One of our JET programme participants, Mr Lieuwe Boer, has reported to us about his new life in Tonami. Please read on to find out more about his experiences in Japan!

　Another year of Japanese junior high school life

　In my job as ALT, I teach English at one of Tonami’s four junior high schools. The children are between 12 and 15 years old. As everywhere in Japan, the new school year started on April 1st. This not just involves third-year students graduating and new first-year students arriving, but also a lot of teachers being transferred between the cities’ schools (for reasons not entirely clear to me – they told me it is to keep things ‘fresh’). I started out with twelve of my school’s teachers being replaced, including three of the four English teachers. A fresh start, for sure.

　An interesting aspect of high school life in Japan is club activity. When classes end around four, students spend the rest of the afternoon at their club. Most of these are sports-related: the baseball team, the football team, tennis, judo, etc., but there is also a brass band, a fine arts club and a broadcasting club. Unlike in the Netherlands, all students are obligated to join one of these clubs.
　The clubs train almost every day and regularly compete in regional contests – this schedule goes on relentlessly even during holiday periods (as a result the poor teachers that lead them have close to no free time throughout the year). And summer is no exception. My school is one of the most fanatical in the city – the rhythmic gymnastics club competes at national level and the brass band would outmarch and outplay many a Limburgian carnival band (no regional bias intended).

　Especially during these summer months I’ve come to realize that the school’s clubs serve a much larger purpose than just getting the students involved in sports or culture. It’s a vehicle to prepare them for adult life. In Japanese society, maintaining hierarchy is part of everyday life. At the clubs, kids learn how to behave within that structure. The older students are the ‘sempai’, the younger ones the ‘kouhai’. This senior-junior relationship will be an important aspect of their working life.
　It’s not an easy life for the older students, either. They are responsible for leading the younger ones, and are expected to set a good example (not just in the clubs, but in school life in general). It’s amazing to see how this works. Even if there is no teacher present at the clubs, students are generally very disciplined and seem to have a strong sense of responsibility and duty.
The downside to club activity: students hardly have any free time left at the end of their day. I found that many students count “sleeping” or “dazing off” among their hobbies. Well, it keeps them off the street I guess…

　
　On the pleasures of Japanese spring and summer

　Some notable events of spring include the annual Tonami tulip festival (five days of huge crowds flocking into Tonami’s small, Keukenhof-like garden) and the biannual homestay in Lisse for junior high school students (Lisse, famous for De Keukenhof, is Tonami’s sister-city). I also climbed Tateyama and saw the 15 meter high layer of snow through which they cut a road, called “yuki no otani”.
　The summer months were, as everywhere on Honshu, hot and humid, but were also the setting for many local outdoor festivals. For example Yotaka, where the Tonami townspeople crash beautifully lit-up floats into each other (violent but fun), or Hyakumangoku, where the streets of Kanazawa are filled with samurai in elaborate suits of armour and aristocratic young ladies in yukatas (culminating in a mass dance throughout the city’s streets). Festivals of this sort are usually long kept traditions and of course come with a large variety of food stalls, plenty of cold beer and drunk but very friendly locals.
　In late summer moving into September the climate is perfect for barbeques on the beaches of Toyama bay (although the swimming season closes after O-Bon in mid-August) and rooftop beer gardens in the inner cities.
　Then, after just another three months, the streets and fields were covered in a thick layer of snow and I had to pull the ol' snow boots from my closet. And although Tonami’s houses usually have no central heating, they do have heated toilet seats. Yes, winter in Japan does have its charms!

　And that’s about it for my update on life in Tonami, Toyama. In March this year the Hokuriku-shinkansen will officially start running. From then on, a trip from central Tokyo to Toyama will take you less than three hours. I expect to see you all shortly! Or as they say here in the local dialect: Toyama e korare!

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