Shaler Area In Japan: 6/18, Tuesday

Hello! My name is Carley and I’d like to write about our first day attending classes at Ritsumeikan. We were each assigned a buddy in our own class, and our buddies met up with us in the lounge area and took us to our homeroom. Unlike Shaler, students stay in the same classroom the whole time and the teachers are the ones to move to different rooms. there are 10 minutes in between classes though and it’s the perfect amount of time to use the restroom and shop at the school store!

We only attended the first two periods of class today, and all our classes are taught completely in Japanese. First period, I had a health class, which I could somewhat follow. Health is the same in any country. Second period though was social studies, and I had no clue what was going on. This was mostly due to all the high level Japanese characters that were used, but also the teacher talked very fast. My classmates near me couldn’t speak much English and I couldn’t keep with their rapid conversation. The language barrier can sometimes make things very awkward.

After two periods, we took a taxi to Kuse elementary school, and when we arrived it was lunchtime. So us Shaler students split up into groups and were led by elementary 6th graders to their classes and had school lunch with them. It was so different than our lunch back home! During lunch, the group of students I sat with and I played 2 truths and a lie in Japanese. I was amazed that we were able to communicate, since none of the students spoke any English.

After lunch we went outside with the 6th grade and played dodgeball. It was absolutely adorable and the kids were completely ruthless with the ball! When recess ended, we helped the students clean the school. Every day, students in Japan do all the cleaning.

Sensei and all of us were then led to the gym, where we gave a 20 minute presentation about ourselves, Shaler, and Pittsburgh. In return for our visit and presentation, they played a beautiful song on the recorder and than sang for us. On our way out they made what’s called a flower road that we walked through. We had some remaining time before our host families would pick us up, so sensei took us to a dollar store called Daisy. It’s so much better than US stores! You wouldn’t believe what you can buy!

Shortly after ,y host mother picked me up and we went to a massive shopping plaza. We picked up ingredients for dinner, went home, and made tempura! It was delicious. My host family is so very kind, and even though I’m feeling a little homesick, I’m still feeling happy.