My Apato and the Neighborhood

My apartment is huge by Japanese standards. I have a kitchen and two bedrooms which are about 9 ft by 12 ft, or 6 tatami. Japanese guests have a tendency to take the slippers off when entering the tatami rooms I notice.

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Except for the highway my balcony faces, it is a very quiet area at the foot of a long mountain range. The narrow back streets have, running down one side, mountain streams channeled for rice or other farming. The sound of this running water at night is so nice I slept in my kitchen for a few weeks, so I could hear it better. Between a few small farm houses a stairway winds its way up the mountain to a well maintained garden and cemetery. From here you can begin walking a trail that spans the base of the mountain at times just above or briefly through far- reaching housing developments and apple orchards. This route usually provides a beautiful jog, but today I found myself in a crosswind of a tongue-numbing genocidal pre harvest spray. There are poisonous snakes on the mountain one should also avoid.

The Kids

The kids in this shot, age 14-15 are in the 3^rd and last year JHS. This is one 3^rd year class out of four I really enjoyed working with.

Inside and outside of class the kids feel pretty comfortable with me. Most classes have leaders who make their presence felt by asking or answering questions. I think its crucial to win their hearts over because other students are more dependent on them as they are on me and the main Japanese teacher of English.

On more than one occasion the importance of classroom ‘group cohesion’ a paramount feature of Japanese society, has been explained to me by a teacher. Students that work well and cooperate together in the class tend to have better marks individually, so teachers focus on encouraging cohesion and collaboration amongst students.