ASIJ

Today Ryan and I visited the American School in Japan. It's a good 55 minute train ride from our home and in an area of Tokyo that offers more green space. Ryan was ogling over the ginormous artificial turf field. And we learned about the massive busing system that is executed with a level of safety precautions that could rival the operation procedures to prevent a reactor meltdown at a nuclear power plant. The school is attended by 1200 students daily in grades K-12. My roots in a small town school cause me to choke when I hear that, but students are contained within the elementary, middle or high school sections. The kindergartners aren't introduced to the elementary play area until later in the year as they have their own space attached to the classrooms. And, we witnessed the kinder kids collecting their lunch trays in the cafeteria and carrying to their classroom, instead of dining in the cafeteria with the other elementary students. At one point in the tour my mind flashed back to first grade as I remembered the 4th grade tormentor who would steal my hat on the playground in the middle of a Minnesota winter. Or ,the fear that gripped when you thought you might be coerced into playing the game "king of the hill". About this time Ryan's making a comment that "all the open space is impressive". My reply, "yah, but I'm not sure a big playground is always a good thing". All in all, it's a nice school. Very American. But, too far from our home for a five year old and besides, he'll have the rest of his life to hang out with Americans.

By the way, here's how we summarized Ted's visit. Roo reported that he DID stand up in front of the class to tell his friends about Ted's visit.