Monday Evening

This morning we went to Nagoya Junior High School. It is an affiliated with Aichi University of Education. Here is what that means. University students who are studying to become teachers will do observations and student teaching at this junior high. We first met with the Headmaster and the Director of Teachers, kind of a dean of both academic and student dean who is also in charge of all the teachers. They both were quite informative.

The school year in Japan is different than ours in the US. Schools are in session from around the beginning of April till the middle of March of the next year. There are breaks in between and they have the month of November off. Here is a LINK to a copy of a Japanese school calendar and other info about Japanese School. Most schools are on a trimester system, Nagoya JHS is different because they offer classes for Japanese students who have been living in the US with their parent’s jobs and need to brush up on their Japanese while not losing their English as a foreign language skills.

We visited an English class, a choral music class, and had a tour of the school. When that was all finished we met for a question and answer session with the people I mentioned at the earlier.

Junior High Choral Group

We left the middle school and ate lunch in a park near a Shinto shrine or a torri. This was a spur of the moment thing but turned out quite nicely. After a lunch of noodles (the Japanese eat noodles like crazy and I REALLY like noodles) we had an extensive visit with the high school that is affiliated with Aichi University of Education.

High School Choral Group

We engaged in introductions and then toured the school. Classes were finished for the day because the students just finished tests which concluded their semester. They will now have break till the end of November, if I understood correctly. So instead of classes we visited the extra-curricular and clubs which play an important part of students education. We visited a group of English language students who were in our equivalent of sophomore and junior and we conducted a question and answer period. I led the conversation in the beginning and then the rest of our group jumped in a were great.

The main difference between Japanese and the US schools in this area is that Japanese students chose only one club and are very devoted to it. They use this time for school sports, they are a club choice. Once they found out I was a basketball coach they took me to the gym to watch the basketball practice for the girls and boys teams. They were both pretty decent.

Everyone must leave their outdoor shoes at the entrance and wear slippers inside.

We then went back for more meetings with the different teachers and administrators from several schools and organizations to work on setting up our projects between US and Japanese schools. Some of them even came back to the hotel with us for a formal dinner to thank them for their time.

Students saying good bye

Now its time to pack up because we are going to Kyoto and Nara tomorrow by two trains, one of them is a bullet or high speed train (LINK)

LINK TO MORE PHOTOS