Japanese Elementary Schools

In Japan, elementary schools are similar to American Elementary schools. In America, Elementary school is 1st grade through 5th grade. In Japan, however, it is first grade through 6th grade. The 6th graders I interacted with in Japan were very mature and funny. It was adorable. Their English was very good (Japan has been increasing their English classes in recent years due to the possibility of the Olympics being held in Tokyo).

Students in some schools have to wear uniforms, however at the school I visited the students did not wear uniforms. All of the students wore cute outfits. Some of the girls wore overalls, or cute ruffly shorts. The guys wore t-shirts with cute patterns or sayings on them and shorts. Many of the students wore sandals or crocs because it was summer when I visited them.

The 6th graders showed me the Kendama and other Japanese toys, and they had a calligraphy class. Calligraphy is very difficult, even if it seems easy. The students drew an anime version of me, and even drew my name in Kanji. Below is their drawing of me! It’s very adorable and it made me really happy.

The students asked me lots of questions, and helped each other out with English to ask me more complex questions. It was very cute, because they all worked hard to talk to me. The proud looks on their faces after they’d ask me a question in Japanese or English and I’d understand was priceless.



Another interesting aspect of Japanese Elementary schools is lunches. During lunchtime, certain students put on face masks and then a cart of food is rolled into the class room. The students that serve food rotates every day. The cart has large bowls full of each type of food. Sometimes it has soup and bread, or other traditional Japanese lunch foods. The students then line up with trays and are served the food by their classmates. Leftovers are packed up by the students as well, and taken back to the cafeteria. The food is always rich in vitamins and very nutritious. We got to eat lunch with them too, and the food was delicious and very rich. There was a soup with potatoes and corn, and the milk was whole milk with lots of added vitamins.

This is a picture of me in Japan with the 6th grade students! I had a great time, and they were all very smart and talented. I loved talking with them. They made me origami animals, and I drew faces on them. We played a traditional Japanese hammer game, and I almost won it, but it got knocked over by another exchange student that was in my group. Many of the students were very interested in us because we were new people and we looked different than them and spoke another language. Visiting that elementary school was such a great experience! I’m glad to have visited them and met them all!

Pictures are mine so no source is needed.