Aomori City Namiuchi Elementary School!

As the title of my post might suggest we visted Aomori City Namiuchi Elementary School today. I must apologize for another post without photos (I added some this morning will add more later). It is not for lack of photos (I HAVE added a few this morning but I am still lacking access to most), but rather for lack of hard drive space! I am currently trying to ftp some of my older photos so that I can download some new ones to my hard drive tomorrow. I really appreciate your patience with this.

As I have already said, we visited a Japanese elementary school today (grades 1-6). The visit was nothing less than amazing. The studentse were VERY interested in us, and many of them learned enough English to come say hello. I took many photos of the students throughout the day.

Here is a photo of two first graders on their way to school. You can identify the first graders by their yellow hats. If you look at the student on the left you will notice a bag dangling from his backpack. This is his lunch. Additionally if you look closely at the student on the left yeou will notice a gray device hanging on his right side (near the white and yellow nametag). This item is a GPS so that parents can monuitor where they are. Additionally the student can press a button on it if a stranger approaches etc.

 Here is a better photos where you can see the tracking devices on the students. If you look at the student on the right, you can see it hanging clearly on the left side.

Here is a photo of me with some kids of mixed ages:

 

One really cool thing I saw was that as each child got to school they went an excercised. Here are a few kids excercising:

 

When students get to school they have to change out of their street shoes into slippers. We also had to do this. Here is a picture of where they store their shoes/slippers:

 

After an initial debriefing meeting we went to the gym where the entire school greeted us. We got greeted by the principal and then the students sang a song for us. Some students even played the recorder while others sang for part of the song. It was a very touching moment.

 

We were all brought to the front of the stage where we introduced ourselves in Japanese. “Watashi wa Arizona no Cris Robson desu.” This translates loosely to, “I am Cris Robson from Arizona.” Debbie gave a speech to the entire school as well!

After the song the students marched out in unison.The principal later reassured us that this was not meant to be a military march, but rather a way of having all of the students work together. Indeed they marched in unison!

We spent the first part of the day visiting various classes. The classes were all very dynamic. Kids were never give entirely direct instruction and were kept stimulated at all times. There was a true zest and love of learning in every room we visited. We visted a music class, a social studies class, a science class, a special education course, an English course, a Japanese course, a speech course (for those with speech impairements – some students came from other locations with parents in the room), a calligraphy course, a PE course and more!

After visiting classes we were invited to have lunch in a classroom with the students. Randy and I were selected for class 3-1. This was a third grade classroom. The kids were a bit shy, but all in all it was really fun! We got to show them where we travelled from on a map and explain how many hours it took. The kids were amazed!

After lunch EVERY student in the class participated in cleaning the ENTIRE school.  There were no janitors. It was amazing! The kids were smiling, laughing and having a great time. I cannot wait for you to see photos!

After the cleaning session we visted more classes and then had a meeting with some parents. After the parent meeting we got to visit some after school club activities. There were a few we could choose from, and once I saw ping pong on the list I knew where I had to go! It was a BLAST! I got to play ping pong with students After a while we were called back to a final meeting with the principal for a Q & A session. She was very open and I felt like she really ran her school well.

Tomorrow we are going to visit a middle school. I am really excited about this!!

This evening Debbie, Shelly, Cassie, Allison and I went for a little shopping. We were heading to a thift shop (we never made it there), but instead we went to a great book store. I found a copy of gothic & lolita magazine (it contains many of the fashions I photographed in Harajuku & patterns!), so of course I bought it. I also bought a few Shinjo Mayu mangas… guilty pleasures I know! Can you believe I have only bought TWO mangas? I know… it is a miracle. In additional I also got an autobiography on geisha as well as a book on yukata. I don’t know how I will get all of this stuff home :p

To end the day Allison and I went to dinner at this INCREDIBLE scallop restaurant. Apparently Aomori is well known for its scallops and now I can see why. It was AMAZING!!! mmmMMmmm

Some good news… aside from an annoying cough I feel a LOT better. YAY! Hopefully all the walking in the rain tonight (yes it was raining like crazy by the end of the night) won’t make me relapse :p

Anyhow… I am going to veg for a few minutes and then get some rest. It is 10PM and I need to be up by 6 (going to sleep in!).

Sayonara!!!