Club Day

So five of my friends and I took a 45-minute train ride out to our school's campus in the countryside, where they were having their beginning of the school year club day. The Japanese school year starts in spring and ends early winter, so this is the start of a new year for all of them. My school has a few different campuses, but this one out in the country is where all of the freshman and sophomores are, and clubs are the biggest rage. So we figured we'd check it out, and we were very glad we did. There were clubs for EVERYTHING it seemed. Most of the people advertising for them at the booths were sophomores or juniors, and a lot of the people walking around were freshmen looking for clubs. The were clubs for pretty much every sport (not hockey), students that have been abroad, cover bands, "original" bands, magic tricks, theater, tea ceremony, ikebana, various volunteer projects, and even just social clubs. A lot of the kids have club jackets, with some of them seeming fancier than others. The group/jacket thing reminded me of the movie Grease, since it would just say one word or so on the back usually, like "Hearts" or something. Here are some photos I got, but these don't even capture all of the clubs that were there, it seemed like it never ended.




There was even an airplane club! I wonder how long you have to be a member in order to fly, we didn't bother asking for some reason.




I had a video of one of the bands that I tried to post, but for some reason it wouldn't load. Either way, they weren't very good, and if anything, convinced me not to join their club. If I ever get the video up, I guess one can admire their enthusiasm, but they really didn't seem like the kind of people I'd want to make or listen to music with.