Summers as a Japanese Student

Starting in the 2nd grade, I attended a local public school in Japan for a month every Summer. This was possible because in Japan, summer vacation lasts only for 5 weeks, from the last week of July until the end of August. So every year, when my American school year ended in June, my mom and I packed up and immediately left for Japan. That gave me a month to attend a local public school. In Japan, my mom and I stayed next to my uncle and aunt's house who live with their 2 kids, my cousins, who went to the same school as I did. The older one of the two, Kaho, is only a year younger than me, so my mom asked the school to let me study in a grade one below mine so that I could be in the same class with Kaho. I continued this summer tradition until I graduated elementary school in Japan (6th grade). Every year, I saw mostly the same kids in my classes, and they become used to seeing me coming in the Summer, which made me feel like a true part of the community in the small way I could. I wouldn't have traded those summers for anything.