On Mon, 3 Feb 1997, Cory Holmes wrote:

1)I'm not so sure about this one, but I think that the funeral rites are
like this, I think.  Their picture is hung on the wall, incense candle are
burnt and the family spends some time in meditation reliving the deceased's
life and remembering happy memories.  I'm not sure about what happens next.
Sorry.

Reasonably accurate.  There are, of course, different rites for different
beliefs within Japan.

2) Tokyo University, Kokoku University, University of Japan.  I hope that's
enough.

You forgot Doushisha in Tokyo.  Big university.  Sorry, I had to throw
that one in since my uncle used to be the head professor of history. :)

I may have spelled the name of the school wrong; I last saw it written out
when I was visiting my uncle.  A good 6 years ago.  ^_^; And I knew less
kan'ji then. (I was 13!)

4)I assume that your asking about the "cram school".  All it is a drop-in
school that a student goes to if they need help or wish to go ahead.  Most
parents force their children to attend the juku, and that usually bogs them
down with homework.  I think that to go to the juku, you need to make an
appiontment, but I'm not sure about that.  You could sign up for regular
classes in the juku, and you would be expected to show up.  Some juku's are
even in the same high school, but is after hours.

Juku are also PRIVATE schools; you must pay to attend classes at a juku.
It's almost expected that students who wish to do well will attend a juku.
I visited the juku my friend Masafumi attended while I stayed with him in
Japan; it didn't look terribly fun.  And yes, the homework load you have
nearly triples when you attend juku. :/

Hope this helps whoever originally asked. ^_^;

    +---[ Loki ]-------------+----------------------------------------+
    | Jeremy "Loki" Blackman | Founder, Maison Otaku Productions      |
    | loki@maison-otaku.net  | http://www.maison-otaku.net            |
    | loki@thekeep.org       | NeonMuck Server Maintainer             |
    +------------------------+ http://www.maison-otaku.net/neon       |
    | Lunatic Coder, etc     | http://www.maison-otaku.net/~loki      |
    +------------------------+----------------------------------------+