Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Cultural Lesson #522


This is just a short update about what I learned today about Japan. I did something at recess that I had never done in Alberta before. Basically, for the twenty minute playtime everyone in the school went out to pick up large and middle-size rocks off the field to ready it for it's various summer uses (baseball and track-and-field). Perhaps this point deserves further elaboration; in Alberta our fields are often grass. It seems like the most inviting choice. In contrast, Japan keeps fields of shale that in my opinion look rather uninviting to one's knees and elbows. (A boring picture of the field post-pick-up can been seen at the top.)

I didn't have my camera with me because it had been described to me as "fun" by one of the teachers before I realized what was actually going on. Leave it to my students, however, to make any activity fun. I don't know if the students liked it because it was a slightly dirty work or whether it was because they are all still impressed by simple - sometimes amazingly simple - things, but the time passed quickly with lots of laughing.

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