Attending Hoshūkō. In 1996 at the age of six Timothy started attending Hoshūkō with his Japanese friends. Before attending it was necessary to enrol him. Enrolment was a purely Japanese affair making it inaccessible to non-Japanese speakers. In order to enrol Timothy at Hoshūkō, it was necessary to attend a meeting in west London to obtain the necessary forms. I went with my Japanese friends to collect the forms which my partner later completed in Japanese. With my son enrolled at Hoshūkō, Timothy was very excited about starting. He was already familiar with the language, cultural practices and artefacts associated with Japanese school life through watching authentic Japanese anime (cartoons). One such artefact is a black leather randoseru (rucksack) for boys (see figure 2), which his grandmother sent from Japan. Timothy was extremely proud of his randoseru and he wore it with pride.
