02.18.2011 Visit to kaori's Highschool in Osaka

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Today is the first time I have been able to visit an actual Japanese School! Kaori and Midori invited me to visit their old High school which is about 30-40 minutes bike ride away from home. I didn’t know what think besides anime and movies I saw about Japan, so I had a typical stereotype mind set. As we arrived I was impressed to see that Japanese schools have Elementary, junior high, and high school next to one another. This makes finding and placing your “son or daughter” in a school trouble-free. Kaori told me a few tid bits about how it’s a “Christian school” with nuns and teachers at the same location. I know in USA, we separate Church from State but sometimes there are schools that practice both school and religion at the same institution. The campus is vast and very open to students so it is very welcoming to say the least. For the first time, I had to take off my shoes to enter a school and put on slippers called “wabaki”. This is a more traditional style of Japan. While coursing through the school with Kaori and Midori it had an “anime/movie” appeal to it. We bumped into some of Kaori and Midori’s old school teachers and had a quick chat to play the grounds. I met and English teacher who was very “stern” about studying and very accommodating to me. I have seen some animes’ in my time, so it came to no surprise that sometimes while walking through the halls it felt like I was in a movie/show. The photos give a good description of what and where we went around the campus. I am still surprise to hear that all students clean their own classrooms. It is defiantly a good lesson American schools should pickup if they wish to have students more grateful to go and be in school. Touring the campus made me very excited for my school year to start! Our visit was short but I was very happy to meet some teachers and walk around campus for a tour.

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