They usually involve visits to historic cities like Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima, culturally significant areas, or districts renowned for scenic beauty. Recently, some schools have been scheduling shugaku ryoko to foreign countries. The conversations they have on the bus or train and the games they play during their free time after dinner usually become lasting memories. It's hard to get to sleep even when bedtime is announced, and some kids keep talking with their friends deep into the night. A long Kisarazu's sandy shore, which is submerged under water at high tide, the kids use pails to dig for shellfish and other marine animals.
Some kids fill their nets with clams in just two hours.
O n the bus home, the kids compare their catches and have fun talking with one another on their first school trip outside the classroom since becoming middle school students. May. The students spend three nights and four days at a school camp and enjoy hiking, barbecuing, and competing in cross-country races. N inth graders, who will be moving on to high school next year, visit Kyoto and Nara in early June. They rent bicycles on the first day and peddle around famous burial mounds and temples in the Asuka district of Nara. The next day they spend the day near central Nara, visiting shrines, temples, and a repository of ancient treasures.