9/03/2013

Japanese High School Culture Festival (文化祭 Bunkasai)


If you can't see the video, please go here: http://youtu.be/B75SlPdYqVc

Japanese high schools are already very different from western schools. Students are quiet, they listen, but they have to learn by rote and drill lessons. They have to clean the school themselves, which I think is a great activity for distilling in them respect, you know, that thing completely missing from Western youth. There's other things as well, but as a reward the teachers let the students take control of the school for a weekend in summer. The result is the Culture festival, commonly referred to in Japan as the bunkasai. 

'Culture festival' is a very vague translation. The event covers the variety of games, shops and events that each school club and individual classes want to do.Then there are bands and other performances in the main hall or courtyard (depending on the school) and food stalls at the gates. Click the video above to see exactly what goes on in these events.


The decorated school entrance. It's different every year.

The event is open for two days. On the first day, Saturday, they open in the afternoon and its mainly a closed event for the school and family. Then on Sunday they open in the morning until afternoon for the public. Anyone can go, but it is usually family of students, teachers and the occasional students from other schools who maybe have friends there. Though it's entirely possible they are spies planting bugs and explosive devices in strategic locations.... 

Preparation for the event begins as early as May. Students have to think of what they want to do, confirm it with the student council, and book a room. Then, it is not uncommon at lunchtimes and after school, to find students practicing dance routines and singing in the corridors. I try to sneakily see what they are doing, but nobody wants to be labelled Pervert Teacher, so I don't take photos and sell them online or anything. The practicing continues through the holidays and then the festival is usually on the first weekend after school restarts. In the days leading up to it, some students will go to the gates of other schools and hand out leaflets for their own bunkasai, in a cheeky bit of competition. 


My Bunkasai haul from a previous year, minus all the food... errp!

The Friday before, lessons stop at lunch time, with the afternoon set aside for preparation.  On that day, students transform their classrooms into funfair attractions. They draw pictures on the chalkboards, make posters, tinsel, and whatever they need for their games. I love walking round and speaking to people. It's great to see what everyone is up to, find out their games, and see who wants me to visit. Then when I go, I usually spend a fair few coin on each of the events, but I do come away with a bag of random goodies.

So, does it look like fun? What stall would you hold for this festival?

12 comments:

  1. This was a great insight to the Culture Festival (文化祭 Bunkasai) which I had no idea about. The video was great too, very informative and made me want to make my own slime! I especially enjoyed The Kinks right at the end too (>_<)

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  2. I'll be in Tokyo from the 3rd thru the 8th of November. I know that the 3rd and 4th should be a holiday for the bunkasai and would like to experience it in a high school and/or college setting. Any suggestions? Any other neat local things to see/do too? Thanks!

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  3. In my own opinion, machine translation isn't reliable when compared to human translation. Just my own thought. german translation services.

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  4. SO when does this festival take place? :) Does it only happen once per school year or more than once?

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  5. I've pitched the idea of a school festival to my school here in a rural area of Illinois. Surprisingly the staff asked the "higher ups" to listen to my proposal. Your article really gave me some ideas!

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  6. Okay, that was completely uncalled for to say that no one in the West has respect. I will not read the rest of your article. Learn to be respectful yourself.

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    1. Oh, yes, because Nat and Matt are going to lose sleep over some idiot not reading their article. The article said 'Western YOUTH'. Generally, he's right, western youth don't have a lot of respect. A bunch of them are also complete morons, like you.

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    2. It's still rude to say that even Western youth have no respect. That's like saying all black people are criminals.

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    3. As a western youth I can confirm most if us have no respect. We're not taught respect out manners in school. I work with kids now who are three and they are allowed to do what they want and most if then do not respect their teachers.

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    4. uhhh they're three years old?? The disrespect in western schools has to do with the school system and structure-- that's not the kids or teacher's fault. Many teachers try to instill respect but filial piety isn't really huge in the US. It's just a matter of cultural difference. I think that western people disrespect varies from family to family-- also the word western is very generalized-- it could have been left out of the article, and still have the blog make sense. :\

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  7. I really enjoyed this article! I actually plan on proposing this idea to my school in Indiana. I felt this was very informative and personal. Very inspiring!

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  8. Thanks admin for sharing informative article on tokyo tourist attractions. It is one of the top travelers destination that draw travelers from all over the world. Keep on updating your blog with such awesome information.

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