First day at school

Just saw the kids off for their first full day of school this morning, following an extended initiation period.

Eleni and the kids arrived in Japan on Tuesday night. On Thursday morning, we went in to introduce ourselves to the principal and the kids were paraded in front of the whole school and did their little introductions (so brave! we were so proud!) before spending a couple of hours in their new classes.

Then on Sunday it was the annual school festival for New Year (read about it here) which finished nice and early at about 2:30. Monday was a holiday for our school (see, it’s “ours” already), to make up for the enforced attendance on Sunday (what a bonus! take part in a festival and get a day off). Tuesday was their first proper day at school, although we squibbed out a bit by driving them in and picking them up.

Today, however, they’re walking to school with the official walking group. And this is what I mean by the first full day, because it really is a loooooong day. The Japanese primary school day begins at 8:10 and finishes at around 4:00, so it’s already an eight-hour day, not six and a half like we’re used to in Australia. But because our section of Sunami is furthest away from the primary school—at least in terms of the route taken by the walking group—the kids have to be out the door at 7:00 and don’t get back until around 5:00. That’s a ten-hour day, every day.

The walking group, incidentally, is obligatory; it’s simply not the done thing to get driven to primary school. (Some parents apparently do drop their kids off on the odd occasion, but everyone has to pretend not to notice.) And it’s certainly a good way to build up fitness, hiking up and down the mountains twice every day.

But it does mean that we all have to get up at 6:15 (except Eleni who, shall we say, is not at her best in the morning). Felix is naturally an early riser so it’s not too bad for him, although 6:15 is pretty early even by his standards. Ruby is naturally unimpressed with this, the latest in a series of cross-cultural disappointments, having only recently come to terms with the fact that that we won’t have the internet on for another five weeks. (Although daily trips to Mr. Donuts have gone some way to alleviating the pain.) In any case Ruby will in a couple of months be moving up to high school, which is just 12 minutes up the road, plus there’s no walking group so she can leave when she likes. And Felix, being naturally much more active, should relish the exercise.

Nevertheless it will be interesting to see what time they collapse into bed tonight after such a long day.