Junior High School Life

This is going to be a really short blog.  You see, I have taken a few pictures of the schools and the after school club activities and I want to post them.  I know I already took pictures of the schools in September, but the leaves are changing and I’ve had more opportunities to see other club activities.  So I hope you enjoy the photos!

So first, I’d like to show some pictures of what I like to call, the recording studio at Fuwa Junior High.  For the students’ listening test in English class, the teachers asked that I go to the recording booth with them and read a script and have my voice recorded.  It was fun to do!!  Who knew testing could be so entertaining!  It’s also interesting to know that the daily lunchtime announcements that the students do at lunch are done from this room.

When the door to the room is closed and people are making recordings or are doing the daily announcements, the sign above the door lights up like it does at a radio station to let people on the outside know.  Neat!!

Speaking of announcements, let me tell you something about the students.  They do EVERYTHING.  They do the daily announcements, they begin the class, they put up the flag and take it down, and they have a daily cleaning period.  If you’ve read my post about the Chorus Day, you’ll also notice they do everything as well for their music performances (right down to the conducting, announcing, and MCing).  Wow!  So here are some pictures of these students doing these independent activities, like taking down the flag or cleaning up the office:

It’s time to see more club activities, like computer club.

Table tennis, basketball and volleyball.

More kendo club!!  Awesome!

Archery.  The bows the students use are huge!

Baseball and brass band sectionals.

Here are the students from last year’s Calgary trip.  They were making posters and working on things for the Tarui Pia Festival.  (Yeah, I took some of these pictures from awhile ago…I haven’t really had a chance to post them until now.  Sorry!)

All of the different grade groups had to rehearse for the Chorus Festival.  Here are some photos, but check out how the grade nines put their bags in the gym when they were told to rehearse in the gym.  Wow.  Not a bag out of order!

Here is a picture of my desk at Kita Junior High.  The Welcome Sign has been there since September.  I was so touched that I haven’t taken it done yet!  Also, I added a little Christmas tree and Calendar.  One of the staff members who has a knack for flower arranging put the flowers on my desk this week.  I was really touched!  She added more flowers throughout the week.  (I may have mentioned this already, but flower arranging is huge in Japan!)

Here is a picture of one of the school lunches we had.

Here are some pictures of the exterior of the school (or some trees or flowers around the school).  Again, I know I’ve already taken a few pictures of the school before, but the colour of the leaves and the flowers are just beautiful!

I want to end on a picture that doesn’t have anything to do with the school, but I think it’s a neat picture.  You see, just after Halloween I went biking in the evening and I saw a persimmon tree.  Persimmons are in season here and I’ve been eating them every week.  But when I went biking, I saw this dark, scary looking tree with one, bright orange persimmon on one of it’s branches.  It was starting to get dark, but I still wanted to take a picture of it.  So I did.  And that is the picture I’m going to end on.  Why?  Because I recently biked down the same street a few days ago around the same time.  Do you think the persimmon was still there?  Yes it was.  I think this tree and this surviving persimmon deserves to be in my blog.  Right under this photo I am going to include a picture of what these trees normally look like to give you an idea of why this one tree stands out to me…just like the bugs.  (Just humour me and be thankful that I’m not ending on another bug picture!!)