"Field Trip" with my Adult English Class Students

Ok, ok.  Like I said, I’m tired of my blogs being sad and depressing.  What can I say?  Goodbyes are difficult.  Now it’s time to talk about some wonderful field trips I’ve had (but I haven’t had a chance to write about yet.)  And if you are wondering, I will be writing about the Calgary Home Stay trip once I get the everything organized for my post (photos, names, times, etc.)

So in one of my posts I was talking about how I finished teaching my evening adult English classes.  I was sad that it was over because I met some incredible people and I had a good time every week with them.  We had such a good time that we all decided to go on a daytrip.  I called it a “field trip” and said that it was an important part of the class so everyone should try to attend.  Koba, one of my students, took charge.  He made phone calls, organized where we would go.  He did a great job.

We all met at the Tarui train station at 9:30 Sunday morning and caught the train to Nagahama.  It was about a 40-45 minute ride and only one transfer.  There were about 13 of us all together.  Some people brought their spouses, another person brought her granddaughter, and I even met a student from the beginner English class on Thursdays who wanted to come on this trip (I taught the advanced English course on Wednesdays.) 

When we arrived at Nagahama, we walked to a museum that displayed special cherry/plum trees.  This building had a beautiful garden out front.  Here are some photos:

Once inside, the smell of flowers filled the air.  This museum is only open four to five months of the year because it displays some of Japan’s oldest and most famous Cherry and Plum blossoms.  It was explained to me that in the past, cherry blossoms and plum blossoms were not as common as they are today.  So in the past when a person had a cherry/plum blossom tree, they would take the time to really care for it.  (The people who had cherry/plum blossoms trees were of nobility I think.)  I saw cherry blossoms and plum blossoms that were over 200 years old and 400 years old!  They were smaller than the cherry blossom trees I have seen outside, but the flowers were fantastic!

The following picture is a tree that is over 400 years old!!

At the exit of the exhibit, you could buy a cherry/plum blossom and bring it home.  Talk about the best gift shop, ever!  If you bought a young, small tree, it was cheap.  Like these ones:

The more mature the tree, the higher the price.  Take this tree for example.  Take a guess at how much it is.  It is about 2 feet tall and a foot and a half wide (60 cm tall and 45cm wide).  So it’s really not that big.

Give up?  Here’s the price:

No, it’s not $400,000 dollars!  That’s insane!  It’s 400,000 yen.  That’s over 5000 dollars Canadian.  I still think that’s insane, but that’s just me.

Moving onto lunch.  Now, Koba was worried about me because I don’t eat meat (beef, pork, chicken, etc.) but I do eat seafood and fish.  I guess Nagahama is known for it’s beef.  So he found a hotel that had a great set meal plan for unagi, tempura, and beef.  Koba found out that it would be a bit cooler on the day of our field trip, so he phoned the hotel ahead of time and mentioned that it would be nice if the hotel could offer a shuttle bus service for our group, considering there were at least 13 of us buying a set meal and we were giving them our business.  So we were picked up from the Museum and dropped off at the hotel, and later we were dropped off to our new destination after lunch.  Talk about service!  All Koba said he had to do was ask!

The restaurant was quite nice.  Here are some photos from lunch:

Like I said, we were dropped off at our next location.  I guess Nagahama has some very old, traditional style shops and buildings.  There are many interesting shops, especially glass-art shops.  

Here are some pictures of the glass art they stores were selling:

We all went though a museum that displayed glass art and old glass items.  Some of the glass items were from around the world.  Here are some pictures:

Part of the museum showcased a Japanese artist, and the artist that was being showcased draws flowers, plants, and trees with nothing but pencil crayons:

Wow!  What detail.

We finished our day with a nice cup of coffee and returned home.

I had a wonderful time with my Adult Class students and their family!  In two weeks, we are going on another day trip.  I look forward to our next adventure together!