Hi,

This morning we set off bright and early for Hino City. This is about an hour away from where we are staying and is more of a city than where we had been the previous two days. We arrived and went for a meeting with the Board of Education there. They treated us like royalty and we were given many special gifts to remind us of our visit. Hino is famous for it tradition of Samurai warriors - so they presented us with badges and T-shirts with symbols from the Edo dynasty!

The primary school we visited was called Hino Daiichi. They welcomed us into the school and we were met by the principal, deputy principal and the head of the PTA. They gave us a tour and we stopped in at a wide variety of lessons to see how they were taught in Japan. All the classes had learnt some English and were so excited to share this with us. We were very impressed with how much they knew and how well they pronounced the words. Again we had lunch with one of the classes and were amazed at how well the children serve each other. 

After lunch we completed the tour by watching a game of volleyball. The children were exceptionally well behaved here and even able to umpire their own games successfully. When the tour was completed we met with all the teachers and they were keen to hear all about the education system in England. They were fascinated by what we do and had lots of questions for us which made us late for the train back to the hotel!

This evening we visited a place called Asakusa and we saw the most famous shrine in Tokyo. We met a mutual friend of one of our group who was delighted to show us the sights. It was spectacular. We had dinner in an authentic Japanese restaurant and sat on tatami mats. We tried a range of food and enjoyed it all. 

Tomorrow we head into Hino for one last day in a Junior High School and then a review meeting at the British Council. To celebrate our last night here we are going to visit Harajuku and Shibuya - famous for the 'youth' culture and their flamboyant dress sense! Check back tomorrow to find out how it went. We can't believe we have one last day here - the time has flown and yet we have packed so much in it feels like so much longer than just a week!

Miss Jones and Mrs Waldron