Yasunishi Elementary School

On Wednesday, we visited Yasunishi Elementary school and had an amazing day! Students prepared a school assembly for us and the first and second graders presented us with special gifts. Then, we got to visit classes and spend time with students. Student life in Japan is similar in many ways to student life in America, but there are also many differences. One thing you'll notice in the video is that students wear uniforms. See if you can name the song they are singing in Japanese:

Students in Japan walk to school or ride their bikes. Sometimes, they may also use mass transit, like city buses or subways. There are no school buses, and students sometimes walk a long way, so parents and other community members volunteer to stand outside along the way and make sure that students get to and from school safely. When students arrive at school, they store their shoes and put on their school slippers. At Yasunishi, we observed classes, toured the school, went to recess, met with teachers, and even had lunch with the students. For lunch we had some vegetable soup with tofu in it, fried fish, rice, milk, and an orange.

Lunchtime in Japan is different from lunchtime in America. In Japan, students eat lunch in their classrooms. Students serve the food to one another, and although the teacher is in the room, the students take care of all serving and all cleanup. When they are done eating, the students put any plastic into a plastic bag, tear and flatten their milk cartons, and stack all plates, utensils, and trays so that they may be cleaned for the next day, and then they all brush their teeth! Then, before recess, the students clean the school. They move all desks out of the way and sweep and wipe the floors. Students clean the school again at the end of each day. The school is very clean!