News Junior high school excursions avoid Kyoto over overtourism

[thomas]

More inbound bashing?

According to Asahi, Kyoto has grown so crowded with tourists that some schools are starting to avoid the city for their excursions. Teachers have remarked that pupils end up learning more about queues, delays, and gridlocked streets than about temples, shrines, and the city's history. Although Kyoto is still the most popular destination for junior high school trips, cracks are beginning to show. Nishi-Ikebukuro Junior High in Tokyo, for instance, decided to head to Shikoku next year after a frustrating visit to Kyoto last autumn.

During that trip, students were allowed to explore in groups, using local buses and trains to reach historic sites. Instead, much of their time was lost in traffic, leaving many groups able to see only half of what had been planned. One group even abandoned the bus near Kinkakuji when they realised the line was impossibly crowded. Concerned about making the final meeting point on time, they skipped Kitano Tenmangu and other stops and walked nearly 13 kilometres to reach Fushimi Inari Taisha.

The school consulted a travel agency and changed the next school trip destination from Kyoto and Nara to Shikoku. The main island west of Kyoto offers various experience-based programs, such as cooking "katsuo no tataki" (fresh skipjack tuna seared over a straw fire) in Kochi Prefecture and preparing "udon" thick noodles in Kagawa Prefecture. "We always wanted them to experience making something with their own hands," Yahiro said. "In Kochi, they can also learn about the history of the closing days of Japan's feudal times." The school explained the change at a parent meeting in April and met with no objection. A 47-year-old woman whose daughter is a second-year student at the school said she was concerned by news reports about overtourism in Kyoto. "It makes me worry about her health if she has to wait for a long time to get on a bus or enter a site in hot temperatures," the mother said. "Neither I nor my daughter have visited Shikoku. I heard there are many experience-based programs, and I think she can spend quality time there."

New hot spots for junior high school trips, as schools begin to look beyond Kyoto, are Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture and Hakodate in Hokkaidō .

Tourist crowds in Kyoto starting to repel students on school trips | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

When I was in junior high school, our school trip was to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. We went there by Shinkansen, and on the way back we took an overnight ferry from Osaka Port to Moji Port. We traveled by bus to places like Kiyomizu Temple and Kinkakuji, but everywhere we went was crowded with students from other schools. I mostly remember how much fun it was just being with my friends, so I don't think I really paid attention to the explanations about the temples and shrines. Of course, at night we had pillow fights, snuck out of the inn, got caught, and had to sit formally on our knees while the teachers scolded us—it was the classic experience. They're good memories. I also remember feeling a little envious of private school students, whose school trips were to the newly opened Tokyo Disneyland at that time.

 

[Ukigumo]

There must be equally educational place to visit other than Kyoto? Teachers need to think laterally and harder to find suitable alternatives. Or visit in the winter, perhaps.

At school we went to London Zoo, Nottingham (home of the Robin Hood myth) and as a 17 year old, Penzance for a gruelling but magical week of marine biology! By a twist of fate, I now live not too far from Penzance so in a desire for natsukashii, I revisited my marine biology sites and had tears of joy and in my eyes.

 

[Majestic]

Shikoku, Kanazawa, and Hakodate are all great alternatives to Kyoto. Kyushu and Okinawa should be on the list, too. A lot of potential for these places to pick up the business that gets dropped from Kyoto.

 

[Ukigumo]

What is the purpose of a school trip?

Being brought up where the Industrial Revolution started, we had lots of day trips to museums, old mills, the Bridgewater canal etc to augment our learning and it really did help!

 

[Lothor]

What is the purpose of a school trip?

Being brought up where the Industrial Revolution started, we had lots of day trips to museums, old mills, the Bridgewater canal etc to augment our learning and it really did help!

I got sick to death of Styal Mill when I was a kid!

 

[mdchachi]

I got sick to death of Styal Mill when I was a kid!

While the rest of us only dreamed that one day we could visit Styal Mill.

 

[Lothor]

While the rest of us only dreamed that one day we could visit Styal Mill.

Yeah, I was blessed to grow up in the suburbs of Manchester!

 

[Grandpa Frank]

62-68 , the closest thing I had for a field trip was the local Navy base where we shot .22 rifles. Not sure if our schools do anything now.

 

[mdchachi]

62-68 , the closest thing I had for a field trip was the local Navy base where we shot .22 rifles. Not sure if our schools do anything now.

At six grade camp we got to shoot .22 rifles. I was the best shot and my prize was that I got to shoot a shotgun at a picture of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Got to start the indoctrination early.

 

[Majestic]

blessed to grow up in the suburbs of Manchester!

Burnage, perhaps?

 

[Lothor]

Burnage, perhaps?

View attachment 131967

I lived about a mile from Burnage one happy summer.

 

[thomas]

At six grade camp we got to shoot .22 rifles. I was the best shot and my prize was that I got to shoot a shotgun at a picture of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Got to start the indoctrination early.

That must have been the time the Beach Boys sang "Bomb, Bomb Iran" (pronouncing Iran like "I ran").

 

[Ukigumo]

Burnage, perhaps?

View attachment 131967

I was allocated to go to Burnage High School which would've put me in Noel Gallagher's year. It was a rough, single-sex school so my parents successfully appealled to get me into the much better mixed-sex, Parrs Wood High School, about 2 miles down the road. Burnage and Parrs Wood kids would regularly have pitched battles outside the chippy on Kingsway but our hero was Aziz Ibrahim, a superb martial artist who defended us all with his kicking skills, all round nice guy and who would later become a session guitarist for the likes of 'Asia' and various other big bands! His sister was a lovely friend of mine in my Biology A level class.

If I'd gone to Burnage, I might've been able to teach Noel how to play guitar beyond pentatonic scales and hold and use his plectrum correctly. He might've then made something of himself in the music industry...

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

Kochi is a great alternative to Kyoto. Nara could be good, although it's pretty full of tourists as well. Kyushu has a lot to offer, including the rounds of hell, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, etc.

For my own junior high school field trip, I have no idea where the school went. I was being punished for some reason or another, so the school wouldn't allow me to participate. I got to stay at school and play baseball with all the other miscreants. That's all good, my family was better off not having to pay for the trip.

 

[Ukigumo]

I think in the present day, a British school wouldn't be allowed to exclude you from a school trip for bad behaviour!

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

A documentary video from the 1980s: "School Trip – Visiting Kyoto and Nara."
This work captures the school trip of a certain school in Yamanashi Prefecture to Kyoto and Nara. It shows the students visiting shrines and temples, enjoying evenings together at traditional inns, and experiencing the fun of the trip, while also encouraging viewers to reflect on proper manners during travel. Another highlight is the appearance of the many people who work behind the scenes to support the children's journey.


My own school trip took place around this time.

 

[johnnyG]

I don't think our two went to kyoto, and they're in their 30s now, so even 15 or so years ago.

The regular summer week at boy scout camp was nice since they had two ranges--one for targets (22 shorts), the other for 22 birdshot/skeet. I spent time on both, but I don't think the rifles were very good. About the same time I was walking cornfields with my dad for pheasant, and I did hit a few. Later in the army I at least got an "expert" medal on M16, but maybe a third of the guys got that, so woo-hoo. I later briefly shot an M14, which was accurate a little farther out.

All of these were probably well-used, to put it mildly, whereas a rifle set up for actual shooting and not just training would probably have been wonderful.