I Resolved to Update My Blog Everyday, But...

For the past two days, I was unable to update my blog. Through 5/30 to today I’ve been observing activities at F Junior High; I walked to the school at 7:50am and stayed until 4pm. After I came home, I spent 4-5 hours writing up fieldnotes. On top of that, I had to go buy suits, shirts, and shoes in the evening because the vice principal had told me to dress formally and I had not had any suits for summer. I find it fairly challenging to comprehend rules of behaviors and structures of interactions—both explicit and implicit— among actors in different social locations and develop social skills to interact with teachers and students in such a way that they feel like helping my research. Oh well, I should be patient....

I’m glad that I was able to chat with a dozen of students today. Although there are so many things that I don’t know about those junior high school students (not to mention their cognitions of Japan and other countries!), I began penetrating into what preoccupies their everyday life.