All Posts from the School Category
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Muffin diplomacy fail
Valentines Day is pretty big in Japan.
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The kids at school were all talking about giving chocolates to one another on Friday 12th, the last day of school before the big VD.
Although we couldn’t quite work out whether it was girls giving to boys, boys giving to girls, or just the spirit of giving in general, we all decided that it would be a nice idea if Ruby and Felix baked some chocolate muffins to share with their classmates.
This turned out to be a huge no-no; you don’t eat sweet things at school, you don’t bring sweet things to school, there are no sweet things at school PERIOD. Both their teachers explained to us afterward that the muffins had been permitted as a special treat but only on this occasion, and it was clear to us that we wouldn’t be doing the muffin caper again in the future.
However it’s not just the silly foreign parents who are pushing the boundaries; the local kids are happy to try their luck bending the rules too. Ruby told us that despite the teachers searching their bags for chocolates (can you believe it? they’re not looking for drugs, alcohol or knives… just chocolates) some of the girls managed to sneak some in anyway, and one of her friends even slipped a couple in her bag to take home.
So in the interests of fairness and equity (what about all the Grades 1, 2, 4 and 5 kids who didn’t get any muffins?) we won’t be doing that again. Nevertheless it was all good PR, in the spirit of “any publicity is good publicity”, and the Grade 3 and 6 kids got a kick out of it. And deep down I suspect the teachers probably thought it was an excellent idea too, although of course they couldn’t be seen to admit as much. -
First day at school Part 2
The first day of school went awfully well.
No sooner had the kids got back, still full of energy after their massive ten-hour day, than four of Ruby’s new best friends converged on our place for a homework party. (Just as well we had a batch of muffins ready!) Talk about instant friends. And they were wonderful too; they settled down and did their homework, snacked out, played hide and seek for a bit and had a great time. Then all of a sudden, before you know it, it was time to go. And off they trooped. No-one knows where they live and how they got home—they just disappeared into the darkness.
Meanwhile Gigi and I went to test out his new soccer ball in the local park where we were joined by some of the younger kids from the walking group. We ended up having a great time playing around until dark. So if Day 1 was anything to go by, the kids appear to be fitting in OK.Although Ruby informed us later that the girls who came around told her that she wasn’t under any circumstances to let Yu and Chika know that Rie had been around, because Yu and Chika had decreed that Rie was only to play with them, and if they were to hear about other Play Events occurring without their knowledge they would get jealous and there would be terrible scenes at school the next day. “I thought in Japan everyone was nice to one another and there wouldn’t be any of that stuff,” lamented Ruby. But there you go: proof that Japanese kids are just the same as kids elsewhere. Especially the Grade 6 girls.
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Japanese school facts
I plan to write heaps about the school experience over the next few years because it’s a subject that fascinates me. To start off with, here are some basic facts about the local primary school at Sunami.
• First of all, the official website is here (Japanese only obviously, but a nice picture of the cherry blossoms in bloom).
• The school day starts at 8:10 and finishes at 4:00, except on Wednesdays, when they finish at the outrageously early time of 3:30.
• Currently there are 131 students altogether in Years 1 through 6. Class sizes are 20-25, which is small by Japanese standards. There is also a kindergarten on the site with 20 tinies.
• The school has a huge yard covered in packed sand (Lilydale topping?) like on the Tan around the Botanical Gardens. (Grassed areas are rare at schools and in public parks in Japan.)
• There is an impressive indoor gymnasium with a stage down one end, and even an outdoor pool that will open up in about June.
• Every day after lunch the kids all have to help clean the school. Each class has allotted duties; I don’t know what Felix’s class does but Ruby’s class has to clean out the toilets!
• They get cooked school lunches every day.
• There is no such thing as playlunch, so in the morning we must feed them up properly so that they can last until the cooked lunch arrives at 12:40.
• There are six periods in the day, and between each period the kids get to run outside for ten minutes to stretch their legs.
• They don’t have to wear school uniform.
• During winter (ie now), they don’t turn on the heaters in the classrooms unless the outside temperature is below 10° C. Most of the kids wear massive fluffy coats with furry collars while studying at their desks.
• The kids have to take off their shoes at the entrance and put on special school slippers called uwabaki. At lunchtime and for outdoor sports, they put their outdoor shoes back on again.
• Felix was rapt to discover that there are enough boys of his age who like soccer to form two teams at lunchtime. There are even goals in the playground.
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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.
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This blog is about the adventures of a family of Australian barbarians spending two years in the islands of southern Japan. Stay tuned for regular updates on the food, the culture, the earthquakes, the wacky festivals, the school system and more. 
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