Today was a very busy day. We had to get up at 7:30 and went to breakfast at 8:00. The food was very different that what we are used to for breakfast. They had a variety of fish, seafood, salad, soup, onions with tomatoes, but they also had eggs and french toast. We went to our first session which was where we had to give our policy presentations in front of the Japanese students and the Northeastern students. Everyone did really well and after we were done we broke up into groups to discuss our topics individually with some Japanese students. My group only had one Japanese student to talk with and with our policy being taxation it was difficult for him to express all of his ideas in English. I did learn that they rely more heavily on corporate taxes in Japan. We gathered as a group again and talked about what we learned. The Japanese students were still hesitant to talk a lot about the policy areas. We had lunch and then went into another session, this time about a book that we had read about an outsiders opinion of Japan. This book is somewhat controversial because the writer is an American and we wanted to see what parts of the book are fact and what parts were overstated by discussing it with the Japanese students.
In groups of three we gave a presentation about the contents of each chapter. After our presentations we broke up into smaller groups and talked about our assigned chapter. We had three other Japanese students in my group and we talked about the education system, violence among youths, and dropouts. The author of the book said that violence was increasing and teachers did not want to upset their students for fear of being attacked. The writer tells of students chopping of the head of other students and killing their parents. He also said that the education system was reformed to not upset as many kids so that they would be less stressed and violent. The students said that violence is not as big of a problem as the writer makes it out to be. They said that violence is a problem in inner city schools but this is the same as America. I asked them what measures the schools took after the series of killings in the early 2000's and they said that they put up signs to ask people to report suspicious activities. I told them that our school practiced lock downs and installed many video cameras and they were surprised that our schools would do this. Also in the book the author talks about dropouts being a big problem and that they become isolated, never leaving their rooms to go outside. They said some students do drop out but most stay in school. Also the government cannot legally force kids to go to school and teachers cannot send disruptive students to the Principal's office. We met for one more time as a large group and went over what we learned. By this time it was about 4:00 and our session was nearing an end.
It was very cold by the lake, probably in the mid 40's. We wanted to jump in the lake and about 8 of us went jumping off a boat dock into the lake. It was about 40 degrees so it was pretty cold but it was very refreshing and fun. the Japanese students and professors could not understand why we wanted to jump in the lake we tried to explain that it was fun and a once in a lifetime opportunity. At dinner we had another amazing meal.
At night we had a Japanese drinking party. This means that we pay for the booze and everyone drinks it. Alcohol is expensive here, especially the beer and the beer is not that good. A can of Guinness at the corner store is $3. We had another party and taught the students how to play beruit a drinking game of trying to throw ping pong balls into cups from across a table. They had a lot of fun and I had a good time talking to the students and learning more about them. It is very interesting that during or lectures they do not say much and rarely raise their hand or contribute their opinions unlike us. When we are alone with them they seem to talk more and express themselves more. It was a long day of talking and a fun night of drinking! I am glad to have had the chance to talk with these students about their culture. They said that topics that they do not have conversations like we had with them.
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