Yamanashi Gakuin High School in Kofu, Japan
Japanese Exchange
Yamanashi Gakuin
Participants by Year
Our
sister school in Japan is called Yamanashi Gakuin, which means
"Yamanashi high school", but we stick on the high school part
whenever we refer to it just to make things confusing. It's a
private school, but the kids that go there are at about the same academic
and motivational level as our students, so it's not like we're visiting
some college level academy.
On arrival to Yamanashi Gakuin High School you might think that you're headed into an office building of some sort, but the number of uniformed Japanese walking or bicycling toward the school are a clear sign that you're headed for a place of education. For starters, the school looks nothing like the average California high school, mainly because the two largest buildings at the school are made up of four floors. The reason for the school being built high and not wide is because in Japan, space is limited, and the best way to conserve space is by building up, not spread out. The school is made up of mostly brick buildings and one small gymnasium. Their athletic playing fields are a mile away.
Don't be surprised to see all of the students
wearing peculiar slippers while they are walking inside the buildings or
the gymnasium… Also, be on the lookout for lots and lots of shoes to be
lined up 
neatly outside the gym, it's quite a spectacle when you think
about it, more than 800 students attend Yamanshi Gakuin High Schol-that's
more than 1600 individual shoes! One of the most picturesque aspects of
the high school is that it lies at the bottom of a lush green hill, and
during most overcast mornings you can see the clouds slowly breaking apart
and revealing an old winery at the top of the fertile hill. Inside the
school, you'll find a very neat cafeteria that has vending machines that
sell soda, tea, water, and even ready to eat cups of noodles. All in all,
it's a surprisingly interesting look at the way our Japanese peers go through
their high school experience.
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