Cosby High School world history and human geography teacher and Chester resident Anne Canipe is continuing her world travels this week as she visits Tokyo and attends the 70th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Her trip to Asia followed her visit to San Francisco and attended a week-long World Project Based Conference in Napa Valley. As Canipe has tagged her trip, her “World History Journey” is made possible by a $12,000 grant she received from R.E.B. Foundation for her excellence in teaching.
“In all my years of teaching, I never thought that I would be able to make a journey like this, “ she wrote in her blog, annecanipe.wordpress.com. Canipe landed in Japan last Sunday with a colleague and friend, Sebrell Bryant. The trip is especially adventureous for Bryant because she has never traveled like this so far from home.
Upon their arrival at the Tokyo airport they on Sunday they were met by a friendly face. Canipe’s cousin’s oldest daughter who lives in Tokyo and teaches English/Japanese. The very first thing she introduced them to was the city’s busiest crossroads in the world and at first thought she was in New York City. “With over 13 million people in the metro area, and over 35 million outside, it is truely overwhelming,” she wrote.
Spending two and a half days in Toyoko, they were able to take in Mt. Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain and a World Heritage Site that is also an active volcano. They took a short cruise on Lake Ashi and had a meeting with a nine-headed dragon-serpent at the Fuji-Izu National Park and a gondola ride up the Hakone summit of Mt. Komagatake Ropeway. “The Japanese cedars were magnificent!”
While in Japan, the duo will also visit Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples but most anxious of attending the 70th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the Peace Memorial Ceremony. During the ceremony, Canipe will present a special gift, an Origami Peace Crane structure, created by her classes leading up to her trip.
Following the Peace Ceremony, they will head to Kyoto and Osaka and visit castles from the past before heading to China.
Canipe hopes she is being followed on her blog by many of her students and friends. “We’d love to hear from you, too,” she wrote. “Thanks for your continued support of this wonderful opportunity for me…thanks to the Community Foundation and the REB Teaching Award of Excellence folks that make this opportunity possible for all teachers in the Richmond-metro-tricities area.”
