School

One of the things we think will be most difficult for the kids – but at the same time the most important for the experience – will be attending public school in Japan. We never seriously considered putting the kids in an English-speaking school or home-schooling them. We decided early on that integrating into the neighborhood and the school would almost certainly be the most important part of the experience for them. But belief in the process doesn't make it much easier. I have no doubt there will be days when they come home exhausted, frustrated, lonely, or depressed. Of course those emotions were a big part of dealing with Japan for me the first time too, but in the end it was my own choice to go to Japan. It feels somehow cruel to impose that on them, even if it is "for their own good." Basically we are going for the "total immersion" approach. Not quite "kick them out the door and send them off to school" but pretty close to it. We've discussed with them what to expect, told them they wouldn't understand anything at first, and talked about just being observant and doing what the other kids do. They're both pretty excited about it, but naturally a bit nervous.

We tried to get as much done as possible before leaving, but it turns out there's not much we can do until we arrive. Only after we actually arrive in Osaka can we go to the city office, apply for our foreign registration cards, and register the kids as official transfer students. One thing I have been able to do was to contact the principal of the school they will be attending, and he kindly sent me both a general guide for students coming into the schools for the first time (usually as first graders, occasionally as transfer students from another Japanese elementary school, almost never as non-Japanese speaking students from the US) as well as a very detailed reply about possible differences he anticipates between US schools and the school in Japan. It has been very revealing going over the material with the kids, and here are some of the highlights:

First, the Japanese school year begins in April. That means that the kids will be joining the school as they enter the final trimester of the school year when we arrive in January, E in fourth grade and M in first just as they were here in the US. That school year will end in March, after which they will have a two-week break and then enter the next grade at the beginning of a new school year. The kids are pretty excited about getting to be in fifth/second grade half a year before all their friends back home. And I'm hoping it makes for a nice transition. If all goes well they can be fairly used to the routine (if not the language) by the time the school year ends and then going into a new grade can feel like a fresh start. That's the idea anyway.

We are walking distance from the school, and the kids will walk with other kids from the neighborhood en masse, accompanied by a representative from the local PTA. Since not all kids come home at the same time after school, volunteers from a local old folks home escort the kids back to their home neighborhoods. And yes, we will have to buy them the typical yellow hats and randoseru, the blocky backpacks, that all Japanese kids wear walking to and from school.

In addition to their commuting gear, we'll also have to buy them a whole array of other school clothes. Their school doesn't require school uniforms, but we will need to get them indoor shoes, outdoor shoes and gym shoes, as well as entire outfits for gym and for serving food, and individual bags to keep each set of clothes in. No wonder they need that big randoseru to keep everything in.

Wait... serving food? Yep. Students at their school don't bring in box lunches, but instead have school lunch where the kids take turns serving. They also take turns cleaning up the classroom and hallways after school. No janitors here. Needless to say, this will all take a bit of getting used to, and the kids will have to do quite a bit of looking around and imitating what everyone else does before they get the hang of things.

Finally, according to the principal, since the school is shitamachi (working class) the kids are a bit more rambunctious than most, and when they find out that a couple of American kids are coming to their school it will probably cause a bit of excitement. One more thing to overcome or one more thing to be excited about? We'll have to see.

All in all, I'm a bit nervous but not actively concerned about the kids well-being in school. I think the language barrier will be really tough, but that the kids will find ways around it until they learn enough to get by. My biggest worry is actually not that they'll be overwhelmed, but that they'll be bored. Once they get over the initial excitement and feel comfortable with the routine, I imagine it will be really tedious for them sitting in the classroom not knowing what is going on. We have a great school here and they are used to being stimulated and challenged for large parts of their day. I just hope they find a way to keep their interest up in between the subjects where they can better understand what's going on. We'll see.

Kansai Bound

On January 11th 2015, I will be arriving in Osaka with my wife (J) and two kids (M & E) to begin a six-month stay. Both of my kids, ages 6 and 9, will be chronicling their experiences in Japan, so I decided I should do the same. Unlike my kids, Japan is not new to me. I have spent around four years living in Osaka and around two in Tokyo, and I've led groups of college students to Japan on six-week study abroad trips several times. But as I prepared for this trip I realized that a lot WILL be new to me this time around since I've never had to deal with the needs of a family in Japan before. Thus "Kansai with Kids."

I was inspired in part by a good friend's blog from his time in Kyoto with his kids three years ago, appropriately called Kyoto with Kids, and I will be frequently relying on the wealth of information he left there. In fact, you might even say those friends were the inspiration for this whole trip. My wife and I met as graduate students studying East Asia, me Japan and her China, so we would discuss the idea of taking our kids overseas for an extended stay before those kids even existed. But it's a whole lot easier to discuss it in the abstract than it is to actually take the plunge. It was the difficulties and successes of our good friends tackling a year in Kyoto (twice!) with three kids in tow that helped us visualize it as a reality instead of just a fantasy. If they can do it, we can too... or at least we have no excuse for not trying.

Of course, we really have no excuse for not trying anyway since we have so many advantages that are allowing this to happen. I am a professor so I have a semester of sabbatical during which I can draw full salary and devote my time to research. My wife works for a study abroad company with an office in Osaka and she telecommutes, which will allow her to continue working while we're there. In addition, our Osaka connections allowed me to get a job teaching a single course while there, which helped with my visa situation, and also got us a lead on an apartment that was both affordable and that could be leased for just six months without massive fees ... no mean feat in Japan. But even with all these advantages, there were times when it just seemed completely overwhelming. It would have been so much easier to just stay where we were, take my sabbatical from home, keep our kids in the familiar environment of their school and their friends... Of course, if my wife and were interested in the path of least resistance, we never would have turned our attention to China and Japan in the first place. Spending part of our college years in East Asia was a formative experience for both of us, and that was at least as much due to the difficulties we faced as the pleasures we took away from it. Experience has to be earned.

And now here we are. I've made it through my semester and the kids have had their last day of school. We've found someone to rent our house and someone to take care of our dog while we're away. It's less than a week until Christmas, and then just over two weeks until we're in Kansai. With all the preparations, it feels like we're already halfway through the trip and we haven't even left yet. I'll keep you posted about how things go from here on out.