Okayama Trip '09

This morning I visited the oldest public school in Japan -- 閑谷学校（しずたにがっこう） (Shizutani Gakkou) in Bizen city, which is located about 45 minutes from Okayama by train. This school was founded about 330 years ago and is now a national treasures.

The person who took me there is Ms. Fujiwara who is a member of a well-known Bizen yaki pottery artist family. Her father is the third generation. Check out their website for more information. After leaving the school, I was very lucky to have the chance to meet the famous potter Mr. Fujiwara and visit the family's kilns. Ms. Fujiwara speaks English well, so I was able to receive the first hand introduction about Bizenyaki. It was quite impressive.

In the afternoon, I was taken to the Okayama prefecture library. I have heard of many compliments about this library, finally I got to see it. This library was open in 2004. They have been ranked number 1 in Japan for 3 consecutive years in terms of the number of visitors and the amount of materials being checked out. They use some advanced technology in the library, such as the robot system that we have seen at Santa Clara University library. This library does not allow users to read their own books (study) in the library. They hope the reading area can be used by the users who are using the library's materials. They had sufficient funding in the past years to acquire 70% of the publications on the market; however, this year the budget was cut 20%.

My digital camera is out of battery now, so I am not able to upload more pictures at this time. I will be leaving Okayama tomorrow morning. This blog will not be updated until I return to San Jose.