Friday - 日川小学校

Finally we come to Hikawa Sho, by far the largest school I deal with.  There are 236 students at Hikawa, so I share it with another ALT.  I teach 1^st, 4^th, and 6^th, grade.  The 1^st, 2^nd, 5^th, and 6^th grades all have enough students to be split into two sections, so I have five classes total, though in all honesty I’d rather have six.  The 4^th grade has 41 students, which is kind of hard to control.  Luckily, the homeroom teacher spends her time keeping the kids in line which is nice because she can do it well, but less nice in that I have to run the entire lesson which is difficult as I am supposed to be doing everything with her approval which I can’t really get at a moment’s notice if she’s reprimanding a child for being inattentive.

I covet that map on the wall.  I've always liked raised relief maps, and this is a really nice one of Yamanashi and the surrounding area.

Unlike my other schools, Hikawa is in the valley...

...which is a nice change of scene...

...but it is always noticeably hotter here than any other school.

Also of note, Matsumoto Tetsuya, one of the current Yomiuri Giants (The J-league equivalent of the Yankees) went to this elementary school.  They have a small shrine to him in the entranceway with a bat and square of cardboard both signed by the man himself.  He’s apparently won rookie of the year in 2009, so I suppose that’s something to write home about.


So those are all of my schools.  In a side note, we had a typhoon in Japan that prevented me from climbing Fuji last Saturday.  Soon it will be too cold to climb unless one is serious about mountain climbing so if I don't go this weekend I might have to wait until next summer.  Hopefully that will work out.

Next will be a report on the automotive front.