Athletics:
Culture:
Music:
Day in the Life:
Daily Life in Japanese High Schools
Middle and High Schools in Japan
#1) Morning and after-school club activities: Students who are members of sports clubs have club activities both before and after school every day. Some of these include sports clubs where the children have to run several kilometers a day to stay in shape. As you might expect, this usually results in tired, sleepy, and not to mention sweaty students during class as they are all expected to wake up very early and return home late to fulfill their club activity commitments. It sounds like a lot of hard work, as persistence, commitment and determination are required!
Clubs are also extremely popular and most students are involved in something or another. They are very proud of the club and work hard to keep up with what is expected of them. (http://jpninfo.com/52113)
#2) Club activities rock!
Clubs or bukatsu are serious business at Japanese high schools. In fact, all high school students are expected to join at least one club during the school year. There are tons of clubs to join, from sports clubs like cheerleading, ping pong, and kendo, to cultural clubs like calligraphy, photography, and brass band. Some clubs meet once a week while others are more hardcore. If you sign up for a sports club like the baseball team, for example, expect lots of practice on mornings, evenings, weekends, even national holidays. Alternatively, if you join a culture club like the English Club, expect a more relaxed schedule.
Also, note that although high school students have regular school breaks during spring, summer, Golden Week, and winter, many Japanese students choose to come in during vacation to take part in club activities. Talk about dedication! (https://www.goabroad.com/articles/highschool-study-abroad/10-things-to-expect-before-high-school-in-japan)
#3) High School Clubs
There are a lot of different types of clubs, which are divided into two major groups; Sports clubs and culture clubs, and I’ve only ever been in the latter, so my thoughts here are primarily focused on them, although I know enough about sports clubs from others to share some tidbits.
Culture clubs usually meet only on weekdays, from when school ends [which is between 3:30 and 4 depending on your school], until around 5:30/6:00.
Some Culture clubs only meet once or twice a week though, like Tea Ceremony club, and some meet seven days a week, like International Club. Clubs like brass band or dance club even meet in the morning before lessons. You often meet with your club during lunch break as well, although this usually entails chatting and eating and not club practice, although occasionally International Club met during lunch before tournaments as well.
Sports clubs meet seven days a week, and can go on for quite a while. As I mentioned in the video, I meet people from several different sports clubs in my train home at 8:10, myself coming from Japanese lessons.
Calligraphy club is preparing for the school festival right now, so we meet until 6:30 instead of 5:30, 7:00 starting tomorrow and 7:30 the week thereafter. We also meet on weekends, but due to it being my last month I’m not going as I want to spend time with my host family.
There’s some advice I forgot to add in the video, It’s okay for you as an exchange student to not go on weekends or occasionally take the day of to spend time with your host family or to catch up on studying. I went every day during my first few months and missed a few events that in retrospect I would have really liked to attend. You are only here for a week, and although AFS is a school exchange program, that doesn’t mean you have to spend all of your weekends at school as well. If AFS offers you Japanese lessons, it’s a good idea to go there instead of club once a week as well.
There is usually no club for a week or two leading up to tests.
Competitions are held all over the country, and clubs often travel to different prefectures to compete. Depending on who organized the competition, students have to pay the transportation cost. I didn’t really go into the whole money aspect of clubs, primarily since I don’t know enough about it. I had to pay the hotel cost for the first few competitions, including nationals I think, internationals was covered by the debating organization. (http://yonaschuh.com/japanese-high-school-clubs/)