Life In A Japanese Elementary School Living In Japan From A Student s View

Hey, welcome to Cat in Japan. Today, I'm taking over my mom's channel. So, what should we talk about? Any ideas? Any ideas. What are you doing? Nothing. Are you taking over my channel? Yes. Who set all this up? No one. So, what were you talking about? I don't know. Any ideas? Hi, welcome to Cat in Japan. As you can see, my little one is trying to take over my channel. What should we talk about? Life in Japan, school in Japan, I don't know. Japan? So, you want to talk about school in Japan? Yes. What is it like going to school? Because I went to an American school many eons ago, but you go to a Japanese public school. All right, let me ask you a few questions about Japanese public schools. Okay. Okay. First off, do you have school buses? No. Actually, we don't. We just walk to school, or parents drive us to school, but you don't. What about schools up in the mountains where they're kind of far away from people's houses? I don't know. My house is very close to my school, so why would I know? Do you still walk or someone takes you? I can answer that one because I worked in a mountainous town. They do have school buses, but they're not like school buses like in America. They're not the big, long, big, yellow buses, the little small city buses that will pick up kids. And sometimes kids do take the bus to school in elementary school, but it's like just a regular city bus. But it depends on the city. But in general, kids either walk to school or their parents drive them. Can they ride a bike to school? No, no one does that. Elementary school kids cannot ride their bike to school. No. Some junior high schools will allow kids to ride their bikes to school, but it depends on the school. When I worked in the mountainous towns or the little Inaka towns that I worked in, a lot of the junior high school kids did ride their bikes to school, but it was very rare for parents to drive their kids to school. Yeah, probably they were busy with work, work, work. No, it's just something they don't do here. Do you have a locker at school? No, but we do have a place to put our backpacks, but it's not really like a locker. There's no lock, there's no password. Just little cupboards for our bags. We don't have any lockers. They're called cubbies. Yeah. In English, we call them cubbies. And you store your backpack there and all your other stuff in it, but there's no security to it. Besides, no one will steal anything in school. Yeah, they don't really have a problem with theft, do they? Yeah, they don't, they don't, they don't. But no lockers, no lockers. So, do you leave your textbooks at school or do you bring all your textbooks home? Well, the textbooks that we need to bring for homework, we do, but the ones that we don't, we just leave them at school. Where do you leave them at school? In our desks. In your desks. How many textbooks do you have? Okay, let's see. Japanese, English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Arts and Crafts. But the Social Studies, Science, and English, and the Arts and Crafts, we just, we leave them at school. But the Kokugo and Sansu, we bring them home. Kokugo is Japanese and Sansu is Math. Yeah. Are your textbooks really thin or are they really thick? I'm not sure about elementary school in America, because it's been a long time since I've been there, but I know in junior high and high school our textbooks were like this thick. Well... Well, the best thing to do is to do what? So people know what textbooks look like in Japan. Um, get my textbooks. You want to go get your textbooks? No. Here's your backpack. Now, every elementary school kid in Japan has one of these, don't they? But in my school, you can't bring normal backpacks. Some kids do bring normal backpacks, but what percentage of kids bring these? 70 or 80. I would say 99.9% of the kids bring these to school. I know. And what's great about these, how long have you had this? When did you start using this one? In first grade. First grade, and you're in fourth grade now. But I'm turning to fifth grade. Yeah, you're going to be in fifth grade in April. But this is, you've been having this for four years. Look how great condition it is. Look at this. In my first grade years, I kind of hunched back because it was very thick. It is very heavy. I'm, like, getting my exercise right now. This thing is heavy. So I used to hunch back like this, but I got used to it. It's very light, but you can see the dent in the back. There's a little dent. That's for your backpack. Yeah, this is called, in Japanese, this is called a nandoseru. Nandoseru. And pretty much 99.9% of the elementary school kids carry this, and they have one from first grade all the way through sixth grade because you're big sisters. I had one. It was mint green. These are not cheap. They can run anywhere between 20,000 to 80,000, 80,000, 90,000. So from about $200 to about $800 or $900. They can be really expensive. Yours was about $250. But this lasts six years, and it is heavy, but they're very durable, and every kid uses them. I have no idea why the Japanese school system says you have to have these, but you have to have these. And this is a fushinsha, right? Fushinsha. So like stranger danger, you blow this little whistle, and it gets the attention of adults and scares away whoever. Have you ever had to use it? No. It's pretty peaceful in Japan, but some kids have these little things that you just pull out and then just. Yeah, those. And then you have your charms that Daddy just got you for the year. And then you have your cup and toothbrush because. We brush our teeth at school. Yeah, you brush your teeth after lunch. No toothpaste, just water, but you brush your teeth after lunch. Some kids do bring toothpaste. Oh, some kids do? I've never seen anybody bring toothpaste. I've seen teachers. Teachers also brush their teeth after lunch. I've seen it. Let's open it up. Pencil case. Everybody has a pencil case. Now, when you're in first or second grade, you usually get the hard case one. But when you get into third or fourth grade or higher grades, you can have one of these softer ones. But for the first couple years, it's a big rectangle, and it's a hard case. It's more durable. And I don't know why. I don't know if it's a rule or just a tradition, but first graders usually have those. All right, and you have your computer. Yes. They do computer. Chromebook, right? Chromebook. Yeah, you have your Chromebook. They do all the correspondence from teachers and all that kind of stuff is on here. Now, when your sister was in school, your sister didn't have this. This has only been since COVID, right? I think so. Yeah, I think since COVID started, they started this. Now, let's grab one of your books. This is your Japanese, one of your Japanese books. Now, you have a variety of Japanese books. This one's your reading book, right? So this is the, like, reading stories and stuff like that. And see how thin it is? And this is how thin it is in junior high as well. Their books are this thin. And if you ever move to Japan, do not throw these away when your kid, like if your child gets this in third grade, do not throw it away because... You might need it. You might need it again in fourth grade or fifth grade or sixth grade. So until they graduate elementary school, do not throw these away because a lot of the times the teachers are like, oh, get out this book. And you're like, I threw it away. Yeah. Yeah, so don't throw away those books. That's my math. Okay. Yeah, this is your math book. Right here it says fourth grade. Again, I still wouldn't throw them away unless you ask the teacher and the teacher says it's okay. If you want to check this out, this is fourth grade math in Japan. That's fourth grade math. And then this is your... Math homework stuff for homework. This is one of your homework books. It's like a bunch of problem solving and stuff in there. Why not? I'm doing the hookah shoot because I'm almost ending school in April. Right, so you're doing review. But you see up here it says 四年三学期. So this is third semester. Yeah. So you got this just this month, right? Last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got it this month. So this is the last semester of school. So that's what that is. You have a lot of notebooks. That's my Japanese. So you will need a lot of notebooks along with the textbooks. So this is kanji practice. No, this is for my reading. It's the parallel one. Oh, oh, this is for your reading? Yeah. So you have to have these specific squares, specific sizes for certain things. So you have to check with the teacher what size you need. Or sometimes the teacher gives it to you. Where the paper is. Oh my goodness, there's so much in here. That is my social studies. Social studies notebook. And again, it has specific squares and everything. And little M likes to draw in hers. Sorry, we use like zero like to demonstrate. This is one of my stajiki. Stajiki just means, shita means down. Jiki, I forget what jiki means. But this is what they put between the pages of their book to write. So it will be flat. Yeah, so the impression of the pencil doesn't go below. So you put it in like this. And then you write on this page. You write on this page. And so it's not going through to the next page. Kids all the way up through high school use these. This is your calligraphy set, isn't it? Your calligraphy brushes. Yeah. So you do calligraphy at school. Yeah. So this is basically what you have to carry to school every day. I would say this thing weighs at least 20 pounds. 20 to 25 pounds. But sometimes when you help me get it on. Let's talk about other stuff. Lunch. Because I know lunch is completely different in Japan than in America. So in America, I haven't been into every school in America. But mostly every school has a lunchroom. And teachers take the kids to the lunchroom. They go down the lunch line. They pick out what food they want. They pay for it and sit down and talk with their friends and chitchat and everything. Do you have a lunchroom here? No. We eat in our classrooms. And the people that prepare our food is specifically designed so we can have a healthy life. Okay. All right. Let me get to that, okay? You're getting ahead. Some elementary schools and junior high school. I don't know about junior high school. But some elementary schools do have a lunchroom. But everybody eats the same thing. They have what's called a... You have... So each week, it changes. And everybody in the class takes turn being in charge of taking care of the lunch. And they're the ones that go to... In your school, they're the ones that go get the lunch? No. That's another person's job. They prepare the lunch. They put it in these bowls and give it to you. Who brings the big cart into your classroom with all the food on it? Not into the classroom. Some into the classroom, but some outside the classroom. But who brings it is what I'm asking. Well, just like Tobon, they change every week. So there is a people... There are kids assigned to go get the tray. And there's kids assigned to spoon out the food. Yes. And there's also kids assigned to help get the food for the kids assigned to do the Tobon. Because they're doing other people's foods that they can't do their own. So some kids do the food for them so they don't have to be the last ones. All right. So you have kids assigned to go bring the tray of food, the cart with the food on it, to the classroom. And then you have the kids that are Tobons that wear the white caps and white coats. And they stand like an assembly line, and they dish out the food for you. And then you sit and eat in the classroom, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Some elementary schools have a cafeteria where the kids all sit together. They bring the entire school into the cafeteria. But they still have Tobons who leave their classroom early and go to the lunchroom to prepare and set up all the tables and everything. So the kids just come in and sit down, and their food is ready. But everybody eats the same thing, right? Yes. There's no choices. Yes. You can't go, ooh, I want a hamburger, and I want French fries, and I want chocolate milk. No. Some special days they can choose between, like, do you want fish or pig meat? Or what do you want for dessert? Do you want yogurt or this thingy? But sometimes you have a choice? Yeah, only special days. Only special days. But everybody eats the same thing. So you have usually a rice and then sometimes a soup, like an udon or something, and then you have a salad and a meat, right? Yes. And then everybody has milk. Also, sometimes instead of rice, specifically on Fridays we have bread. Specifically, okay, you have bread. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but basically you have, everybody eats the same thing. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Do you have to eat everything on your plate? No. Do you eat everything? No, I don't eat the fish. Yeah, I know. You're not a big fish eater. Do they make you eat it? You can eat, you don't have to eat the whole thing, but you can take some out and eat the ones that are left. So you don't have to eat the whole thing if you don't like it. You can just have, like, half of it. I know in the past of working in elementary schools I've seen teachers kind of, not really force, but they're like, you need to eat everything on your plate. But I've also seen it when they dish everything out and then they tell everybody, okay, if there's anything on your plate that's too much, you can bring it back and put it back. So you haven't eaten it yet and nobody's touched it, so there's no germs on it. So they go back up and they can scoop out what they don't like. But there's really no options and everybody eats the same thing. Yeah. Is anything frozen or processed or full of, like, preservatives or anything? I don't think so. We use, like, organic foods like tofu, negi, and, like, white mushrooms. I don't like the brown mushrooms, I like the white mushrooms. Well, you know you have a kitchen in your school, right? I know. And there's lunch ladies in there and they do what? They make us food. They make everything fresh. Mm-hmm. So they make everything fresh and a lot of places like our prefecture, which is considered Inaka, a lot of times they use the local vegetables and stuff from the farmers and stuff. Mm-hmm. So they're really into nutrition here, which is nice. Now, have you ever seen a child refuse lunch because their lunch bill hasn't been paid? Huh? Have you ever had to take money to school to pay your teacher for the lunch? No. They do it differently here, which I like how they do it. In America, kids have to pay for their lunch. Mm-hmm. When they get their lunch, they have to pay for it. And some kids are what's on reduced or free lunch, which means their family doesn't make enough money and so their lunch is reduced or they get free lunch. But some kids, where their bill hasn't been paid yet, the lunch ladies will refuse them lunch. And they're not allowed to eat because they can't afford that. Has that ever happened? Nope. No. It's not through the kids at all. The kids don't have to bring lunch money in, which is great. It's taken out of our bank account automatically every month. So every day that she has lunch, it's deducted out of my bank account and kids don't have to bring money in. And it's awesome. So here, the lunch is very affordable, actually, depending on the prefecture. It depends on how much you pay. But on average, monthly, I pay about 9,000 yen for Little M's lunch, which is equivalent about $80, I think. $80 a month I pay. So it's not bad. I think it works out to between 300 and 400 yen a day, like $300 and $400 a day. So it's not bad. It's all fresh food and everything. So I really like that. Mm-hmm. What's your classroom like? So there's the teacher's desk on the side. But I saw in different classrooms, they have the teacher's desk on the back. But in my classroom, they have it in the front. And they have the shelf to put all the textbooks for the teacher. And for our tables, we have them lined up. And we have groups, pairs, so we can talk about school. And let's see. We have a little table in the front to put, like, stuff on. And we have a big chalkboard. Do you have one of those chalkboards that go up and down? Yeah. I love those. So the teacher needs to, like, write on the board. They push this. It's great. I remember one of my classrooms I worked at had this. You would take the button and pull it up so you can write. But if you ask a student to come up to the board to write something, you can do the lever and pull it down so the height of the kid, so the kid can write on the board. No whiteboards, though. Yeah, everything's chalk and chalkboard. Yeah, but for, like, I don't know why, but they have, like, these rooms that you go into. You can go into any time anyways. Some of those rooms have whiteboards. But the classrooms all have chalkboards. Yep, all chalkboards. Yeah, all chalkboards in the classroom. Maybe because it's expensive or something. I'm not even sure. Do you have central heating or air in your school? We have these, like, air cones that you can change the temperature with. Yeah. We usually have it about, like, on the side of the class. Yeah, but there's no, like, vent where, like, there's a main switch on the wall where you can set the temperature and the air comes through the wall. Yeah, it's just like the air. Yeah, you have the little air cone on the wall. Yeah, like the one over there. Yeah, the one, like, in our room. So no central heating or air. So in the winter, the classrooms, are they pretty warm? Yeah, they have the temperature high. Okay. How about the hallway? How's the hallway? You don't really change the temperature in the hallway. But in winter, it's freezing. It's cold. That's all I wanted out of you. It's cold in the hallway. How about in the bathrooms? I think it's pretty warm, actually. Maybe because people are coming in and out, the people's warmth is, like, going in the bathroom. Yeah, but there's no heater or air conditioner in the bathroom, is there? I don't think so. All right. Is there any hand towels or hand dryers in the bathroom? No, we have to bring our own hand towel. You have to bring your own hand towel to school. If you guys want to know more about what it's like in an elementary school, just comment down below, and I can have little Emma on again to explain what it's like in elementary school here. So everything's in Japanese, right? Nobody speaks English? Yeah, but besides an English class, we speak English. Who teaches English class? A person from Jamaica and a person that's Japanese but lived in America for a while. Why? I'm just curious. I was just wondering who teaches English at school. English class starts in 3rd grade or 4th grade? 3rd grade. So you start English lessons in 3rd grade. Right. I bet you're the top of your class, huh? Let's just close it out real quick with homework. In America, kids get homework but not on a daily basis or a lot. How much homework do you get? Every day, you know the kotsu-kotsu notes that we have? We pretty much have one kotsu-kotsu note, and we have to read one book, and we also have math books that we have to do or the kanji book. Yeah, so you have homework every day. Yes. And it takes you about an hour to do it every day. Yes. And it's getting worse every year. Yes. Homework in Japan is insane. Starting in 1st grade, kids get homework every day. Every day. And then if there's any break, like summer break or winter break or spring break, you will get homework. Even when the school year goes from April to March, even when March ends, you have, like, 2 weeks off before the next grade. Even in that 2 weeks, you have homework, even though you're going to the next grade, and you may or may not have the same teacher. Sometimes you have the same teacher. Unlikely, though. But even if the teacher changes, you still have homework. Those 2 weeks off and spring break, there's still homework. Summer break, homework is insane. It takes hours a day to get it completed. And it can be anything from you have to do a school project usually, and it can be anything of your choice. We always do crafts. Kids do, like, science experiments and stuff like that. But you have, like, a lot of math, a lot of Japanese. You have reading. You have writing. You have, like, staring at the stars or something. Yeah, that's one time. Yeah. And then this past winter break, oh, my goodness. Every day during winter break, all 3 of us would sit at the table and spend at least an hour to 2 hours every day doing our work. I was planning for my classes, but you were doing your homework and your sister was studying for the high school exam. And every day we were at the table, and you still didn't get it done. And they had a whole day. No, but, like, 3 books you had to do. Yeah, it was just. And homework can consist of doing work on the computer. They have this program, Smile Next, that they have to work on. They have to write something in their notebook, or they have to do drill sheets or drill notebooks, or they have to practice jump roping, or they have to practice their calligraphy, or you have to practice your music. Was that pianica? What is that thing called? Yeah. Or your recorder. You have to practice that. So that's part of homework. Yeah. Homework here is. Insane. But I would say. Okay, I'm probably. Somebody's going to at me in the comments about this, but I'm going to say it. I think Japanese kids are smarter than American kids. Also, oh, and Dorotoke. I forgot to tell you about Dorotoke. They teach you about, like, manners, or how to treat people, and how to act. Oh, moral education. Yeah, they teach what's called moral education, which is amazing because, yeah, they teach kids how to respect each other. They teach them how to treat older people, how to be responsible, and, yeah. That's pretty cool, the Japanese school system. Anything you want to say before we close out this video? Because it's been, like, 40 minutes. The taika kanda is like. Is the what? The taika kanda. It's fighting. I thought you said spider kanda. It's fighting. Okay, I said one last thing you want to say before we close out this video, and you're talking about how cold the gym is. Okay. Oh, and they're really into physical education, aren't they? Mm-hmm. You're not a very physical kid. And your teachers, every time I go to a teacher conference, the teacher's always telling me you need to practice your jump rope more because you're not that good at it. So, yeah, they're breeding little Olympians here. The Japanese are into education big time and physical education. They're really into keeping kids healthy. And talking about I'm bad, I just whipped my head today. You were practicing jump rope, and you smacked yourself in the head with it. So what do you want to say? Bye. Just say thank you for watching. See you in the next video. Thank you. But you'll see me in the next video. I'm not sure about you. All right, go ahead. Thanks for watching. See you in the next video. Bye. Okay, what is it? I will get it. Bye.