A NEW ZEALAND TEENAGER IN JAPAN

Press, 26 September 1988, Page 16

A NEW ZEALAND TEENAGER IN JAPAN

Wearing school uniform in the holidays and cleaning the classroom floors each day after school are among the new experiences a New Zealand teenager, Alice Vincent, has had since living in Japan. Fourteen-year-old Alice has spent the last year living with her parents, brother and sister in an apartment i building in Niigata. Niigata is a small coastal city north-west of Tokyo. Alice, who would be a fourth former in New Zealand, is in the tenth grade of a junior high school. “School in Japan is

very different from New Zealand,” writes Alice. "Teachers have a great deal of authority and visit parents in their homes to report on pupils’ progress several times a year. Parents are expected to fit their plans around school requirements. Rules are strict, especially about uniform, and at some schools boys must have their heads shaved. Pupils who misbehave end up kneeling in front of the teacher and class to be told off.” In Japan pupils clean school floors. Alice explains that “at my school

in Niigata we have to change to do the cleaning. First we sweep the classroom, then we get down on our hands and knees and wash the floor. At the end of each term we wax the floors.” School hours are long by New Zealand standards. Alice feels that neither teachers nor pupils are in a hurry to get home. Teachers frequently spend time after school chatting with members of their classes. Alice’s classmates often do not leave for home until after 6.30 p.m. School clubs meet after

school, at the week-end and in the holidays. Pupils are expected to wear their school uniforms to clubs, whether or not it is in term time. In Alice’s opinion, Japanese teenagers go to bed very late. She has noticed that they are often tired in the daytime and she has seen them drop off to sleep on the buses, in trains and even at school. She says that many Japanese girls spend their free time in town looking at shops or eating at McDonalds. Playing on family computers or with small cheap video games are also popular activities, especially among boys. Schoolboys and girls at Alice’s school are not allowed to date.

Most of the Japanese people Alice meets do not know exactly where New Zealand is, but they have often heard that it is a beautiful country with a lot of sheep. Alice thinks that Japanese tourists come to New Zealand because they have heard about its scenery. The exchange rate is good and it is relatively close. In Niigata Alice finds people very outgoing and friendly towards her and her family. She thinks this is because there are few Westerners in the city, compared to Tokyo. Alice is enjoying the experience of living in Japan. She finds it “very interesting seeing how Japanese people live.” It has taken her a little time to adjust, but "once you have, you are okay.”