School Life

So, what is school life like here in Japan?

Here's a typical day for a Junior High kid based on what my students have told me:

6:30am Wake up

6:40am Have breakfast - rice and miso soup - delicious!

7:10am Walk or ride bike to school. In snow/rain/hail or shine

7:50am Arrive at school. Park bike. Take off "outside shoes"

8:30am Classes start.

There are usually four fifty minute periods before lunch with ten minutes break in between. There isn't any morning tea break. In between classes students are unsupervised.
During classes, students are never forced to answer any questions. So when you do ask a question, if everybody is too nervous, or doesn't know the answer, the teacher just stand at the front like an idiot until one of the students takes pity on them and answers.
Students also spend time in class sleeping and passing notes. Teachers usually pretend that they are unaware of this behaviour, so it gets ignored. Students also frequently call out in class, and this behaviour is ignored too.

12:30pm Lunch time. We prepare lunch ourselves - usually rice, soup, vegetables and some kind of meat or fish washed down with a carton of milk. Everyone eats the same lunch together in the classroom.

1:25pm We start our last two periods for the day.

3:30pm Cleaning time. All the students and teachers put on their cleaning caps (not just metaphorically) and clean the school from top to bottom. After cleaning, we line up in the hallway, and our team leader asks us to raise our hands if we have done a good job. We always do.

4:00pm School is finished for the day. Now we start our club activities. Most students play some kind of sport, like tennis, swimming, kendo, baseball or badminton, or participate in other activities, like computer club, art club or English club.

6:00pm Club activities are finished for the day. It's time to go home.

6:00pm - 7:30/8:00pm Many students (approximately 30-40%) attend cram schools.

7:30/8:00pm Most students go home, eat dinner, do their home work and have a bath.

11:30pm/12:00am Bedtime!

HAPPY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas in Japan

Happy Merry Christmas (sic) everyone!

I’m writing this as I sit at my desk at the Board of Education, “working” on Christmas Day. No, Christmas Day is not a public holiday in Japan. But it’s ok – it doesn’t really feel like Christmas, and I’m not doing any real work anyway, so I don’t mind.

But as we all know, Christmas in Japan is a romantic time of year. A time when you should get together with your garufurendo or boifurendo and eat those traditional Christmas foods – KFC and strawberry cream cake.

Perhaps after dinner you could go and admire the “light up” (apparently this is Japanese for Christmas lights). What’s that inside the star at the top of the Christmas tree? It’s Hello Kitty, of course.

If, like me, you find yourself at work during the Christmas season, try some of these links. Enjoy!

Defy boredom! Here, here and here.

ROUND ONE - FUKUSHIMA
The real "happiest place on earth"