Eric Takabayashi <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message news:<41482235.7EB4A502@yahoo.co.jp>...
> "John W." wrote:
> 
> > Eric Takabayashi wrote:
> > >
> > > Contrast this to such as my wife asking "Where are the children?" during our
> > > last visit to my hometown in July when visiting the local library located in
> > > the elementary school. Indeed, not only were there NO children on the entire
> > > campus (except less than a handful in the library itself apparently there for
> > > pleasure), there were NO teachers, and classrooms and the office were
> > > secured.
> >
> > My son has commented on this. Should be very telling to Japanese that a
> > (then) four year old (just turned) child noted that there were no
> > children playing any place, even in the parks (and Himeji has a beauty
> > of a park).
> 
> No, I mean the kids were having fun somewhere else and not in some class or
> planned activity at school, unlike what I see in Fukuyama where it seems most kids
> did not have a "summer vacation" at all. For some reason, my old school has got
> rid of almost all playground equipment.
> 
Yeah, I read your statement backwards. But I do find Japanese
playgrounds to be somewhat eerie in that usually children are absent.
But, then, the same can said for some parks near my home in Nashville.

John W.