Japanese School Part 2 (Including Parent Observation Day!)

To say we are proud of our girls and how they are dealing with school in Japan would be the greatest understatement. We really threw them in the deep end and while they have had a struggle to stay afloat, they are also learning to tread the water and even beginning to start swimming. 

Here are the shoe boxes for the students (specifically the two grade 5 classes) at the entrance of the school. There are boxes like this for every class and student in the school. When they enter, they take off their outside shoes and change into their inside school shoes. Teachers change shoes too. Parents who are visiting also have to change shoes. There are visitor slippers for irregular visitors, but parents are pretty much expected to BYO every time, so I've got a pair of slippers to slide on when I visit the girls at school. Fun times.

This is the school from the back. The three story building make a U-shape around that big gravel "play area". It's a pretty compact school, but then, the Japanese are pretty skilled at fitting lots of people into a small space efficiently. Below is to the left, which shows the gym. There is also an indoor pool on the campus somewhere. I took these shots from the "back gate" of the school on a Sunday morning. The front side is literally gate and stairs up into the main building. The girls say that kids throw balls at those archery targets. No kicking allowed. 

As you might have seen in my first post about the girls starting school, the classrooms are pretty standard old school. Single desks in rows, all facing the black board. The school has extra rooms for science, art, home ec, PE and music, but everything else is done in their classroom. Each month, there is an "Education Day" where parents can come and observe the lessons. I went along and stood in the back of the classroom while Rachel's Humanities teacher discussed the weather (honestly, un-engaging, rote learning style of guess what the teacher is telling you and then fill in the blanks) and then went down to see Sophie's class at art (more interesting, but the kids were all just working on covering a wire frame of a person with air dry clay stuff, so not hugely gripping). 

I considered staying for science (where the topic was "how things burn") but couldn't be bothered wait the twenty minute break between the lessons. Especially since kids were changing from PE gear to regular clothes and vica versa all over the place (in the classrooms, with windows and doors open); who needs change rooms right? The girls had four classes that day, lunch and then were sent home at 1:20. Still can't get my head around the timetable. 

School lunches are provided for all primary school students across Japan. Each class has a roster of students (about four or five at a time) who will go down to the kitchens and collect the lunches for the class. They then bring them back and serve each student. When everyone has their food, the students sit and eat together. Students who serve wear white aprons, hats and masks for the week and then bring them home to be washed and returned. Sophie has already had her turn, but Rachel's group is still coming up.

We were given the lunch menu for the first month when the girls started, so they mostly know what to expect each day. Some days Sophie comes home telling us they are trying to poison her, but for the most part, it's different but edible. There is always milk to drink, and if there are any students away and there is an extra something, the students can do janken (Scizzors Paper Rock) to share the extra. Sophie (and Rachel) generally always leaps at the opportunity for the extra milk. 

Along with the responsibility of serving the food, the students have groups to clean the classrooms as well. At the end of the day/week, there is a big clean where the desks are all moved back and the floor is swept. In the first week, Rachel's group had to go clean the art room, so I guess there is a complicated roster system for cleaning the whole school too. 

They also had their first taste of Saturday school last week. Saturday school used to be a very regular thing, but now days it's only once a month, and usually just a half day of classes. The girls first Saturday school experience though was the Opening Ceremony for their school. Thanks to Japan's declining population problem, two of the local schools in the area combined this year to become one. Instead of just bringing one school over, they actually officially abolished both schools and created a new school, complete with new school song, logo, the whole works. 

Photo from Asahi News.

The Opening Ceremony was a lot of official stuff that the kids had to sit through (I think they practiced every single day in the lead up) and the grade 6s were at the front of it for a part too. I think the actual ceremony only went for just over an hour, but Rachel's school schedule for Saturday was: 

1. Practice and set up for the Opening Ceremony

2. Do the Opening Ceremony

3. Reflect on the Opening Ceremony

Got to say, I wouldn't be excited to go to school that day either. The school opening made the news, and you can see Sophie in the photos here. The emblem for the school was designed by a local (and incredibly famous) manga/anime artist who I guess I'll talk about in another post. 

Front gate of the school. Logo on the building at the top.

There are the usual things you'd expect for school too, including homework to do, but for the most part, we are being pretty relaxed. We've told the girls we know it's going to be tough for them, and that we aren't expecting them to understand everything. It's all about trying, and if they can focus on learning the Japanese, that's progress enough. Rachel is having a lot of success with maths, thanks to being clever enough to figure out what to do with the numbers in between all the Japanese writing. 

And that's enough about school for now! Onto something more fun next time. 

Tsujiki: Tokyo Fish Market

Being the responsible Australian citizens that we are, Steve and I both went in to the Australian Embassy to cast our votes for the upcoming election last week. The strangest thing about voting was all the people speaking English around us. After that duty was done though, we thought we'd make the most of our trip to central Tokyo and do some exploring, so we went to visit Tsujiki. 

I'll be honest, when people say "Let's go to the fish market", I usually have the same response I did when my high school teacher suggested it over twenty years ago on my first trip to Japan; "Why would anyone want to go to a fish market?" But, we were in the area, and there has to be a reason people rave about it, so we went. 

The whole area was lots of food stalls, selling some amazingly fresh produce. I'm sure you could have visited a section with much more "straight off the boat raw fish", but we just strolled the more mainstream streets. The food looked delicious, so we stopped for some sashimi and we were not disappointed.

Like the matching phone case I made with the leftover fabric from my onigiri dress?

There were also loads of places selling wagyu beef, and Steve thought he'd get a piece to take home for Sophie. We've been really proud of the way the girls have been trying and eating all the new things provided at their school lunch (come back next week for that post!), so we wanted to get them something each they'd love to eat. I went off to get some salmon sashimi for Rachel, but the beef that Steve bought for Sophie got put straight onto a grill for us to eat immediately. A somewhat expensive accidental miscommunication, but one we didn't regret because the wagyu was phenomenal. 

We then successfully bought a larger piece to enjoy for dinner. So delicious. Rachel was happy with her salmon which she made into nigiri with some rice. 

 

I couldn't get any photos of Sophie enjoying her wagyu, because she ate it so fast, but loved every minute of it. Happy little carnivore.

Tsukuba-san

One of the tricky things for us to juggle at the moment is the fact that Steve, working for his Australian company, has the Australian public holidays, while the girls, in their Japanese public school, have the Japanese public holidays. As one might suspect, these do not often align. We are trying to make the most of our time here though, so with the Easter long weekend on the horizon, we booked two nights away at Mt Tsukuba. 

I had been to Tsukuba-san (as it's referred to in Japanese), before with my Japanese homestay family over twenty years ago. They had taken me because it's famous for frogs, which I love. Steve was wanting to get some actual mountain climbing practice in (not just stairs training) and Tsukuba-san looked like it would provide some ideal conditions for the mountain climbing (if not the freezing cold altitude of Fuji-san). Since the girls were at school on Friday, Steve took the train early in the morning and spent five hours climbing a mountain. The girls and I took the much later (and more crowded) train after school to join him. 

It was a cool and cloudy day, so even though not the best for the views, pretty tolerable for mountain climbing. Steve smashed out his climb and took the cable car back down the mountain even before school was over. 

We just stayed in the main town of Tsukuba, rather than at the mountain. I would have liked to go all the way up, but with the girls it was tricky. Still, there was plenty to do. Saturday we had breakfast out, stumbled upon some markets and then made our way to the Space Centre and Geological Museum. 

The Space Centre had an actual rocket, but was otherwise a little underwhelming. The Geological Museum was really interesting, with lots of displays and a huge interactive map of Japan that you could layer different information over. 

This was all the onsen (hot springs)

It's a little confronting to put things like "all the active volcanos" and "earthquake faults" on the map and see so many things light up. Steve mentioned that I seem a little concerned about all the ways we could die here. I guess coming from Australia, we are so used to all the warnings about animals that can kill you, while the natural disasters that could do the same are more few and far between. In Japan, there aren't that many animals that could take you out, but the list of natural disasters that would is pretty long. 

All the active volcanos

Also, Japan are way more prepared for all the emergencies; Rachel bought home a "what would we do in a flood" planning guide from school for example. People tend to store things like bottled water, incase of an emergency when the water is cut off, and have extra food in their floor cupboards. To be honest, even if I bought surplus food supplies, we'd have no way of cooking them if the power is out, so there isn't much point. Steve also pointed out that if we were at that moment in an emergency, we'd likely be at a friend's house or looking for ways to leave the country anyway. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. 

Anyway, back to the travel blog!

Getting out of the complex that the Geological Museum was in (which was the Science Research Centre for Tsukuba and actually had guards at the entrance) proved a little tricky, since we took a path to the rear only to find a locked gate stopping us from getting through. Luckily, someone who worked there road past us on a bike just as we turned back and we were able to get out after he swiped his card, saving us a long walk back in the heat. Did I mention it was 28 degrees? Such a warm day! 

We stopped at Tsukuba Brewery and Steve had a tasting paddle of three pretty good beers. I guess Steve would say they were all great, but I only really liked the first one. 

Then we bussed back to our hotel and I took the girls for another walk through the markets before we snacked at Mister Donuts. Lastly we walked through the central park to the Expo Centre (with yet another rocket). This place looked cool, but since it was already 4:15, we weren't sure if it would be worth it to try to smash through the exhibits in the 45mins before closing time, so we strolled back through the park to the fountain area outside the hotels that the girls were keen to play in. 

They hung out there on the rocks for ages doing who knows what. Scheming probably. Then Steve took them to get a cat shirt for Sophie and come back to the hotel for dinner. The girls were not feeling like going out for dinner, so we had strategically bought convenience store dinner for them (cup noodles and chicken pieces) and left them in the hotel while we went out. 

I tried my first ever eel, which was delicious, and Steve had tempura and soba. Back to the hotel for some time watching random Japanese game shows with the girls before bed. 

Sunday (Easter Sunday!) we had some chocolate eggs that I strategically packed all the way from Australia. Steve had said (back in February when I bought them) "We'll be able to find Easter eggs in Japan right?". Oh, so wrong Steve. I was glad I packed these precious Cadbury gems. They were well worth the luggage allowance that they took up. 

We didn't have much time on Sunday to explore Tsukuba more because the girls had their first meeting of Girl Scouts that afternoon, so we pretty much packed up and shipped out to be home in time for that. We saved our actual Easter celebrations for Monday, when we had a bit more time at home and were feeling much less travel worn. 

All in all, it was a good little get away. 

Neighbourhood Walks

Typical suburban street in outer Tokyo

Walking around the neighbourhood streets where we live was surprisingly easy to get used to. I don't know if it's that we needed the maps so much in the first week (or all the Pokemon Go I've been playing) but four weeks in and it's hard to get lost in our little part of Tokyo. 

Main "Sakura Street" in Yotsugi with one of the few footpaths.
Unfortunately, so bumpy thanks to the sakura tree roots, it's hard to walk on. 

I wanted to be getting out and walking more when we arrived here, mostly because I knew I would have the time and thought it would be a good way to get back into the habit. I'm pretty lucky that the area we live in is flat and super easy to walk around. There aren't many actual footpaths here. Usually just a less than half a meter section on the side of the actual road that you use, but it's sometimes got a painted line to help the cars know not to run into you. The local streets tend not to have too much traffic anyway, though loads of bikes. 

All the spring flowers are out too, which makes every walk beautiful. People don't have any kind of yard or grass for the most part (unless you have a really big house, and even then, the garden is most likely stepping stones, rocks and a tree or two), but there are loads of small potted plants out the front of most houses. 

I love seeing the flowers that I recognise from Brisbane, but also the ones we never get in our climate, like the tulips, poppies and daffodils. 

I have been walking down to the river a lot recently, and feeling so unbelievably lucky that we got to live here for four months. I think I can kind of see why people drive into South Bank and walk along the river there now, though I still don't think I'd drive somewhere to walk. The rivers that boarder our corner suburb probably help with our ability to navigate too, though they won't help if we have too much rain later in the year and the whole area floods, since the ground here is so flat.

 

Steve thinks it helps that we have Skytree almost always in our skyline, helping us know which way is west. He and I walked over there from our place one weekend, and it took just under an hour. It's only 10mins on the train. As the days progress into summer, I can see me moving the walking to the evening and I'm looking forward to seeing how different things are with all the lights on. 

Since Steve finishes work at four, we've been able to go for a few evening strolls with the girls too. This Yellow Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that takes you over some water to another path down by the river. Steve has been using the stairs here as his Fuji Training, since Yotsugi is so flat he's got not other incline options. It's no Pegg's Lookout or Toohey Forest, but it will do. 

And here is Rachel eating Skytree. Just like Godzilla. 

Japanese Primary School Part 1

Call us crazy, but we've enrolled the girls into a local Japanese primary school. We are living in Japan after all and wanted to make the most of the experience. The girls had mixed feelings about this, but we were pretty confidant that the benefits would outweigh the potential troubles. 

School started on the 7th of April, just over a week ago now. For primary school, everyone has to go to the primary school in their local area and all the kids walk to school. Even year one. All by themselves. The school has set routes that the students follow, so there is a lot of students streaming past in the morning and afternoon. They do have some parent helpers/teachers out with flags along the routes to help kids get familiar with it, but for the most part the thinking is that you are at school now, so it's time to be responsible. 

Higashi Yotsugi Primary School Hat

We only live a two min walk from our local school. I think the strangest thing about school so far has to be the rather overcomplicated timetable. There are six hour days, there are five hour days. There are days that are only four hours and finish before lunch. Then there is the B timetable, which also has five and six hour days, but finish at different times. Also, I don't think they count the 20 minutes of self study that students need to do when they arrive at school in this, although Rachel says her teacher gets in at 8:30 and class starts then. Who knows!

Inside school shoes ready for day one

The first day of school was a one hour day for Rachel, and a three hour day for Sophie, since she's in year six and has "leadership responsibilities". To be honest, even though I've written down what day is what on the calendar, I'm still never quite sure when they are coming home. I guess that's why the kids are trained to get to and from school all on their own, so it doesn't really matter. 

Part of Sophie's year six leadership responsibilities has been to look after a year one student every morning for the first two weeks of school. She has to get to school by 8:05 to meet the year one-er, make sure they put their bag away, go to the toilet, get a drink etc, then sit with them in class and read or draw together until it's time for the teacher to come in. 

It's free dress for primary school, though on the first day, Sophie did have to wear "ceremony clothes" (button up white shirt and black skort). The only thing that identifies the kids as school students is the really obvious school backpacks and their school hat. We did have to buy the sports uniform (white shirt, dark shorts, red/white reversible hat) for them to change into for sports. 

Speaking of sports uniforms, the girls take them to school on Mondays and bring them home on Fridays. I think this is strategic to help people not forget their uniforms, because with all the timetable changes, you never really know when you'll need it. Rachel had PE on Friday in the first week, and then on Monday in the second. The other thing they've needed to get changed into their uniforms for is the start of year doctors check ups. 

Yes, you read that right. Every student has multiple, dare I say, numerous doctors checkups at the start of the year. At the school, provided by the government. I'm talking movement/muscular skeletal checks, ear, nose and throat, asthma and heart as well as eye tests. It was pretty strange for the girls, even though I pre-warned them about it. 

Aside from that, the girls have settled into their classes really quickly. Rachel's teacher is pretty fabulous and makes sure he takes the time to check Rachel is understanding things. She is student number 30 in class 2 of year 5 (refered to as 5-2). Students sit in their number order (at least for the start of the year), and I think she likes it up in the back corner where she can look out the window. 

Sophie's teacher has been a little harder to get on board. I know she's focused on helping all the year six students "prepare for Junior High School", but it's still annoying. Sophie is number 20 in her class (6-1) and sits in the second row. I know this because when they had the start of year parent meeting on Friday last week, we got to go and sit in the classrooms, at the desks that our kids would sit at, and listen to the teacher tell us stuff. 

Most days the girls have come home with something new and fun that happened to tell us about. Scattered in these stories are moments of "Japanese all day makes my brain hurt", which was expected. On the first day, Rachel was delighted to report that her school had axolotl in the hallway on the first floor. We have been subsequently less excited seeing the conditions of the tank that these poor creatures are exisiting in. Nothing interesting in there at all; not even a rock for them to hide behind. It's the flip side of living somewhere like Japan, on one hand: cool axolotl! On the other hand: no care for animal rights.

Speaking of the flip sides of Japan, as I sat in Rachel's classroom listening to her teacher talk about things (and point out the work they had done that day on the black board (yes, you read that right - it was written with chalk and everything!)), I noticed that right under the fancy touch screen TV sat a still working cassette tape player. Oh Japan. One foot in the future and the other firmly in the past. 

There is lots more to say about Japanese schools, but I'll leave this here for now and you can come back another time to learn about school lunches, cleaning classrooms, clubs and all the different subjects! 

Hanami

Cherry blossoms are falling off their trees now, giving way to the green new life coming through, but while they bloomed, they sure were beautiful. 

Since the blossoms only last about two weeks on the trees, Japanese people tend to make the most of this time of year (especially as the cold of winter starts to give way to warmer spring days) by celebrating with picnics. Hanami is a picnic that is specifically done where you can view the flowers (usually cherry blossoms). 

We were lucky enough to be invited to a hanami picnic with another family who live in the area and they took us to a huge park by the water on the edge of Tokyo. It was loads of fun, and our girls had a good time making friends and playing with the other Japanese kids. 

Rachel tried the typical tri-colour dango for the first time, which was delicious. These are mochi (pounded rice balls) on a stick. They vaguely have sakura, plain and macha flavour, but mostly they just have the colours and all tasted about the same. You can only get these around this time of year (March for girls day (hinamatsuri) and then in April for the sakura). 

Sophie tried some umeboshi - sour pickled plum - which did not have the same reaction. Rachel tried the umeboshi as well, but the first time just swallowed it whole (seed and all) and second time took a bite and then forgot the seed and swallowed all of it again. So funny. We had to explain to Sophie that getting foreigners to try umeboshi is like when people come to Australia and we insist they try Vegemite, knowing full well it's an unusual and generally acquired taste. She did not approve. 

Steve took the girls on the big ferris wheel in the park, and got some views of the sakura, Tokyo city, as well as out over the bay towards Chiba, where you can see the Disney parks. 

It was a really fun day, and such a quintessential Japanese thing that I'm glad we got to experience it. I've been taking photos of all the sakura lined streets in the neighbourhood, but nothing really compares to seeing them in real life. Soon they will be all over though and everyone who is sick of hearing about them can relax. 

Birthday in Japan

Two years in a row I've been lucky enough to celebrate my birthday in Japan. I asked Steve if we could make it a thing, but I don't like my chances. Better to be happy with what I got. 

Honestly, it was a pretty cold and rainy day here, so the girls and I were just hanging out while Steve worked. I did spend most of the day sewing, while we chatted and listened to music. The day before the girls and I had had cake at a cafe when we went to Nippori, but what I really wanted was one of these strawberry sakura red bean mochi that you can pretty much only get at this time of year. 

Honestly can't tell you just how delicious they are. Hooray! 

Come Friday, we got to celebrate again (and help the girls get out of a pretty bad wave of homesickness) by going to karaoke together. I felt like we were a little bit rookies since we aren't used to picking songs and it took a bit to get going. Sophie in particular at the moment is all about musicals, including some niche YouTube musical on the Odyssey, so was bummed about her choices not being available. 

Still, lots of fun, some tempura for dinner after and a walk home through the neighbourhood cherry blossoms. So lucky to have celebrated this way.