Day 9-Yumegaoka Junior High

I am losing track of what day it is. On Tuesday, November 21 we went to Yumegaoka Junior High School. What a beautiful school! It is HUGE and they only have 296 students that attend there. There is so much open space. It was just built last year and the idea was that students and teachers would be more relaxed and happy in a school that is bright and open. It sure works. We talked with the principal a little and then they took us to a home ec class where we helped prepare fish for sashimi and a fried fish snack. It was much harder to cut the fish than it looked. We ate our snack in the cafeteria (which really isn’t like our cafeteria—it is much smaller and they share it—each week a different grade level eats in that room and the others eat in homeroom.) Their cafeteria was big, and open with small round tables with a vase of flowers on each one. It was more like eating in a restaurant than a cafeteria. After that, we observed some classes including an English class, a Judo class, and some science lessons. Then we went back downstairs to get ready for lunch. The students are in charge of almost everything in this school. They get the food ready and serve it (they don’t cook it though). They clean up the classrooms and get them ready for eating. Everyone has a job to do and no one complains. They are very responsible and also very happy being a part of the community. Anyway, we had a delicious lunch with the students. I showed them some pictures of my classes at Park Lakes which they like a lot. After lunch, the students cleaned up and we had a tea ceremony. When you are presented with tea, there is a series of things that you are supposed to do. You sit on your knees and bow to the ground to the person presenting you with tea. Then you pick up the bowl, turn it three times clockwise, and admire the bowl. Then you put it down, look at all sides of it and finally say in Japanese “I am about to drink this tea.” Then you hold the bottom with your left hand and the side with your right hand and take 3 ½ sips to finish the tea. Then you turn it 3 times counterclockwise, admire, place it down, look at both sides and say “I drank the tea”. And that isn’t even the formal ceremony!!! You also have a little sweet with your tea. After tea, the students had an assembly for us, and the orchestra played the American National Anthem as we walked in!! Then they played a bingo/interview game with us and gave some speeches. It was very sweet. After that we watched them clean up the school and get ready to go. I really liked how everyone had a job to do. Even the principal and teachers were cleaning. And I mean, CLEANING. Kids and adults were cleaning windows, mopping floors on their hands and knees, scrubbing toilets etc. It was so great to see everyone working together. I even got into the action and help clean the floor! By the way, I think I forgot to mention that you can not wear shoes in the school so you put slippers on when you come in the door and your shoes go in a cubby. This helps keep the floors clean and also is comfortable. At the end of the day we went to see some clubs, like art club where we made origami and sumo club where we watched some sumo wrestlers practice. What a long and exhausting day, but it was worth it! I loved seeing the school.