Farmington Principal Steven Geis is doing some intensive research for his students at North Trail Elementary School during his three-week trip to Japan.
Among the hundreds of questions they asked him to answer: Do people in Japan celebrate Halloween? Do Coke and Pepsi taste the same there? What percentage of a sumo wrestler's body weight is muscle, and what percentage is fat?
Geis, who is traveling with 160 American educators in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund's teacher program this month, made it his mission to bring all 760 of his students along with him -- in spirit if not in body. He's touring schools and learning about the Japanese education system, but some of his first-graders also expect a full report on the zoo system. The fifth-graders, who helped create a mural for the new Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River last year, are curious about the biggest Japanese bridge.
Geis was one of 1,700 applicants for the honor, which is funded by the Japanese government as a way to thank the United States for its support of Japanese scholars through the Fulbright program.
Before he left on Oct. 11, Geis whet students' appetites by reading stories about Japan in each classroom at North Trail. Students also have been learning Japanese folk songs in music class and painting Japanese characters with special brushes in art.
The principal didn't pack light for this trip, thanks to all the gifts his students made for the people he meets in Japan. He shipped two boxes of Minnesota-shaped bookmarks ahead of him, and he carried more gifts on the plane.
While he's gone, students are getting daily online updates and watching slide shows that Geis posts on a blog. When he gets back on Monday, the school will serve a traditional Japanese meal.
One item that won't be on the menu, though, is the food Geis' students most want him to sample: puffer fish, a delicacy that can be fatally toxic if it's cooked incorrectly.
