Final Days of School

Things are beginning to come to a close. Last Friday was my last day of school here in Japan. Since I realized I didn't do a great job explaining everyday school life here I figured now is as good a time as ever.

After biking to school, Riku and I would park our bikes here. As you can see there are a lot of bikes. Biking to school is the most popular mode of transportation to school.

From the bike parking its a 161 stair climb to get to the school. All students enter through here to get to the genkan.

This is the genkan. As with most Japanese homes, you do not wear you shoes in school. Most students wear specific slippers that I believe are sold to them by the school. However, since my feet were way too big, I wore a pair of Nike slides that I brought from the US.

From the genkan, Riku and I walk to our classroom through the main hall where the above two murals are displayed. The one on top is made of many tiles. On each tile there is a message written by a student, myself included.

This is our classroom. Unlike in American schools, the students in Japan have a homeroom where they stay most of the day while the teachers move from class to class. Also pictured is the AC. The entire school is not air conditioned. Rather, individual classrooms have their own units. Also, these units are only used if it becomes really hot. Most of the time students simply opened the windows.

Every day after a short home room class, the students would clean the school. In Japanese highschools, there are no janitors. Half of my class would clean the classroom while the other half would clean the main hall.

During classes that were deemed too difficult for me to understand, I went to the library. While there I either read low level books in Japanese, or practiced writing Kanji, the Chinese characters that Japan also uses.

After school ends, most students go to clubs. I was no exception. I went to kendo club everyday after school. The above video was taken during parts of the practice deemed too dangerous for a beginner like me. Tomorrow is my last practice with them. While I'll miss everyone at school I'll probably miss my kendo teammates the most. Probably almost as much as my host parents.

Yesterday I went to karaoke with them and it was so much fun. We stayed there for about 5 hours just having a great time. Of all the people I don't want to leave behind, these guys are at the very top of the list.