Shizen Gakuen Koko (Highschool)

As you can tell from the above photo (and my title of this blog :P ) I got a new camera. It is a Canon IXY Digital 910 IS. It has 8 mega pixels, a fantastic wide zoom lens, lots of features, and I am tickled happy with it.

So I decided to take some pictures of my schools to show you just where I work.

The first set of pics are taken at my school "Shizen Gakuen". It is a private Christian High school, located in a mountainous, rural area about 1 hour from the capital city of Yamanashi-ken, Kofu. It is a special school, in that it takes in students who have have had trouble completing high school within the traditional school system. Some students have been bullied, others have learning difficulties, and others have fallen behind due to illness or injuries. The class size is very small (once class I teach has five students, while another only has one student). They have a philosophy of building studenets positive sense of self by providing them individual attention and encouragement. The school building is quite old and fairly run down, but the students and teachers are kind and happy.

Here is a little tour of the school:If you step outside the back door of the school and across a wooden boardwalk to a separate small building you will reach the washrooms. If you glance to your left while you are walking you will get this view of the hidden area, covered in bright green grasses, behind the main building.

After finishing in the washroom, if you walk across the boardwalk again, to your left you will find a large old washbasin to rinse your hands at.


To get back in the school you just step up a few steps and through an old blue, metal, sliding door.
After coming through the back door you will see the main entrance to the school in front of you. To the left of the entrance, are the shelves where all the students store their shoes. Once they enter the school they must remove their outdoor shoes and put on clean, white school sneakers.
If you look down on the floor beside the front entrance, you will see, spread out on some old tatami matting, a large pile of beans. Most of the beans are still in their dried twisted pods, while a small pile have been freed from their pods. You might see the "tea lady" walk over, squat down and begin to silently work pulling beans from their pods. These beans have been grown in the large green field stretching out in front of the school.
If you turn away from the main entrance and look to your right, you will see the long main hall of the school stretching out. It's lime green and yellow walls, which are peeling paint in some places, are lined with piles of old textbooks, teacher materials, and school records.

If you turn to your left and step through the first door you will find yourself in the staff room. In it are even more books, piled on the floors and all the desks. Even the window sill is framed by precarious looking piles of notebooks.And if you look to your left, just above where the tea lady has left the tea pot and china cups, you will see a dried, faded rose tacked to the wall. You might wonder when it was put there and by whom.

...I will post more pictures from my other schools soon.