Editor’s note:The View from the Classroom is a regular column published by Sam Porter, an American who is spending his senior year at a Japanese high school. All of Mr Porter’s columns can be seen at the View From the Classroom category list.

Hello TPR listeners, I’m proud to bring you the next installment in my series of ongoing articles on high school in Japan. In this piece I will be discussing my first impressions and the overall atmosphere of a Japanese high school. The name of the school I’m attending and all names of teachers and school faculty have been changed for this column.

“Okaa-san, do I really first travel by bike, then by train, and then by bus to get to school? Does it really take 90 minutes?” I asked my host mother in disappointment before I left for school at 7:00 AM on the first day of school.

I was learning my first lesson about life for many of Japan’s high school students. Going to school is never easy. My oldest host brother Shoujiro had to travel from our town in Osaka prefecture all the way to downtown Kyoto by train, and then switch trains yet again to finally arrive at his school. My other host siblings, Yuta, and Himiko, both traveled my long route to school each day too.

In Japan all pre-college students take entrance exams while entering elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. Depending on how well students do in their exams, they are eligible for certain schools. Students do not usually end up in their own town. Frequently they are placed in schools accessible only by long train rides, bus rides, bike rides, or a combination of any three of these modes of transportation. It was my luck to need all three modes!

As the bus pulled up to Moriyama Gakuen High School’s entrance, I and about thirty other male and female students stood up and got off. I’d just finished my long morning commute to school that consists of a 10 minute bike ride, a 40 minute train ride, and a 30 minute bus ride. Starting my school day mornings at 6:00 AM ensures that by the time I get to school I am thoroughly tired.

The landscape surrounding Moriyama is strikingly pretty. Although in a very urban prefecture, this area of Osaka prefecture is rural enough that miles of rice fields and forest separate small islands of buildings. In the distance lie the tall peaks of mountains that only become visible on rainy days when the hazy sky is washed away.

Moriyama Gakuen High School is a private school. Although a private school, Moriyama is certainly not too different on the outside from a Japanese public school in physical appearance. From looking out of my bus seat’s window I could already see that its rather bland white painted cement structures with larger rectangular rusted metal framed windows matched in perfectly with the rest of rather uninspiring Japanese school architecture.

As I walked in through the main entrance I swept by a feeling of unease and confusion. I really wasn’t sure where I was supposed to go or what to do.

Rushing in from behind me were students going in every direction. I was sure I must’ve looked perplexed and lost, but no one stopped to ask me who I was or if I needed help. Just when I decided to choose a direction to walk to in hope of running into a faculty member, I heard an American sounding voice say loudly in English, “I hear from the students that there’s a new foreign English teacher on our staff spotted. That’s funny, we weren’t notified about any staff additions.”

I turned around to see a young man with a closely shaved head smiling at me. This was Max, one of two American English teachers working at the school. Apparently the students around me had believed that I was a new teacher rather than a student. At the time I hadn’t received my school uniform, so I’d come to school in a sport coat and tie.

After exchanging greetings we were met by Anne, the other American English teacher. She and Max are the only foreign teachers at the school. Together we started out walking towards the International Office. Hallways and staircases appeared at sharp angles and behind hidden bends. Along the way Anne and Max pointed out teachers.

“You see that that tall man with the shaved head?” asked Anne. “He’s Mr. Rules, don’t ever be caught with your shirt not tucked in, your belt loose, or your tie off. But most importantly, don’t drink anything in the hallway. He absolutely won’t stand for that!”

As if Death himself were passing through, students caught in his path suddenly stopped whatever they were doing, and came to attention. Quickly each gave him deep bows along with polite good mornings. Only when he’d passed by did laughter, talking, and walking resume.

Finally we reached the International Office. On the door was a sign that read both in English and Japanese in bold letters: “Do Not Use This Door.” Just as Max was about to open the door, I asked why we were using this door rather than one further down to our right. Max simply replied, “Oh this sign, well, no one really knows where it came from.” When I asked Yamamoto Sensei, the head of the International Office, about it, he said, ‘Really? There’s a sign on the door that says for it not to be used? I guess I never noticed it.’” Apparently the sign had been on the door for some months according to Max.

Moriyama Gakuen High School offers three different course tracks for its students. Track A is the Intensive English track. In this track students take many English classes, and take more courses in the humanities. During their three years of high school they are expected to go abroad for 1 year to New Zealand or Canada through a school sponsored exchange program. Track B is the Vocational track. Students taking Track B take most of their courses on healthcare issues and receive training in nursing. In this track students are prepared for going to college to study to become nurses. Track C, the last track, is a general studies Track. Track C places emphasis on learning English, but also offers a general education to students on all different subjects.

Moriyama Gakuen High School at first felt like an academic centered school, but it rather quickly became apparent that sports receive no less attention than do academic subjects. The most important sports teams are the baseball and soccer teams, although it is the baseball team which possesses the greater presence at school. Just this summer, Moriyama’s baseball team almost became prefecture champions out of more than 60 high school baseball teams. If it had won, it would’ve gone on to compete in the nationwide high school baseball tournament. There are almost 80 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year baseball players at the school. Some of them come from as far as two prefectures away. Many of them are housed in an on campus dorm facility. Unlike other students, their school day ends at lunchtime. Following lunch is a marathon five hour practice if there is no game after school. Typically the school day for a baseball student ends at around 6 PM. To put this in perspective, baseball players only take four academic classes, while other students take six or seven classes each day, and finish school at 3:35 PM, or 4:35 PM.

The baseball players are expected to maintain a certain level of courtesy towards all people while outside of class in the hall. Each baseball team member has to come to attention with their feet together, bow, say hello, or good morning, depending on the time of day when a teacher or someone they don’t know walks by in the school’s hallways.

Within each of the school sports a strict system of kohai and senpai hierarchy exists. These two terms refer to the social superior and inferior system system which characterizes the relationships of Japanese students and co-workers. A senpai is either someone who is older or higher in status than you at work or in school. A kohai is someone who is a person inferior to you in age or in standing at school or work. To illustrate this social relationship I’ll use my school’s baseball team as an example. In practice, younger players on the baseball team are required to do chores for the older players. 1st year baseball players are expected to do tasks such as cleaning and taking care of equipment for 2nd and 3rd year baseball players. 2nd year baseball players may also prepare tea, snacks, and help out with cleaning lockers and other facilities along with the 1st year students. 3rd year baseball players are on the top of the social ladder. Their role is to play their best and bring prestige to the school.

Classes on my first day of school all began similarly. The conspicuous tall blonde haired and blued eyed Danish exchange student Jons and I would slide open the classroom door, causing an instantaneous uproar of voices. The teachers would then ask to make a speech about ourselves. By the 7th class of the day, I felt like a politician making stump speeches for a campaign. After making a polite self introduction, as if on cue a couple of male and female student’s voices would shriek, “Mitte, mitte na! Ryugakusei dayo!” “Mechha kakkoi na!” In English this translates into: “Look, look won’t you! Exchange students! Super cool!”

Each time we entered a classroom we got the same over the top reaction. Part of being a foreign exchange student at a Japanese school is the immense attention that’s directed towards you. It can be wanted or unwanted at times. There is never a way to escape it because being a foreigner literally makes one stand out of any crowd at school. In calligraphy class, girls are always a little too eager to show you how paint the kanji correctly, while the boys you meet in the hall like to try out their stock American phrases such as, “Yo, what’s up?” For the first week it seems like few students acted like their true selves around me.

Whether it was going to the bathroom, or just walking down the hallway, someone always kept on approaching me. At first all of this attention is fun, but as time went on it wore me down. It’s become increasingly hard to just have privacy as another student when in the library or in the hallways between classes. The hardest part about being an exchange student is to be accepted by one’s peers as just another classmate. All too frequently people gawk at me, shy away from speaking, or act very friendly in a way that at times is a little awkward. I’ve gotten the sense that most students are not really sure exactly how to behave around me, or the other exchange student from Denmark.

What sets Moriyama Gakuen High School apart from the stereotypical Japanese school is its unusually liberal rules and very lax enforcement of its school regulations. Japanese schools, whether private or public, are notorious for being sticklers on rules from the arcane to the absurd. Some common rules are as follows: students may only have black hair, no part time jobs during the school year, no smoking, no facial hair for boys, hair lengths for boys and girls must meet accepted school standards, girls’ skirts must be at appropriate length, boys’ uniform pants mustn’t be baggy, etc. But for some reason Moriyama tends to overlook some of the more famous rules that other Japanese schools just love to enforce. All of my friends hold down part time jobs at convenience stores on school day evenings or during the weekend. Many female students seem to be competing for the shortest skirt lengths by altering them at stores or on their own. Some boys make a habit of wearing their pants as loose and baggy whenever they can, while many of the soccer team members have grown their hair almost to their shoulders. While these transgressions are overlooked, other transgressions such as drinking water in the hall, eating before or after lunch, being caught with your uniform shirt’s tie off, and not making a proper enough greeting to a teacher in a hallway, are all seen as being important offenses. Certainly this school has had an odd sense of what rules are worth enforcing.

Although all of my classes have so far been taught through lectures with little to no required classroom participation, the quality of teaching has been visibly good. As much as I may disagree with the teaching style, I also understand that I must accept it as another factor of culture that is different from western society. I look forward to witnessing firsthand how Japanese teaching styles hold up over a year’s time, and if perhaps there positive attributes to it that I’ve not considered before. Whatever the outcome of my Japanese classroom experience is, I’m sure that I’ll gain much more from it than I would if I read about it in America.

For my next article I’ll be diving into my observations on teaching and Japanese high school students at my school. I hope you’ll return to read more about these and other observations of life at Moriyama Gakuen High School.