How are Japanese schools different from America’s?

The only experience I have with the American public school system is when I was a student in the ’70s – ’80s in West-central Florida.
But I’m sure Florida’s public schools aren’t too different from schools in other parts of America. And even though I graduated from high school in 1988 I guess American schools aren’t too different today (with the exception, of course, of fashion and music tastes. And there are probably computers in U.S. classrooms now.)

My experience with the Japanese school system is from having three teenagers who attended Japanese public schools from kindergarten to the high school they’re currently attending (college).

Some differences between these countries’ school systems are:

– In Japan, the school year begins in April and ends in March. In America, the school year starts around September and ends in June. Also, students in Japan have fewer days off than American students.

– There are no school buses in Japan. In Japanese public kindergartens, mothers take their kids to school (often by bicycle). Public elementary schools and junior high schools are close enough for the students to walk to* (*in urban areas, like Tokyo, students must walk to school…no bicycles allowed. But in more rural areas of Japan, kids are often permitted by ride their bikes to school.)
High schools in Japan require passing an Entrance Exam to attend…so these schools usually require the students to take a short commute by train.
(Private schools in Japan, on the other hand, aren’t usually within walking distance from the students’ homes…so kids who attend private schools (even elementary school) can be seen commuting by train with their classmates.)

– In Japanese public schools, elementary school kids wear street clothes to school (like in American schools), but starting in junior high, they must wear a school uniform.

– In Japanese schools, everyone must remove their shoes at the entrance and change into 上履き (indoor shoes).

– In Japanese elementary and junior high schools students and teachers all eat the same school lunch. There are no choices.
In most high schools, students and teachers are required to bring a 弁当 (packed lunch) from home.
And very few Japanese schools have a cafeteria. Students eat lunch in their classroom at their desk.
In American schools, there are “lunch ladies” who prepare the school lunches and then serve the students, but in Japan, the “lunch ladies” cook the lunch but students take turns serving lunch to their classmates.

– Japanese school children don’t take a shower after gym class.

– There are no janitors in Japanese schools. The students clean their school everyday.

– In junior high and high school in Japan, almost every student joins a after-school club or team.

– 夏休み (summer vacation) is about five weeks long in Japan. It was about twice as long in America, if I remember correctly.
And during summer vacation, Japanese students have to go to school many times for their school club / team practice. Also, Japanese students must do a lot of homework during summer vacation.

– In American schools, there are no 入学式 (“School Entrance Ceremony”), and 卒業式 (“School Graduation”) isn’t until high school has been completed.
But in Japan, there are both 入学式 (“School Entrance Ceremonies“) and 卒業式 (“School Graduations“) for kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, high school and college.

– In America, school grades are counted as 1 -5 for 小学校 (elementary school), 6-8 for 中学校 (junior high) and 9-12 for 高等学校 (high school).
In Japan, 小学校 (elementary school) is six years (grades 小1-6), 中学校 (junior high) is three years (grades 中1-3 (equal to grades 7-9)), and 高等学校 (high school) is also three years (grades 高校 1-3 (equal to grades 10-12)).

There are many other differences…such as the way homework and tests are administered and checked, the manner that classes are arranged, the fact that Japanese students stand and greet their teacher at the beginning and end of each class, the way that students are trusted in empty classrooms alone…even in kindergarten.

I’d say that schools in Japan and America have more differences than similarities. And I think education and school life that my children are getting in Japan is superior to what I had in America.

53.3% built

Yesterday was the last day of my kids’ spring vacation. And in Japan, after spring holidays the new school starts in early April.

So, today will be my daughters’ first day in the next grade. My oldest is starting 高校２年 (11th grade), my second daughter will begin 高校１年 (10th grade), and my youngest is now in 中学校２年 (8th grade).

They grow up so fast!

As I said, my second daughter is starting 高校１年 (10th grade). It’s the equivalent to tenth grade in America…but a literal translation would be “high school year 1” because it’s the first year of high school in Japan.

So today is her 高校入学式 (High School Entrance Ceremony).

Last year at this time my oldest daughter had her 高校入学式 (High School Entrance Ceremony) on the same day that my youngest had her 中学校入学式 (Junior High School Entrance Ceremony).
So last year, I went to our oldest daughter’s ceremony and my wife went to our youngest’s ceremony (Click here to read the post I wrote about that day).

But today, both my wife and I will be attending our second daughter’s 高校入学式 (High School Entrance Ceremony).

おめでとう (Congratulations) to her!

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I titled this post “53.3% built” because the Tokyo Sky Tree is now standing at 338 meters (about 1,109 feet) tall.

That makes it taller than the 333 meter tall Tokyo Tower and the tallest structure in Japan.

When it’s completed in late 2011, it will stand 634 meters (about 2,080 feet)…which will make it the world’s tallest tower.

338 meters is 53.3% of 634 meters…hence this post’s title.

I went by the Tokyo Sky Tree yesterday, so here are some of the photos I took (as with all the photos on my blog, click on them to enlarge):

When completed, the Tokyo Sky Tree will be about twice as tall as it is now!

I held my camera diagonally for this shot.

卒業式

Today was my second daughter’s 中学校の卒業式 (junior high school graduation ceremony).

In early April (after Spring Break), she’ll start high school.

Last year at this time, my oldest daughter graduated from junior high. (Click here to read the post I wrote about that day).

In America, high school starts at grade nine…but in Japan, elementary school is six years (America is only five), then three years of junior high, and three years of high school.
It totals twelve years just like in America but high school in Japan starts at the equivalent to grade ten in the U.S.

Last week she and her friends from school went to Tokyo Disneyland together.

Tokyo Disneyland was having it’s annual 「春のキャンパスデー」 (“Campus Day”).

This promotion is from 2010 January 4 – March 19.
So it ended today.

On Campus Day, students can buy a 「キャンパスデーパスポート」 (“Campus Day Passport“) to enter the park at a discounted price.

The price for junior high and high school students is usually ¥5,000 but during this campaign it’s only ¥4,000 for them.
College students usually pay ¥5,800 admission to Tokyo Disney, but on Campus Day the price is ¥4,500.
Of course, to qualify for these discount prices students must show their student ID card.

I grew up in Florida. Not too far from Orlando Disney World, but I’m not sure if they have “Campus Day Passports” there or not.

Have you ever been to any of the Disney parks in the world? What types of sale promotions do they have?

About five years ago, Tokyo Disneyland began going by the name “Tokyo Disney Resort“ because they built a second park.

So Tokyo Disney Resort comprises both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea.
They are next to each other, but they’re two separate parks.

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So, at my daughter’s junior high school, the students who graduated today are now on Spring Break.
They’ll start high school in a few weeks.

My other two daughters have another week of school before their spring break starts.
But this is a three-day weekend. Monday is 「春分の日」 (Spring Equinox), which is a holiday in Japan.

Passed!

I wrote a post last year that my oldest daughter took (and passed) her high school entrance exam…and that I gave her a special Kit-Kat chocolate before her exam (Click here to read it).

Well, last week my second daughter took her high school entrance exam for the same school that my oldest daughter attends.

Just as I did for my oldest daughter, I gave my second daughter a package of special Kit-Kat chocolate to wish her luck.

「ミルクコーヒー味」 ("Milk Coffee flavor")

Today the results of the exams were announced. My daughter passed! 🙂
So beginning this April, my two oldest daughters will go to the same high school (my youngest will still be in junior high).

***

Also, as I wrote yesterday, it snowed in the Tokyo area last night.
There wasn’t much snow in Tokyo this morning…but I had to go to a rural area to the north of Tokyo. There was more snow up there this morning.
I took a few photos with my cell-phone camera.
Here they are (click them to enlarge):

Snow on a mailbox.

***

Tomorrow is the Japanese holiday 「節分」 (“Setsubun“).

Click here to read my post from last year in which I explain this holiday (and some other Japanese holidays in February too).

Recent news

A few things:

• The world’s oldest man, Henry Allington from England, died today at the age of 113 years and 42 days.
  He had been the world’s oldest man for only 29 days before he died. Before Mr. Allington, the world’s oldest man had been Japanese Tomoji Tanabe (died at age 113 years 274 days). I wrote a post about Tomoji Tanabe when he died…click here to read it.  Now the world’s oldest man is Walter Breuning from America. He’ll turn 113 years old on (2009) September 21. (The world’s oldest person is Gertrude Baines, also from America. She’s 115 years old.)

• As with most kids all over Japan, my daughters began their school’s 夏休み (summer vacation) today. They will return to school on August 25…so they’re off from school for about five weeks.In Japan, the new school year begins in April, not after summer holidays…so they’ll return to the same class.
  Also, in Japan, kids get alot of 宿題 (homework) to do over the summer.

• My oldest daughter also started her first day of work at her first part-time job today. She began working at Domino’s Pizza.

• To attract families with kids to travel by 新幹線 (bullet train) to go somewhere during their 夏休み (summer vacation)…新幹線 (bullet trains) in Japan have been painted with pictures of characters from the 「ポケモン」 (“Pokemon“) cartoon.

  

  

• The fast-food chain, Lotteria, in Japan has started a “money-back guarantee” for it gourmet 「絶妙ハンバーガー (“Zetsumyou (Exquisite) Hamburger“).  If you buy one and don’t like and return more than half of the burger, they will give you a new one (in case the first one simply wasn’t prepared properly)…if you’re still not satisfied (and return more than half of the second one), your money will be refunded.

School clubs

In Japan, most kids join an after-school activity…a 部活動 (school club). Such as the baseball team, band, or science club.

How about in your country? Do most kids join a school club?

The school year begins in April in Japan…so a new school-year has just begun this month.
So this year, my youngest daughter just began junior high school and she joined the girls’ basketball team. Tomorrow we’re taking her shopping to buy her basketball sneakers.

My second daughter is in her final year of junior high school. She’s joined the English club. And yesterday she applied for a twelve-day overseas home-stay.
Do you know about the student home-stay program?
It allows kids to experience what life is like in other countries by staying in the home of an average family in another country.
If my daughter is accepted, she will stay for twelve days with a family in either Australia, Canada, England or America this summer.
If she goes, she’ll enjoy it, I’m sure…but I will worry until she’s back home!

My oldest daughter has begun high-school this year. She played trumpet in the brass band for the past two years…but she decided not to join a club this year.
She wants to get her first after school part-time job instead!
I can’t believe my daughter’s old enough to have a job!

Did you work part-time when you were a high-school student?
When I was in high school, I worked at a variety of part-time jobs. My first job was at the fast-food chain “Wendy’s“. I chose to work there because it was near where I lived and they were hiring.

New school year

Yesterday both my oldest and my youngest daughters had their 入学式 (School Entrance Ceremony).
My oldest daughter began 高等学校 (High School (10th grade)) and my youngest daughter began 中学校 (Junior High School (7th grade)).
(My second daughter is now a 中学校三年生 (Jr. High 9th grader)…her last year of 中学校 (Junior High School)).

Since two of my daughters had their 入学式 (School Entrance Ceremonies) on the same day, my wife went with our youngest daughter and I went with our oldest daughter.

I can’t believe how fast they’re growing up!

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On a different note, here are a few photos that I meant to add to my blog before but never got around to it. Taken from various places around Tokyo at various times this past year:

Tokyo Tower illuminated for New Years 2009.

Tokyo Tower illuminated with "2009" for New Years.

An extremely large doll display for ひな祭 (Doll Festival).

Over a hundred of Torii Gates at 根津神社 (Nezu Shrine).

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About twelve days ago at 六本木ヒルズ (Roppongi Hills), an artist named Yanobe Kenji displayed his 7.2 meter (23.6 feet) tall robot called “Giant Torayan“.

He bills Giant Torayan as

…the ultimate child’s weapon, as it sings, dances, breathes fire, and follows only those orders given by children.

The fire-breathing "Giant Torayan".

Click here to visit the “Giant Toryan” website.

高校受験

Today my oldest daughter will take her 高校受験 (High School Entrance Examination).

She’s a 中学校三年生 (Ninth grader (last year of Junior High in Japan)).

In Japan, the school year is 四月から三月まで (from April til March).
小学校 (Elementary School) is grades 1-6, 中学校 (Junior High) is three years (grades 中1～中3…(equivalent to grades 7-9 in the U.S.)),  and 高等学校 (High School) in Japan is also three years (the equivalent to grades 10-12 in the U.S.).

Both 高等学校 (High School) and 大学 (College) have Entrance Exams.

My two younger daughters made a card for my oldest to wish her Good Luck on her test today.
I bought her a box of special Kit-Kat chocolates for students taking School Entrance Exams.

Kit-Kat is one of the popular snacks parents give their kids when they’re taking an Entrance Exam. Kit-Kat is popular because it’s name sounds like “I’ll surely pass!” in Japanese.
(Click here to read another post that I mention another flavor of Kit-Kat for High School kids taking the College Entrance Exam.)

The packaging of the Kit-Kat that I bought is like a postcard…and it can actually be mailed.

Well, to my oldest daughter:
ガンバッテね！ (Good luck!)

ウォーキング大会

Every year at this time, our town has a ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally).

It’s organized by the local 小学校 (Elementary Schools) PTAs and it’s open to everyone in the town to meet and walk around the river for a morning of socializing and exercise. It’s especially popular with the elderly and the children who attend the 小学校 (Elementary Schools) and their families.

I’m on the PTA of my youngest daughter’s 小学校 (Elementary School).
She’s in sixth grade at 小学校 (Elementary School)…this April she’ll begin 中学校 (Junior High). (And my oldest will begin 高等学校 (High School)).

Since I’m on the PTA, I helped with the ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally).
I’ve joined this ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally) a couple times before…but this was the first time I joined it as part of the organizers.

There are two courses. A 3 meter course and a 5 meter course. My daughter’s school’s PTA helped with the shorter 3 meter course. So, that’s the course I did. My daughter and her friends walked the 5 meter course.

The event started at 10:00. The start-point was at an Elementary School near the river (not my daughter’s school).
I and the other PTA members got there at 9:30 to set-up and welcome people when they came. At 10:00, the school principal gave a welcome speech and then the gym coach led us in warm-up exercise…then the people doing the 5 meter course left first. The rest of us waited about ten minutes to give them a head-start so that we could all finish around the same time.

We began our walk at about 10:30 and finished at about 11:30. It was a very relaxed pace because, as I said, there were many elderly people and young children. It was enjoyable.

I walked at the rear of the group to make sure everyone was fine. I, as well as the other PTA members, wore a PTA armband.
An old woman walked next to me and told me all about a trip she took to America many years ago.

Once we all got back to the 小学校 (Elementary School), we were handed a ticket with a number on it for a lottery-type game.
There were twenty prizes and random numbers were drawn and called out by the 校長先生 (school principal). People with winning numbers on their ticket were given a prize.
I didn’t win anything…but my daughter won a box of cookies.

Next year I won’t be on the PTA anymore…but I may join in the ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally) again.

Earthquake

Today (Saturday), was my youngest daughter’s School’s Open House…the day the parents can come watch the classes.

About eight years ago Japan stopped having Saturday be a “school day”…except for special occasions.

Days that parents are expected to come (Open House, Sports Day, etc) are usually on Saturdays…and then the next school day (usually the following Monday) is a day off for the kids.

So my youngest doesn’t have school this Monday.

Anyways, I went to watch her band practice (she plays the trombone) and then her Health Class.

Before we went to her school this morning, though, there was a big 地震 (earthquake) in Northern Japan.

It registered a 6 (out of 7) on the 震度 Japanese Earthquake Scale at the epicenter. It only registered about a “2” in Tokyo…but our house was swaying.

Up in 岩手県 (Iwate Prefecture) and 宮城県 (Miyagi Prefecture), the areas at the epicenter, there were landslides and a broken bridge.

So far, three people have been confirmed dead. One man died when he got hit by a falling rock and another man died in a landslide. Possibly the most tragic death is that of a man who panicked and ran outside…where he was hit by a truck!