I coached volleyball practice for extracurricular activities this weekend. Actually, it is a unique Japanese culture and not common in the world. I found an interesting article explaining Japanese club activities.
Club activities take place after school every day. Teachers are assigned as sponsors, but often the students themselves determine the club’s daily activities.
Club activities take place after school every day. Teachers are assigned as sponsors, but often the students themselves determine the club’s daily activities.
https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/daily_life_in_japanese_high_schools
This is a case of Japanese high schools. At the Junior high schools, there are club activities as well, but in many cases, teachers take more initiative than at high schools. So, in my case, I determine daily activities. Unfortunately, however, not always all teachers experience the activities which they coach (so do I) and it makes harder to determine the activities.
Clubs meet for two hours after school each day and many clubs continue to meet during school vacations.
I should mention that on weekend too. Especially in winter, club meet gets much shorter due to earlier sunset, so we have weekend practices. On weekends, we usually have three to four hours practice. Practice games against neighboring schools are often held as well. In the practice games, sometimes it takes a whole day.
Although visible in the general high school experience, it is in the clubs that the fundamental relationships of senpai (senior) and kohai (junior) are established most solidly.
This is very interesting fact for me actually. I still remember that I felt very difficult to tell senpai and kohai culture when I was in the US. My US friends didn’t get why I can’t tell my elders “friend” only because of they are one year older. For me, however, it is not comfortable to say “friend” because it sounds too friendly. Mostly due to the experiences of club activities, Japanese people show respect to elder students. One year senior means more experienced and I felt I should respect their experience.
This fundamental relationship can be seen throughout Japanese society, in business, politics, and social dealings.
And this is true.
Since this article is quite interesting, I may write more impressions again.
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