Japanese School Life

After having worked in Japanese public schools (both high school and junior high school) for a while now, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight some unique Japanese ideas on school life that would be interesting to Westerners.

The School

Generally all public schools regardless of the level, look pretty similar. They tend to be made of the same concrete that is the same colour and pretty uninspiring. This is true of my current school and me previous 2 schools. The design also tends to be similar too, with 1 or 2 buildings connected by a walkway and a separate gym also conected with a walkway. The grounds of each school are not covered in grass, but rather a quasi-dirt/gravel mixture where all sports are done (by sharing the field as all sports teams practice at the same time). There is always fencing around the exterior of the property with a few access points with heavy gates (these tend to be closed during school hours in elementary and junior high schools, but not so much in high schools). All of these factors might lead the average Westerner to imagine that a Japanese school is more like a prison than a school, and in some ways, it does look like a prison.

Inside

Inside the schools there is more of the same look as the outside with very little in the way of wall decorations in most hallways. Generally, all of the classrooms are located on one side of the hallway with windows on the other side. The newer schools, like my previous 2 schools had air conditioning in the classrooms, while my current school (much older) does not. Heating and air conditioning are not used in the hallways.
There is one teacher's room where all the teachers have a desk. Unlike any western school that I ever attended, students are encouraged to come into the teacher's room and talk with teachers and even walk right up to their desks (this changes during exam times where the students can enter the teacher's room, but are limited in where they can go). Teachers usually come back to this room between classes to rest or get ready for their next class.
In older schools (like my current school) the classrooms tend to have wooden floors and the newer schools have tile. Each student is assigned a desk and chair (to which their name is written). When the seating plan is changed, the student moves their entire desk and chair to the new location in the room. There are no lockers in the schools so students are required to carry all of their books and papers with them to and from school everyday (some of these are left in their desks too). Typically, students will leave one of their bags at the back ot the class on a shelf, and bring the other bag to their desk.
No one is allowed to where shoes inside the school (except for in the gym, and those cannot be worn inside the rest of the school), so students usually have special slippers they only wear at school (can be purchased at many stores). Teachers will wear their own slippers or other type of shoe/sandal, provided that they are not worn outside. Students and teachers each have their own entrance and have a place to change their outdoor shoes for their indoor ones (a sort of shoe locker). Anywhere there is carpeting (quite rare, but there some rooms), no slippers/shoes are allowed, so you have walk in your socks. For visitors, there is always a number of slippers provided at the entrance for them to use while in the school.

Students

All school kids from junior high to high school (and some elementary) are required to wear a uniform while on school property. There are usually 2 uniforms, a summer and a winter. The summer uniform is worn from June 1 to the end of September, due to the heat in Japan and the uniform is lighter, i.e. short sleeves. The winter uniform is worn the rest of the year. There is also a gym uniform for sports activities as well as gym classes (sometimes this uniform is worn in class). A boys uniform generally consists of a pair of blue or black semi-dress pants and a white shirt (with tie in winter and without in summer) with white socks. The girls uniform is generally a skirt (usually a tartan-like design, but occasionally a solid colour) and a white shirt with a ribbon (bow in the West) with white or blue socks worn almost to the knees. Since some school clubs practice on weekends, students are required to wear their uniforms to school even then, so many kids wear their uniforms almost 7 days a week.
Students are responsible for cleaning the school as there is no janitor in any school. At the end of every day, the students move their desks to the back of their classroom and clean the room. Then each class will also be responsible for another part of the school to clean, like the teacher's room, the stairways, etc. Typically this cleaning outside of the classroom is done a couple times each week.
The students themselves ore typically not that different from Western students, as kids are the same around the world, as there are the smart ones, the ones that want to study and the ones that don't. It seems that the older the students get, the less excited and eager they become. At least in my classes, the younger students tend to be the most active and enthusiastic whereas the older students (including those in High School) tend to not participate until forced to.

School Life

The main purpose of school is the same as the West, to educate children. There are many other things for the students as well. There are numerous club activities from all kinds of sports, to educational clubs as well. All schools, no matter what level, have a Sports Festival during the school year where classes compete against other classes in their grade for essentially bragging rights and a trophy. Everyone participates in this festival in one form or another. Events are varied, but usually running events are featured. This year's Sports Festival at my school had 100m races, 800m relay races, class jump-rope, and some other events (I even was in one relay race with a team of other teachers and school staff that had every member of each class race 100m).
High Schools tend to also have a 3-day School Festival where they decorate their classrooms in a theme and parents and members of the community are allowed to visit and see presentations and performances by the students and buy items from each class too.
Each year and each grade also go on a school trip, longer for the older kids. Examples of this are in High School last year, the students went to Okinawa for 3 days. The first grade junior high school kids went for a one-day trip to the mountains, the second-grade went for a one-night camping trip, and the third-grade kids went to Kyoto and Nara for 3 days.
As an ALT, I am the only foreigner in the school and the only non-Japanese speaking teacher in the school most of the time. There are always many English teachers to communicate with (as I have to teach with them, it is important) and always a handful of other teachers that will try to communicate with me in English too. It can be frustrating a little bit, as the only one not able to understand what is being said, but if it is important for me (usually not), someone will translate for me.

All in all, school life is much different from what I remember growing up in Canada, but each place is different.

Really Nothing to Say Today

Just an update on what is happening here lately.

It is the rainy season, and insanely humid almost every day. Have been coming to work every day this week, but have done very little as it is a slow day that sees many of the students off doing club activities (Tuesday thru Thursday), so many classes have been canceled. It makes for a quite boring day as I have to fill 7 hours of time "looking busy."

The only other excitment of the week was that I got my very own Hanko this week. For those that are not Japanese, a Hanko is essentially a stamp with your name on it in some way that is used for signing government or official documents (e.g. bank and insurance forms). Traditionally these are made of wood with a carved end with a name, but the more modern ones are done in plastic or similar material. Mine is imprinted with my first name, Chris, in Japanese (using the Katakana symbols that are reserved for foreign words). Written out it looks like: クリス. There was not enough room for my last name (more typical of Hankos). To place your Hanko on a document, you first dap the imprinted end onto an ink pad and then place the stamp in the desired location on the form. I got this because I had to open a new bank account this week and they only will open the account if it is signed using a Hanko. Will update later with a photo of the Hanko and the stamp it leaves behind.

That is all.

Boat Racing in Japan

June 19th was an interesting day. Even though it is the rainy season here in Japan, there was no rain in sight in the morning. It was still very hot and humid, with temperatures forecast to be around 30 degrees plus humidity. The weather was also partly cloudy and no rain was forecast for the rest of the day.

Looking for something to do in order not to get bored, and use the good weather, we decided to go out to the races. We had read about the boat races and a racetrack in neighbouring Toda City and decided we would check them out. Originally we decided to head out there by train and then shuttle bus, but we changed our minds after looking at the sky. We decided to ride our bikes to the track instead to save the train fare and get a little more exercise. Once we found our destination on the map and figured out a route, we were on our way.

This was about 10:30 am.

Just after 11:30 am we pulled into the grandstands of the Toda Kyotei (or Toda Motorboat Racecourse). This was a much longer ride than we imagined.

What an interesting experience. Imagine a special canal split off from the main river that is about 107.5 metres wide and about 450 metres long. The boats race 3 laps after a flying start and there is gambling allowed on the races.

The large screens shows the odds for the races and driver information. As we had no idea how to read this information, and we were interested in placing a bet for fun, we had to ask at the information desk how to do so. Once we learned how to do it, we waited for the next race to decide which boat(s) to pick. Turns out the next race to bet on was race number 5 (out of 12 scheduled). The following picture is of our betting slip (I chose the first line of Boat 3 to win and Boat 4 to place second; Kazumi chose the second line of Boat 3 to win and Boat 6 to place second).

Well, we were half right. Turns out in this race, Boat 3 did end up winning, but neither Boat 4 (placed 5 out of 6) or Boat 6 (placed 4 out of 6) came close to winning.

We finally arrived home at around 4:30 pm after watching 3 races and stopping along the way for a late lunch. Still, we had a fun time and slept well after our long bike ride.

Update to First Post

As an update to my first post, I will be allowed to sign a part-time contract with Company Number 2 so that I may work with them. This means that I may work on some Saturday's and other weekeday evenings, depending on the needs of the company. I am hoping that I will be able to get some work in August as I would normally be off and unpaid during that time.

In other news, the rainy season has officially arrived here in the Kanto area as of yesterday. If this season plays out as expected (and it is about 8-10 later than usual), we will be in for about 6-8 weeks of generally cloudy and rainy weather while being very humid too. Not my favourite time to be in Japan. Have to carry around the umbrella almost everyday as rain is always a possibility, even on a sunny day. This season is followed by summer: smoggy, hazy, hot, humid weather until probably the end of September at the earliest.

Of Earthquakes and Time Zones

I seem to pick the wrong place to live in at the times of some important world sporting events. In 2004, the Olympics were in Athens, and I was in Japan, a difference of 6 hours. In 2006, the Winter Olmpics were in Turin, Italy and I was in Canada, a difference of 6 hours again. In 2008, I was in Canada again for another Olympics, but this time they were in Beijing, a difference of 12 hours. Then when the 2010 Winter Olmpics were held in my own country, I was living in Japan at a mere 17 hours difference. The last bad time to happen to me is this summer's World Cup in South Africa. The time difference is 7 hours behind Japan time so I had to get up at 3:30am this morning to watch the England-USA match (was disappointed with the result too). I never can seem to be in the right place at the right time.....

This afternoon just after my lunch, around 12:30pm local time, we experienced an earthquake. The centre of the quake was farther north than where I live, but we definately felt the apartment shake. I am not sure whether to enjoy these or fear them. It is still a novelty for me to go through one. They kind of feel interesting as everything shakes a bit. That is until you realize that the ground is shaking and it could be the big one that everyone seems to agree is late to come in this area. That would be scary.

The First Post - Venting

I have been guilty of a few things in the past. I have not performed occasional tasks asked of me (and got paid for them anyway), i have taken things I was not supposed to, and I even committed a little bit of vandalism. This was all in my youth. The most recent thing I have been guilty of, and it is not quite so illegal as those past, is simply not read a contract. I signed a contract to begin a new job and after a few months, I was offered a new job with a different company. Upon trying to quit the first job to begin the second, I was told that as per my contract, my employer could decide whether or not to accept my resignation and allow me to change companies. It turns out that they did not accept my resignation so I am still at job number 1. The threat was that if I did not finish the contract, I could be taken to court to get back the funds that would normally be paid to me for the remainder of the contract (a sum around 2 million yen). If I wanted to do that, they would happily let me out of my contract. Since I am a poor individual with a wife and one income, I was literally forced to take door number 1 and remain in my post. (I might add at this point that I am not unhappy with my current position, I am unhappy with my current employer)

The silver lining to all of this is that company number 2 has allowed me to sign with them on a part-time basis, so I can still get some income from them especially during August when there is no work scheduled.

I do not like this attempt by company number 1 to stop me, but I have to live with the decision, unless I can get some direction from the Labour Board here in Japan.

Still, I will do my best in this position and enjoy my time here, no matter how long that turns out to be.