Yochien, Japanese Kindergarten

Yochiens are Japanese schools for ages 3-6. Unlike the typical short American preschools and kindergartens, here kids are picked up by a bus 5 days a week from around 8:30AM - 2:30PM. Most serve a Japanese lunch, participate in many activities like field trips, music, swimming, and other aerobic type classes along with art and writing lessons. Discipline is very relaxed as Japanese prefer children to learn to work things out on their own. Here is the bus we were greated with our son's first day of school...

The kids also all wear uniforms...

The schools like to keep everything safe and comfortable feeling, so most of the buses are some type of animal or train, and many of the schools are covered with similar friendly artwork. Here is another bus our school had the second week...

The majority of teachers working at the Yochiens only speak Japanese, so it is an excellent opportunity for American children to learn Japanese. I was a bit concerned about the language barrier, but our son, as well as the other Americans who attend Yochiens, seem to have no trouble following along, and quickly learning many Japanese words and phrases. The school we chose does have one woman working in the office who speaks enough English to translate notes coming home and communicate with parents. We feel privileged that our son is getting this wonderful opportunity, and most importantly, enjoying it.