I am in Nagoya and I am staying with my friend Ron Taw. It is always a pleasure being with Taw. He always manages to somehow be incredibly appropriately inappropriate. As I told him today he is the most optimistic negative person I know. I went with Taw to school today. It was extremely interesting seeing the school. First off, students nor staff wear shoes in the school building. They have slippers for visitors. The staff and students bring their own slippers that they wear in the building. The students are really fun. They enjoy speaking English and are really friendly. One of the interesting things about the education system in Japan is that students get accepted to high schools based on their middle school scores. It is kind of like how the College system works in the United States. There are prestigious high schools and “not so prestigious” high schools. At their high schools each students joins a club. The students join one club. No more, no less. They then focus on becoming an expert in this area. There are so many different types of clubs. There is tennis, handball, basketball, dancing, track and field, soccer, baseball, swimming, Jukendo, volleyball, and handball just to name a few. Many of these clubs compete against other schools. We walked around after school and watched the clubs. The most amazing thing to me is that there were no adults that were overseeing these clubs. Now from my understanding the clubs do have coaches that are adults but the majority of the time the students supervise themselves. The students are very structured and organized. They ran drills and pushed themselves. This was unlike anything I have seeing in the United States. I have included a couple videos that show some of the clubs in action. Sidenote: The reason I didn't comment on how the classes are structured is because today was a sports day at the school. The students had all finished their finals so there was not any classes in session. below are some pictures from while I was at the school.
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ReplyDeleteThat is so rad. Love the photos.
ReplyDeleteI am loving all of your stories but also starting to feel a little bit defensive. From your pictures and descriptions, it's obvious that Japan is a beautiful country and the people are kind and gracious and welcoming. It is also clear that Japan is phenomenally efficient - a quality that you and I both hold in very high regard.
But, come on, we've got stuff too. We're kind and gracious and efficient as well. OK, so maybe we're not...whatever. Shut up. You're a stupidface.
Sounds like going to school was a really interesting & fun experience. I Hope you didn't embarrass us with holey socks or smelly feet.
Also, if you go back, tell them that Americans are super hard working and efficient and never sit on the couch watching law & order marathons and fantasizing about having telekinetic powers because the phone is in the other room & chinese takeout sounds awesome.
-X