Ever watch characters in your favorite high school-centered anime and think wistfully, “That shoulda been me?” Good news – now it can be! A company is inviting Japanese tourists to an old high school in Chiba Prefecture to live out their anime dreams. Besides giving tourists a unique experience, the company hopes the project can help revitalize an area of Japan hit hard by depopulation.
The Showa high school experience
Launched in November 2023, CAMPiece Your High School (君ノ高校) in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture (English website) is the clever invention of Undokaya, a company that sponsors morale-building sports activities for corporate employees. Now, however, the company’s set its sights on getting a slice of Japan’s increasingly large tourist pie.
Your High School is based in an abandoned high school – Kameyama Junior High School – on the outskirts of Kimitsu, a small-ish city in Chiba of about 80,000 people. Kameyama closed in March 2020 due to depopulation. The company also uses nearby Kameyama Elementary, which closed a year later. The company has limited renovations to those necessary to keep the buildings operational in order to preserve their original design and atmosphere.
Once at the school, “students” immerse themselves in a classic Showa era (1926-1989) Japanese high school experience. Female students wear sailor suits while male students wear the equally distinctive gakuran (学ラン).
From there, tourist/students follow a full schedule that runs from 10:30am to dismissal at 4:30pm. Activities include homeroom, Japanese language calligraphy, lunch, history, physical education, and an after-school experience with a traditional school festival, taiko drumming, and Japanese snacks.
Undokaiya has gone to some lengths to make this an authentic-seeming experience. Its website indicates that there will be fire drill exercises – and “naughty students” from a rival school may even bust in at some point and cause trouble. (Yes, that’s right – you get to see “yankee” students in the flesh.) You even have the opportunity to tell the teacher you forgot your homework and get sentenced to standing in the hallway just like Usagi-chan.
There are a host of other adds-on as well. You can book a separate camping night or even a sake tasting experience. (Okay, so it’s not EXACTLY like high school.) The “school” even sells souvenirs, such as an authentic randoseru backpack. Additionally, you can plan a stay at a nearby traditional ryokan and onsen for a fully Japanese experience.
A solution to overtourism and rural depopulation?
On its website, Your High School touts that one of its aims in sponsoring the school experience is to help revitalize the local community of Kimitsu.
Japan’s population decline shows no signs of slowing down. As fewer people occupy the country, more people rush to Japan’s cities for economic security. That means many small cities and rural areas are slowly becoming ghost towns.
You can see this trend in Kimitsu’s own population statistics. The city hit a peak population in 1995, a few years after the country’s “bubble period” (1986-1991), at 93,216. Since then, Kimitsu has lost over 11,000 residents – nearly 12% of its total population.
By luring tourists out to remote areas of Japan, businesses like Undokaiya may also help with Japan’s overtourism problems. Tourist overcrowding in cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka is angering residents sick of overcrowded public transit and ill-behaved visitors.
On social media, even Japanese commenters seem to love the idea of a Show-era school for tourists. One said that airports like Narita should have more experiences like this close to the airport, enabling tourists to deposit their luggage with a luggage service and then take them to their hotels to rest before “starting “going to school” the following day.
Your High School is one project and won’t solve overtourism by itself. However, experiences like this feel like a step in the right direction.
Pricing, reservations, and access
Want to attend high school on your next trip to Japan? You can book your adventure via Rakuten Travel Experiences. Attendance costs 38,000 yen (USD $253), with additional fees for add-ons such as camping, the sake experience, and staying at the nearby ryokan. The base price includes a free souvenir (お土産; omiyage).
(Note: The website says the experience is 30,000 yen; the above price reflects the latest pricing showing on Rakuten.)
Attendance appears limited to 30 people/day. However, the site says you can book large groups over 30 as a private party.
Kimitsu is a bit of a trek from Tokyo, clocking in at over three hours via public transit. Fortunately, CAMPiece offers a shuttle that leaves Shinjuku and goes directly to the school.
One caveat: The school doesn’t offer special meals for people with allergies or dietary restrictions. It’s also unclear how much support they can offer people with disabilities.
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Sources
Photo 転校生は訪日客. Mainichi Shimbun
外国人観光客が学ラン・セーラー服で学校入学。「昭和レトロな⽇本の学校1日体験」を、千葉の廃校キャンプ場「CAMPiece君津」にて開始. CAMPiece
Kimo no Highschool. CAMPiece / Undokaiya
