Day 4: Middle School Visit

 Today we went to Katsushika Junior High School.

Jamison: Calligraphy is a difficult art form, but it’s super cool. The different strokes are simple and complex at the same time and i found myself practicing them for quite a while. 

On the school tour we visited many of the classes and told them a little about ourselves and Wisconsin. We saw the bike area, there were so many bikes that we couldn’t see the end.

The art class was full of promising artists, and art was displayed across the entire hall and on a few of the other floors. It was very beautiful. Japanese schools are so different in both design and culture. It was amazing to experience.

Lucas: Japanese homeroom are very different from American homeroom. Japanese homeroom starts with everyone standing up and greeting the teacher, then the teacher takes attendance. It seemed mostly led by students, it was very interesting. 

For lunch the students bring the food to the classroom and serve it themselves. The teacher didn't want his gyoza so he had the students play rock-paper-scissors for it, it was very fun. 

After lunch the students clean and recycle their own food and dishes. To end school all the students clean their homeroom and the hallways. It was a very different experience than American schools and it was super cool to see!!!!

Amelia: Making Dango is a very tedious, but very fun process. To start with we made the dough by combing a chalk like substance with water. We then kneaded until the combined to make a squishy dough. Afterwards, we took the dough and rolled it into balls which we placed in boiling water. 

While waiting for the dango to cook, we made a salty sauce to pair with them. Once the dango floated to the surface, we knew they were done. Then we distributed the dango and drizzled the sauce on top. They were really good!

Elliana: Today we went to the music room and listened to the music teacher and principal play piano and sing.The music teacher was a wonderful opera singer, and we were all surprised by her voice. We sang the same songs in Japanese as a choir, it was very fun. 

Afterwards, we learned how to play this huge Japanese instrument called Koto. It sounded so beautiful. We used picks to pluck the strings, and learned a song called Sakura Sakura. * want to try learning more songs on the Koto in the future!