Winter 1998

Impressions of Japan
from the eyes of Tekinan Junior High School students and the AET (Assistant English Teacher)
in Nakamichi-cho and Toyotomi-mura, Yamanashi-ken

The following paragraph is constructed from excerpts of messages written by second year students describing their school and town to their peers in Ohio during the 1997-1998 school year (The students first wrote freely in Japanese and then translated into English):

Our town is a good place surrounded by mountains and far from the sea. Our school is divided between the two towns, Nakamichi-cho and Toyotomi-mura, in Yamanashi-ken, the prefecture next to Tokyo, but we are still COUNTRY. There are a lot of grape and peach orchards, corn and rice fields; and, in some parts of the town, the smell of pigs is in the air! In Nakamichi-Minami, after a summer rain, some say the smell of pig manure is terrible. Tekinan, the junior high school is an "old style school" (33 years old), with about three hundred students. See the images of the school's September 1997 Sports Festival.

Our favorite things about Nakamichi-cho are the spring festivals in the mountains, especially the one with the kids' sumo contest. In Toyotomi-mura, the museum playground and the "sacred mountain" (YAMA-NO-KAMISAMA) spring festival are popular. 

There is a lot of nature here, but these days the river and mountains are not so clean.  Eco-Volunteers at Tekinan Junior High school, Nakamichi-Minami Primary school, and Nakamichi-Kita Primary school have begun to think about solving these problems.

Comments from the AET (1995-1998):

Tekinan does have a country feel about it, but I don't think the smell of pigs is as strong as the students say! The kids are friendly and they often high-five me as we pass on our bicycles on the way to school.

Nakamichi-cho is famous for its Jomon (circa 10,000-250BCE) and Yayoi (250BCE-250CE) artifacts. Over many centuries, the Yayoi, a rice cultivating culture, spread slowly to the northeast, displacing the non-agricultural Jomon culture. Some scholars contend that the modern-day Ainu, who now reside only in Hokkaido, are closest culturally to the ancient Jomon people.  In Nakamichi-cho and Toyotomi-mura there are many Jomon sites over four thousand years old and several Yayoi burial mounds over a thousand years old. Toyotomi-mura is also famous for its traditional silk crafts (the town's nickname is "Silk Village" (SIRUKU NO SATO).

My favorite place in Nakamichi-cho is a creek called the TAKIDOU GAWA (Waterfall Door River) where there are some waterfalls and pools to cool-off in. In Toyotomi-mura, my favorite event is the YAMA NO KAMISAMA (Sacred Mountain) festival because the elementary school takes the day off and people of all ages visit the mountain shrine and have neighborhood parties.  Some kids climb the mountain with their friends as at 4:30 in the morning to see the sunrise.

Links in English: Welcome to Kofu (the capital of Yamanashi-ken, the "peach state" of Japan), Yamanashi International Center, Stanford University Japan Links.

Nakamichi-Minami Regional Page
Tekinan Junior High School
World Class Index