So today I went to my smallest school, Mitani Elementary. This school boasts a whopping 58 students spread throughout 6 grades. Yet oddly enough, the school is a fairly large, 3-story building equipped with all the amenities I’ve seen in my other, larger schools. Mitani appears to be a frightening example of Japan’s plummeting population size. While driving to school this morning my supervisor informed me that the amount of kindergarten-age kids in the area has declined so much so that the grand total of next year’s first graders will amount to only five students…in the whole grade!
Classes went well. I taught a combined 5-6th grade class as well as a super energetic 3rd and a docile 4th grade class. After lunch I went to the school gym and played with the 2nd graders, who were eager to show me their proficiency on stilts (?!?!) and unicycles (?!?!?!?). I kid you not. They don’t use balls or jump ropes for playtime recreation—they use circus equipment. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s awesome! It just struck me as a bit unusual.
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