First Week at School

Ok, so first and foremost, there are quite a few things about Japanese schools that are way different from what you might be use to (for sure it is way different from American schools).

There are the obvious differences.  Practically every school has a school uniform that the students wear.  It kind of seems like the junior high requires them to wear it more than the elementary schools here though.  Though for the elementary schools I teach at here, some of them have a very small population, so that might have something to do with it too.  Then there is the fact that you have to take off your shoes before you step up into the building, and switch to either slippers or a pair of inside shoes (and it’s kind of cool cause some of them have cubbies with my name on them J ).  There are some major differences too.

While it generally starts at around the same time (technically a bit later since the first thing in the morning are staff and student meetings), it can get out wayyyy later depending on if you are a part of a club or not.  If you are, you can anticipate being at school for much longer!  While in America there is usually only about an hour to maybe an hour and a half for club activities, here in Japan they can easily run until about 6 or 7 in the evening.   That doesn’t even include the extra time some students have for cram school in the evening!  We have it easier by far in America in that aspect.  They also go to school year round, with a short summer vacation (about a month I believe), as well as some small breaks for national holidays and I think in between semesters.

I also found it a little interesting that here it is considered part of the child’s education to learn manners, and etiquette.  Each child is taught how to give thanks before and after the meal at lunch (they even all say it together), brush their teeth after eating, and show proper respect to their teachers in how they speak (though granted, like in America, just cause they were taught that doesn’t mean they stick with it lol).  Even lunch is interesting.  Here, everyone gets served the exact same thing.  You aren’t allowed to bring anything from home for lunch until you are in high school.  You are also expected to finish your plate (with the exception being allergies I would think, though I don’t think I’ve run into anyone with that kind of problem).  This is followed by everyone brushing their teeth together.  I really haven’t had any problems with it so far, I find it is all really good actually!  My only problem comes to the fact that at every lunch they drink milk!  Normally I would suck it up and just drink it (I’ve sort of gotten over my aversion to tomato and lightly with shrimp this way), but it is more because I can’t digest it well.  Milk always ends up making me feel sick if I drink too much of it, and I’ve apparently been this way ever since I was a baby (my parents had to get a special kind of formula for me because I would keep spitting it up).  Small amounts are ok, and if it is cooked into something (essentially any way that it is not just by itself) I am usually okay with it.  I just do feel a little bad that I can’t drink it.  That aside, I’m also not that much of a fan of the taste either.

The one thing that can get pretty tiring really quickly is the amount of times you have to introduce yourself!  This of course is a sort of case by case thing.  Some JETs (lol I think on rare occasions) will only be assigned to one or two schools.  Others will have a surprisingly large amount of schools to go to.  I myself had to give my own sort of self-introduction to 7 schools (and this was actually doubled as I had to do it once for the staff and then another for the students), and at least 3 or so departments in the Board of Education building.  There were even a few of the schools where I addressed the whole student body (in this small town that isn’t very much in each school), and then again later to the English classes.  At the junior high I actually had to do so for at least 4 different classes.  This also usually meant that for at least the first week of school I was essentially repeating the same lesson over and over with each new group of students.

While all the students are usually on the shy side (lol I think the junior high kids the most to be honest), the elementary kids are so cute and very energetic!  One of my favorite times is at one of the smaller schools (lol population of maybe 14 or so students), where a group of 2^nd graders come up to me and ask me to join them for the end of the day after my lesson.  They usually go to finish their homework in the library, and then after that they pretty much have free time to themselves.  It is a wonderful end to the day!