June 19, 2006 - We left our hotel in Sendai Monday morning for the Miyagi University of Education. We met with some of the faculty of the University. It's a small university where people go to become teachers.

There were some interesting things I found out. First, in the public schools teachers do not stay in a school more than seven years. They then move to another school in the area. There are two main reasons for this. First, it helps to stop teacher complacency. Second, it helps to equalize the instruction in the prefecture. If teachers move around, then there is not a concentration of too many good or too many bad teachers in any one school.

Another interesting thing is that all principals are in their 50s and they must mandatorily retire at age 60. During that ten (or shorter) year time period, a principal will move two to four times. They were shocked when I told them that Principal Kresse is no where near 50 years of age!

After our meeting, we headed to Matsushima - advertised as one of the three best sights in Japan. We went to Zuiganji, one of the most important Zen temples of the region. We also saw the beautiful coastline. The trees reminded me of the Redwoods in California. I found out they are related to them genetically!

If you'd like to know more about Matsushima, click here.


We headed to Kesennuma after that and arrived in the early evening.