School Performance

Clara's school had a show / open day on the 26th January. All the classes had to sing a number of songs, play musical instruments, and do a few dances. It was nice to see Clara going through the motions and good to see her interacting with her classmates. I always worry whether Clara will be fully accepted by the other children as she is half Scottish. Japan still seems to be light years behind other countries in the acceptance of foreigners and I have heard a few horror stories regarding the integration of children without 100% Japanese ethnicity. All seemed well.

After the show, we were invited to watch her teacher (Sakurai sensei) perform a lesson. The theme was bullying - a hot topic in Japan over the last year due to a number of headline grabbing suicides involving school kids. The pupils seemed to be genuinely interested and took their teacher seriously. Clara was lucky to get a good teacher this year. Hopefully her luck will hold out for next year.

Following class, the parents were then ushered back into the gymnasium to receive a lecture from a professor who apparently specialises in childcare. I politely tried to maintain the appearance of being awake which was not difficult as the gymnasium was freezing. Hypothermia was the only realistic alternative to the profs antics.

We returned to Clara's classroom to collect her and her friend Kiri. Clara's hands were like little blocks of ice. The whole school was freezing and I was a bit concerned to be honest. From my experiences in Japanese schools, heaters are used only at certain times and in specific months. Because the open day was on a Saturday, I suspect that heater use was prohibited. It would not matter if there was a mini Ice Age in July, the kids would have to make do without any additional heat source. This moronic rule following used to really annoy me. The most pleasing aspect of our visit to Higashi Hagiyama Elementary School was that the students paid me very little attention. I was worried that the presence of a foreigner would be a major event, but it turned out not to be the case. The kids seemed totally unfazed to my presence and this bodes well for Japan becoming a more racially tolerant society in future.