Today in culture class we talked a bit about the schools in Japan. Like in America, there's the concept of elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and college. In middle school, students are very communal, and they work in groups of about four to learn the material, and the teacher kind of supervises. They are responsible for a lot of things, including serving lunch, which can take a little while for them to learn. Middle school for Japanese students is pretty important, because depending on how well they do, they may or may not be able to get into good high schools, which then affects their choices for colleges. Not all students go onto high school though, a small percentage begin employment after middle school. Most students that go onto high school do college as well though.

College is the really tough one to get into usually. There's a week of exam known as "exam hell" in Japan. But a lot of times students say that getting into their college was harder than the actual college experience. Although that's the opposite of the students impressions of Kanazawa I've heard. But a lot of this is hearsay, so take it with a grain of salt, or read up on it a bit yourself.

Myself, I need to get to bed because I have to meet my host family in the morning.