Hello! I am moving my family including my 11yr old and 12yr old to Kyoto next year for the Spring and Summer. In my experiences, Japanese children have very little free time. And even if they did, get togethers like hanging out at friends houses are not a casual occurrence like here in the States. I think the best way for my kids to make friends and socialize will be to join clubs or teams. But as we will not be enrolled in Japanese public school, I am not finding much to sign up for. Any advice appreciated. 😊
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**Signing up kids for teams and activities**
Hello! I am moving my family including my 11yr old and 12yr old to Kyoto next year for the Spring and Summer. In my experiences, Japanese children have very little free time. And even if they did, get togethers like hanging out at friends houses are not a casual occurrence like here in the States. I think the best way for my kids to make friends and socialize will be to join clubs or teams. But as we will not be enrolled in Japanese public school, I am not finding much to sign up for. Any advice appreciated. 😊
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>But as we will not be enrolled in Japanese public school
The ***vast*** majority of socialization for Japanese children happens at school, so your kids are going to be at a pretty severe handicap.
Are they going to an international school? If so you should look at programs offered by that school. That way they’ll have some continuity between their school friends and their extracurricular friends.
Or or we talking about something like home schooling? If that’s the case it’s going to be *really* tough to find social opportunities. As you’ve discovered most clubs/teams are organized on a school level. While it’s *theoretically* possible that you might be able to talk your local school into allowing your kids into one of their clubs it’s not particularly likely.