. [ '96-'97 Archive ] [ Japanese ]
Yashiro Junior High: Letters From Canada
"Letters From Canada" is an edited version of e-mail correspondence we had right after our school was connected to the Internet. It was very convenient to be able to send and receive mail from our computer room on the 4th floor. The following students and faculty were involved in this correspondence: Kimiyo and classmates, Eri, Michika, Tomoko, Aki, Mana, Keiko, Ms. Yasuda and Mr. Taylor. Special thanks to Yukie for the Japanese translation. Please note that local names have been omitted for privacy reasons. Please scroll or hop to sections of interest. 1
Greetings From Canada
Dear School,
Hello, my name is Kristi and I am 12 years old (13 years old in June). I am in grade 7 and I go to ***** Junior High. I live in a town called *****. It is not a very big town, it's population is about 7,000 people. I live in the province of Alberta. Have you learned about provinces in Canada? The capitol city of Alberta is Edmonton. It is a very large town. One of it's trademarks is the largest mall in the world. It is called West Edmonton Mall, but everyone calls it "West Ed" for short. Canada has 10 provinces and 2 territories. A province or territory is just a division of land that has different climates and time zones. In Canada it is very cold (about -20 or -40 celcius in winter or +20 or +30 celcius in the summer). I think it is the same tempuratures as Hokkaido. My report is on Japan's education and politics. I need all the information you can give me on these topics. I can't wait to hear from you. Please feel free to ask me any questions you have about me or my country. I will be glad to answer as many as I possibly can! Some questions I have are about politics and education in Japan...

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We Answer Some Questions From Kristi
Q. Do you study government in school?
A. First and second year junior high school students don't study Japan's government, but third year students do. (Junior high in Japan is three years.)

Q. Can you give me an example of some laws in Japan?
A. Here's a law regarding education: Compulsory education is 9 years, from age 6 when the child enters first grade elementary to the age of15, when the child finishes 3 years of junior high. Parents who don't enroll their children in school can be punished by law.

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A Typical School Day at Yashiro Junior High
Q. What is a typical day like for students, starting from when they wake till when they go to bed?
A. We wake up at about 6:00 or 7:00. Have breakfast. Go to school. Some students go to school by city bus. Many students ride their bikes. Others walk to school.

We have club practice before school.

We have a homeroom meeting at 8:30. Classes begin at 8:45.

There are 5 or 6 classes in a day. We have 3 classes on the first and third Saturday of each month. We don't have school on the second and fourth Saturday.

After classes we have a homeroom meeting for 10 minutes.

After school we have club activities for about an hour and a half or two hours. We have the following clubs: Tennis, baseball, softball, track and field, table tennis, brass band, basketball, shogi (a kind of chess), gardening, pet club and English club.

After club we leave school. Some students go home, but many students go to juku (cram school). Some students go to juku before dinner, some after. Juku is usually about two hours long. Many students get home about 10:00 or 11:00 at night. They do their homework, take a bath and go to bed. Of course, some students don't do their homework! Students usually go to bed about 10:30 to 12:00.

That's a typical day for a junior high school student here in Yashiro. We'd like to know about your typical school day.

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Kristi Tells Us About Her School Day
Hello Yashiro Junior High,
Well, our days are not quite as long as yours. I guess their are a lot more business opportunities in Canada then there are in Japan.

I wake up at 7:00am.

I have a shower and get dressed and comb my hair.

Then I put my lunch in my backpack and give my dog his food.

Then it is time for school. I have to walk a couple blocks to the bus stop. In the summer I walk or ride my bike to school but it is too cold in the winter to walk.

The bus picks up all the kids at my bus stop (about 15) and drives us straight to school. We arrive at school at about 8:30.

Then we all take turns on the pingpong table. There is 1 for the grade 7's and 1 for the grade 6's.

The classes begin at 9:00 but there is a 5 minute homeroom before the classes start. In homeroom we take attendance.

Then we start our classes. We get 3 classes before lunch and 2 after lunch.

After school you get on your bus and go home. At home we do our homework and then we make our lunch for the next day. Then we have time to do what ever we please.

I will write back to you soon with a more detailed letter about my day.

from Kristi

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Kimiyo's Class Has Some Questions For Kristi
Today in Kimiyo's English class we read the letter about your day at school. Hope you don't mind! The students have some more questions for you.

Q. What time do junior high school students there usually go to bed?
A. Kids my age usually go to bed at about 9:30pm-10:30pm. We do not have to spend as much time on home work as you.

Q. Do you have school on Saturdays?
A. No, we do not have school on Saturdays ever. But I would like to tell you about early out Wednesday that they have all over Canada. What happens is that the second Wednesday of every month is early out. On early out we get to have shorter classes so we get out of school early. They cut 15 minutes off of every class.

Q. What do you study at school? For a list of subjects and weekly class hours at Yashiro Junior High please see:
http://www.net135.or.jp/~hanituti/hoursE.html
A. We study Social (we are learning about Japan), Math, Language Arts, Computers (in Math class every Thursday), Library, Health, Science, and gym. Our classes start at 9:00am...Each class lasts 1 hour. In between each class we get a 5 minute break for getting our books and going to class.

Q. What do you usually make for lunch?
(Students were impressed that you made your own lunch.)
A. Usually I put things like a sandwhich, an apple, a juice box, some cookies, and a fruit roll-up.

Q. What is popular in your school now? Here at Yashiro Junior High a pocket video game called "tamagotchi" is very popular now. Another boy said that TV games are popular here. Maybe Playstation is the most popular, but some boys said they had Nintendo64 at home. I thought "Print Club" was popular, but one girl said that it's over now. Maybe it's peaked, I don't know! Print Club is a photo vending machine that makes your photo into little stickers. You can make borders and add words to your photo sticker. You find print club stickers stuck all over the place. Some kids have Print Club albums.
A. The most popular things are disc-mans (portable cd players). The most popular cd to listen to is Alanis Morissette. She is awesome. Another popular thing is Play Station and Nintendo 64.

Thanks Kristi!
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