for green tea). I didn't mean to upset the atmosphere, so I recommend the age-old advice to "keep your thoughts in your heart".

They showed me around the classrooms and let me take tons of pictures. My favorite picture was of the bookshelf that one of the parents made for the school. I also enjoyed talking about the use of instruments in the classroom routine with the principal. I wish I could do research on just this alone. Or the influence of Froebel on the early childhood centers in Japan. Or even the design of the outdoor spaces and allowing the children to really experience the outdoors as part of the curriculum. In America I doubt we would be allowed to have an outside area like the one they had here. There were be too many concerned parents about safety. Whenever I addressed this to my tour guides they always replied, "but we have a nurse on staff". For example I noticed a sign that said, "Beware of snakes" and thought it was a joke but they said there really are snakes around that area so the sign is an actual warning. And I protested, "but what if they get bit?" to which they replied, "We have a nurse on staff." Another example was a really long log that acted as a bridge over a valley sort of area. I thought about if the kids were to fall off the log and again they said it was ok since they had a nurse on staff.

Very interesting. By allowing their children to experience natural consequences and really play, they were allowing their children to truely grow-up in my humble opinion. In America I think we spend way too much time worrying about them hurting themselves and preventing them from actually experiencing the "real" world that we are stunting their development somehow.

The next thing I really wanted to see was the main campus and I got my 3rd wish. We drove to the main campus and I got to walk through the halls to get a sense of what it might be like to attend Hiroshima University. It was all very short though and just as soon as I arrived it was time for me to head back to the train station so I could catch a train to get me to the Shizuoka Prefecture in time.

And that concluded my 3 hours in Hiroshima. After I reach Hiroshima station, I raced back to the lockers to retrieve my bags and raced to the Shinkansen platform just in the nick of time. I didn't see the Peace memorial. I didn't see the A-Bomb dome. I didn't see Miyajimi with its famous shrine gate in the water. I didn't see one bit of Hiroshima City, except what I could see from the train station ... and yet I can now say that I've been to Hiroshima ^^;