School Life

I am 14 years of age, and turning 15 soon in July. I attend Shinjuku Yamabuki High School and I’m in grade 9 in middle school or “lower secondary school”. I wake up at 6:00am every morning and ride my bike to school (using cars is a traffic nightmare!), usually arriving at school at about 7:40am. The school day goes for 7½ hours, starting at 8:00am and finishing at 3:30. I attend an after school club each day meaning I normally finish at 4:30; school clubs are common for students in middle school, as it increases extra curriculum credit, and it is also sometimes done just for fun! School is typically on from Monday to Friday, but on some occasions on a Saturday too – usually just half a Saturday though. I do 10 subjects, including English, Japanese, History, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, HPE (Health and Physical Education), Home Economics, IT (Information Technology), Social Studies/Economics. My favourites are IT and Biology, they’re really exciting! We have one classroom for all these subjects - so usually we “personalise” our desks, decorating them with all sorts of things we like. The teachers normally stand on a platform at the front of the classroom and explain and do things by talking and writing, which can get boring sometimes! I have a best friend, Misaki, who’s nearly in all my classes. We hang out at lunch time, which goes for 40 minutes, and sometimes at recess, although we normally spend recess cleaning up the classroom – wipe the floors, clean the blackboard and pick up rubbish. We have 7 classes a day, each going for 50 minutes – talk about a long day!

This is what a typical Japanese classroom looks like -

the teacher will stand at the front at the room and lecture

while the students write it down.

Source: http://melaniedelgrosso.com/pb/wp_eb15f3b7/images/img21385471e13d66dcf2.JPG

My Life in Japan

Hello! Or konichiwa as it’s said here in Japan. My name is Hachiko and I’m from Japan. I live in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, in the Shinjuku Ward, where there are gigantic neon signs and TV’s on the buildings – some buildings are over 55 stories! I live in an apartment, where most people live in the Shinjuku district, in a 31 story building. Tokyo is classified as a mega-city, holding about 30 million residents! I live with my father and my sister; my father is the manager of a huge business. My mother is separated from my father and lives in the Taitō Ward in the Uneo district, a fair while away from me and she works with the cherry blossom trees which are common in the district. I am often taken care of by my older sister, who is 19, as my father is nearly always at work. My family and I believe in the religion Shinto, an ancient Japanese religion, and is most familiar here in Japan. Shinto shrines are used to worship ‘kami’, the spirits and gods of the world.

This is the Shinjuku ward at street level, look at

all the signs and buildings!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_over_Shinjuku.jpg

Introduction

Hey there! My name is Cruise and I am a year 9 student at William Ross State High School in Townsville, Australia. This term in my Asian Studies class we are researching and exploring the lives of teenagers in Japan and India. I find this topic very interesting and surprising. Japanese traditions and schooling is something I have learnt about and I find it very fascinating.

As part as our assessment we are required to write a series of blogs from the perspective of either a Japanese or Indian teenager. I have chosen to write as a Japanese teenager as I have always found Japan and Japanese people very interesting and some Japanese things like manga I really enjoy myself. Click on the links to find out more information about the thing! I hope you like it!