YMCA

For the past two days I’ve traveled into Tokyo through a series of trains to Toyocho station and gone to a YMCA there. It was really fun navigating the Tokyo subway system on my own. The first time my CIEE coordinator was there but today I did it all on my own. It gives me confidence that I can get nearly anywhere in the city on my own. All I have to know is what line, and what station. All the stations are written in kanji and English is they're easy enough to navigate. The hard part came after getting out of the subway and then walking three blocks. It was much more difficult without a line of people to follow or a color coded train to board.

At the YMCA are two English schools. One is a kindergarten for Japanese children whose parents want them to have English exposure at an early age. Each classroom has two teachers, one Japanese and one a native English speaker. Only English is allowed in the classroom, so these kids can understand almost everything. When it comes to speaking it is much more difficult for them but they know a lot. They’re growing up to be bilingual which I think is really cool. The second school is on the third floor and is an international school. It’s full of Koreans, Chinese, Indians, and some Japanese. Their parents are usually diplomats or on business, and they come and go often. Since the Japanese school system is so different from much of the rest of the world, these kids are sent to English international school where they’ll likely not spend more than a few years, at max. It’s like the American School in London.

So yesterday I arrived too late to help out, about when they were closing up and sending the kids home. It was just introductions to teachers. Today I observed a half day class of kindergarteners and played with them. They had free time, then calander time, then song time, then chapel. I was surprised as how Christian themed the kindergarten was, but it is the YMCA. In the afternoon I sat in on a kindergarten class for the international school. There the focus was on school and not English exposure so the kids are supposed to be fluent in English. Not all of them were however.

It was interesting but it wasn’t exactly fun. I didn’t know anyone, I couldn’t really do anything except try to engage the kids because I’m only there for two days. The most beneficial part of it all is that I get to go into Tokyo three days in a row. Yesterday I went to Ueno park afterwards and walked around a bit. It’s a really big part, but it’s mostly for looking at and less for using in terms of sporting, more like Millennium Park than Grant Park. The map showed a huge pond in the center and I went to check it out, only to find it filled with water plants except for a small portion in the center. It also has a zoo but I didn’t get to see it. Maybe tomorrow.