After the age of sixty years old, things I have felt familiar have gone one by one from me. They would remain only in my memory. But the memory would get to fade away day by day.
  Beside my family members and friends, those which I feel senbtiment are school houses I staied at for many days in my boyhood. The elementary school I graduated was gone away long years ago to be integrated into other big one.
  It is perhaps because of such a personal experience in particular that I was impressed deeply by the schools of Wada town.

■Elementary School■

  The buildings of the elementary school of the tendency of the architecture in these 10 - 20 years to make children experience the natural environmants by using great deal of wood timbers. At the same time to make restraints as less as possible to them feel free and creative.
  Especially wooden floors and walls have a taste for children feel like to lay down on or to touch friendly.

  However the local councils was restricted fiscally to build schools in a stereo-type in most cases.
  But we would find some cases that they made effort to manage the cost for giving children as much opportunities as possible to learn and to grow up. It is, so to speak, a invastment for the future.
  The school has unique halls and houses which we would find their initiative creativeness.

  The school is also lucky to have a good landscape.
  Yodagawa river running through Wada village has been brutal to form a ravine opening northeastward. Then we look out a distant view of Mt. Aasama's beautiful summit from its yard. The picture on the right side took on late October shows the summit covered with snow.

■Junior High School■

  The junior high school are also facing old Nakasendo. A pair of stone gate-pillars are standing at the east end of yard. Standing at a corner of the yard, we can see its main hall as a whole. We find a large Torii gate of Wadajinja shrine in front of the gate.

  The of the hall looks like one of the buildings typical architecture of Showa modern mode spreading after the post World War II age. Most of them were built of feroconcret and their walls were spraied in sand emboss tste.
  The new halls of the elementary scool I graduated fifty years ago was that.

  But this one is of the newer age. Its architecture is also so newer that its walls are coverd with timber bords.
  Its style is the classic mode of the Showa modern. It looks very suitable to school for me.
  I think it has an archaic and academic shape compared with reinforced concrete buildings.

  By the way the junior high school is standing at a very nice geographic location.
  On the wide ravine made by river invasion, distant from the stage-town. It is on a hill-terrace away 300 meters from Yodagawa. It is facing southeastward. The hill-terraces form a steep slope to continue to mountain-foot over which is Yoritoge pass.
  Some of branches of the river get together in Wada village ravine which forms a alluvial fan complex opening northeastward. As the schools are at the north end of the village, we can look over the summits of Asama mountains northeastward, and Wadatoge pass and Utsukushigahara highlands southward from there.

  I am impressed by not only the main hall of the highschool but also some small houses behind it.
  They are all one storeied and each of them has many windows on its walls to catch sunlight. Their walls are covered with larch bords in dark brown. Such impressive houses are in Japanese style of Taisho modern.
  From the views of their inside through the windows, their rooms look still used. For each room has some tables neatly kept in order and many water-taps. They look usued for cook training or science experiments.
  A new and round clock may tell us they remain active.