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!)

運動会

Yesterday was my youngest daughter’s 運動会 (Sports Day event) at her school.
She’s in the sixth grade (which, in Japan, is the highest grade in 小学校 (Elementary school)), so this was the last Elementary school 運動会 (Sports Day event) for my kids.

運動会 (Sports Day events) are usually held from kindergarten to high school in Japan in September or October…but my oldest two daughters had their 中学校 (Junior High School) 運動会 (Sports Day event) last June (it was the first of my kids’ 運動会 (Sports Day events) that I didn’t attend because it was held on a weekday due to rain on the original day it was scheduled. (Click here to read my post about it)).

運動会 (Sports Day events) at Japanese 保育園 (Nursery Schools), 幼稚園 (Pre-schools) and 小学校 (Elementary schools) usually are decorated with strings of world flags hung over the school yard (中学校 (Jr High) and 高等学校 (High School) usually don’t decorate this way for their events).

My daughter played the trombone in the marching band for the commencement of the 運動会 (Sports Day event), and she ran in a couple races and other events during the day. As they usually do, the 運動会 (Sports Day event) started at 9:00AM and went until noon and we stopped for lunch (my wife and daughters had prepared an excellent lunch for us) and after lunch, the games re-started and the 運動会 (Sports Day event) finished at about 3:30PM.

I participated in the PTA 綱引き (Tug-Of-War).

A long day. But, as always, alot of fun!

This was the last 運動会 (Sports Day event) at the 小学校 (Elementary School)…next year, my youngest two daughters will be in 中学校 (Junior High School) and the oldest will begin 高等学校 (High School)!