Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Science Fair

I keep forgetting to write about this....
A few weeks ago I had to work all weekend so my husband took the children to a science fair that a group of teachers and high school students were running in our town. They spent a few hours there and the kids had a great time, coming home with bags and bags of experiments and free giveaways. It sounds like it was really well run with lots and lots to do. I wish our town did more things like this. The only complaint I have was regarding the "box" in which my son brought home one of the experiments in. It was a cigarette packet and it just happened to be from his own homeroom teacher..... who I know is a very heavy smoker. My husband said he did apologize when he handed the box over claiming that it was the only thing he could find to put the things in so they wouldn't get broken on the way home. The experiment does fit perfectly into the box, but.... a cigarette packet... to a 9 year old.... in 2011? I can remember my brother making a dog out of cigarette packets, but that was .... many years ago. I guess Japan still has quite a way to go when it comes to cigarettes and children!

6 comments:

  1. definitely - especially considering its only really just become a lot harder for kids to buy them from vending machines. When did that card come in? like three years ago or something. crazy.

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  2. Well, JT is still the biggest scientific "research" company in Japan... so maybe it's on topic?

    I wouldn't be pleased either. Things have changed for the better in the time I have been in Japan (my first school had an elementary school teacher who smoked in his classroom during breaks!) so I hope it keeps getting better, but faster.

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  3. Wow, that would really bother me too. I still haven't gotten used to the fact that smoking inside public buildings is allowed here. It is annoying that many restaurants are off the menu for us because we have small children and don't want to expose them to smoke.

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  4. Anonymous9:34 pm

    That is something you just don't see over here anymore. Cigarettes or their packages are things of the past that many of the oldtimers, like me, are paying dearly for using. And, to think that our government gave us a free package of cigarettes with our package of c-rations (food) every day.

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  5. that's a difficult one... do you allow a child to transport the experiment in a branded box of contraband - where it fits perfectly - or do you risk the experiment being damaged? seems like a line call - damned if you do and damned if you don't.

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  6. I'm certainly not happy with smoking and children in this country. So many times I have seen parents in those glass smoking rooms and their children are sitting in the room inhaling it all too. I just want to shake the parents! Not only that, I really don't like going into a restaurant and having to breathe it in myself. My partner quite smoking early last year, while I eat. My partner quit smoking early 2011, but working in the Hakuba ski resort, he has started to get back into the habit (he's had one, but that's the beginning I feel).It just seems so hard to get away from smoking here. Fingers crossed things improve soon!

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