Japan—they call it the “Land of the Rising Sun.” How pretty! I haven’t been to Japan yet, but it’s definitely on the Global Girl list. Located in Asia, Japan has an interesting culture that combines old-world traditions with technology that is usually far ahead of what we use here in the States. Check it out!
Just the facts on Japan:
• The country is actually made up of four large islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku) and more than 4,000 smaller ones!
• Japan is separated from the continent of Asia by a body of water called… the Sea of Japan. That’s pretty easy to remember!
• Japan’s flag has a name: the Hinomaru.
• Money in Japan is called yen.
• Writing Japanese can be tough—they use three different writing systems, called kanji, hiragana, and katakana.
• Japan’s royal family is headed by Emperor Akihito, who lives with his family in a real-life castle in Tokyo. Lucky!
School Bells
I’ve gone to school in lots of places all over the world, and it seems like every country’s schools are a little different. Like in Japan, when you finish ninth grade, you have to take a test to get into high school! Major pressure, but just about everybody ends up getting in somewhere. And not everything is different—seventh grade is the first year of junior high in Japan, just like here at AAJH.
The cafeteria scene in Japan is pretty unique. I love to meet up with the BSG in the caf to chat about stuff that’s going on, but at most schools in Japan, kids get food from the cafeteria and bring it back to their classroom to eat. A lot of kids bring a lunch from home called a bento, which is a container filled with rice on one side and veggies, meat, or eggs on the other. Yummy! Then after lunch, everybody works together to clean up the room and get ready for classes again.
Trend Central
One of the reasons I think Japan is sooo cool is that people are really on top of the trends there! On the weekends, a lot of Tokyo kids head to Harajuku, a neighborhood known for being way ahead on fashion, to browse the shops and show off their super-funky clothes. (Katani would love it!)
This is what super-trendy girls in Tokyo are wearing this season:
• Skinny pants tucked into tall boots
• Long, floaty tops and dresses over skinny pants or leggings
• Tops with wide necks and sleeves over turtlenecks
Just Chillin'
After-school clubs are one of the major times kids in Japan hang out with their friends. Most schools have a whole bunch of different groups you can join, like sports, music, arts and crafts (like origami), martial arts, film—everything! In junior high, people get really involved with their clubs, and the clubs can have meetings several times a week. Sometimes kids don’t leave school until five o’clock!
But when kids in Japan do get bored, they have lots of fun stuff they can do. Sports and video games are really popular, and a lot of kids spend their downtime (like riding the subway or putting off doing homework!) texting their friends or playing games on their cell phones. Japan is also home to a unique form of cartoon art called anime (for animated cartoons on TV or movies) or manga (for printed cartoons, like in comic books). Isabel loves to check out Japanese cartoons for inspiration!
you tell us ...
|
Shop
the comment above? VOTE!
its sooo coool.. i like it cuz the anime... is the best!! 
