Hasaki High School Visit Friday, June 20
This morning we were greeted by the Principal of the school, above. Not only is he the Principal, but he is also a 7th dan black belt in Kendo. I really liked him alot, and he personally invited me to train with the Judo team once he found out that I was a Judoka.
The high school visit this morning was rather regimented. The high school we visited, although it offers some college preparatory programs, also has an entire industrial wing where students are trained in electrical engineering and/or mechanical engineering. 
We also witnessed students working with both computer driven and manual driven lathes, to create things like metal paperweights and small parts or components. These students will be ready for the factory workforce when they graduate at the age of 18. High Schools here kind of serve as a trade schools, vocational tech. school, or college. Pre-med students, for instance, when they graduate from high school do not go to a 4 year pre-med college; rather they go straight to medical school for 6 years, immediately beginning with the specialty they want to focus on.
So, we were given a tour of classes beginning with the industrial side and then moving to academic, general education courses such as Math, Chemistry, Japanese History, Japanese language (I saw a lesson on the tanka poem), as well as PE. During PE, actually, the students warmed up with a series of marching and formation exercises, which was really cool to watch. Then, they played basketball and badminton. A couple of us (Josh, Troi and I) wanted to play, so that PE teacher set up some full court four on four, with him on our team against 4 students. Remember now, the students were wearing shoes and we were wearing either socks or slippers. In the end I don’t know who “won” but we all had a great time, broke a serious sweat, and laughed a lot, besides making a few baskets. No one will forget that day.
We were able to participate in an English course, again, having an opportunity to interact some with the students there. In one class, I think it was Chemistry, which had 46 students, one poor guy in the back just couldn’t handle the day and had to take a nap.
In the rest of the classes, however, I witnessed a lot of note-taking and participation. For lunch we sat down with members of the student body council, who had varying degrees of English proficiency. I supposed I was a little surprised by the lack of fluency, but the students here are talk more to read and write, and understand the grammar more than they are ever talk to converse. Many of the English teachers obviously knew the grammar rules, but struggled themselves at times to convey their meaning spoken speech.
The end of the day was a lot of fun as Josh and I were able to participate in the Judo club. Although this was Josh’s first time even taking a judo class (how cool is that? The first time, in Japan, with a room full of black belts), he was a Washington state wrestling champion in high school, national collegiate wresting champion in college, and he coaches wrestling now. So, he held his own, despite getting some nasty mat burns.
I had a blast and was able to throw several of those present, as well as not get thrown except for when I went with the really big guy. In addition to the energy we were feeling anyway, right in the same room the Kendo class, with all of its screams yelling was going on, so it added a whole other dimension to the work out. All in all it was a good experience, and it was nice to see how sports and competition can bridge the gap that language barriers create.
We also witnessed students working with both computer driven and manual driven lathes, to create things like metal paperweights and small parts or components. These students will be ready for the factory workforce when they graduate at the age of 18. High Schools here kind of serve as a trade schools, vocational tech. school, or college. Pre-med students, for instance, when they graduate from high school do not go to a 4 year pre-med college; rather they go straight to medical school for 6 years, immediately beginning with the specialty they want to focus on.So, we were given a tour of classes beginning with the industrial side and then moving to academic, general education courses such as Math, Chemistry, Japanese History, Japanese language (I saw a lesson on the tanka poem), as well as PE. During PE, actually, the students warmed up with a series of marching and formation exercises, which was really cool to watch. Then, they played basketball and badminton. A couple of us (Josh, Troi and I) wanted to play, so that PE teacher set up some full court four on four, with him on our team against 4 students. Remember now, the students were wearing shoes and we were wearing either socks or slippers. In the end I don’t know who “won” but we all had a great time, broke a serious sweat, and laughed a lot, besides making a few baskets. No one will forget that day.
We were able to participate in an English course, again, having an opportunity to interact some with the students there. In one class, I think it was Chemistry, which had 46 students, one poor guy in the back just couldn’t handle the day and had to take a nap.
In the rest of the classes, however, I witnessed a lot of note-taking and participation. For lunch we sat down with members of the student body council, who had varying degrees of English proficiency. I supposed I was a little surprised by the lack of fluency, but the students here are talk more to read and write, and understand the grammar more than they are ever talk to converse. Many of the English teachers obviously knew the grammar rules, but struggled themselves at times to convey their meaning spoken speech.The end of the day was a lot of fun as Josh and I were able to participate in the Judo club. Although this was Josh’s first time even taking a judo class (how cool is that? The first time, in Japan, with a room full of black belts), he was a Washington state wrestling champion in high school, national collegiate wresting champion in college, and he coaches wrestling now. So, he held his own, despite getting some nasty mat burns.
I had a blast and was able to throw several of those present, as well as not get thrown except for when I went with the really big guy. In addition to the energy we were feeling anyway, right in the same room the Kendo class, with all of its screams yelling was going on, so it added a whole other dimension to the work out. All in all it was a good experience, and it was nice to see how sports and competition can bridge the gap that language barriers create.
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