This project was originally created at the 2006 Japan Foundation Summer Insitute in Urawa Japan, as a cumulative project encompassing Japanese language lessons, cultural units and technology such as Power-Point and digital video-editing. The authors of the first power-point-based edition, and complete elementary unit were Lori-Ann Abe, John Johnson, and Andrew Scott.

At the end of the Urawa Institute, this project was a Power-Point and video-based learning system in which Japanese language students could explore the lives of Japanese students both elementary and high-school and contrast them with their lives and experiences.

In the two sections, elementary and high-school, students were given appropriate language and cultural units in a very interactive and multisensory way. In the elementary section, students were exposed to the classes (shodou, etc.), activities/customs (kyuushoku, osouji, etc.) as well as the fun activities elementary students do in Japan. In the high-school unit, students were shown an interview of two Japanese high-school students on topics ranging from school uniforms to social lives to club sports.

This stage of this project though implemented successfully had several technical and design issues including incompatibility with Macintosh computers, inconsistency in navigation system, contrast issues, etc.

In response to these issues, Andrew Scott redesigned the project by doing the following:
1. Addition of the third unit on school uniforms, as well as a complete high school unit.
2.Limiting Powerpoint use and converting project to being an HTML and Flash-based website
3. Converting all videos to Flash to ensure compatibility with all computers and web-browsers
4. Improved navigation and design using Photoshop and Flash
5. Improved and expanded language and culture activity samples.
6. Addition of sample final projects based on the 5 cultural standards.
7. Addition of capability to be uploaded to the web rather than being confined to a CD or DVD.

For more information on this site, please click here for a detailed description.