In Japan, April is the month when children go back to school, after a short holiday. When you think of it, isn’t it is quite natural to start the schoolyear in the spring?

Way to school

The “way to school” (tsûgaku-ro 通学路) is marked out with little green plates, indicating the streets where children pass every morning to go to school. The kanji representing school is 文 (bun), from bungaku (文学: literature), sometimes also pronounced mon like in monbushoh (文部省: ministry of education). This character is also used to indicate schools on town maps.