We’ve been imagining a future for Tetsuo, our imaginary middle-upper-class Japanese child. We’ve assumed a moderate degree of financial difficulty in getting Tetsuo-kun into university, but nothing too major: We’ve been blandly middle-class. Continue reading
We last left our fictional Japanese son, Tetsuo, in his final year of junior high, preparing for high school entrance exams.
You and I – his loving, middle-class parents, and you, my adorable wife, who is almost too infatuated with me – want the best for Tetsuo-kun, so we do what every loving, middle-class parent with practically too-doting wife in Japan does: We send him to cram school, or juku. Continue reading
After spending two years in a Japanese High School and having multiple conversations with people who actually know how things work, I’m happy to return to my journalistic roots by pretending I’m an authority on something I’ve barely scratched the surface of.
So this week, we’ll examine the Japanese Education System in three parts: The System!, Getting into High School and College, and The Cost of School Attendance. We’ll call it, “On Pretending to Know About Education in Japan.”
Today: The System! Continue reading
When the weather changes, so does your life. Continue reading
Written as a counterpoint to my recent post about being condescended as a foreigner in Japan, I wrote a snarky column rant for Fukuoka Now! magazine this month about being condescended by foreigners in Japan.
When I look at the Japanese justice system, I see it through the eyes of Law and Order. I imagine a Law and Order: Kabukicho edition, with one episode focusing on a university student who downloads an AKB48 album. Continue reading
