Fernando Blog #4

Hey guys, what’s going on! This is going to be my last blog for this trip. I really had a blast living in Japan for a month with Japanese students and other international students alike. I have learned a lot from how the culture is like in Japan. From how the trains operate, how complex the stations are in here compared to Calgary, to how toilets in Japan are much better in terms of cleanliness compared to our simplistic toilets. I’ve met a lot of people here who truly made me feel welcome in the dorm which eased my anxiety from when I first entered the dorm.  

My research is also complete to the point where I could come up with a good enough conclusion. So, to reiterate what it is I’m researching, my research was about looking at school clubs that are established in Japanese schools and Western Schools. I was looking at the similarities and differences between how they operate, what types of clubs be made, and how the much of a workload there is to operate a club.  

In terms of operations, in Japan, there must always be a teacher to serve as a supervisor for the club. But the extent of that role differs depending on if the club is established as a junior high school club, a high school club, or a university club. The role of the teacher in school clubs is to be there to sign off papers and supervise the club and make sure they stay within appropriate fields and the activities doesn’t go off to the extremes; but for junior high school  and high school, the teacher is expected to have some sort of mentor figure for the club members, to teach the club members about how to do the club activities. For example, for sports clubs, the teacher can be a coach on the side.

In terms of what clubs can be made, in Japan, any student can form any kind of club as long as there’s a teacher willing to sponsor it and enough students willing to form the club with you. Also, there is no limit in how many people can join a club, but there is can be a minimum amount of people required for the club to stay operational. That’s why existing members of a club will go to the extremes to make sure new members join their club. In Canada, you only need fellow students to form a club but that’s only in post-secondary. Before that you need a teacher to be a supervisor for the club.

Now comes the juicy part, the workload. Japanese school clubs can be really time consuming for students. Clubs can get very intensive to the point where it might take up a student’s time in the weekend for club practice. Sports clubs, for example, usually have club practice 5 – 6 days of the week. So a majority the club members’ times is usually taken up by both school activities and club activities. In a way, it keeps them occupied but, in another way it reduces their time with their families to the point where their parents barely see them anymore.

This is what I have gathered in my time here in Japan. I really had fun going everywhere in Tokyo because it’s so different from the quiet city of Calgary and I would love to come back here anytime.