cram school in Japan

As one of the modern Japanese characteristic, the prevalence of cram school (Juku or Yobikou) is outstanding. This is the school for study for entrance examinations or the school for daily study, so there mainly two types for cram school. At the beginning, the former type of cram school appeared about 90 years ago, and after World War 2, it developed remarkably as the number of people who aim at entering university and people who failed to enter university increase. This trend has been continuing and actually so many university students studied at cram school in these days too. So originally, cram school was mainly for the people aiming at entering university. But today, huge number of elementary school and junior high school children has started to go to cram school, and in 2005, 37% of 10~12 years old students and 51% of junior high school children go to cram school. Furthermore, even 5 or 6 years old children have started to go to cram school recently. That is, cram school plays a important role in Japan today.

Japan in 50 years ago

Japan has developed so much since the end of WWⅡ, and now became one of the richest countries from not only economic point of view, but also material. Today, there has been so much influence of the West upon Japan, so there may be seen similarities between the West and Japan. But there were so many things and scenes peculiar to Japan which may make people interested in just about 50 years ago. For example, dagashiya (cheap sweet shops) were pretty interesting, because there are so many strange Japanese sweets which may include some sweets which require courage, and Japanese toys, such as begoma (iron top), slingshot, cracker shaping small round, balloon which is filled with water and so on. In addition, as a kind of culture, when a family bought TV, the people who live close to them or friends got together at the house bought TV, had a big party and got excited. In that time TV was not spread, so very interesting. It is a little bit sad that even though there are some tagashiya, but the number are few today.

Dating in Japan

Probably the cellphone has played a most important role for the process of forming a couple in Japan. In these days, if someone started being interested in some girl, usually the first step to get to know is to her e-mail address and phone number. By exchanging so many e-mails for a few weeks or months, he can know her well and he may declare his love for her by telling her “I love you, so please be a couple with me” or some like this phrase directly via phone, e-mail, or face-to-face. But the time before declaring love is very important usually. Because while he exchange e-mails with her, what he has to do is not only understand her, but also do his best to attract her by probably telling kind words or something funny things. In addition to them, he may inquire into her attitude by looking at the contents, length, tone, and the use of pictorial symbol from her e-mails. By taking these things into consideration, he assumes whether she is or will be interested in him or not. If he assumes she isn’t or won’t, he may give up her and stop exchanging e-mails and is unlikely to declare his love for her. And if he assume she is or will, he will declare his love for her. Of course there can be other ways to attract or examine her such as talking directly or calling, but e-mails via cellphone is crucial to do those in Japan.

Friendship in Japan

I think how the groups form in the US is different from Japan. At first, Japanese people don’t care about the status so much from my point of view. The cool person often associated with someone who didn’t seem much cool. I think the crucial element to make group is club, and the strongest relation form in the group of club in Japan. Mostly each club had more or less 20 members, and divided into 3~5 groups. The elements which made them were share of interest and personality, which are common, and in addition to them, I think the location of where we lived was sometimes crucial element. In my high school, many students came to school by using train or bicycle, and if students live close and belong to same club, they usually come home in almost same route on the way. Inevitably this makes them talk each other for a long time. Moreover, students can be together easily if houses are close. As a result of these, they understand and trust each other so deeply. As a matter of fact, I have three closest friends in my club, and their nearest stations are very close to mine. I still meet them frequently and talk about many things such as worries and troubles in university, or something happy. Of course there are exceptional cases; there are people who make closest relationships with those who don’t live close. But in most case, I think people who live close and belong to same club are likely to make strong relations.

はじめまして。　早稲田大学一年の原　辰也です。

パソコンが苦手でブログ作るのが初めてなうえ、いわゆる純ジャパなので英語も苦手です・・・・。

なのでこのクラスは僕にっとては大変になるかもしれませんががんばりたいとおもいます。

よろしくお願いします。

Hello!! My name is Tatsuya Hara. I am the freshman of Waseda University.

I am poor at PC and this is the first time for me to make my blog. In addition to that, I am what is called "jyunjapa" and not good at English. So probably this course will be hard for me but I want to do my best!!

Nice to meet you!!