CHIBA, Jul 01 (News On Japan) –
In an deserted faculty deep within the mountains of Chiba, locals are experimenting with overseas travellers, who’re dressed up in class uniforms to have a ‘Japanese School Experience,’ in an effort to revive the city.
This expertise, themed “What if I were a Japanese high school student?”, has been provided on the deserted faculty in Kimitsu City since November final 12 months, aimed toward inbound vacationers.
The first interval is a “Japanese” class.
“Stand up, bow, sit down! Please teach us!”
Just like in an actual faculty, the category begins with a command from the category chief. First up is a calligraphy expertise, the place college students select and write their favourite kanji character utilizing a brush.
Dani, who “attended” from America, selected the kanji for “samurai.”
“I chose this kanji because I am very interested in various aspects of Japanese culture, including samurai,” Dani defined.
Dani’s buddy Teresa selected “ninja.”
The two, who love Japanese subculture, participated as a result of they have been desperate to expertise the “Japanese school life” usually depicted in manga and anime like “Jujutsu Kaisen” and “Naruto.”
Kimitsu City, the stage for this faculty expertise, has seen a rise in deserted colleges as a consequence of inhabitants decline, with 16 now in complete. Moreover, it has change into merely a transit level to in style vacationer locations like Kamogawa, highlighting the necessity to increase tourism content material for inbound guests.
The faculty expertise additionally consists of “physical education,” that includes actions like tug-of-war, bread-eating races, and ball toss video games. Additionally, members can expertise evacuation drills and different scenes not often seen as we speak.
“What did you do?” a trainer asks a scholar standing within the hallway holding a bucket.
“I cheated on the test,” the coed replies.
“This is a rather old custom. Nowadays, this punishment is no longer practiced,” the trainer explains, prompting a wry smile from Dani.
The “school lunch” introduced smiles to the shocked college students.
“Do you want more?” Dani, performing because the lunch server, asks.
“More!” a scholar replies.
“Okay!” Dani responds.
Dani, who has by no means skilled serving lunch in America, loved distributing dishes like the standard curry rice, fried bread, and the acquainted Chiba faculty menu merchandise, “peanut miso.”
“It’s very delicious. It’s also great to eat local food,” Dani mentioned.
The expertise concludes with a “graduation ceremony.”
“It was a truly wonderful experience to actually do almost everything that students do in Japanese schools,” Dani remarked.
Takaki Beiji, the consultant of Undokaiya, the corporate working the occasion, hopes this initiative will change into a brand new vacationer attraction in Kimitsu City.
“We aim to discover and promote more attractions and create new charm, bringing liveliness to the region,” Beiji mentioned.
This service is being carefully watched as a possible new use for deserted colleges.
According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, roughly 450 colleges throughout Japan change into deserted services every year as a result of declining variety of kids and college students.
Takaki Beiji, the consultant of Undokaiya, which operates the college expertise service, mentioned he thought of how you can use deserted colleges of their present kind, resulting in the creation of this Showa-era faculty expertise service.
The value to launch the enterprise was about 6 million yen, using subsidies from the Japan Tourism Agency’s inbound enterprise program to arrange actors and uniforms.
Beiji mentioned that the upkeep prices related to utilizing the college have begun to be lined by income because the enterprise will get on observe. “If this initiative to meet the high demand from foreign tourists to ‘experience Japanese culture’ becomes a success, it could lead to revitalization in areas with few tourism resources and limited benefits from inbound tourism. We want to create content from scratch and promote ‘regional revitalization projects’ to bring liveliness to the community,” Beiji acknowledged.
Source: ANN