Around this time every year, Toyo University announces the results of its annual poetry contest called “Gendai Gakusei Hyakunin Isshu” (One hundred tanka poems by contemporary students).
In January, I always receive a list of winning entries in “Gendai Gakusei Hyakunin Isshu” (100 poems by contemporary students), an annual contest organized by Toyo University.
An elementary school teacher plays rock-paper-scissors with her students in an online lesson on May 11, 2020, in Nirasaki, Yamanashi Prefecture. (Hiroshi Kawai)
A student nodding off in class and being poked awake by the teacher is a familiar classroom scene. But that’s not the case with online remote learning.
“I fell asleep during an online lesson/ And woke up to find only myself on the screen,” goes a tanka poem by Rintaro Murakami, a third-year junior high school student.
Around this time every year, I receive “Gendai Gakusei Hyakunin Isshu” (One Hundred Poems of Modern Students) published by Toyo University.