Kids Web Japan

Interviewing people in a book shop. Local people listened keenly to the kids' opinions.

"What kind of place is Tokamachi?" The sixth graders of Tokamachi Elementary have been studying this question for a year. They have investigated special products made in the city like soba and kimonos and have observed life outside school on the local shopping street. They have even conducted impromptu interviews with local residents.

In today's lesson, the kids split into groups and walked freely around the shopping street, stopping people in shops or outside to ask them questions.

"I think there should be a big park in the city. What do you think?"

Inside a shop that sells tatami (woven floor mats), a group of eight boys asks the shopkeeper, "Do you think the snow festival should continue to be held?" He replies, "This year's festival is the fifty-fourth one. Generations before have kept the festival alive with their efforts, so I hope it becomes even bigger and better in the future." The boys each write this answer in their notebooks. Later they return to their classroom, write up what questions they asked to whom, and present their findings to the whole class.

A student puts together his thoughts on what should happen in Tokamachi in the future.

"Once we interviewed 10 people in the space of one class. Some people don't answer our questions, saying 'I'm busy,' but it's interesting because we get to hear lots of different opinions," explains Yusuke Ikeda of Year 6 Class 1. The shops in the city cooperate with these classes, and this is typical of Tokamachi, where adults and kids are thinking together about the future of their city.