First Week at School

I started school this week. It feels nice to get into a routine even if it is kind of boring and I don’t understand most of what is being said. I wake up a lot earlier than I’m used to, but that’s okay because I can’t sleep late here anyway. In the States my room was all the way at the back of the house, with the neighbors relatively far away and a huge back yard behind me. It was quiet there all the time unless I made it loud. Here I’m ten feet away from my neighbor’s bedroom, and right up against the street. The walls and ceilings are paper thing, I can hear everything that goes on around me. After about 7:00 it becomes impossible to sleep, so I get up at 6:45 and catch one train earlier than I need to. The commute to school is about 40 minutes. It’s not bad but it’s a far cry from my 5 minute bike ride to Evanston.

Japanese schools are set up in a completely different way than American schools. The first major difference, kids don’t rotate classes, teachers do. So I’m in the same class, the same seat every day. It’s kind of nice to move around, and my butt falls asleep if I don't get up every period and stretch. Because the teachers move, the passing periods are much longer, 9 minutes. There are 6 periods in a day, 4 before lunch and 2 after. Then there’s homeroom and cleaning so the school day lasts from 8:40 to 4:00, which is comparable to Evanston. The periods are longer, about 50 minutes. The schedule rotates every day. This means that Monday I have English first, the Calligraphy, Math and Japanese classics before lunch. But Tuesday I have Math, Science, Gym, then English before lunch. Interesting.

Once a month the desks rotate. Everyone draws a number out of a hat and then the room rearranges. I’m all the way in the back which kind of sucks because sometimes I can’t see all the strokes on the kanji. I also get a good feel for how big the class is, 42 kids. It’s enormous, but there’s no talking when the teacher’s talking. These kids are quiet, and the teacher talks all the time. The classes are almost all pure lecture. I’ve seen a little bit of interaction with the teacher but when called upon the students are extremely shy and quiet. They do not like to speak in class, and they’re not required to very often. During Math and Science, the teacher never asks, “Does this make sense? Do you understand?” Everyone just copies the notes from the board. Including me. I’ve already had the Math and Science that I’m taking, so I just try to translate the notes. I’m in a first year class, equivalent of American Sophomores. This is because my Japanese is not good and because the 3rd years, seniors, are gearing up towards college. They can’t afford to be distracted by the American.

Monday I forgot my kanji dictionary. Big mistake, I’m not doing that again. Not only could I not read most of what was written, I had no nope of understanding it. I brought it on Tuesday and learned the kanji for atom, molecule, and particle during science class. I learned the kanji for intersection during math class. I really like science. I can understand what he’s saying because I already know it. English is a very interesting and worthwhile class. It’s worthwhile because the teacher writes translations on the board, something that doesn’t happen in other classes. So I learn Japanese in my English class. These kids have two English classes a day, one for grammar and one for communication. So they have a reading/writing class and speaking/listening class.

Today was a completely different day though, we had the Eishin cup. Eishin is short of Ushikueishin, the name of my high school. It was an all day sports tournament. Soccer and softball for the boys, dodgeball and volleyball for the girls. The dodgeball was a very strange outdoor version that looked really fun. I played soccer with my homeroom. It’s been a long time since I’ve played soccer, that was obvious. But I held my own. Yesterday we played in gym and I thought I did really well because I scored a point, but today was more serious soccer and I clearly do not play. I can run, and I can see open spaces. But my passing and dibbling are not up to par so I just get rid of the ball as quickly as I can.

Tomorrow is more Eishin cup. We have no classes, but also no homework, which is nice. I’ve been filling my homework time with reading and writing, and a little bit of studying. Next week I assume I’ll have some, it’s been put on hold for this Eishin cup thing. My blog will suffer for sure though, as it already has. I can only use the computer after dinner on the weekdays, and I want to get to bed as quickly as possible. Dinner is really late here and it’s my duty to clean the kitchen afterwards. I also make my lunch for the next day. But it gets late fast, as it is right now. I’m off to another day at high school. I’ll blog again Saturday.