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Field trips are popular activities in Japanese schools. Japan has an excellent transportation system which makes such trips relatively easy. Within the cities the subways are commonly used. The schools also used chartered busses. School busses as in America seem less common. Some of the popular attractions seem to be museums and historical temples and shires. We also notice outings to beaches and other outdoor sites. The children seem to be very orderly in these trips. Another destinctive feature of these field trips are brightly colored caps. Commonly the children wear brightly colored caps so they stand out in traffic and the teachers can keep track of their group. This is especially important for the schools that do not have uniforms.
We are not sure when Japanese teachers began taking children on school field trips. We have not yet found examples before World War II, but we do not know that fireld trips were not conducted before the War. Cost must have been a factor because the children had to be transported to the site. We see many examples in the photographic record after the War as the Japanese economy not only began to recover, but to create unprecedented prosperity. . We suspect that field trips became more feasible as Japan begame more prosperous. Japan had an excellent school system before the War, with the growing economy, substantial funds were available to spend on schools. Schools now had the funds to rent busses to take the childten to all kinds of interesting places. And in the city the childten could use subways to get to museums and parks. Changes in the curiculum may well have been a factor. As far as we can tell, field trips were a common part of the school program by the 1950s. We see children taking all sorts of field trips to important museums, parks, temples, and historical sites, much of which could be coordinated with the curriculum.
Field trips are popular activities in Japanese schools. Such trips are popular with children around the world, in part because it helps break the monotony of every day class work. Whether these trips are more popular in Japan or just that we have succeeded in obtaining more images from Japan we are not sure.
Japan has an excellent transportation system which makes such trips relatively easy. Within the cities the subways are commonly used. The schools also used chartered busses which seems to be the primary way of transporting the children. School busses are commonly used for field trips in America. This considerably reduces the cost of the trips because transport is such an important part of the cost of the trips. School busses are much less common in Japan, primarily because in densely populated Japan, most children walked to school. So many schools contracted with commercial bus companies to transport the children. It is very common in Japanrse parks and other tourist sites to see a parking lot full of besses chartered for school groups. This is usually thecase if any distance is involved. And travel by chartered bus makes it easier to keep the children together and supervise them. The busses are much more luxurious than school busses. We are not entirely sure how this is finzanced. We do not know if the school paid for it or the parents did. Nor do we know how under-privlidged children were handled.
We have only limited information at this time as to the sites or activities to which children went on these field trips. Hopefully our Japanese readers will provide us some details on popular field trips. School field trips to sites such as fire stations are popular in some countries, especially for younger children. I'm not sure if this is the case in Japan. Some of the popular attractions seem to be museums and historical temples and shires. We also notice outings to beaches and other outdoor sites which seem to be more of a recreational activity than a learning experience.
The children seem to be very orderly in these trips. Another destinctive feature of these field trips are brightly colored caps. Commonly the children wear brightly colored caps so they stand out in traffic and the teachers can keep track of their group. This is especially important for the schools that do not have uniforms.
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