Today the WCI troop visited the elementary school of Midorigaoka in Arao. First off was coordination as per the usual. This means the explanation of the local rules to newcomers such as myself. I was surprised to know the things that looked like canals are used when 2 paths cross each other, namely ones for people with dirty shoes and clean shoes. The desire to separate the clean and the dirty was truly striking.

Afterwards we were guided to the gym where we rehearsed some Arigatou event moves. Soon after we introduced ourselves to the school kids and performed our little dance. The kids looked mesmerized by it. I don’t know why though, and it certainly wasn’t because our skill was at power level OVER … Hiro says they’re just like that …

After the Introductions we regrouped at our meeting room and split up into groups and taken to different classes. The group I was in went to a music class. That singing was probably closer to screaming than music, but I don’t blame them. It was clear that they were just that excited to have us there. They included us in some of their songs and activities. My favorite was the “Jankenpo train”: basically Rock – Paper – Scissors and the losers train gets on the winners train until there’s only one big train of overly energetic kids. The lesson we joined after that was calligraphy (writing kanji). This was my favorite lesson since it was mainly us complete beginners who got tutored by the kids. They made us copy the Kanji of their names and such. The lesson after that was music again, which was much the same except different songs and games( and screams). Lunch today wasn’t as stressful as yesterday, since it was properly organized. There wasn’t really enough time again though, since our chopsticks level isn’t Level Asian.

Next was Clean up and Play time, so basically free time with the kids. I really enjoyed this since the kids kept walking up to me with their energetic jibberish somehow trying to tell me to play too. In the end we all played Football since it’s the most international sport. After our usual regroup at the library/meeting room the school surprised us with an assembly of all 5th class kids in the gym. There was much jibberish said, thanks made and fun had. Of course the last lesson was the same setting as the previous one, but with the 6th graders instead. However, instead of trying to talk to each other we were told to play games together. We did the “Jankenpo train” again and also some kind of speed recognition game. Bless the Japanese kids for the recognition game. They noticed we couldn’t read Japanese and made it easy for us. At the meeting after one of my friends said he was easily winning till he said “give it 100%” and after that he didn’t make a single point. Remaining after all of that was a quick meeting and thanks round to the teachers/principal, clean up and information round about the next day.

All in all I have to say it was an excellent day. Thanks again to the teachers who made it possible for WCI to visit, I hope you and your students not only enjoyed but also learned lots today.

Michael Griffiths, UK/Switzerland

Today we went to Miike Technical High School. This school has about 600 students and most of them are boys, but there are some girls too. The day started with the principal saying some words, then a presentation about the school. After that we were also shown around a part of the school before it was time to go to the classes. The first period my group participated in was PE, with a class with only boys. I was surprised about the discipline during the lesson. When warming up they ran in a group and they were running in almost perfect lines. In Sweden you just run, you don’t even run at the same speed. After warming up we played volleyball. It was really fun. But sadly I can’t play volleyball, so I felt kind of bad for all the boys on my team when I wasn’t able to catch the ball.

After lunch it was time for English. The students divided into groups and one of us went to each group. They asked us questions in English about, for example, were we come from, what our favorite Japanese food is and what we do in our free-time. After a few minutes we rotated and went to the next group of students. We got to talk to all of the students in the class a few at a time as each group of students asked the same questions. I had a great time interaction with the students, they were all very nice and did their best with English.

These two periods were quite normal as every school has these. But it was after that that the more special lessons began. Since this is a technical high school they have some different classes, like programming and making things out of metal. I don’t know what the other groups were doing, but I got to participate in the Chemistry class. We formed small groups or pairs with the students. They did something that I never got to do in my Chemistry classes in high school; they melted glass and made beads! It was really cool and all the students knew what they should do. We got to choose two colors and then they used a burner over which they held a glass rod to melt the glass. When the glass started melting and dripping down they caught it with some sort of metal stick (I have no idea what it’s called) and turned the stick around so that the glass formed a bead around the stick. They continued turning it to make the right shape. I also got to try to do one! At first I was a little nervous and didn’t really want to do it. But I did and it was fun to try something new!

After a ten minute break the lesson continued. Now it was time to remove the glass beads and make some sort of accessory, I think it is for your cell phone. Sadly the one I and also the one the boy in my group made were stuck and couldn’t be used, but the girl in the group was able to use hers. All the students did make the accessory though, I think that they had made some beads earlier or that there were beads that a teacher had done beforehand. Then they gave them to us! I’m really happy that I got something to keep as a memory of our time at the school, since I had a really good time and enjoyed interacting with the students, even though I’m quite shy.

Lastly I would like to say thank you to all the students and teachers who let us come and participate in their classes. I hope that they enjoyed our time together as much as I did.

Arigatou Gozaimashita!

Towa Svensson, Sweden