Discipline in Japan

I've been in Japan over a month....how weird is that!?

Primarily here, I want to share a bit about Japanese schools.

My main issue with this place is the intense lack of discipline. I know most people's assumption is that Japan would be either really strict on discipline or that the kids would be so polite and well behaved that discipline wasn't particularly needed.....neither of these points are true.
Admittedly discipline doesn't seem to be needed a lot because Japanese students are generally fairly conplient however, not every student is up for education. This can go one of two ways. Some students get to class, put their heads on their desks and literally go to sleep. Can you imagine what would happen if you decided to do this in the UK!? In Japan the teachers gently prod the student awake, maybe ruffle their hair a bit and move on. Queue student promptly falling straight back to sleep. WTF???
Way two generally involves the student becoming a 'Yanki': dyed hair, lack of uniform, no respect for rules. I am very lucky that the only Yanki kids my school has are really young and not fully fledged yet. I have heard from less-fortunate ALTs though, that their kids wander around the school, no uniform, doing whatever they want, occasionally stopping by the teachers lounge for a chat and a smoke. I don't think they're even particularly nasty, they just don't want to be there. By this point in the UK these kids would been excluded, maybe expelled and would probably be out harassing pensioners on the streets. The Japanese education system does not particularly do exclusion/expulsion for precisely these reasons. It's all about not making the children feel excluded and singled out so, although it's great for social harmony, it's not amazing for teachers. The Japanese Sensei is seen as 'the third parent' and with the amount of time the children spend in school you can see why.
Luckily, my schools are generally pretty lovely. A lot of this is down to some amazing teachers who can manage their classes without shouting or threats; the perfect teaching in my eyes. However, some classes just don't respond well to this and need a more strong-handed approach which some teachers just refuse to give. Again, in the UK this would end in anarchy but in Japan it just makes for fairly loud disinterest, The thing is, all it would take to remedy this is a routine, maybe a way of keeping the kids on their toes with random selection rather than skipping them out if they don't feel like answering. (This is just my naive opinion anyway.)
Going by UK standards, I'd singled out the kids I thought were going to be trouble makers in my classes but it hasn't been the case. The popular guys here who shave their heads and do kendo are all really loud but in a good way. Maybe they are being obnoxious in shouting out answers but at least they're the right answers! And so far my wannabe Yanki's have either sat there looking bored but not causing an issue, or tried really hard to give answers whilst still trying to look disinterested.
It's hard to give a proper opinion as I'm still just doing intro lessons so they're vaguely more stimulating than the kids are used to but so far no disasters! I have all first grade JHS tomorrow with a teacher who constantly tells me how scared she is of them...I am not excited!

On a different note, feeling a bit homesick.

A lot of interesting things are happening back in Leeds and I miss all my friends. I feel like I have to work so hard to keep friends here and be included. Don't get me wrong, I'm good at being on my own but not all the time. I don't want to feel like I'm making a nuisance of myself where I'm not wanted but sometimes I feel a bit like I'm forcing myself on other people's plans.
Maybe I'm over-thinking this and taking everything a bit personally. I'm still enjoying myself, I just don't really know where I fit yet......