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With Ms. Setsu Sato (left) and
Ms. Toshiko Sato (right)
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After talking to the third-grade class at
Hirobuchi Elementary School, I went by car for less than a mile to Hirobuchi
Kindergarten. I met with Ms. Setsu Sato (83 years old), who had served as the
kindergarten director for many years, and her daughter Ms. Toshiko Sato, the
current director. Ms. Setsu Sato's father Mr. Shoji, the founder and first
director of Hirobuchi Kindergarten, had protected the kindergarten's
Blue-eyed Doll from being destroyed during World War II. The doll had been
kept until 1979 in the Buddhist temple next to the kindergarten building.
The full name of the kindergarten's Blue-eyed
Doll is Stella Lauranell, which combines the names of the two people who sent
the doll, Miss Stella Dean and Miss Lauranell Welch. The doll's
passport gives her place of birth as Kansas City, Missouri, which is also
my birthplace. The doll arrived at the kindergarten in 1927 with the Kansas
City addresses of the two senders, so I plan to see what I can find out about
the senders when I return to Missouri to visit my parents this Christmas. Ms.
Setsu Sato and her daughter were excited to see the Kansas City picture
postcards that I gave to them, since they had never seen photos of the city.
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Next we went to the welcome ceremony attended by all 60 children at the
school. They sang some songs to welcome me, and then we took a group photo
(see below).
As I started my presentation to the
children, I told them I was hot and asked them whether it was OK to
take off my shirt. The children quickly said it was fine to do so, but
the teachers did not seem so sure. When I took off my regular shirt,
they enjoyed seeing my beagle T-shirt that I was wearing underneath. I
then talked to the children for about 20 minutes, covering mostly the
same topics as my previous week's talks to children at Shintoku
Kindergarten.
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Children Eager to Shake Hands
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I presented Hirobuchi Kindergarten with a photo of Miss Miyagi, one of the
Japanese Friendship Dolls sent to America in 1927. The photo was provided by
Ms. Margaret Corbet, the owner of the doll, and I read a letter
that accompanied the photo. At the end of the ceremony, one small girl came
up to put a string of origami cranes around my neck.
I left Hirobuchi Kindergarten before noon to visit
Monou Elementary School in the early afternoon, but I returned to the
kindergarten in the middle of the afternoon. The director gave me an
appropriate kindergarten snack of crackers, potato chips, and milk. After the
snack, I went to the playground to play with the children. In addition to the
typical playground equipment, the kindergarten had an interesting "bullet
train" with chairs inside and a slide from the top.
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With Mr. Okabe
at His Japanese Inn
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As an sidelight, I had stayed the night before at
the small town's only lodging, a nine-room ryokan (Japanese-style inn).
The couple who ran the ryokan were very friendly, and they told me that
I was their first visitor from the United States. Mr. Okabe surprised me with
his English, and I found out that he had worked 30 years ago at a military
base near Yokohama, so he had a chance to talk with many Americans there. They
were concerned that I would not like the Japanese food (e.g., sea urchin,
oysters, sashimi or sliced raw fish) they planned to serve for dinner,
and they seemed relieved when they found out that I eat Japanese food every
day since my wife is Japanese. The food at the ryokan was quite
delicious! Later I found out that Mr. Okabe is the brother of the husband of
Ms. Toshiko Sato, the current director of Hirobuchi Kindergarten. The ryokan
is the house of the parents of Mr. Okabe and Ms. Toshiko Sato's husband.
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Ms. Setsu Sato with Stella, Photo of Miss Miyagi,
and New York Teddy Bear
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