On May 16th, I attended one of my elementary school’s ensoku, or field trip or excursion, as it could be translated. I still had to go to work, but because it ended up on a day I was going to this school, there were no classes for me to teach. Instead of deskwarming all day, I asked if I could participate, and the vice principal said no problem, so I spent the day with the kids on their field trip.
In my elementary school exerience, a field trip would usually consist of getting on a yellow school bus, driving over to some local museum or educationally interactive place, bringing a brown paper sack lunch to eat, and then bussing home at the end of the day. I have no idea how field trips, or ensoku, work in the rest of the country, but at my local schools, the kids just take a walk to somewhere around town, eat lunch and hang out around noon, and then walk back to school. They were split up into 1st-2nd grade (who walked from school, to the local shrine, and back in a circle), 3rd-4th grade (who walked around 7km total), and 5th-6th grade. I went with the upper graders, which meant I had 8 miles/15km round trip ahead of me to walk that day. I didn’t mind though, since I’m used to walking everywhere now, and was mentally prepared for it. Plus, if we went further, surely it’d have to take longer, which meant less potential deskwarming time when we got back. Apparently, the upper graders at the other school went all the way south to around where the local big hotel is.
Apparently the kids were supposed to bring a hankerchief, a mat, a water source (and I say that, because some kids brought juice, fruity water, electrolyte drinks, tea, and some brought more than one), some snacks upt o 300yen in value, and a bento. Everyone had a small, light backpack, and wore their PE hat.
We departed school at 8:30, with the sixth graders in the front, and the fifth graders in the back. The teachers/adults were interspersed throughout, and I was at the very back to catch stragglers and keep everyone together in the back, so I mostly interacted with the fifth graders.
We ended up walked the first 7km or so, with a few stops for bathroom and water breaks, until we reached the next town over (this school is on the east side of town, so we passed the border early on), and stopped at a play structure that was next to a local museum. At that point, it was around 11, and once we got there, the kids were allowed to play for a bit and hang out.
After a bit of time passed, the teachers gathered everyone together, directed everyone to an open grassy area, and it was time to eat lunch. Everyone bunched grouped together, and then laid out their small mats on the grass to sit. One girl was nice enough to let me sit on hers since I didn’t have one. Everyone got their bentos out to get ready to eat, and the teachers tried to get everyone to wait before saying “itadakimasu” together. It didn’t exactly work, as some kids are started eating already, but for the most part the kids started eating at the same time. At some point, most the kids were done with their main lunch, and then everyone started pulling out a small pouch of a collection of snacks, including gum, Japanese pop rocks, small candies, etc. Then people started exchanging their snacks, and advertising what they brought to share with others. It was quite funny and cute, and I got a few free ones from kids who were nice enough!
With energy replenished and on a sugar high, the kids played and had a sort of recess time for about an hour. We left the park around 1, and headed back for school. Again, I stayed in the back to account for stragglers, and a good thing I did because I ended up sticking with a couple kids who were feeling tired and whose paces slowed down considerably. Everyone else moved on ahead as normal, and we caught up to the main group at the rest point.
What was interesting was that instead of returning to school, at a certain point everyone said their goodbyes and directly headed home from there. Some did return straight to school because their house was in that direction, and others because their parents came to pick them up.
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