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Saturday, 8 November 2014
Day 3: Fish Market, Geo Park & The Japanese School System @ 18:56
DAY3
Hello! Eugenia here.
And I'm here to share about Day 3!
First of all,
Choshi is a city in Chiba that is not only known for its Soy Sauce production, but for its fish catches as well (mainly sardines, bonito and tuna).
Choshi has a total of 3 Fish Markets.
The First Fish Market opens only on certain days of the week.
The Second Fish Market opens only during certain events.
And the Third Fish Market is open everyday.
On the day when we went, the first and second Fish Markets were closed so we went to the Third one.
The Harbour
Apparently, the Third Fish Market used to be a very popular place for tourists to come over and see but after complaints from the locals about the tourists disrupting their operations. Hence, we needed special persmission to visit the area and we had to make sure we do not block anyone's way.
The Pass
We arrived pretty early so they only had the smaller fishes at first.
It was very very cold as well with the strong sea wind adding on to the initial cold temperature already.
Flatfishes and Lobsters being put up for sale
After looking around at the smaller fishes, a boat started to pull into the harbour so we went over to have a look!
This boat brought in about 3-4 big fishes and it was interesting to see how big the fishes were, especially when all we see back in Singapore is limited to those smaller sized ones being sold at wet markets.
The Huge Tuna
After they have brought in all of the fishes, they assembled the big catches at the end of the market, the section for big catches only. After that, they went to paint the numbers on the fishes and cut out the tail for the buyers to check the quality of the fish meat for themselves (as you can see in the picture).
The buying process is such that a buyer has to register himself at the counter (to avoid any Tom, Dick and Harry to bid) and he will receive a bidding slip pad. After that, he will check the fishes for their quality. From a helpful buyer, he taught us that they will usually check for the amount of fat in the fish through the tail that was cut off. After deciding on a fish to bid on, he will write down the amount he is willing to pay for the fish and hand it over to the people at the counter.
Of course, the one who bids the most will get the fish.
After hanging around at the market a little while more, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast.
After breakfast, we went out again and this time, our destination is 'GEO PARK'!
The Geo Park is located just at the beach right in front of the Chiba Institute of Science (CIS).
Here is where we met up with a guide who taught us various things about geology.
He had taught us plenty but I could only manage to note down a few so please pardon me if I can't fully explain about the picture.
The Sensei
This cave here in this picture is caused by soil erosion. ^
When there is the presence of a cave and there is an earthquake, parts of the rock at the top of the cave will fall. ^
Soil erodes at the rate of 1m per year, which is a fast rate especially for a small country like Japan. And if they don't do anything about it, eventually, Japan will disappear.
Thus, this walkway (refer to pic above) is built to prevent the soil from eroding.
However, when they built the 'walkway', vegetation started to grow on the cliffs.
See the water in this pic?
That hole is actually the drain and the water is waste water from homes and factories from around the city and it flows into the ocean (refer to bottom pic).
The water, even though dirty to humans, it has particles that is a source of food for fish.
While it may sound like a good thing as it helps the life cycle, the water should still be kept clean.
Why?
When we introduce too much dirty water into the ecosystem, it will destroy the environment of the ocean. Hence, it is important to take note of the effects of the dirty water and personally understand them. Not only that, while the people of Choshi City knows that the water is dirty (and thus, do not swim in the ocean here), there are surfers and others who are not from Choshi who still come here to swim because they do not know about this.
Danielle mentioned:
"Besides that, we also got to learn that the sand at the beach was greyish due to one of
the massive volcano eruption and thus the remains of the mercury turned the sand grey. Besides it
just being grey, the sand is also really wet, which made it special. When one first steps on the sand,
it would seem as solid, however, after tapping it with one’s feet, it will start getting softer and more
jelly like. This would happen as when we continuously tap on the sand, we are sort of pushing the
water out and thus the result."
After our visit to the Geo Park, we headed back to CIS, where a teacher in charge taught us about the Japanese Education System.
In Japan, their school education system goes by this:
6-3-3-4(2)
These numbers mean:
6 years in Elementary School (Just like our Primary School),
3 years in Middle School (Similar to our Secondary School),
3 years in High School/College
and 4 years in University.
It is compulsory for the Japanese to study Elementary & Middle School, and it is free of charge.
Their academic year is from April 1st to March 31st, with 3 trimesters.
The subjects they learn in elementary school are:
Japanese, Social Studies, Arithmetic, Science, Life Science, Music, Drafting, Home Econs, PhyEd and Special Activities Comprehensive Studies (they call it homeroom).
When they reach 5th grade, they have English studies as well.
When they reach Middle School, they study there from age 12-15.
And their curriculum includes Japanese, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science, Music, Art, Health, Home Technology, English, Ethics, Comprehensive Studies and Special Studies (Homeroom).
After Middle School, education is optional.
For those who wish to go to High School, they have to take the entrance exams of the specific school that they want to go.
So in other words, each school will have different exam papers, unlike us, where we have the standard 'O' Level examinations.
If you want to apply for a Public School, you have to take the school's entrance exam which will test on Japanese, Math, Science, Social Studies and English.
Whereas for Private Schools, only Japanese, Math and English.
Different schools have different structures as well, some might be day school, some might be night school and the rest are regular and vocational.
Tuition fees for Private schools are 30,000-40,000yen per month while public schools are FREE.
So technically, Japanese can have free schooling from elementary to high school free of charge.
After High School, the students can choose to go to university for 4 years or junior college for 2 years. In this case, since the teacher is a university teacher, he talked to us about the university structure.
There are a total of 86 National Unis, 92 Public Unis and 595 Private universities, with a total enrollment of 550,000 students.
If a student wants to enroll in a public school, they have to take the Center Exam (5 subjects & 7 Sub-Subjects). For Private schools, students have to go through interviews and recommendations, on top of the individual exams.
After the teacher's talk about the Japanese Education system,
our own SP students gave an introduction about Singapore!
Pei Sze, one of the students presenting, reflected on the session:
After the sharing, the Mr Victor told us that we will go downstairs and plant a tree together to commemorate this trip, and it's the first year they have done something like this.
Pair by pair, we took turns to shovel some soil onto the tree.
And our tree is an orange tree~
The 'Mikan' Tree
Mikan is Orange in Japanese.
After this activity, we went to AEON shopping mall to do some shopping!
After our shopping, we went back to DaiShin Inn for dinner!
And that wraps up Day 3!
Written & Compiled by:
Eugenia
All Photos used in this post are taken and contributed by me, Eugenia.
(Not including those that have been watermarked or otherwise stated)
Please do not reproduce this picture online or anywhere else without credit.
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