Fukuoka, Japan: September 2006

SCHOOL DAYS

After living in Chikugo, Fukuoka for a few weeks and working at the Minami Chikugo Board of Education, I finally began teaching at my three schools. My schedule varied, but I typically spend each  Monday at Minami Setaka elementary school and I alternated between Tachibana and Yamakawa junior high schools each week from Tuesday through Friday.

I fell in love with my elementary school immediately. Everyone was so friendly, and the kids barely noticed that I could not yet speak a word of Japanese. I was assigned to first and fourth grade, which I loved because it gave me the opportunity to experience different age groups. In Japan, teachers are shuffled around from grade to grade each year and even relocated to different schools every few years, so teachers never enter the profession thinking, "I am a first grade teacher and that's all I want to do". Now that I am looking for a full time teaching position in Chicago, I find it odd when I am asked what grade I want to teach. I have fallen in love with every grade I've had.

Uniforms are an important part of school culture in Japan. Students have summer uniforms, winter uniforms, gym uniforms, matching backpacks and hats, and sometimes even lunch uniforms!

At lunch time, all students eat "school lunch" in their classrooms. At Minami Setaka, the teachers eat the same lunch in the staff room. At first I was a little skeptical, but I quickly learned to love the food and now I really miss it. My favorite lunch was the soup with quail eggs in it. I also really enjoyed the dried fish flakes (that clearly looked like whole tiny fish) that we sprinkled over rice for flavor. The only one I didn't like was liver, but we only had it twice all year. At Yamakawa, I ate lunch with the kids and the menu alternated between a rice-based meal and bread each day. The bread came in a plastic package and was served plain, which was really not appealing to me at all.

In Japan it is very rare for schools to have custodians, so every day the students (and in some cases the teachers) spend time cleaning. At my schools, cleaning time was right after lunch. Music played over the P.A. system for about 15 minutes, and everyone jumped to their assigned posts, scrubbing the floors, sweeping the shoe cubbies, weeding the garden, washing the windows, or cleaning the bathrooms. It was really quite impressive, and when the teachers also participate I think it's a great way to teach kids responsibility and respect for their school.

(Photo credit: tonybaloney100)

For the first few weeks at Yamakawa, I learned that all students would be missing the last two periods of the day to practice for "Sports Day" at the end of the month. On Sports Day, students participate in various athletic events, some of which are quite competitive, for an audience of teachers and families. Most of the practicing time was spent with the boys learning to build human pyramids and the girls perfecting a traditional Japanese dance. The younger students spent a significant amount of time practicing raising and lowering colored flags that were tied to their waists under the strict direction of the older students. They used these flags to make a sort of billboard backdrop for various dances and performances.

Once sports day arrived at last, I watched the wide variety of activities and realized that I was completely unfamiliar with many of the "sports". While the dancing, cheering, running, and tug-of-war were familiar, the very popular running-with-a-giant-block-of-ice relay race was a new experience for me. Likewise, I could not figure out what sport required students to have their faces pushed into a large bin of flour. However, it sure seemed like everyone was having fun!


The Way We Do It in Japan by Geneva Cobb Iijima is a book I purchased shortly after returning from Japan. I love how it describes so many of the differences between Japanese and American culture from a kid's perspective, including several I've mentioned in this blog entry. Although the story takes place in Tokyo, many of the cultural aspects depicted are exactly how I experienced them in small-town Japan. This is an excellent book to show young children how people who live far away may seem very different, but they are the same in all the important ways.

If you are considering starting a pen pal project with your class, this book would make a great introduction. I would highly recommend choosing a partner in Japan, since their English education program makes it possible to communicate with junior high school students and many of the teachers would jump at the opportunity. If you don't know anyone in another country who can help you out, there are a few websites that can put you in contact with interested schools.