A Kid's Life In...
Japan
By Nate

Konichiwa (Koh-NEE-cheewah) my name is Takashi. I am ten years old. I live in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Japan is four main islands off the coast of Asia in the North Pacific Ocean. The islands are called Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Hokkaido. Japan is called the land of the rising sun. In fact, we call our country Nippon (source of the sun), Japan has four seasons. In parts of my country, we have snow in the winter and in the summer it's hot and humid. 

In the morning I eat breakfast at a table called a kotatsu. A kotatsu is low so that you can sit on mats with your legs under the table. 

After breakfast I start walking to school. While I'm walking to school, I wear a yellow hat and a jacket that says my address and my school. School in Japanese is called gakko. Gakko starts in April. We start after our 6th birthday. I have to go to school Monday-Friday and every other Saturday. We call our teacher sensei. Sensei means teacher. Every morning we bow to our sensei and say, "O hayou gozaimasu (that means good morning)." Some of the subjects at school are art, music, calligraphy, social studies, math, and the Japanese language. I believe that the written Japanese language is hardest is the world. I have to learn 2000 characters called kanji and 2 forty-eight letter alphabets called hiragna and katakana.

When it's lunch time we eat in our classroom. Our sensei eats with us, too.  We serve the food to each other and we eat with chop sticks, of course. Some of the food we might eat is fried noodles and rice curry. One day we had make-your-own-sushi (soo-she).  We made it by covering dried green seaweed sheets with rice.  Then I added some small fish, egg, and soybean spread called Nato to the rice.  We also had a delicious squid stew with quail eggs.  To drink, we had milk.  Our dessert was an orange.  After lunch we brushed our teeth using the sinks in the hall. Did you know that in Japan we eat rice and drink tea with almost every meal?

We also scrub the classroom and halls. My classmates and I have to clean the whole classroom! We pick up paper that fell on the floor, we sweep the room, and we wipe it with a cloth. We even clean the erasers! I wear rubber boots when I'm cleaning the bathrooms. All of us help clean the things around us.

Many parents disapprove of teachers allowing us children to simply play. Parents hire tutors to work with us. Sometimes even on the weekends!

We have school in the summer, too. In the summer we have swimming lessons twice a week. We also have kendo twice a week. Kendo is the method of sword fighting used by the samurai warriors. Some other sports include sumo wrestling, judo, archery, and karate. Some other western sports that we just love are baseball and golf. Most people treat sports just like everything else, hard work! Some kids dream of becoming a ozeki sumotori or champion professional sumo wrestler. A sumo wrestling tournament in Japan is as important as the Super Bowl in the United States!

After school when I walk in the door I take my shoes off immediately. Then I put on slippers called suripppa. Then it's supper time and we eat at home, we have to cook our own food on a hot plate. Mother usually gives me stuff like onions, pork, green peppers, and liver. First I dip the things in sauce. Then I put them on the hot plate. Sometimes we order sushi. Sushi is rice and raw fish or vegetables. I watch baseball while I eat. After I'm done I take a bath. When I take a bath I sit on a little stool and rinse all the soap off. Then I sit in the tub to soak and sit in clean water. When I'm finished, I leave the water for my sister to use.

My family follows the Shinto religion.  Shinto means way of the Gods.  We worship many gods, called kami, that are found in mountains, trees, rivers, rocks, and other parts of nature. We also worship our ancestors.  Tomorrow we will visit a Shinto shrine and make an offering of fruit and rice to the gods and ask for good health.  My friend's family are Buddhists.  That is another popular religion in Japan.  Buddhists believe that you can get peace and happiness by living a life filled with wisdom and virtue.  They don't think worldly goods and belongings are very important.

I celebrate  Japan's three main national holidays. The holidays are the Emperor's birthday, April 29th, New Years Day, January 1st, and Constitution Day, May 3rd. My favorite festival is the Boy's Day festival. It is on the 5th day of the 5th month (May 5th). For Boy's Day we go to a carnival. We also visit the Shinto shrine. Outside our house we fly a carp kite that symbolizes strength, energy, and long life. During the festivals many people wear native Japanese clothing. A kimono is a traditional Japanese dress. I love the Boy's Day festival!

So you see Japan is a great place to live!

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