Juku

The last post focused on one way to get into college - an "escalator school" - in which students move through a unified system. Other admissions systems (depending on the school) include a school recommendation or a personal application (including essays and grade transcripts). However, most Japanese universities still utilize an exam-based entrance system to some extent.

As the last stop for the adminstrators' group, we visited a juku, usually translated as "cram school" in English. A juku is a school for high school students to prepare for the college entrance exam, as well as for high school graduates who did not get into their school of choice. Because of the declining birth rate in Japan, it is now possible for nearly all aspirants to get into a college, but of course, many students (or the parents' hope for the students) still would like to get into a top university. High school instruction is not directly geared to the entrance exam; therefore, many students find themselves in a juku to prepare. (There are also jukus to get into a junior high school or high school, as well as jukus to prepare to get into a better juku!)

The juku we visited was in the Shinjuku area (picture below), a very busy area of Tokyo. Right across the walkway is the Shinjuku subway station, which is one of the central Tokyo transportation hubs.
There are three main juku chains in Japan; we visited one named Kawaijuku (picture below). About 50,000 students across Tokyo attend Kawaijuku. It offers courses Monday - Saturday, and by the third year of high school, most students will attend 3-4 nights/week. The schedule is quite intense: school from 8:30 - 3:30, school clubs from 3:30 - 5:00, and juku from 5:30 - 9:00.
The facilities were lovely. The picture below shows a world history class (covering the beginning of the Thirty Years War in Germany?). The lighting was graduated, brighter away from the windows and less bright toward the side with natural light. Additionally, the director told us that they deliberately placed air conditioning vents over the board, so that the instructors would be animated. It appeared to be mostly a lecture method, but that may have been just the selection of classes we viewed. (For example, they also offer English, math and Japanese classes. The English selection includes "Hyper University of Tokyo English," 180 minutes a week, to get into the most competitive school in Japan, as well as "Waseda University English," 150 minutes, and "Meiji University English," 90 minutes.)
Below is the self-study area, which was nearly full. Tuition is about $1,000/course, with about a $300 entrance fee, so certainly the costs could add up. However, tuition at Japanese universities is usually less expensive than at U.S. universities, so the costs may just be more front-loaded.
Below is the collection of university exam questions from previous years. For national universities, there is a standardized test given on two days in January. Based on this score, you qualify to take specific university tests (you would also apply for specific disciplines within that university, such as medicine) in late February and early March. (Private universities have a different schedule.)

Hours after the tests are given, the questions are released to the public. The next day, the test is published in newspapers, so nearly immediately, students will know where they stand.

In the U.S., jukus are often portrayed negatively. However, many parents we met noted that while some students hate them, others find them to be a very good experience. The positive aspects included: more individualized attention, the opportunity to study at one's own pace (rather than as part of a group as would be emphasized in the school system), a college counselor-type role, and an extra social space to be with friends.

Gambatte kudasai! (Please work hard!)

Kyoritsu Women's University

Today, Mary was able to visit Kyoritsu Women's University, in Tokyo. Kyoritsu is an example of a Japanese "escalator school," in which the junior high feeds into the senior high, which often feeds into the two- and four-year colleges. (There are also a few graduate programs, in case one wishes to go all the way through.) This system is seen as advantageous for some students, because if a student gets good grades, she can avoid the university exam system.

KWU is where Russ is doing his Fulbright lectureship. Below is a picture of the main campus building, 15 stories plus a rooftop garden. It is quite new, since the school moved from the suburbs last year. There are about 4100 undergraduates, 70 graduate students, 240 FT faculty and 432 PT faculty in the two- and four-year colleges. This school was founded in 1886, so it is one of the oldest women's colleges in Japan.Of course, what blog is complete without a picture of the cafeteria ladies? Russ has never eaten there since it usually is so crowded. It looks like it serves typical lunch food - udon, curry, ramen, rice - based on the plastic food models outside.
With the Fulbright group, Mary had a chance to visit some classrooms. Below is a picture of a home ec classroom. The students were making soup and the sensei were making tempura. Later, their tempura was served to us for lunch.

We then visited the rooftop and took a picture with the chancellor (front row, center). The chancellor was very gracious during the visit, and he even shared with us some shochu (Japanese plum wine) that he made himself.
We also visited the high schools. The junior high is three years, the equivalent of 7-9th grade. Below is an art class for first-year jr. high students. They were doing a still life of a skull and Egyptian mask with oil paints.
Next, we visited an math class (quadratic equations perhaps?) for first-year senior high students. Each student completed a problem in front of the class, and then the sensei graded it on the board. As you can see by the "O," each of these student's work was correct.
Next, we saw an English class where the students were doing skits. The other students graded each other with a rubric. The skits were a bit silly (I go to India and see a fortune teller, then visit a cafe, then see a tiger) but the students' English was quite good, and they looked like they were having fun with it.

Below is a picture of the teachers' lounge, one big room for junior to senior high instructors. Russ says that the college faculty lounge is much the same now, but they will soon move to individual offices.
Of course, the "highlight" was our visit to Russ's class. We sat in for about 15 minutes while he taught in his African-American history class. He was very nervous, having the chancellor and all of us there, but it went well.
Everyone at the university was extremely generous with their time. It looked like a very nice place to go to school.

Japan Electronics College

Today, Mary visited Japan Electronics College, as part of the Fulbright IEA group. JEC is an example of "senmon gakko," or professional training colleges. Since there are more professional training colleges in Japan than 2-year colleges and 4-year colleges put together, it was an interesting visit.

After the customary exchange of business cards with the president, vice president, director of educational affairs, director of placement, and chief of the international exchange office, the president told us about the college.

JEC has 3,100 students, 110 FT instructors, and 160 PT instructors. It offers one to four-year programs in technology, such as programming, computer game design, and electronic music. The job placement rate is quite good, 91% - apparently some university graduates go on to attend a professional training college to get practical skills (and, it follows, a job).

The president noted that they have professional development to keep their faculty's technological knowledge up to date, but they don't have professional development in the realm of pedagogy. He was interested in hearing about U.S. teaching centers.

After the talk, we got a tour. Everything was in one building, so it was very different from many American campuses.

The picture below shows a systems engineering class. The students are divided up into 9 groups, and each group is designing a system. Like most of the classes I saw, there were 2 instructors in the room to go around and answer questions. (One of the instructors is standing to the far right.)

I asked the instructor how the groups were formed, and he noted that they are assigned by the instructor. I asked the other instructor if students do evaluations, and he noted that yes, he is evaluated at the end of the term (and pantomimed that he was a little nervous about it).

The next class was called a "practice room" for the systems department. This group was working on Linux. They are second-year students in a two-year course.
The third class was in the Graphic Design department. This instructor was showing us examples of portfolios that her students have made, which the students will bring to job interviews. While the previous classes were made up of nearly all men, half of this class was women. Like in the other classes, all students appeared to be young - in their late teens or early twenties.

This instructor said that she teaches four classes per term.
The next class is comprised of first-year students, who were doing presentations in their Animations class.
We did see one lecture class, on the history of pop animation in Japan. The instructor was using PowerPoint, and students were taking notes on a handout.
The last class we visited was in games design, a third-year course. The students were working in groups to make a contest entry for the Tokyo Games Show. They were quite engaged in the project - this picture was taken well after the class ended and everyone was still there!

I asked the instructor how he grades the group project, and he noted that everyone gets the same grade.
The last stop was a motion capture lab, which students can sign up to use. This instructor was demonstrating a sword fight, which was a lot of fun to see.
We ended with a panel of JEC international students, who discussed student life at the college. One student noted that he takes 25 classes a term, which seems like an enormous amount of schoolwork!

Tsuyu and Obstacle Courses

We have heard many horror stories about tsuyu (rainy season), but so far, we have had very good weather. We were expecting rain this Saturday, but when it turned out to be sunny, we decided to take a trip to Heiwajima obstacle course, in Tokyo.

Getting there was a bit of an obstacle course itself, since we took the wrong train and ended up in Nagano. However, after figuring out the right train and the location of the park, we found the free "preschool" obstacle course. Laurea's favorite was "space adventure" (pictures 1&2), a centrifugal experience for her and an exertion for Russ.

Our favorite was the "mouse runner" (pictures 3&4), which Russ described as like being on the tenure track. (Fortunately, he is better at being on the tenure track than on being on this wheel, as you can see in picture 4.)

Our appetites were whetted for more, and we decided to spring for the pay obstacle course (270Y for adults and 100Y for kids). There were about 40 stops, so here are a couple of our favorites:

#14:Rub-a-dub-dub. Row yourself around an island in a little barrel boat. (Pictures 5&6)

#23: The pull boat. Pull yourself across the river, without getting wet (picture 7). Unfortunately, as picture #8 shows, mission was not accomplished.

#35 The spiral rope net. Descend through a spiralling tunnel of rope, then climb your way out. (pictures 9-10). Laurea loved this one.

#32 The toilet bowl. Try to keep running around in a circle without falling into the center (pictures 11-12). This one was very tiring! We were all eventually "flushed" (in more ways than one).

Hydrangeas

Despite the fact that Russ says that we will lose all of our readers (all 1.5 of them), this blog is dedicated to the hydrangea season. There are many beautiful hydrangeas, most of them blue (meaning the soil is acidic?), which we've enjoyed. Some of these were taken near the train station, and some in Sankeien Gardens.

Children's Land and the American Embassy in Tokyo

Today was a busy day. We started off by going to Kodomo no Kuni (Children's Land), a huge park about 45 minutes away. You could spend days and Kodomo no Kuni (and can since it also has a campground), with a rollerskating rink, playgrounds, a solar-powered train, botanical gardens, obstacle courses, a maze, a dairy farm, and a great stone-lined footpool (picture 1). We also visited the petting zoo, and we enjoyed this very Japanese eight-step hand washing poster afterwards. Then we ended the day with a visit to the WWII ammunition bunkers (picture 3), where kids get to rummage through the antiquities. Just kidding, but they are old ammunition bunkers, which is an interesting juxtoposition with a kids park.

In the evening, Russ headed off to two receptions in Tokyo. The first was hosted by the American Embassy for both American and Japanese Fulbrighters. (Spouses not invited, unfortunately.) After a big security check, there was a short speech, then a stand-up buffet dinner. Russ described the food as "slightly better than cafeteria food," which was a big let-down after his sushi yacht last week. By 8 we were being evicted with the classic phrase "sumimasen (excuse me)." He then went to a cocktail reception for the American Studies Assocation, which was somewhat more convivial, with excellent desserts as well.

The last picture shows Messi, the cat we have been taking care of for our downstairs neighbors when they are away. Unfortunately, Messi departed yesterday for Thailand, so I imagine he is currently spending some not-so-fun time in quarantine right now.

Toyota Design & Educational Administration

Today, Mary spent the day in Tokyo, her first day as part of the Fulbright International Educational Administration group. There was a very good speaker who discussed the Japanese public school system, including recent educational reforms by the Ministry of Education. It was fun to hear a theoretical explanation of the things we observe, given that there is an elementary school right in front of our house. For example, we often see kids out and about making maps of Yokohama or interviewing shopkeepers, and it turns out that these types of activities were recommended by the Ministry as part of the new "integrated curriculum" to engage students with their communities.

Meanwhile, Russ took Laurea to several rainy day activities - the Toyota Universal Design Center, Toyota "historical garage" and their electric car driving attraction.
Picture one shows the electric car Laurea and I "drove" around the test track (the car steers and drives itself). Picture two documents Laurea's NASCAR** victory. Pictures three and four show her trying out two chair designs - one quite comfortable, one like sitting on a big foam book. We also got to ride Japan's biggest ferris wheel today - so big it felt like it hardly moved at all. Finally, there also was a Toyota dealership, in case you wanted to take advantage of the design inspiration to get one of your own.

**Can anyone tell us who these people are?

Baseball, American Studies & Sashimi

Last Friday, we decided to attend our first baseball game in Japan. Of course, the sport is big here, and if you take a train ride on the weekend, you are bound to pass numerous recreational games going on. The Yokohama team is the Yokohama Bay Stars (the logo is the star at the bottom of Picture 1), but other great team names are the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and the Hiroshima Toya Carps. (A good book on Japanese baseball is *You Gotta Have Wa,* for all those interested.)

The night started off well. We passed the food carts outside the stadium and picked up dinner (Picture 2) to bring in. However, due to the language barrier, we got unreserved seats (i.e., you stand up in the back) in the opponent's territory. Since we had Laurea, we decided to just pick some empty reserved seats and wait there until they were claimed. This lasted until...the bottom of the 3rd inning.

So, we weren't there long, but it was interesting. The Chiba Lotte Marines fans were definitely an enthusiastic group, with scripted cheers or songs for each batter. They basically never sit down - there is always another cheer or song required. In picture 3, you can see all of the Marines flags being waved (and I think their team was much better, since they were already up 3-0 by the time we left, and the final score was 12-1).

Luckily, the night was saved (for Laurea, at least) since we found a *free* bouncy castle right outside the stadium (picture 4). The instructions read that you needed to be at least 5 years old, but since Laurea is tall, she sailed right in and jumped around for 45 minutes.

The next day we were back in Tokyo, as Russ had to attend a meeting of the Japan American Studies Association. Mary & Laurea went back to the Children's Castle, this time spending a lot of time on a wall that kids paint on until its solid color, but every hour gets a stream of water that just washes everything away (picture 5). Russ found the speakers good, but even better was the reception with a huge boat (yacht?) of sashimi, sushi, Okinawa pork, soba, and pudding.