STUDENT LIFE IN JAPAN

• 9 year-old-school girl finds unknown shrimp fossil
• A year in a ten year old’s new garden
• About Jiyu kenkyu – the school summer project
• About Kyushoku and Shoku-Iku Food Education
• All-consuming school clubs worry foreign parents
• Citizenship education at Hiroshima Nagisa Middle School
• Elementary school students participating in the rice harvest (external link)
• English rakugo helps kids learn, laugh
• English rakugo used as a tool for English language instruction in Japanese schools
• Fake uniforms are “in” with Japanese teenage girls
• (Fukushima’s) Students with special needs give back to community through story-reading club
• Grab your beto, mat and a prime spot, it’s undokai
• How to tie a hachimaki
• In Japan, teenage cellphone culture makes real connections
• Japanese kids are ace-ing it in international card tournaments
• Jr high school students participate in archery event at Lake Chuzenji Nikko
• Kids’ scarecrows at the Scarecrow Festival
• Kyudo archery, the coolest school club ever (via Rocketnews)
• Life after the tsunami of nautical students from Iwaki Kaisei Senior High School, the only high school in Fukushima Prefecture that specializes in fishery and maritime affairs
• Life in an international school – by Jill
• Nyuugakushiki – April 1st entrance ceremony
• One US educator’s peek at schoollife in Kadena Elementary School, Okinawa and his comments
• Photo-essay: Yatsugatake shizen kyoushitsu (“natural classroom”)
• Poll voting exercises and civics education at Tamagawa Academy
• School gassho choral clubs and concerts
• Schools have knack for healthy meals
• Schoolkids take part in human Japanese chess
• Schools remember Hanshin quake
• Shugaku ryoko (School excursion)
• Technical colleges role in nurturing engineers
• The origins of the randoseru

External links:

• Japanese heroes/heroines – This is the list of heroes and heroines, ancient and modern, whose names everyone knows … if one is Japanese.
• Japan’s sports heroes (the long list) and Japan’s greatest sports heroes (CNN website – for the really short list)
• J-pop heroes

Schoolchildren during kyushoku lunchtime

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also recommend that you read Alice Gordenker’s many articles on school and student life for Japan Times. Below are some of her articles, however, the links below have currently expired:

• Bloomers
• Colorblind kids can see clearly now
• GET DOWN AND DIRTY
  Learning firsthand about rice cultivation
• INEKARI TAIKEN- Lessons in the field yield unexpected harvests
• KAKIZOME
  Practice perfects New Year’s calligraphy
• EVENTUALITY EDUCATION
  It really is sink or swim in Japanese schools
• Every child gets to be a musician here
• A TIDY EDUCATION Kids get down to classroom clean-ups
• Sewing and cookery aren’t just for the girls
• COMPULSORY FUN? The serious business of clubbing together.
• WHOLE-CLASS INSTRUCTION Practical problems motivate students to learn
• It’s just like learning to ride a unicycle . . .
• LET KIDS DO THE MATH Prepare carefully for trips into the field
• RANDOSERU
• SPLISH! SPLASH! Swimming is serious at elementary schools
• EDUCATIONAL FOOD Making lunch a learning experience
• THE SAFETY ROUTE Walking to school just like the big kids do
• WELCOME TO FIRST GRADE! Celebrating the start of school’s long journey
• Staying cool at school becomes a hot topic
• Driven cuckoo by kuku Chant away to calculation competence
• All-school sketch festival – Painting in the park is a lesson in creativity
• Integrated Learning Time – Encouraging kids to think for themselves (this was a feature of the previous “relaxed education” policy, now superceded by more “academic” content classes.
• School-refusers – When one-sized-fits all schooling doesn’t fit
• Sayonara sixth-graders! Students give seniors a rousing send-off
• Off to Hakone – Schooltrips help cut the apron strings