Towards the end of May this year we visited the 保育園 (hoikuen - nursery school) that my daughter would be starting the following week and boy were we in for a few surprises!

Compared to the nursery schools in Scotland there are so many rules and such a big list of mandatory purchases!

Rule examples:

• Long hair has to always be tied up.
• No skirts or dresses to be worn, also no jeans.
• Children have to have urine tests twice a year (at the nursery school).
• Children have to physical checkups twice a year (at the nursery school).
• She has to take a daily nap (she hadn’t done this for over two years).

When we mentioned to our dress loving aspirational princess that she could only wear trousers and t-shirts to nursery she was surprisingly OK with that, the following day when we mentioned about having to tie up her hair she was less than impressed.  Shortly afterwards she opted to have her hair cut into a bob.

We had to order a list of items (or rather pay for them, the nursery ordered them on our behalf) prior to the start of attendance, from a bento box for carrying crafting related items along with related paraphernalia through to PE kit, and received a further long list of items to buy before she started including a futon for naps, multiple towels, bags and changes of clothes as well as pajamas.  A not quite complete photo and list follows.

Photo contents from left top to right bottom:

• Futon bag (w)

• Futon (w)

• Futon towel (currently too hot for the futon blanket so towel used instead) (w)

• Nursery group hat (d)

• Indoor shoes (d)

• Indoor shoe bag (d)

• Swimming bag (d during pool season)

• Swimming towel (d)

• Swimming costume (d)

• PE Kit (thus far only required 1 day in 2 months)

• Hand towel (d)

• Backpack (d)

• Temperature, attendance and pool permission book (d)

• Pouch for nursery letters etc. (d)

• Bag for pajamas, changes of clothes etc. (d)

• Pajamas (they have their own bag too - not pictured) (d)

• Book (borrowed from nursery semi-frequently)

• Borrowed book card (with borrowed book)

• Two changes of clothes (d if required)

• Mask (d)

• Rice or bread bento box (d)

• Bag for bento box (d)

• Cutlery (d)

• Water flask (d)

• Toothbrush (d)

• Cup for rinsing after brushing teeth (d)

• Bag for toothbrush and cup (d)

• Pool shoes (w)

* d = daily, w = take at start of the week and pick up at end.

Food is provided except for rice or bread, the bento box we ordered can contain either plain rice (no pickles, furikake, salt etc.) or bread but not both.  We need to check the menu to know the food being served each day so that we send the correct implement for eating with, we cannot send a selection.

In relation to food, prior to coming to Japan our daughter was primarily raised on a vegan diet, though outside of the house we were more flexible.  This is not an option here, we have no input into the nursery menu and whilst there are always lots of fruits and vegetables there is also a lot of meat, poultry, fish and dairy etc.  No alternative menus are available and this proved to be a tricky sell to our daughter initially.

She also had to wear a mask in class (this requirement has since been dropped but may well appear again due to a local rise in coronavirus cases).

It was pretty daunting for us as parents, even though my wife attended the same nursery, so I can only imagine what it was like for our daughter.  Actually, I don’t have to imagine, it was tough but she proved to be a battler.

A few months in

Our daughter has now been attending nursery school for a couple of months and despite initial stumbling blocks, primarily relating to reticence to eating meat and fish, she has flourished.  She eats pretty much any food presented to her and she takes naps more often than not.. which makes trying to get her to sleep at night a.. delight!  The transition period took several weeks during which her permitted hours of attendance were slowly extended and though it felt very slow at the time, it was probably for the best in retrospect. 

My daughter’s Japanese has pretty much surpassed mine by this point and now we’re seeing the start of a future challenge to get her to speak any English!

Our second daughter has began her transition period and is having to adapt to powdered milk (formula) and being bottle fed from having previously been 100% breast fed.  The nursery do not have the capacity to store breast milk pouches or bottles and it would appear that we didn’t actually pack the breast pump anyway (probably due to different voltages rendering it useless). 

My wife starts her 地域おこし協力隊 (chiikiokoshikyouryokutai - regional revitalisation scheme) next week as well as a contract to teach at university but we are still struggling to transition our baby onto the bottle so hoping that the 役場 (yakuba - town hall) can be flexible until our baby can attend nursery full-time.

Thankfully, the list of items to take to nursery for the baby is pretty small at this point: nursery group hat, changes of clothes, nappies, a milk bottle, a daily update card, a futon and blanket etc. and a bag to carry everything.

Oh I almost forgot, we have to record and report on things such as when our kids went to sleep and when they woke up, did they have fun in the evening etc.  There is certainly a feeling that nursery school here is just as much about training parents on how to raise their kids as it is for teaching children to become citizens.

Edit: It is now 13th of June and we have a Kei car, which both of us are able to move, our house sale did complete but we are experiencing difficulties in transferring funds over. We have yet to purchase a second car due to the issues with transferring money but are looking at e-power (an EV basically but with fossil fuel charging the battery) hybrid of some description.

PS: The blog title The KyōryokuTimes is a play on kyōryokutai which is pronunciation of the final part of the programme name, the full name being chiikiokoshikyōryokutai or 地域おこし協力隊.  Hey, I like it, OK :P