For several years running, Minorigaoka High School in Tokyo has sent 200+ students to Oyama Senmaida as part of an epic field trip. They are with us for two half-days – first lighting fire torches in the rice paddies and then making straw turtles together the next morning.

It’s an all-hands-on-deck week as we get everything ready. There are teams putting together wicks, testing of the fuel burn times and calculating quantities needed, bundling parts into bags, setting up all the depots of gear. Meanwhile, a whole neighborhood of ladies works on getting the straw parts ready for the turtle workshop.

When the kids arrive, each class is assigned a staff member and portion of the tanada. Class D’s 17 students hustled under my direction and got our batch of 100 torches in place in about an hour – the buses were half an hour late, but the sun doesn’t wait to set!

While this was happening, Inoue-san found a newly emerged ramie moth on the road near the supply depot. He rescued her and when I asked to look, she crawled up onto my hand, which troubled some of the Japanese people who don’t like moths. She was amazingly beautiful with intricate wing markings and dark orange eyes. She clung to me for warmth as her wings unfurled. I carried her for about 90 minutes, then took her home and found a safe place for her on a tree in the garden.

This morning, all of us teachers gathered at Tanada Club at 7 am to drive 40 minutes across town to Kominato Satoumi Sports Center where we set up the gymnasium for making straw turtles. I worked with Class D again; it is interesting how even in a short interaction you get a sense of who these kids are. Some are diligent, others too cool for school, some timid, others bold. They are all going to be fine people.

They were a challenging mix of skills and speed when it came to doing straw craft and I feel like I taught 17 one-on-one classes in an hour! Everyone had a turtle at the end of the session and they looked quite nice. Mostly. 😉

I find great satisfaction in teaching the Oyama Senmaida workshops. Although the commodity style of our offerings can get a little boring, each batch of kids brings new energy to the curriculum and my colleagues are the most hilarious, interesting people. My life here is like an ongoing, epic field trip.