My friend, Naoto Saita took me to three different schools today in Shimtomi-Cho. She is a teacher in another city near here, but she had the day off today so she arranged meetings for me at these schools. I met Naoto playing tennis last Friday night.  She lived in Vancouver, Canada for a year and speaks English very well. She lives just down the road from us here!

It was a goal of mine to visit some schools here in Japan so I could learn a little more about their education system. I feel that the students in general are better behaved here.  They wear uniforms and bow a lot!  They still have Specialists that teach PE, music, and art, and they teach English in upper Elementary School and Junior and Senior High School. Students here take education very seriously and sometimes go to school on Saturday and even have some school related activities on Sunday.

But what I really learned is that we do a lot of the same things.

I took a lot of pictures!

A 2nd Grader's Hirigana Alphabet.

5th Graders doing Math

This is the sign outside of a 5th Grade classroom.  It is Grade 5, Classroom 1.

5th Grade teacher using Star Board

 Alex Wessel, an Elementary English teacher from Ohio!  He lives near us here, but I just met him today!

                                               Elementary School calligraphy




Elementary School students in their PE uniforms.

A picture about harvesting a rice field in Japan.

Girl's backpacks

Boy's backpacks

Junior High English Class chalkboard.

Junior High choir class.

Computer Lab

Shoe storage in Junior High School

I had to take my own shoes off and put on house slippers when I entered the school today.

There is a small tiled entry way in every home for removing your shoes.  Sometimes they carry it a little too far, like when Scott had to remove and put his shoes back on while he was helping our friend, Wenji, move his refrigerator to a different apartment!

Whenever they see an American they want to practice their English.  They usually begin by saying, "Hello!"  When I say "Hello" back, they usually just giggle!

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Junior High School girl's uniforms

Junior High School boy's uniforms

Elementary School library

Elementary School PE class
Playing volleyball

Story written in Hirigana by Elementary School student.  You read it top to bottom, right to left!

Umbrellas

Sinks in the halls of the Elementary School