Dear friends,
This is the first newsletter “SAKURA” from Japan. I’d like to inform you about the Chujo family’s hereabouts and to introduce Japan from my point of view.
In this issue, I’ll tell you about Takeshi’s school.
 
 

SAKURA

Takeshi, our 16-year-old son, and I arrived at Narita International Airport on April 1,1999. Our first impression of Japan was of sakura, cherry blossoms, which were in full bloom and whose delicate fragile pink petals were falling, blown by the wind. We came back to our house in Chiba Prefecture. The Narita Airport is in Chiba. ‘Prefecture’ equals ‘state’ administratively, and ‘county’ in size. Schools start in April. That’s why we came back to Japan in April. Yoshi, my husband, was still in New York working for Kobe Steel.
 
 

Shibuya Makuhari High School

Takeshi passed the entrance examination to Shibuya Makuhari High School, the top-notch private school in Chiba on Jan ’99. There are three grades from 10th to 12th. It's co-ed and there are 9 classes and 360 students in the 10th grade. 27 of these students spent a few years abroad like Takeshi and they are in three classes. Mr. Reardon teaches them English 4 periods a week, using American high school textbooks. Students also can study foreign languages such as French, German, Spanish, and Chinese. Takeshi is studying French.
Mr. Tamura, the principal of this school and four other high schools and a college, is one of the leading educators in Japan. He is a philosopher and an educator who has a clear vision on the future of Japan. He cares about his school and students and he listens carefully to parents’ opinions. Yoshi and I are very happy about Takeshi's school and we are sure that Takeshi made the best choice for him.
Mr. Wakai is an English teacher and Takeshi’s homeroom teacher. In Japanese school, a homeroom teacher plays both the roles of a guidance counselor and an advisor. He is a cinema critic and tries to go to movie theaters 365 times a year. He is unique.
 
 

Friends

Though the returnees often have difficulties adjusting themselves to the Japanese school environment, thanks to this school’s comfortable atmosphere, Takeshi instantly made three bright friends, Kento and Masaru, who had been in London, and Hidehito, who has never gone abroad. Takeshi has been as happy as ever in his school. Kento is a good shogi, Japanese chess, player and they play shogi during their lunch break. Takeshi is getting better and better, and now he often beats Yoshi.  Takeshi and his friends belong to the tennis club. They had a sleepover in our tiny four-and-a-half-mat-room at the end of last year. They had a ball.
One more friend is Chako, a lovely Shiba Dog. ‘Cha’ means brown and ‘Ko’ is a suffix meaning ‘girl.’ Takeshi is responsible for taking care of her. He walks Chako every morning and evening. Chako turns around three times before she poops.

I have a lot of things to write to you about here such as my problems with readjustment, my teaching job at Chiba University, a wonderful trip to Kyoto, Nara and Hakone with Wendy, my family’s ’99 summer trip to Alaska, and so on. Yoshi came back to Japan in October and now we have started house hunting. So I can tell you about housing conditions in Japan. I’ll write about some of these topics in the next “Sakura.”
Sincerely,