Choosing the right school for your kids in Japan is a complicated affair. At the Tokyo International Forum today, I happened to come across the private elementary and junior high school fair. An event where all the different schools promote themselves to parents looking for the right match for their children. I’ve never seen an event quite like this one so I spent a few minutes observing the action going on. The Japanese eductional system is a topic of conversation that you eventually talk about while being here. Every foreigner, even ones that just got off the plane, has an opinionated opinion about it. I’ve been in Japan so long and have heard all the arguments about Japanese society this and Japanese society that and to tell you the truth it bores me listening to all those self-proclaimed experts on Japan. OK, getting off topic..this event was huge and took up all of halls B & C and I was almost tempted to go down there to have a closer look, but since there were no companion girls I didn’t bother ;P

(1) The booths seemed like they were grouped in all boys, all girls and co-ed schools and then organized alphabetically so as not to give any school an advantage. Some schools just had a sign with their name on it and a few pictures while others had fancy advertising and pictures of famous people who attended the school (2) Each school had a small booth with counsellors ready to talk to parents (3) There was a display of many different elementary school uniforms. They looked too small to be Junior High. On the official private school website, you can do a search for schools based on type of uniform. Kind of implies that that is one of the things people base their decisions on. Personally, I like the idea of school uniforms and I wish I had uniforms when I was going to school (4) Those almost look like apartments for rent advertised on the wall there. Wonder what they were…

Slightly off topic. Are mothers getting younger and more attractive? Or am I just getting older? :(