Aye Aye Captain!

There is a stereotype that started probably somewhere around the time of WWII and has since been provoked by anime, that Japanese girls wear sailor outfits to school.

Well I am here today to completely confirm these reports. My students sport these super traditional outfits that have probably never been modified since the schools open some 50 years ago now.
They have actually two different outfits: a summer outfit and a winter outfit. The girls have a white short-sleeve affair during the summer. Their shirt has a sort of a collar/black flap with cream detail around it. The shirt zips up in the front and is embellished with a scarf they wear about their neck (but under the back flap) and ties around front. They all wear a navy blue skirt of varying heights, but that is only because they hike them up. Lastly, they also sport black (or white but that is extremely unpopular and only seen as a last resort) knee high socks. In the winter the color of their top changes to a navy blue with long-sleeves and a red detail about the collar. When it gets really cold, they will wear a cardigan over their outfit that is often black, navy or brown (colors for which is not mandated).
Of course the men have two different outfits too, just theirs are hardly any different. Their summer outfit is black pants and a white short-sleeve button down, while their winter one is much of the same, only with a long-sleeve white t-shirt and an added black overcoat with gold buttons with the symbol for middle school on each (中).
All of the students of any gender and grade have a little colored plastic name plate that says their last name sewn upon their lapels. The older students who have since ripped theirs off, have glued safety pins to the backs of theirs. The colors of the plaque represent grade level of the students. The colors are blue, white, and green. The students do not get new plaque each year with new colors, rather the old colors are recycled and the new students will get the graduated students old color.
In addition to normal schools clothes, students get a set of P.E. clothes that are navy shorts with red strip detail down the sides as well as a shirt that sports their name and often class number. The P.E. clothes also have a pants set especially for the winter. If students are in a club they may acquire other gear and clothing through that club, but those are put through special order and are not school assigned. They are also typically a little nicer looking.
A little about changing. My schools is extremely old as I mentioned, therefore this practice may be out of date for newer and nicer and certainly private schools. But at my school, when it is P.E. time, it is a combined effort of two classes. All of the girls will file into one room and the boys into another. There are curtains to block the windows that face the corridor as well as the outside, so that no one can see them changing. Though for the girls many of them might wear their gym outfit under their school outfit, especially when it is cold.
Students only get one set of clothes and must wear them all week and not get them dirty. They are also mandated to wear them at all times on the campus. I cannot say how many set of P.E. clothes they get, but seeing how dirty they get after playing volleyball one afternoon, I certainly hope it is more than one.



Other schools, newer ones, have adopted other manner of dress for their students. Really cute uniforms in my opinion. A high school near me has their students sporting sweater vests and has bows around their necks. Of course with skirts and blazers (in the winter) as well. The mens suits are upgraded as well and slightly more professional looking and blazer-like jackets. This particular schools does a rather cute thing and the different colored bow-ties and bows all represent a different grade, so there is a mustard yellow, a navy, and a deep red. I don't know which color is for which grade as I do not work there, I just live really close to see them all the time.

Our winter outfits!

And in summer:

A day in the Life of a Student

This is a really cute video a Korean student made of his student life.

yes that sums it up.

But in a Japanese JHS...

Yeah, yeah, for all you who watch any kind of anime...it is more or less exactly like that. There are rows of students. There is assigned seating (typically boy girl boy girl but sometimes a row of boys and a row of girls). There are the window seats that everyone wants, accompanied by windows that they are allowed to open as they please. On the other half of the classroom there are the windows to the hallway, that also have opening functions. This is a semi popular hangout spot in the ten minutes between classes, where another classes students come for a visit.
Speaking of these windows, they are also accompanied by curtains that can be shut when the students are changing into and out of their gym outfits, as they have separate changing areas for guys and girls. A larger curtain adorns the outside facing windows which is also covered at this time, but also whenever the touch screen is in use.
A bit of an irregularity in many classrooms and a large step forward, my school had large touch screen TV's in every room. For myself, I personally put them to use for powerpoints and short video clips and such when relevant to the lesson. These TV's are hooked up to a laptop that every classroom and teacher desk in the school sports (for more on this charming hardware please check out ). The laptops are stationary objects and never moved from their classrooms.
In the convenient location of next to the television, is the teachers domain. In my classrooms, the teacher prevails over the class upon a mini stage. This stage is perhaps half a foot high and deceptively easy to fall off. Just ask me! This stage is always on the right hand side in every classroom. Essentially all the students west.
Behind the teacher is a 3 meter or so long blackboard...greenboard? well it is a chalkboard. I hate chalk. The chalkboards are magnificent and beautiful and can move up and down and are occasionally concave so that students from either side will not have a hard time seeing the opposing side of the board. However, it is these chalkboards that I find the most behind the times. Even my middle school had SOME whiteboards. Maybe it is just because I hate chalk (have I mentioned that?), but I cannot stand these blackboards even more so than the laptops. Also with these boards come the chalk dust. The chalk dust that covers EVERYTHING. There is a permanent coating on the floor that makes the floor boards very soft. Soft enough to run and slide on. Soft enough to slip off the stage.
There are cubbies at the back of the classrooms. They are filled with papers and other school artifacts that go untouched. The students book bags all resemble plastic sports bags that guard their desk. Girl will occasionally have fashionable bags instead, especially if they are not on a sports team. These bags are deceptively expensive and are treated...well like a regular school book bag - slung around, plopped down, tripped over (ok the last one is largely me, but they are like obstacles in a katamari game!). They actually have hooks on the side of their desk which is used for a smaller bag is they have such an item.
Above the cubbies is yet another of my favorite chalkboards with the daily schedule on it. As well as paper posting of anything important, but ignorable.

These students themselves, have 6 classes a day each class lasting 45 to 50 minutes. The time depends on the school and if there are any important up coming activities that they have to practice after school for (like field day, school festival, graduation...). Classes start at 8:45 but for the fifteen minutes before that they have home room. The class that the students start in is essentially their homeroom and more or less the students will always stay in that class and the other teachers will come to visit that room. However there are a few classes that have their own room, like science, cooking, home economics, there are a few English classes that go to the actual English room ( we have 2), and well P.E. but really how could you even consider doing that in the classroom. Ok, so there are less classes actually in the classroom but all these classes and the ones that take place in the classroom rotate throughout the week. There are 4 morning classes and midday, the students lunch for 30-45 minutes each day and if they are in elementary school they then get to have recess for another 30 minutes. In middle school they are expected to bring their own lunch, but my elementary school provides lunch for the students. Following lunch there are two more classes and a homeroom closing that the students then go through before being officially released for the day.
Psyche. Afterschool, students are required to join a club. Such as handicrafts/cooking club, art club, judo club, chorus club, ping pong club, soccer team, baseball team, tennis team, basketball team, badminton team, volleyball team, or the track team. Whew I think that is all the teams and clubs. Notice how we do not have kendo. How sad. They typically stay at school until around 5pm (they get there around 8am).

These activities and schedules and even setting is largely based on a JHS setting, I tried to throw in a few elementary examples, but if you are curious for more information, please don't hesitate to ask me!

Closing time

A time when emotions duel each other for excitement and tears.

I was just party to my first Japanese Junior High School graduation.

The graduation consisted primarily of what you might expect. The handing out of certificates. The official seal of completion from a school. With 300 students this took about as long as you would expect, with the calling out of the names (about an hour). But what surprised me most was how efficient and orderly the students were. There was always a line of only 5 people ever waiting, who would mount the stage one at a time preceding their call and face the audience. At that time they would respond 'Hai!' to the calling of their name, cross the stage, bow to the principal, receive their diploma, and exit stage front. There were certain pathways they took which all made it seem very orderly, I really wonder just how must practice went into it.
The stage itself was decorated with a very elaborate arrangement of flowers, styled with symbolic meaning in a very Japanese traditional fashion. In addition it also had the school flag as well as the Japanese flag.
The students themselves were decked out in their usual. The winter school uniform. They also had a special addition of a fake flower corsage that decorated their name pin. This corsage was blue for the male crowd and pink for the ladies. In addition their teachers had corresponding real flower corsages pinned upon their breast.
When Japanese suit up they really suit up. Of course I was wearing a suit, what are you talking about. But they wore suits. They have elaborate silk ties with blingy chains adorning them and sparkly hair decor for the ladies. Nearly everyone had their finest piece of jewelry on.
Nextly, speeches were made...in Japanese...of course
I sat next to the new student council who sniffled and made soft noises the entire ceremony.
For the last act the 3rd years set up and mounted the bleachers and sang the school song. Now this is apparently a singing school and as such they sang a bit more and a bit more. A nice total of 3-4 songs. But if you look closely, I am pretty sure some of the men are just faking it.

Afterwards
There is a tradition that is pretty familiar to most schools where the students teachers and parents all form two rows making a pathway for the 3rd years to walk through. This is their grand exit. The pathways starts out in the field and leads straight out the front gate, where they should never have to enter again.
During this walk there is much hugging and crying and gift giving. The young ones give gifts as memorials and well wishes to their sempais as forget-me-nots. Photos, towels, cards, and small gifts were seen in everyone's hands. And finally they reach the outer limit, where all their parents are waiting, camcorders at the ready, their eyes glistening at the corners. And to home they go.
Goodbye my 3rd years. And good luck!

In America we have "Indoor Voices," in Japan we have

Indoor shoes.
Japanese slippers are called uwabaki. These are indoor shoes and are often made of a light, flexible material with rubber soles.

In Japan, you must take off your shoes upon entering a house and often don on a set of these. This same rule applies to some restaurants, work places, and schools. All of my students have a regulation slipper that they all wear inside the school. Additionally there is a different slipper, located at the bathroom slipper entrance,  to be used when going to the bathroom. This practice is also popular in restaurants and homes. By having special slippers for only bathroom use, contaminants that might be on the bathroom floor are kept out of the rest of the establishment or home. This practice is also upheld in Korean schools and residences and, from personal experience, is also much more common to see in Korean restaurants as well.

these are my home slippers

At the schools, there are individual lockers for everyone's shoes. These lockers will occasionally have a dividing shelf to separate the indoor from outdoor shoes. In addition to indoor, outdoor, and bathroom shoes, my students also have indoor gym shoes. This helps stop the floor from being marred by outside elements and maintain its polish for longer.

the shoe boxes,
seen upon entrance to the school grounds.

every student has their own shoe box.
it is separated by grade level and classes

school slippers

On a side note. I severely dislike the uwabaki provided for me by the schools. There is a small lip to them on the front and I am constantly tripping on the stairs. Additionally there is no back to them so they function more like clogs; essentially, I am dragging my feet around all day. Anyone in the building can hear me coming from a few floors away thanks to the shhhhp shhhhp shhhhp of my slippers dragging on the groung, unable to lift my feet off the cement lest my slippers fall off!
Luckily, it is perfectly acceptable and often encouraged to bring your own shoes for work, which for many of the teachers here is sneakers or Crocs.

As far as I can tell, the reason for wearing uwabaki is a way of maintaining a cleanly interior to minimize said cleaning. It is also efficient in minimalizing the introduction of bacteria around the home, specifically the bathroom.

Presently

I work for Interac.
Interac is a private contractor for Assistant Language Teachers (ALT's) for a variety of places in Japan. By far and large they mostly supply to public schools; however there are also other opportunities they provide as well.

For my part, I work as an ALT teaching English in a middle and an elementary schools. For future reference, in Japan they call middle school, junior high schools, or JHS. I work in correspondence with the Osaka branch, and in fact, live in Osaka prefecture. I have been living here since late August.

And for those who ask, I have nothing but good things to say about this company and this branch in particular. They have always been over accommodating, making sure I get along, well with good support and help with some of the most basic yet essential needs.