I am curious about the Cultural Festival(文化祭／ぶんかさい bunkasai) of Japanese senior middle school. I always see that activity in Japanese Anime, so I want join once in reality.
I expected there might be a scheduler on any website recording the Festival Date of many school in Japan. But I haven’t find that information.
I will stay in Tokyo between 25/4/2023 to 2/5/2023. I want to consalt is there any School Cultural Festival in that period? Or where could I search the information of Cultural Festival in season?
Thanks a lot～ and I will share my experience to visit Japanese school if I success.
4 comments
This is a interesting question, so I am going to allow it.
From my own understanding, in this instance, “Open to the public” really means “friends and family” and less true public. You likely can still attend however it is entirely possible that as a foreigner you may also be asked to leave. As it is middle school you are looking to go to and not even high school, I would say it is even more likely you might be asked to leave.
Your best bet is to see if you can contact the school or the ALT for the school (if they participate in JET or have a ALT through a third party). You might be able to go to /r/AskAJapanese or /r/JetProgramme and see if they can answer more specifically.
That said, I believe they are in September, so you will likely miss it anyways.
School events are not a tourist attraction and most schools don’t allow outsiders to step into their premises.
Why not try college bunkasai instead? They usually allow outsiders due to the nature of the event and college itself. You won’t look too out of place if you’re college age.
As other person already explained, many school festivals are usually open for visitors but these visitors are mainly family members or friends of the students.
Sometimes, students who go to a boys’ school(or girls’ school) visit school festivals held by different schools even though they don’t have any friends there but they are as young as the students at least. I’m sure adults who don’t have any acquaintances do NOT visit it.
In short, I don’t recommend you to visit any school festival in Japan. If you have a friend who works as a teacher there and he/she lets you visit the festival, it’ll be fine.
Festivals held at uni are more open and you are allowed to visit them without any permission.
So yeah, you’re not likely going to get to visit a middle school festival as a non-affiliated person. I mean, it’s a little touchy for random outsiders to be visiting schools where minors are. And with COVID they’ve been even more restrictive. You can try universities, which are more open.
Also, you’re looking at late April-early May? School cultural festivals are normally in the fall, because it takes a long time for the students to plan the festivals and school starts in April.