Konichiwa!
Today was an extremely busy one! We got up bright and early to sample a typical Tokyo city breakfast: boiled eggs and bread! Mrs Waldron was very happy when she discovered the coffee machine - Starbucks eat your heart out..!

We arrived at the British Council where we were briefed on the current state of education in Japan. We were very proud of our official badges! In the afternoon we arrived at Tokyo Gakugei University: specialising in teacher training. We took it in turns with primary and secondary Japanese teachers to present how we taught the National Curriculum in our schools. We were suprised to discover how much was the same in secondary school, but were really surprised to find out that there are hardly any primary schools in Japan that have Interactive Whiteboards and children do not start using ICT until they are in Year 3!!

Afterwards we were split up into groups to talk about what we felt was important in education. We were assisted by the most amazing interpreters who put us to shame with their command of the English language. However we have learnt lots of new phrases today: 'watashi wa Mrs Waldron des' (my name is Mrs Waldron), 'oyshi katta' : that was delicious, 'jamata': bye, 'hajime mashtay': pleased to meet you! All the Japanese people we meet are so lovely - we have already exchanged business cards with teachers and student teachers which is an extremely important ritual in Japan and you have to make sure you give the card in exactly the right way or you really offend people!

Tomorrow we are heading to Minamiashigara (1 and a half hours outside Tokyo city): we leave at 7.00 and arrive at our schools for the beginning of the school day. Miss Jones and I are observing lessons in 'Living Environment Studies', Maths and Japanese, as well as looking at Kindergarten. The uniform here is great: KS1 pupils have to wear straw hats, fastened with a ribbon under their chin - (what do you reckon Year 1??!!) We will also be meeting with teachers and the board of education -
phew!

We will be updating again tomorrow - miss you all lots - hope you have had a good day - hoping to see Year 5 photos of the Watersports on the website soon!

Jamata!

Mrs Waldron and Miss Jones