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Hello, everybody. I have decided to write a little bit about
what life in Japanese school (well, junior and senior high school)
is like, from the inside. For people reading on rec.arts.anime, I
realize that this subject really has nothing to do with anime, but
since many of the anime have high school kids as characters and show
scenes of school life, I thought you might like to see it. Please
be warned that I have no training in sociology or anything like that
- I am just writing about my own experience.
Perhaps the major difference between Japanese and American
high school (and middle school as well) is that whereas in USA
schools the students change classes, in Japan you stay in one class
all day long (or at least most of the day) and instead the teachers
move around from class to class. So, you are with the same people
all day long. People in your class form a sort of group, and you
can get really close to them. Of course, if you happen not to like
your classmates, you are stuck, for often your class will be more or
less the same people for all 3 years. Just about everyone in my
class had a certain nickname, to be used only by your classmates. I
was Mai-chan (kinda ordinary). Some of the ones we had were
"Mossan" (Kuramoti Keiko) "Yuasa-si" (Yuasa Reiko), and perhaps the
strangest, "Demo-sa". See, this one kid Miyuki would always butt in
on people's conversations with "demosa, demosaaa..." so she came to
be called "Demo-sa". Apparently there were no hard feeling, though.
Anyway... because you don't change classes, you keep your books
right inside your desk. The desks are usually a separate desk and a
chair, and the desk is hollow to put your books inside. There are
lockers in the back of the room, but they don't have locks on them.
It's mostly for you to keep your P.E. stuff in. Seating chart was
always a big deal, because of course everybody wants to sit next to
their closest friend, right? In my experience we would change the
seating chart every couple of months, and this was usually done by
picking numbers out of a box or some such method so no one could
complain that it was unfair. It really was a big thing, though - the
class president would take charge of it and everything.
I suppose I should explain to you how the classes are
divided and such. There are 3 grades of middle school and 3 grades
of high school. Each grade is divided into classes of about 45 to
50 people each, on the basis of ability and also depending on what
classes you are taking. Most of the classes you don't get to choose
for yourself, but there are a few choices like whether to take
Japanese or World history, and they try to keep the people who made
the same choice in the same room, to facilitate the system I
described earlier. Each grade has officers on the student council,
and then each class has officers too. It was the latter I meant
when talking about the seating chart thing. Some of the offices
change every year, others change every quarter (most schools are
on the "sangakkisei"). Each class has a number, always it's the
grade number followed either by a number or a letter to distinguish
the classes. At my middle school we used letters (like 3-A) and at
my high school we used numbers (I was in 2-1). These are read "san
nen A kumi" and "ni nen ni kumi" respectively. Each person in a
class also has a "syusseki bangou" or "attendance number" based on
where your name comes in alphabetical order. I was usually near the
end, because my last name is written in katakana and they would say
that must come after all of the kanji. I thought was kinda rude,
myself. I was 3145 (san nen iti kumi 45 ban). Oops, I just noticed
the example I gave before should be "iti kumi" too. Sorry.
Uniforms... all public schools in Japan wear uniforms, I
think. These come in several basic varieties: for boys, it is
usually the black pants and jacket with gold button down the
front
(oops) and a white shirt inside, or sometimes it is a sort of suit
like thing. For girls, it is a "kon" (a kind of dark blue) or gray
skirt, with either a sailor top or a white shirt and matching vest.
These vary in detail from school to school, and so you can tell what
school people you meet on the street go to. Of course, people try to
alter their uniforms a lot. Depending on who you hang around with,
it was cool to either make your skirt really long or really short.
For tough guys (or those who thought they were) the in thing was to
make the black uniform pants really big, and the jacket long with a
super high collar (at least in my area, anyway). Also people do
stuff like wearing cute socks with pictures on it instead of white
ones, wearing white shirts of a pattern different from the school
one, wearing cool sneakers, etc. etc. Also people put their hair up
in ways you aren't supposed to; they wear bright hair ribbons, and
put all sorts of keychains on their school bags. The more daring
girls might dye their hair, or perm it. I must say that I got away
with perming my hair, because people just assumed it was natural, ha
ha. One girl in my high school class was forced to go to the barber
and have her hair dyed back black after dying it reddish-brown.
Some people also experiment with cosmetics. There is no way Ranma
could get away with wearing that martial arts suit if he went to a
normal school! They would most likely shave his head in the
principal's office (they do in #12, don't they?).
Well, I must go now. I will write more later if anyone
really wants to hear some more. Sorry to ramble on and waste so
much space.
Maiko Covington (maiko@ucsd.edu)
Hello, once again. Taking into account responses I have
received on the subject, I have decided to post some more on the
net. Again, for all readers on rec.arts.anime, I realize this
doesn't really have much to do with anime, but I thought that you
might be able to gain some insight into the world the characters
live in by reading articles such as these. Also, keep in mind that
I have no training whatsoever in sociology or related fields, and
hence all comments printed here are strictly my own observations.
THE SUBJECTS WE STUDY
The subjects we take in high school are pretty much as
follows: Modern Japanese, Ancient Japanese (and ancient Chinese
poetry like the Rongo by Kousi <= Lun4 Yu3>), history (either world
history or Japanese history), ethics, writing, math, physics, earth
science, chemistry, biology, home economics (where you learn all
about nutrition - ew..), P.E(this is required all 3 years), health,
art, English, English composition, English reading,
government/economics, and maybe that is about it. Of course we
don't take these all at the same time. Generally you take from
between ten to fourteen classes at one time. This sounds
horrendous, but keep in mind that up to 3 of them are P.E. and you
are also taking art, health, and home economics, which aren't too
taxing. Also - perhaps this is the most important part - you don't
have all of your classes every day. The schedule rotates throughout
the week, and in every classroom you enter you will find a schedule
taped to the wall, in most cases decorated with cute little drawing
of anime characters. Because of this, even though Japanese school
is six days a week (Saturday is a half day, though) and summer
vacation is shorter, the actual ammount of time you spend in any one
class probably is not much different from the time you spend on it
in the United States. (All those people writing the newspaper
articles on how much more time the Japanese spend studying their
subjects in school don't know what they are talking about.)
About the level of the classes - high school is not required
education (that's why you have to take an exam to get in), so
different high schools have different levels. The public schools
are at a quite high level, and then there are private schools at
levels both above and below this. Basically though, everyone is
required to take math for 4 years, and so like when I came here I
got to go directly into Math 2C. I really don't know about the
level of American school, but... When they do all those comparisons
between American and Japanese public schools and say how their kids
do so much better than American ones, though, often they forget that
the Japanese public schools do not necessarily reflect the average
students. The level of most school is pretty high, though. They
just expect everyone to study hard, and if you don't, you just don't
graduate. That is that.
P.E. CLASS
Two other things I forgot to mention that have some bearing
here: (1) In Japan you don't get to decide whether to wear the
summer uniform or winter one just by if you are cold or not. Oh,
no. There is a day called "koromo-gae" (changing of the clothes)
where everyone in Japan changes from winter to summer uniform or
vice versa. The days are in October and June, and on that day
EVERYONE
(oops) changes uniform on the same day. If you just changed to
winter uniform and then it gets really hot in late October for some
reason, too bad. We used to not like changing to summer uniform in
P.E. 'cause it meant you had to wear those bloomers. No matter how
thin you are, those bloomers will make you look like you have
thunder thighs. (2) When you enter school building in Japan, you
have to change your shoes, just like when you enter a house. At the
front entrance to the school is a HUGE genkan with rows upon rows of
little cubbies. You go to your cubby and switch your outside
sneakers for "uwabaki" or "inside shoes", which are bought at
school and generally are some form of slip on soft-soled sneaker.
Often (as in my school) different grades are distinguished by
different color rubber toes or stripes on the uwabaki. The
background color is always white. (Mine were white with blue
rubber toes.) Well, these shoes are different from the gym
shoes,but some people would wear their gym shoes to class and their
uwabaki to gym, which could get you in trouble for being out of
uniform, but everyone did it anyway. (P.E. you have gym shoes for
the gym, and more for outside ne.) Also everybody used to draw all
over their uwabaki (they're cotton) with magic markers, and write
their name on it.
THE INSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM
I will be back soon to write some more stuff, this afternoon.
Please wait for it then. Please excuse the bad writing, and thank
you for reading this post.
Maiko Covington (maiko@ucsd.edu)
Hello, yes it's me again. Once more I am here to write about life
in Japanese school. I'll remind everyone that I have no training
whatsoever in sociology or related fields, and that all comments
made here merely reflect my own experience.
Once again, please bear with me, rec.arts.anime readers.
EVENTS
Well, it looks like I have to go and catch my bus now, so
the more entertaining events will have to wait until tomorrow.
Thank you for reading this.
Maiko Covington
Hello again. Thank you for reading all these long articles
every time. Once again I offer my standard disclaimer: I have had
no training whatsoever in sociology or related fields, and thus all
the comments here are merely of my own experience. For all the
readers on rec.arts.anime, I realize that this subject doesn't have
much to do with anime itself, but I have posted this article here in
the hopes that it may lead to greater understanding of the
characters and backgrounds of many of the anime stories. Please
bear with me.
P.E CLASS - WHAT I FORGOT TO SAY
Once each quarter (gakki) we have fitness tests. They
include running, jumping, flexibility, and endurance, etc. You have
to get the teacher to write your scores in a little book. On
another note, we get school physicals every quarter too.
The teacher for P.E. can be man or woman, no matter whether
you are boys class or girls class.
Remember I told you about those bloomer? Well, some people
would keep their gym pants on in the summer until the very minute
the teacher would come, and then they would yank them off at the
last second. Also, we have to put all of the equipment away at the
end of the class. When it rains and you were supposed to be doing
something outside, we would get to play ping pong. Worst days
though were the skills tests, where they check if you can spike the
ball right, etc. I never can serve overhand volleyball well...
EVENTS
First - I will now explain about the bowing thing. See,
I told you about how the teachers change classes, right? Well,
whenever the teacher comes into your class to begin class, you are
supposed to bow to him. This is a fixed thing. See, there is one
person who always is supposed to lead the bowing (often this is the
class president). He or she will first say, "Kiritu!" (stand up!)
and everyone stands. Then he/she says, "Ki wo tuke!" which is the
signal for you to be standing at attention with nothing in your hand
and you can't be talking. Finally, the leader will say, "Rei!"
(bow!) and we must all bow. You are supposed to do it all together
and neatly - you know what I mean, with straight back and everything
- and quietly. If the teacher doesn't like the way you do it, he
will (or she will) make the class do it over again. Then you either
sit back down, or in some schools the leader will say, "Tyakuseki!"
(sit down!) and only then do you sit. Anyway, if the teacher is
someone who is well liked, the class will bow nicely, but if they
don't like, they will just do it really sloppy, just sort of nodding
their heads. So, it is mostly the teacher who nobody likes and who
is really insecure who has you do it over. One more thing - we had
to practice bowing as a unit (the whole third grade) in the gym
before our graduation. I remember that I hated it. The kyoutou
(head teacher) kept going on and on about how you are supposed to go
down for "1,2,3,4" and then come up on "5,6,7,8" and I was just
thinking how this can get really ridiculous...
You have to bow at the end of class too, but the leader
doesn't usually lead us at the end, we just all do it.
Second thing - in between classes. There is ten minutes in
between classes, and since for most classes we don't change room,
that means ten minutes of people rooting around in their desks for
the books they need for the next class, and hanging around their
friends seats, and talking, fixing their hair, and whipping out
magazines, playing games, reading manga, hanging out the window to
yell at people in the other classes, going to other classes to visit
people or pass notes, erasing the board (we have to do that) and in
general just messing around. This is the scene most often seen
in the anime and manga when they show classroom scene. If the next
class is P.E. we have to go and change, though. About fixing hair -
girls generally have to wear their hair in either ponytails or osage
(braids) unless they have short hair (most people in 88 had long
hair). The hair is put up with Japanese hair rubber bands. If you
have seen these you know it, if not, well, it's like thread covered
rubber band, and you cut your own and tie it to get the size you
want. At school you are supposed to wear black one. Anyway, people
with nothing to do (girls) would just spend endless time fixing
their hair in all these wierd hairstyles, or else just redoing theri
(oops) hair back in the same style, over and over again. Japanese
hair doesn't take on bumps and stuff from being put up so easily, so
this was possible. Most girls I know would carry lots of extra hair
things wound around their brush so that they could do this. People
would also carry ribbon etc to put on on their way home.
Hmm.. I guess the next thing is lunch. You eat your lunch
in the classroom. Some schools have a school lunch you can buy,
others don't. At my school everyone brought "obentoo" which is
packed rice lunch in little cute plastic boxes. You also have
little cute plastic chopsticks with pictures on it (all this is
called 'character syouhin') and it is all put in a cute bag or
wrapped in a cute hurosiki of some sort. Oh how cute. A note on
Japanese cuisine - the appearance of the food is almost as important
as the food itself. With bentoo, this means you want lots of foods
of different color. Just about everyone had rice with a umebosi
(pickled red plum) for part of their lunch. People would go around
commenting on other people's bentoo. Some girls would make bentou
for the boys they like. You can also at my school order bread and
cake at the beginning of the day. You would put money in a bag
which had an order form printed on it, and someone would deliver the
bag to the bread people. At lunch the same person would go and pick
up all the stuff, and what you ordered would be in the bag. Let's
see.. we had 'yakisoba pan' (bread with yakisoba in it), 'kare-
pan'(bread with curry in it), 'meron pan' (bread with melon in it)
and a few others. There was also sponge cake and strangely enough,
spaghetti, which you had to eat with chopsticks. All you Ranma fans
will remember Ranma telling about the fight with Ryouga over this
breads at his old school. See, all the ones not ordered up would go
on sale at lunch for first come first serve. Our school also had a
tiny room with vending machines which sold "juice", which in Japan
means not only juice as America thinks of it but also all sorts of
carbonated beverages. One more machine in there sold tea in cans,
and another milk and soup in cans. Just about everyone wanted to
drink "juice" for lunch, so as soon as the bell rang there would be
a mad dash for the little room, and it would get positively PACKED
with people.
Back in the room, everyone would move the desks in the room
around into little tables. You would sit at a table like this with
your group of friends. Every day the same tables would be set up at
the same positions, and the same people would sit at the same
groups. At this time people would spread out their cute lunch and
eat, but also it was a bigger version of what happens in between
classes. People would visit other rooms (but you always ate with
your class, others are sorta "outsiders".), read magazines and
manga, talk about what was on TV and listen to walkmans, fix their
hair, play board games and other games, draw on the board, and make
plans for after school or the weekend. Some people when they were
done eating would go to the gym to cram in a game of volleyball. We
had 45 minutes for lunch. I think lunch is shown in anime too, I
know it comes up a lot in manga. As soon as the ending lunch bell
rings, everyone hurriedly pushes the desks back to the way before,
and washes up and puts their stuff away, and it is back to class.
There is no recess or breaks; the in between class 10 minutes and
the lunch is enough. Right after lunch is always hard to stay
awake, though.
When classes are over, another routine takes place - souzi
touban. Classes are split into several han, or groups, and always
one group has to stay behind to do the souzi, or cleaning. The
groups rotate - each week is a different group's turn to do the
cleaning. What you do is move all the desks around and mop the
floor, wash the blackboards, empty the trash and wipe the windows
and lockers. Every quarter or so we have a "o-souzi" or "big
cleaning". Then we really have to wash everything - desks and
chairs, lockers, etc. Worst one is every couple of months or so we
have to do (oh no!!) "toire souzi" (toilet cleaning). This one
rotates between different classes, even. It is icky - you have to
wash the actual toilets, which are set into the ground (traditional
kine) and some people aren't too accurate when they use it if you
know what I mean. You also have to empty the trash and clean the
mirrors, sinks and floor too. One thing about souzi - people try to
skip it. They sneak out before anyone notices they've gone.
One other thing that happens after classes are over - the
person whose turn it was to do it has to fill out the "gakkyuu
nissi" or "school diary".
This says what you did that day in all of your classes. Then they
turn it in to the "syokuinsitu" (faculty room). Then everyone leaves
the school to go home eventually. Most people go out shopping with
their friends on the way home, in the train station or whatever.
Well, I must go home now myself, so I will write more
tomorrow if you would still like to hear the rest. Sorry to use up
so much space with this, but there is just so much to tell you.
Thank you for reading this whole long thing.
Comments welcome. If you would like to hear more on a specific
topic, please send me e-mail. Sayonara! (for now)
I know all about juku - I went to juku for 6 years straight. But in
my article, I just meant that in the actual school itself the time
spent on any one subject is probably not much different that in the
American schools. So, maybe instead of trying to lengthen the
American school year and all of that, they should introduce the
juku system.. Nah, maybe not (there are several juku in San Diego
though, but they're all taught in Japanese).
I also know about the university entrance exam - I have to
take it this year. Wish me luck, all!
Note: the government was supposed to make the process
easier by doing away with the 'kyotuu itizi' (the exam everyone
going to public college has to take), but when they did that, they
also set up a new exam called 'center siken' which is basically the
same thing. So, namae dake kawatta to iu koto ni naruga... I was
disappointed.
Maiko Covington maiko@ucsd.edu
About juku and school and everything like that, not all the Japanese
students attend, but that does not mean they are slack or anything. I
know of a few friends who have had a tutor to provide much the same
thing too. I guess then the general goal is achieved with this as well.
I like the idea of juku in America myself, where it will really be
viewed as an option, and not a requirement for college, like in Japan.
As a child, I see a place for the teacher having problems with regular
school to have option of going to teach at not quite a private school,
but better than regular school. The students who are going to this
American juku would be doing so because they want to (or their parents
want them too, but that always happens, doesn't it?) and would not
really compete with regular school, but show general public what a good
extra instruction this is.
Many of my friends who do attend juku actually prefer it to regular
school. They get to wear what they like, and the way the teacher teaches
is generally more favorable. It's intense, yes, but I think it is sort of neat.
The only American juku I can really think of and remember of being
really striking in the U.S.A. is the Princeton Review exam preparation
classes. Some of my friends (I moved around a lot, okay? I was an Army
Brat, because my father could not practice medicine in this country with
a foreign degree, so that's that, okay ^_^) really liked those classes
because they were fun, showed the way to do the exam, and the teachers
were really fun and provided the correct information well.
There are of course regular juku in America as Maiko stated, but a
little bit too juku for most Americans.
Well, my thoughts about this whole education business though, is to send
my kids (I just learned to drive now too, so I know what I am talking
about ^_^) overseas to attend school, then for college, send them to
American one. The American colleges are more numerous, and quite a lot
of them are extremely good, better in most cases, than the foreign ones.
Remember, these thoughts are just from a student, so if you think there
should be a change, please let me know, because that is what I am, a student!
My email address is
Hello again, and hisasiburi ^_^. I am finally finished with
my finals and have time to post again. I hope this post lives up to
whatever expectations you may have, and I am truly sorry for keeping
everyone waiting so long to get this out.
Again I offer my standard disclaimer: I have had no training
whatsoever in sociology or related fields - all comments offered
here are strictly my own.
ENGLISH CLASS
I will center my discussion on high school English for now.
At my high school, there were three kinds of English class -
Reading, 'I,II,or IIIB' (depending on what year you were), and
Grammar. The Reading class and the 'B' class were just about the
same as far as I could tell, except that we had different readers.
Both the classes used a small paperback reader (all Japanese
textbooks are small cheap paperbacks) with various stories in it.
Most of the stories ranged from 5 to 6 pages, with fairly big print.
The text is all in English, but on the bottom of each page the words
that are new are defined in Japanese. Grammar patterns are also
explained in the margin, in exceedingly small letters. Most of my
friends, though, relied heavily on a dictionary when reading the
text. At the end of each story was a half-page or so description of
the story content. Oh yah - all of the new words introduced were
accompanied by International Phonetic Symbol transliteration, so
that you could tell how to pronounce the word. Those of you with
English to Japanese dictionaries will note that this is the same
system used to give the pronunciation of English words in the
dictionary.
The class itself consisted of endless repetition of the
sentences in the book. In my Reading class, the teacher (who was
Japanese) would read out loud one sentence from the story, and then
the class would repeat it. Then, the teacher would call on someone
to read that same sentence and translate it into Japanese. In
Japanese school, calling on students often isn't random - the
teacher will proceed down the row, calling on each person in turn.
So, everybody would count the people left ahead of him or her and
prepare the one sentence he knew he would have to translate in front
of the class. This led to frantic consultations with friends before
class to make sure of the translation for that one sentence. Most
people would therefore not know the translation for the rest of the
story. Sometimes, though, the teacher would just read all the
sentences and their Japanese translations to the class. In that
case, everyone would hurriedly write down the exact words she said
over the text as she read it. I always was amazed at her
translating abilities, until I found out that in the teacher's
edition the Japanese translation is printed above the text in red!
On a similar note, though, in Japan you can get the 'guide' to just
about all textbooks. The guide has all the answers to the questions
at the end of the story, the Japanese meaning, and drills in it.
Most homework in Japan is not printed in the textbook. It comes
instead on newsprint sheets xeroxed by the teacher, which are called
"prints". That way, you cannot get the answers anywhere. Also,
some classes use workbooks, which are ordered en masse from the
publishing company. The publishing company will not sell the answer
key to students. All of this helps keep the textbooks small.
Each Friday, we had a spelling test in the Reading class.
The teacher would read a English word, and we would have to (1)
spell it, and (2) write out the meaning in Japanese. The tests were
printed on newsprint too. Exams (by this I mean tyuukan siken
-midterms- and kimatukousa -finals-) consisted of fill in the blank
type questions about the story, English passages which you had to
answer questions about (this is the sort of thing that is on the
college entrance exam) and verb conjugation drills. By verb
conjugation drills, I mean problems like this:
I ( ) some comic books, but I had no money. (buy)
where you have to put the correct conjugation of the verb in the
parentheses. In this case, it would be 'would have bought'.
Japanese students spend lots of time memorizing the rules for this.
We also have these 'word cards' which are mini 3x5 cards attached to
a ring. On each you write a word you have to memorize. Similar to
this are 'word books' which are tiny notebooks with paper printed so
there is a place for the 'foreign word', 'pronunciation', and
'Japanese meaning'.
The grammar class was different. Instead of a reader, we
had a grammar book (obviously) which had a different grammar problem
explained on each page. The teacher would read the example
sentences and their translations, and then call on people to do the
questions in the book. These were standard type grammar drills, and
verb conjugation problems like those I mentioned above. The entire
book was devoted to the memorization of complicated rules for
deciding what pattern to use when. For instance, there is a whole
chapter devoted to different ways to say 'if'. I liked the reading
classes better than grammar class. People would write down all
these rules in notebooks. Most Japanese students take notes in
these thin notebooks, with pictures on the front (of anime
characters, etc). We use one for each class, and people organize
their notes elaborately with colored pens and hilighting and the
whole bit. I suppose this helped in grammar class.
Basically, there was no emphasis on speaking at all. Our
school did have an English club, though, where you could practice
speaking drills and listening to tapes. Each Friday the English
Club would show a video of an American movie without subtitles. I
joined the club just so I could see these. On another note, in
junior high the English class involved more speaking, although it
was still centered largely around rote repitition of drills in the
textbook. It was my bad fortune to go to a school with no native
English speaking English teachers. I am very happy about programs
they have in some schools now where a native speaker leads
conversation practice and discussions. One of the main faults with
the speaking programs they do have, though, is that when a student
makes the slightest grammatical mistake while speaking the teacher
(usually a non-native) will come down hard saying 'that's wrong,
that's wrong!'. I think more emphasis needs to be put on
communication and not grammar. But, that is just my humble opinion
^_^. At my school, we were taught that there is a difference
between 'I am going to eat now' and 'I will eat now' but the
students couldn't say what it was they had for lunch.
MY INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES WITH ENGLISH CLASS
Secondly, whenever I would say something in a regular
English voice, two things would happen. (1) my classmates would
practically fall on the floor saying "Your English is SOOO good!!".
The teacher would do this too. Sometimes the teacher would ask me
to say something out loud just to hear my accent. I didn't like it
too much, because nobody wants to stand out. But, I did rather like
it that I could speak fluent English and others couldn't. (2) the
upper classmen (tyuu 3) would complain that I made them look bad.
They said I had to start speaking like them. As a result, I can
speak perfect Japanese accented English ^_^. I would go around
saying "Mai neemu izu maiko" like that. The funny thing is,
though, people are so used to hearing that sort of thing that they
didn't think I was speaking funny at all!
Most of my teachers were nice and willing to acknowledge the
fact that my English was better than theirs. If they had a
question, they would ask me, usually after or before class. These
teachers would call on me just like they called on everyone else
(although I would usually read my part in "Japanese English"), and
if they made a mistake during lecture, they would respond positively
to my correction. I had to be careful how I phrased the comments
though - I had to be sure to say "....jya nai desyou ka" like that
so they wouldn't get embarrassed. The teacher would then look up
the word or pattern in the dictionary, correct HIMSELF, and all
would be well. I have respect for these teachers. I can think of
one notable exception, though. My high school IIB teacher would
never call on me. He'd call on the person in front of me, then on
the person in back, skipping me altogether. This went on for months.
After a while I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to
be called on, and I started to read manga or novels under the desk,
write notes, etc. (I had read the entire reader in 10 minutes on the
first day). Well, one day I was reading a new Star Trek novel my
friend had sent from Hawaii, when he came over to my desk, slammed
the meterstick down (making a horrible slap! noise) and yelled,
"what do you think you're doing??? This is English class" (but in
Japanese) at me. Without thinking, I pointed to the book I was
reading and said, "datte, eigo desyou? (but isn't this English?).
BAD move. I got in so much trouble for that.... That guy also
never would respond to constructive criticism outside of class, even
before the abovementioned incident. And he talked differently from
the other teachers. It was almost as if in order to show he knew
how to say the 'r' sound, he would attach it to every word.
My friends were constantly asking me how to say this or that
in English. I would happily tell them - even colloquial stuff. the
funny thing is, if I told them the English in a natural accent they
wouldn't understand - I had to say the meaning in Japanese accented
English to get my point across. This is because that is how the
teachers speak, I guess. I also had to endure the unending "we
don't believe you speak English. Say something." requests. Well,
they would ask all this in Japanese, and it is very hard for me to
answer in English when people are speaking to me in Japanese. No
matter what I try to say, it comes out in Japanese. Plus, I never
knew what I should say. (I have the same problem now when people ask
in English 'say something in Japanese!') So I would reply in
Japanese, 'what do you want me to say' and they would invariably
reply 'anything'. Finally I hit upon a solution - I would read part
of the English reader out loud. That way they could hear my accent,
and I didn't have to think up anything off the top of my head to
say.
I used to get a big kick out of watching old 'Nightline'
reruns with the English Club. I always thought it was neat because
it showed pictures of the US. We also watched "little house on the
prairie" and "Top Gun".
I shall continue this post later if there are readers - it
is 2:30 or so AM and I am sleepy... Any comments may be posted to my
e-mail. Thank you for reading this horribly long thing!
Maiko Covington
Hello, this is Maiko Covington again to say more about
Japanese schools. This time I am going to talk about an 'event'
that only happens once in a while - the field trip, or 'ensoku'.
Once again I offer my standard disclaimer: I have had no training
whatsoever in psychology or related fields, so all opinions posted
here are strictly my own. Happy reading!
ENSOKU
The next thing you have to get is your thermos. The most
popular things to bring are mugi-tya and 'carupisu', which is a sort
of sweet carbonated milk drink. You know how to make tea, right?
Well, the carupis is similar - it comes in a bottle of thick syrup
to which you have to add water. For any drink you bring, you have
to make it more 'koi' or thick than usual, because you put ice in
it. Before drinking it, you shake it up well to mix it. All these
thermos are like the lunch stuff I explained in the first post -
cute, with pictures of anime characters and such on it. Lots of
people pack all this stuff in cute little bags, also with anime
characters on it.
Another important thing is deciding where you are going to
sit on the bus. Just about every ensoku, you go to the place by
bus. Just like the seating charts in the classroom, this is usually
decided by drawing numbers out of a hat or some such method. Where
you sit is important - you want to be near your friends so you can
trade your carefully selected okasi and gossip. You don't want to
be next to anyone who gets remotely bus sick.
On ensoku, you have to wear your school uniform. If you are
in elementary school, you probably don't have a uniform, but you
have to wear your school hat and the name tag that pins to your
sweater. On some ensoku (like the hiking ones) you have to wear
your gym suit. If any of you have been to Japan, I am sure you have
run into the hordes of uniformed children at places like temples
etc. That's ensoku! Before ensoku, the teachers usually will check
your uniform strictly to make sure you aren't wearing anything that
is against school rules. I got into big trouble here once - it was
high school second year, before we were to go on the week-long
"syuugaku ryokoo" (I'll explain about that later). Because it was
winter, we had to wear the winter uniform, which was a dark blue
pleated skirt (oops, I meant third year - gomen ne), same color
vest, same color blazer, and a white shirt. Well, one of the
teachers who I didn't like too much to begin with remarked in a
condescending voice, "From the back it looks like you dyed your
hair." This is true; in winter uniform you don't see much skin, so
from the back the only thing that looked not-Japanese about me was
my mousy brown hair. Well, I made another bad judgement and shot
back, "Well, what do you want me to do, dye it black?" Oh, I got in
trouble for that one... more sitting on the knees in the hall - ow.
They also make sure that you wear your hair according to school
rules, although lots of people change it once they get on the bus
and get yelled at later. Let's face it, most people don't like to
wear 2 ponytails in high school.
The places and activities on ensoku are all supposed to have
some sort of educational value. In the lower grades this can be just
a hike in the woods to gather seeds, and you study them in science
when you get back. Usually after an ensoku you have to write an
essay about what you did in kokugo class when you get back. In
elementary school we sometimes get together and make a 'newspaper'
about the activities or some sort of group project like that, but by
high school you usually have to write something about what you saw,
and how it relates to history, or maybe something about people you
saw and how they represent Japanese people, you know, more 'term
paper' type stuff. Elementary school children often go to places
like planetariums and zoo as well. You can tell them because they
all wear matching hats and carry cute little backpacks with their
supplies in it. Junior high and high school students go to places
like museums, temples (oh, if I see another temple I will just...),
places of historical battles or events, castles, and the peace
memorial. Everyone is supposed to visit either the Nagasaki or
Hirosima peace memorial before they graduate. Usually this is done
on the syuugaku ryokoo.
At all of these places, either the teacher or a tour guide
provided by the attraction leads you around and gives a talk on the
significance of the place. Mostly we listen with half an ear, and
get into groups of friends and talk. Actually, more fun than the
trip itself is the bus trip, where you get to sit with friends and
eat lots of okasi, and trade okasi so you get lots of different
kinds. Lunch is a big deal too for the same reason. The main
prohibition on these trips was: no walkmans allowed. See, sometimes
there is a talk given on the bus too, and they want us to listen to
it. Often in the upper grades, like high school, on the bus trip
back you get to do karaoke on the bus. That was always fun.. except
once on my high school syuugaku ryokoo when a demented tour guide
thought it was cool that I was American, and made me sing the "Star
Spangled Banner" without music... ^_^ The buses you use for long
trips like syuugaku ryokou are tour bus type, and a lot of them have
the karaoke system built in. Often the bus guide (if there is one)
will make us learn traditional songs from whatever area we are in.
These are invariably enka type stuff, and are exceedingly hard to
sing.
Once at the place we are going to, some of the things we do
(as I started to say before - gomen) are look at the people from
other schools, talk, go to the 'baiten' (gift shop), and mainly TAKE
LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES. Mostly we take pictures of our friends.
Since you obviously can't take a picture with yourself in it, when
we get the pictures developed, we put them all in albums, and pass
these around to the whole class. People who want a print write
their name beside the picture they want. Most camera stores have
something like yakimasi (prints) 30-40 yen each (or at least, in '88
they did!). These pictures become real conversation pieces, with
people shrieking, "oh, look at that one! My face..." or "oh, look at
Ya-chan!" etc etc... Lots of inside jokes originate with these
pictures. At the baiten, we often buy keychains or something like
that that say the name of the place on it. These are sold at every
attraction. Often they are metal keychains or "mascot" with the
name imprinted there, and cute little characters on it. These we
put on our schoolbags when we get back. If it's a temple, often we
buy "gakugyou omamori", which are "study/work amulets". These
always say the name of the temple you bought it at on it. These are
also put on the schoolbag, but are a little more serious. Also,
whenever you go on a trip, Japanese custom is that you have to get
'omiyage' for your family who didn't go. On ensoku too people buy
omiyage a lot. Usually this is food from the area you went to, or a
tea cup, or maybe ear cleaners, or something like that. Also we buy
a food (like mochi, or maybe takoyaki) there to eat ourselves, if we
are allowed to.
One other thing we do if it is a temple or some such with
high stairs: always we count the stairs. Sometimes there are as many
as 250 or more, and when we get to the top we see if we all got the
same number. Often people will call out the numbers as they climb -
"nihyakusanjyuu! nihyakusanjyuuiti!" etc. Everywhere you go there
is usually these wooden markers saying what everything is, and we
read those out loud too. Sometimes we laugh at them. Often there is
a garden too, and we always have to in there, mostly for the
teachers' benefit. If there are carp, we feed them. Another thing:
often lots of the old temples or castles we go to look like they
could have ghosts, and sometimes we try to scare each other.
One thing that usually happened if there was a tour guide
was that the tour guide would try to read everyone's names (she
would have a copy of the bus seating chart to take attendance).
See, some people have strange kanji which are hard to read, or that
can be read more than one way. I always loved it when the tour
guide would try to read my name and usually not make it. 'Maiko' was
no problem - it's Japanese. But 'Covington' caused trouble. In
Japanese I write it in katakana (ew!) 'Kobinguton', which is six
kanas, and most people couldn't read it. I mean, Americans often
can't say Japanese or Vietnamese names even when they're written in
"English" letters, right? Same thing like that.
Sometimes I would get irritated when we went to a big temple
with lots of American tourists, because they would start taking my
picture and saying in SLOW, LOUD English, "Do you underSTAND ME??"
and then to their companion, fast, "hey, come look at this" and then
stuff like "are you JapaNESE??? How come you speak JapaNESE?? Do you
understand ENGlish??" or else they would ask for directions, like,
"Can you tell me where the TRAIN station is?? TRAIN STAtion." Some
people were cool though, and treated me like a normal person, and
then my friends would gather around to hear me speak English and
gasp (in Japanese of course), "Oh, your English is SO good! How
come?? You're so lucky..." etc. etc. That was okay though.
Sometimes they would spot a white tourist, push me up to talk to him
or her, and then it would turn out the tourist was French or
something and I'd have to explain... Another thing that sometimes
happened was people from other schools would want to take their
picture with me. I kinda felt like a celebrity, but sometimes it
would make me late for going with my group. Also I don't like being
treated as an object...
If you are planning to be an American tourist, I have this
advice. If you come upon an ensoku group, try out your Japanese on
the students. They'll love it. They will also call their friends
over and start a fuss, though. I think in general if you want to
strike up a conversation with a Japanese on the street anywhere,
even if you are planning to talk in English, start up the
conversation with a bit of Japanese, even if it's just "konniti ha".
They will appreciate it, and it will relax them a bit. If you just
start off in English, most people I think will get all nervous that
their English isn't good and shy away.
Well, that's ensoku... I'll explain about the big ensoku
"syuugaku ryokou" in a future post, if you'd like to hear... Here is
one type of ensoku we had often though:
THOSE "GAIJIN PARTIES"
I hope you enjoyed reading this long article... Any comments
or questions you have should be sent to my e-mail at maiko@ucsd.edu
Thank you very much.
Maiko Covington maiko@ucsd.edu
Hello, this is Maiko again. This time I am going to write
about yet another event - bunkasai. Once again I offer my standard
disclaimer - I have had no training whatsoever in sociology or
related fields, so all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.
I also have a request - many people have been asking me to mail them
copies of the Parts they have missed, but I seem to be missing some.
If someone out there has been collecting these, would you be so kind
as to send me copies of them? Thank you very much.
BUNKASAI
Basically what bunkasai is is a big festival put on by the
school, where you sell tickets and let outsiders in. Money raised
goes to the school funds. It lasts from a few days to a week, or in
some places 2 days plus a Sunday, or some like that. During this
time the whole school is decorated, and each class and club puts on
an 'event'. The events are basically food shops, exhibitions,
games, or sales.
At both my junior high school and high school, each class
and club was allotted one whole classroom or half of one, depending
on what their event was to be. The first step is to decide what sort
of event you would put on. Some of the ones I have done were a
newspaper shredding search game, game show type things, a yakisoba
stand, a maze, and, in the second and third years of high school, an
ice cream stand. I was in the manga-bu (comics club) and for that,
we always would (1) display our drawings and comic books we had
drawn, and (2) draw things like bookmarks and postcards at people's
request. These last we would sell for about 50 - 100 yen, and the
drawings were either auctioned off or else sold for a higher price.
Just about every school's manga-bu does this. I was also in the
English club, and mostly we would have a typewriter for people to
play with, and conversation going on, and maybe American TV videos.
I remember in the second grade of high school we had a "mistaken
English contest". What we did was take pictures of signs with bad
English on them from all over Tokyo, and the person who could find
all the errors would get prizes. Unfortunately, I was ineligible
^_^. The newspaper shredding search game was like this: for 50 yen
people got 5 minutes in a huge classroom full up with newspaper
shreddings (man, did it ever take a long time to shred those - my
fingers ache with memory). We hid some stuff in there, from paper
streamers to erasers to more expensive stuff like pencil boxes.
Anything you found, you could keep. For the maze, we made a maze of
tunnels out of cardboard boxes, and made it so that as soon as you
entered the door you had to go in there. It was pitch black, and we
made ghosts come out and stuff. Lastly for the ice cream stand we
made it '21 flavors' because we were 2 nen 1 kumi, and we bought ice
cream from Meiji, which we sold for 50 yen or so a scoop.
Before any other preparation, there is a 'oosouzi no hi'
where you have to clean the classroom really well and take home all
the stuff like people's old umbrellas, or else put it in your
locker. This is maybe a week beforehand. Then, you have to start
making all the decorations. Also at this time, you are given your
tickets to sell to your family and friends who don't go to this
school. Each person would get 5 tickets. The decorations would get
to be so elaborate that you almost wouldn't know it was a school!
The first kind is, posters. For the ice cream store, we researched
all the different ice cream chains in Tokyo, and put up a poster
about each (when it was founded, main stores, service, specialty
etc). Also you have to make advertising posters. These are drawn
on copy paper and then run off onto piles of newsprint. They will
be handed out to people and also hung all over the walls and such.
You make some color posters to hang in prominent places, and also a
sign to put on the door of the classroom. You also have to put
signs up saying where your event is - in room 204 or 2 nen 1 kumi or
wherever. As well as posters, somebody has to draw a promotion to
put in the annai, or guide. For the ice cream store we had to make
price lists too. This involved thinking up original names for all
the ice cream flavors. This took a while... all of them were inside
jokes, or plays on fads etc. For example, the vanilla was called
"vanilla do.eijyun" because our teacher's name was Eijyun Sakaki and
he was pale, and also because he once told us how he went to USA and
couldn't order vanilla because everyone thought he was saying
banana. The pineapple was "ice pine cosine theta" for some reason,
and etc.etc.
The next thing is to disguise the classroom. For the ice
cream store, we made crepe paper streamers for the ceiling, and made
those tissue paper flowers (those are one of the most popular
decorations) to put everywhere. They were red and white, and we put
them around all the ice-cream research posters, and around the clock
and around the door on the outside. Some people made tablecloths to
put on the desks, which were arranged into tables. For the
newspaper game, I remember we wallpapered the walls with travel
posters. For the tunnel game we didn't have to decorate the inside
of the classroom, but on the outside we made these posters to look
scary, with pictures of monsters and blood on them, and we made
those paper flowers to put around the door, of course. For just
about every event we did, we would make these little 3-D paper stars
and hang them from the ceiling by thread. They look neat. During
all of this, people stay late after school, sometimes as late as 8
o'clock on the day before it's to open. We also had to get the
ice-cream delivered (and a freezer to put it in) get the ice-cream
scoopers, and arrange for someone to bring a boom box and tapes.
During bunkasai there are tape players everywhere playing all kinds
of hit songs etc. Also we had to decide what to wear. You have to
wear your uniform, but on that day you can wear a sweatshirt or
sweater of your choice over it.
We also decided who would work what shifts. Finally
everything was ready... and I will have to tell you the rest later
as I have a bus to catch!
Thank you for reading this... the continuation is on the
way.
Maiko Covington maiko@ucsd.edu
In Japanese school, most of the classes you take are not of
your own choice. Everyone is pretty much expected to take the same
classes, and these are nationally standardized. The exceptions to
this rule are: (1) In high school students are generally split into
two groups - those planning on studying math and science in
university (or if not going to university, planning to get a job
related with these fields), and those similarly interested in the
humanities. The two groups are not split until the last year or so
of high school, when the sciences group takes more science
classes,and the humanities group is expected to take more Japanese,
ancient Japanese, and writing classes instead. (2) There are a few
classes which are designated as electives, and you get to pick those
from grade one. Among these choices are: whether to take Japanese
history or world history, whether to take calligraphy, art, or music
for the "arts" requirement. (3) In the third year of high school you
get to pick a few of your classes. This partially ties in with (1).
For instance, after you have taken biology, chemistry, physics, and
earth science, the science stream students get to pick which science
they would like to spend their last year studying. Similarly, the
humanities people (or really anyone, I suppose) can choose to take
either advanced Chinese ancient poetry or advanced ancient Japanese
writings. Note that students are divided into classes partly on the
basis of these choices, as I mentioned in part I
In middle school, you do not get to choose your classes.
This is probably of interest to the anime fans, as it is a
scene shown often enough in high school anime. Basically, there are
changing rooms, and you have to wear a uniform for P.E. There are
2:
For girls, you wear some sort of white shirt with your name sewn
on, and then (eww.. I hate these) these little pants called
"bloomers". What they are are thick polyester/cotton briefs that
might as well be underwear for their size. They are in a contrasting
color (mine were dark blue). Then, you wear your school socks and
school-bought gym shoes. The boys dress pretty much the same except
they get to wear regular shorts. Both boys and girls wear warm up
suits when it gets cold, again with your name on it. One thing
peculiar to Japan I think is the hatimaki. This is a
ribbon/headband that you tie around your head (like those ones you
see in hoky ninja movies that say "Banzai" on 'em). These are
plain, though. One side is red and the other is white. This is so
when you split up into teams, the two teams can tie their hatimaki
opposite so you can tell them apart.
The inside of the classroom is basically the same layout no
matter which school you go to. In the front of the room is a
blackboard (usually black), desks are lined up in rows facing the
blackboard, and there are windows one one side of the room and the
sliding doors to the hallway on the other side. In front of the
blackboard is a raised part of the floor (or else a low wooden
platform) where the teacher stands to lecture. The teacher would
also have a small table or podium to keep his stuff. Teachers too
have to change their shoes but they get to wear slippers of any kind
they want. In the back of the room are the unlockable lockers,
which I mentioned in part I, and there might be hooks for umbrellas
or coats or some such. What really makes the room different,
though, is the fact that since students don't change rooms and are
in the same classroom all day long (see part I) the room is full of
stuff owned by the students like bags, games, etc. and the walls are
covered with student-made props and posters for events and such. It
is really kinda personalized. We had the posters we made for
bunkasai (I will write about that later) and also other stuff, plus
the schedule. In every room is also a small bulletin board (oops)
where is posted "kongetu no mokuhyou" ( this month's goal). Also
every room has a closet full of cleaning supplies. A lot of people
bring zabuton and tie it to their chair. Some people just sit on the
padded hoods we make in case of an earthquake (interesting note:
these hoods are the same kind they had in World War II in case of an
air raid). I did this. Basically though, when you go into a room
or look at people's desk it is really personalized; you can tell who
occupies it.
First I would like to talk about daily "events" - they
aren't really events per se, but just things that happen everyday as
a routine. The first of these would be the "tyourei" or "morning
meeting". I am sure many of you have seen this on the news or
somewhere as it applies to Japanese companies. Well, we have the
same sort of thing at school. Basically what it is everybody lines
up by class in the gym or outside on the school ground (depending on
what school you go to) and listen to the principal make a very long
monotonous speech. The speeches my principal would make usually had
to do with nature (this is typically Japanese) and he would related
that to studying. Perhaps, "The plum blossoms are blooming (that
was my school mascot) and we must let the spirit of studying bloom
in our hearts before finals.." or some such thing like this. Most
people would be silently laughing and/or wishing the thing would
hurry up and end. The reason we hated tyourei is that you are
supposed to stand perfectly still and at attention the whole time -
you aren't supposed to talk or scratch your nose or anything. Mostly
what people did was to try and sneak to the back of the line to be
with friends, and talk out the sides of their mouths so that noone
could see. If there was a message from the student council it would
be read at this morning meeting, and if there were new school rules
or if the principal decided to either award awards or scold people
he would do it at this time. We also had to bow in unison - this is
about 500 to 600 people, mind you - to each person that came up, and
if we didn't do it satisfactory we would have to do it all again.
At the end of the whole thing, they would play this awful marching
music and we would march back up to the classroom. Eww.. I
especially hated it because I could never sneak to the back. See, I
have brown hair, and the speaker would notice, 'a! the brown head is
not in her place in line!'. Sometimes my friends would come up and
join me, though.
maiko@ucsd.edu
Oops, it appears that I left out a very important piece of
information in article #2. At Japanese school, boys and girls do
not generally take P.E. together - the class is split up. Most
often the two classes will take place simultaneously, even using 2
halves of the same gym. (Note: some scenes in Ranma 1/2 show this.)
The sports we do the most in P.E. are volleyball and basketball,
hands down. Some other sports include aerobic-type dancing and
running. Before every class, we have to do "rajio taisoo". This is
doing exercises to this certain theme song. Why is it called rajio
taisoo? Because the theme is broadcast on NHK radio every morning
at 6:00 (or at least it used to be) so that early risers can join in
at home. The rajio taisoo are often shown on American media
broadcasts whenever they show Japanese companies. Practically
everyone has to do radio taisoo - companies do it, construction
workers do it on the site, you name it. In the summer when you're
in elementary school, you are supposed to wake up and go to the
neighborhood rendition of it every morning at either 7 or 8 AM. You
get a card marked off by the leader, and that is part of your summer
homework (note: this was shown in one of the "Chibi Maruko"
episodes). Anyway.. One girl (or guy, depending on what half you
are in) is chosen to lead the exercises every day. After you are
done with the exercises, the teacher comes over and yells "syuugo!"
(come together!). Then, you line up by number in front of the
teacher, and you do the whole bowing thing (I will explain this
later), and then the teacher will (1) yell at anyone who has
something wrong with their uniform (this includes not having your
hatimaki on, or having the wrong kind of shoes) and (2) explain just
what it is we will be doing that day. After all of this, you go to
get the equipment out of the equipment shed. Sometimes the teacher
will make you run laps around the gym.
Now I will tell you about some more events. First are some
events that happen everyday. Actually, they aren't really "events"
per se, but just fixed routine that happens every day.
Maiko Covington maiko@ucsd.edu
jcpark@eos.ncsu.edu
I am sure most of you have heard that all Japanese students
take six years of English - three in junior high and three in high
school. Most of you have probably also wondered at one time or
another why these same people often cannot speak English well. The
answer most likely lies in the way the English class is carried out.
Read on, and you may discover something!
(this section may be more interesting)
I am a native English speaker. As such, I had a few
different experiences in the English class. First of all, having to
learn the alphabet in 7th grade was humiliating at best. They made
us all use that 'English paper' with the
____________
- - - - - - -
------------
pattern. Well, this was the kind of paper I had to use in
kindergarten, so I hated having to use it. So, I would purposely
write really messy to spite the teacher.
maiko@ucsd.eud
(oops, I meant edu)
About every couple of months or so, there is an ensoku.
Ensoku literally means 'far feet', and often (especially in
elementary school) ensoku are actually 'field trips', involving
hiking. The first (and a big) part of ensoku is the preparation.
On ensoku, you are supposed to bring your lunch (again, a cute
plastic box full of rice and vegetables, or maybe some onigiri <rice
balls> . On this day, everyone gets their mother to make a lunch
they especially like), a thermos full of something to drink, and
perhaps the most important thing, some 'okasi', or treats. Picking
the okasi you will take is the major part of preparing for ensoku.
See, the teacher sets some price, say 500 yen, and you have to stay
under that limit. So, everyone tries to get the most candy possible
for that price. On the day before an ensoku, the discount groceries
are packed with people trying to get the most for their money. There
is a certain way to pick what to take. First, you want to get
something cheap and large and liked by everyone. Usually this ends
up being some sort of chip. This is for trading. Then, you get some
thing that you really like, and with the rest of the money you try
to get as many small candies as possible. One option that is really
popular is the 'hundred yen bag'. These are little bags that are
100 yen no matter how much candy you put in it. They are clear
plastic, usually around 20 cm by 10 or so. So, you stretch this bag
as much as possible before putting anything in it, and then as you
put each item in, you press it as far as it can go into the corner
of the bag, and generally cram it all in to save space. You have to
be able to close the bag, which closes like a 'ziplock' bag.
Sometimes the bag will break when you try to fill it, and then you
have to start over. You don't have to pay for empty broken bags.
When your bag is finally full to the way you want it, you go to the
register hoping it won't break on the way there. The reason you go
to a bargain grocery like Daiei or Maruetu is that at those places
stuff that is usually 100 yen is use
(oops) usually 84 yen or so, and you can more for your 500 yen. The
cheap places are usually well known to all and get really crowded.
There is an international federation called UNESCO (I forget
what it stands for, but maybe it was something like UN educational
and science something or other). They have an office in Tokyo, and
several times a year they would hold a party for all the foreigners
living in Tokyo. Remember I said I was in the English club? Well,
the English teacher running the club took advantage of this fact,
and made us all go to these parties. See, although I didn't live in
Tokyo, my high school was within the city limit, and so we went.
Mostly there was just lots of potluck type food, and people would
just sit around talking. Well, as an assignment, we had to write
out these lists of questions and ask them to five people in English,
and record their replies. I used to hate doing this because I could
ask people questions just fine on my own without a sheet of paper
telling me what to say, but I was made to do the paper thing anyway.
I remember once we ran into this one lady in a fur coat who said she
used to be a hand model in Osaka, and she took away my friend Yuki's
paper and started reading it aloud and laughing in a big voice...
Also she started petting (yes, petting) me on the head and saying
how "Japanese girls have such soft hair", and I kept trying to tell
her I was American.. that was pretty lame. Most of the people were
interesting though, and would have pretty fun conversations.
Bunkasai is an event held once each year - usually in the
fall. Literally the word 'bunkasai' tranlates as 'culture
festival', but I feel this word does not do it justice...
