Matsuyama Elementary School

Bridget and Eric were recently interviewed by two different groups of Champlain College elementary education students. ------------

Q: What school are you currently attending in Japan? What grade levels are taught at your school?

Bridget: In Japan I am at Matsuyama shogako (Matsuyama Elementary school) which teaches grades 1 through 6. Because kids in Japan start school at age seven, I was placed in grade five.......which is at US grade 6 level......

Q: Do you have uniforms in Japan?
Bridget: Not at elementary school level (unless you count PE) but junior-high and high school students are required to have them. The girls have knee-high pleated skirts (the perfect choice for winter weather!) and jackets and the boys gray slacks, jackets and white shirts. This is just the local school's students; the uniform differs depending on the school.

Q: Can you describe a typical school day in Japan?
Bridget: A school day in Japan is a lot like a school day in the US; we have Art, Science, Home Ec, the aforementioned PE, then there's calligraphy; and the classes I don't understand-- Japanese language, social studies and Math (don't understand the Japanese in the word problems). The school day starts at eight and ends at four. Each class is a little under an hour long and there are five minute breaks in between them to get to places such as the music room or the gym. At ten o'clock we have twenty minute break and a lot of students go outside. Lunch starts at 12: 15. Recess follows lunch, souji follows recess. It's every student's duty to clean the school. So for twenty minutes we clean the classroom, hallway, bathroom, library, or whatever else you are assigned that week--the Japanese word for cleaning is souji. Here's a difference: the school year ends in March and starts in April. They get six weeks off in summer.

Q: What cultural differences have been most surprising and difficult for you to adapt to in Japan?
Bridget: The fact that the Japanese are so much like us westerners. Yes, they speak a different language, and yes, you won't find shrines or pagodas in America, but you don't come across much that's uniquely Japanese in modern-day Japan. It's like they are trying to become as much like the west as possible.

There are things that are different. In winter the temperature can be as low as thirty degrees....warm by Vermont standards, but our school has no heat. And keeps all the windows open. You can see your breath in my classroom. Average summer tempuratures range from 110 to 120F ......which is worse, no heat or no air conditioning?

Q: If you spoke no Japanese when you moved to your new school, how did you overcome the language barrier between you and your peers and teachers?
Bridget: Because Eigo (English) is the global business language, people in Nihon (Japan) are reqired to learn some in high school. That means that if I give one of my teachers a note they can decipher it within a day and reply the next day. I know some Japanese -- a few words and phrases ('lunch', 'where are we going?', 'I don't know/understand', etc.) Sometimes the odd word would pop up in a conversation near me, but that would be all I could understand. Classes are easier--textbooks have pictures and diagrams, sometimes the sensei (teacher) draws something I can understand on the blackboard, and if everything is absolutely alien to me, I do my school work from the US. I can also read hiragana, one of the san (three) Nihongo (Japanese) alphabets....which only really comes in useful during music when I have to pronounce the words to a song. My classmates and I communicate mainly through gestures and our limited grasp of each other's language.

Q: Was it very difficult for you to adjust to the different culture that you are now living in?
Bridget: Not particularly. Japan is very westernized and there were only a few things different that are considered rude; blowing your nose in public and showing someone the sole of your shoe. These are widely ignored by the average elementary-school (or sho-gakko) student.

School lunch is a good example of a different culture: noboby brings lunch from home and everybody eats the school-provided hot lunch..and eats it all no matter what it is (we have fish at least one day a week and everyone eats everything not just the offically edible parts. Everyone but me.) San (three) days a week the school serves gohan (rice) and ni (two) days bread. Recently I went on a field trip with my class and we had to bring a lunch. Them: hashi (chopsticks), rice, beans, rolled up egg, pickled plum, and something unidentifeiable with seaweed. All in it's own convinient place in the multi-story lunch box. Me: peanut butter sandwich, carrots, and chocolate; in a plastic bag.

Q: Are there any after-school or extra-curricular activities that are available for you to participate in? If so, do you take part in them, and which ones? What is that like?

Bridget: Japanese school is defined by it's after-school activities. It's a wonder they get their homework done (they don't expect me to do Japanese homework other than math). On Tuesdays I alternate between a drawing club (mostly composed of future Japanese anime artists) and meetings of the students who take care of the school usagi (rabbit) during recess. On Thursdays, students meet as teams for softball practice: however, I'm not on a team because they were assigned before I got here.

Q: How long is your family planning on staying in Japan for? Will you be attending high school, or even college, there? If you are, how does that process go? Is it similar to getting into college in the US?
Bridget: Actually I'm leaving next month! I'd like to come back to Japan but have no plans for it yet. I do know that in order to get into college you would have to take extensive, incredibly difficult tests--but once you are there the rest of college is really fun. High school, too, requires tests for placement that are taken in junior high. Since your placement in high school effects your placement in college, and your college education determains your job; your future rests on a test you take in junior high! I don't think the system is particularly fair.
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Q: What is one thing you miss about school in America that you don't have/
do in Japan?
Eric: I miss all the English stuff. I can't understand
anything here.

Q: What is one thing that is different about school in Japan that you really
like and wish you could bring back to America?
Eric: I like 'souji', cleaning the classroom. It doesn't
sound fun, but it is. All students do it once a day right
after recess. We have washing the floors and sweeping the
classroom and halls. Some unfortunate people clean the
restrooms, but I have never gotten that job. 

Q: Are the subjects that you are studying the same as what you would be
studying in America?
Eric: Yes and no. Here are my subjects for my class:
Japanese, math, social studies, PE, science, morals,
calligraphy (making japanese characters with ink),
music, art and free time.

Q: Do you guys have recess? If so, what do you do during recess?
Eric: I do have recess. We play a whole array of
games, dodgeball, soccer, basketball etc. Sometimes
we visit the school bunny, Miduku. I love bunnies!  

Q: What is the strangest thing about school in Japan?
Eric: The fact that I changed classrooms every
month so I get an idea of all 3rd grade class
students. There are 3 third grade classrooms and
no one else changes but me.  Here's the order
I've been changed around in.
In September I was in 3-3, October 3-2, November
and December 3-1, January and February 3-2 and now
March is 3-1 again. The school year ends on March 24
and a new school year begins 2 weeks later in April.
The students get another break the month of August
because it is so hot. There is also a break at New
Years (the biggest holiday).

The school is cold because: 1) it is not heated,except
for the teachers lounge 2) they open the windows even
in winter! (don't worry, it isn't below freezing here
- average is about 41 degrees F. Lows in the 30s and we
had a few days last week in the 80s! On the cold days,
kids wear their coats in class all day.

I live in Kyushu, the most southern of the main islands.
Hokikodo is the most northern island (weather like Vermont)
and Honshu is the biggest island where Tokyo is. I live
near Nagasaki. (I'm in 4th grade in America, but in Japan
they start first grade when they are 7, so they placed me
in 3rd with the other kids my age).

Q:  What is lunch like there?   
Eric: We eat in the classroom. We push four desks together
to make a small table and we eat at our desks. No one brings
cold lunch, they all eat the school hot lunch. The kids eat
ALL of it. The students serve lunch. They wear white caps,
jackets and masks. They bring the lunch from the kitchen to
the classroom. All students wear masks while they get their
food. We remove our masks at the same time, say "itadakimasu"
and start eating.

Q:  What is the school building like?       
Eric: There are three buildings 1-gym, 2-first and sixth grade
building 3-second-fifth, teachers room, science room, library,
nurse's office, art room, music room, computer room. All the
buildings are three stories tall.

Q:  Do you have a library? Gym? Cateteria?    
Eric: Library- the kids run the library. The Gym is HUGE.
It's like a mini-football field. All our assemblies are held
there. There is no cafeteria.

Q: How many students are in your class?    
Eric: There are at least 30 in each class. There are three
different third grade classes.

Q: Do you have the same amount of homework as you would in the U.S.? 
Eric: I don't do Japanese homework, I do my homework from
the U.S. My classmates seem to have about the same amount.
My sister says her class (5th grade) has A LOT.

Q: If you could choose, would you rather go to school in Japan or the U.S.? 
Eric: Japan is nice, but in the U.S., I can actually
understand my teachers and classmates. If I could understand
Japanese, it would be about equal. 

Lost tooth

Eric lost a tooth the other day. He was proudly showing off his new smile to Mari, our Japanese language tutor, when she asked him about our American custom regarding lost teeth. Eric happily waxed on about the tooth fairy, a story Mari had never heard.

She said the custom in Japan is to stand at an open window and if an upper tooth was lost, the tooth is tossed down to the ground. If a lower tooth was lost, then one must toss the tooth up; she said it is particularly good to get it on the roof. Tossing the tooth the correct way is very lucky.

Eric quickly decided to put his tooth under his pillow when he realized that the Japanese custom did not involve cash.

Travel Archive

This blog focuses on my view of life in Japan. We've also had fun playing tourist. Here's our travel archive: http://iversonjpnarchive.blogspot.com.

Quake and pottery

After being told that earthquakes were rare in this part of Japan, our island got hit with a magnitude-seven on Sunday morning. The quake was off the coast of Kyushu nearest the city of Fukuoka at the north end of the island. Turns out we were not that far away; we had taken a day trip up the north coast of Kyushu in Saga and were exploring an old cstle/fortress in the coastal town of Karatsu. Dave was in a small building and the windows rattled a bit; he thought it was wind from the sea. We didn't know anthing until Aya, from Okinawa, called on our cell not long after. The quake caused some damage, but thankfully the casualties were low.

There's been a few aftershocks, Tuesday was 5.1 level -- It disrupted things at Sony, but the kids and I didn't notice it. Guess our apartment building is built better than Sony's fab.

Tuesday was my chance to go back to Arita, a town just north of here famous for its pottery- something about the local clay drew Korean masters centuries ago. Shopping in Arita is like going to the pachinko parlor... you're done when your wallet is empty.

It POURED all day and I must've looked like a drowned rat. One shop owner made me sit and have coffee (served in a beautiful mug), another desparately wanted me to take his umbrella and in the third store, a fellow shopper kept jabbering at me in Japanese until I realized that she thought I had taken the train and she was offering me a ride back to the station. She seemed very surprised when I pointed at my car. All very sweet.

Doctor visit

We've been so fortunate not to have any medical mishaps since we've been here, but Bridget has had a lump on her eyelid for weeks. Our pediatrician's office told me to do hot compresses etc and if the lump was red to see a doc. So off we went on Monday to the only local doctor listed as English speaking in my guide.

His office was like walking into a Norman Rockwell painting; I haven't seen this kind of old fashioned GP office since I was a little girl. He was a small, older man and said he went to school in the states over 35-years ago and doesn't use his English much. He examined Bridget, and in the typical Japanese manner, apologized profusely that he felt that she should see a specialist. He made some phone calls and then proceeded to pull his coat on and said that he was going to escort us! We walked around the corner into a very modern office, past all the other patients in the waiting room and got immediate attention. He translated everything the specialist said for me (diagnosis: chalazion) and how to treat it, then walked us to the pharmacy to make sure I got the perscription filled okay.

By this time, he had spent over an hour with us and I told him that I would pay his receptionist. He insisted that I not pay because in the states he had to see a doctor and he was not charged because in the U.S., doctors did not charge doctors (is that still true?). He felt that by not charging me that he was returning the kindness. I said that I hoped that I could help a Japanese person in the U.S. and return the kindness again. He said that that would make him very happy.

Bridget and I decided to put together a little gift basket for him. I had brought along some Iverson maple syrup, so we assembled a tea, jam, syrup basket and brought it over. Not seeing anyone in the front office, we left it on the reception desk. Later on I received a bubbly and enthusiast phone call from my doctor friend. He said that when he went to school in NY state (Binghamton, I think), and that he would drive all over looking for maple syrup because he loved it so. He thanked me over and over again for bringing him his favorite treat. I was just tickled that we happened upon something he truly seemed to enjoy. It made me smile all day.