For elementary school children in Japan, their weeks-long summer vacation isn't entirely a time for leisure. Instead, it's overshadowed by a stack of homework that features, among other things, an assignment known as jiyū kenkyū (independent project).

As the name suggests, jiyū kenkyū is an opportunity for pupils to pursue a project they're interested in. At the same time, however, it has become something of an ever-present headache for students, many of whom would typically spend a large chunk of their already homework-ridden vacation trying to figure out just what project they should undertake.

Mad: A student in Iwate Prefecture earned the wrath of his mother by deliberately failing to keep up with his homework over the summer. 'She was so furious she smashed a plate,' the student wrote in a journal that documented his parents' response. | COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM USER SASABODE
Mad: A student in Iwate Prefecture earned the wrath of his mother by deliberately failing to keep up with his homework over the summer. 'She was so furious she smashed a plate,' the student wrote in a journal that documented his parents' response. | COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM USER SASABODE