We visited an elementary school in Oita. Japanese elementary schools are pretty much amazing. Elementary and middle school are focused on discipline. While they didn't have uniforms, they did have to serve lunch, and clean the entire school at the end of the day. It was pretty amazing. They were so much more well behaved than 4th (and even older) graders are in the US. You could blame the parents, or the school system (0r both). It's one reason I'm a fan of uniforms. You can express yourself in other ways, you don't have to be straightforward and loud about it. They also knew more English than I knew Japanese at the beginning of last year, even at the end of the school year.
Now onto my preemptive decision:
Studying abroad here is the best thing I've ever done. At first I was expecting a bunch of weeaboo/wapanese/otaku/_____, since I was coming to Japan, but that's far from the case. There are so many different people in this program, and they're all pretty awesome. I would say it's because they have an interest in other cultures, which is evident from the fact that they're here in the first place. If you took that away, they'd be pretty boring, normal, annoying stereotypical people. I'm going to miss this town, this university, these classes, and every single one of my fellow American study abroad students. But there's still 2.5 weeks left. We've got awesome stuff planned (like a Fukuoka trip this weekend with my best friends), and we'll go out with a bang (literally) and some great memories and pictures. Assuming they get uploaded.
~M
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