Our Greenheart Travel exchange student, Manou Liu, shares some great tips and insights on how to navigate the high school experience in Japan. If you are interested in studying abroad and want a glimpse into the Japanese culture as a student, check out our top picks from Manou’s video blog series!
Check out her blog post!
I received a lot of emails from people asking about the Japanese school uniforms and my uniform. I was really looking forward to school uniforms too since they are known to be very flattering (at least in animes). To my big surprise, my host school didn’t have a uniform… What a shock!!
A lot of girls at my school wear “Nannchatte Seifuku(なんちゃって制服)” which are “fake” school uniforms that are more fashionable and cute. This allows them to mix and match with the colours they liked and the styles that please them. Some brands that sell this kind of clothes are East Boy, Don Quijote and Body Line, the first one being more expensive than the second one. Some stores are located in shopping malls (like East Boy is in Isetan) or places where young people shop at (Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara, etc.).
Some people might find these clothes very expensive (a skirt at East Boy could be around 100$ while a blazer could be over 250$), if you thought about it they are expensive but most girls will wear the clothes during most days in their 3 years of high school. The girls usually have multiple pieces of clothing to mix and match and of course allow their clothes to be washed. I have three skirts, a couple of dress shirts and couple of cardigans. I personally prefer this outfit because it’s simple and allow me to wear accessories if I wanted to, without being over decorated like a Xmas tree. Most girls at my school had mainly pink coloured items (pink skirt, pink dress shirt, pink cardigan, etc.) I prefer the boyish look so I usually wear a tie. I never knew how to tie a tie so I always had to ask my host dad to do it for me, when I’m in a hurry, I just wear a ribbon which is much easier to wear (just put it around your neck and you’re done!)
This post is so late but I thought it’s better late than nothing right?
Last December, my Japanese high school had a Christmas Concert organised by the Pop Music club and it was amazing! Our school has so many wonderful bands and talented people. Again, a lot of fun and the dance club I was in performed four performances! I was on the Crayon Pop team so we did the “oh-so-hot” BarBarBar. The special thing is that group had three boys and two girls (me and Miia), our main goal was to be funny 😉
The other group did Vixx’s song which I don’t know the name of and finally the boys got together to perform their original work ‘Legal High’. They are specialized in locking and breaking so it was very cool! We also had a group dance with a total of 10 members. I think the song was called Crash?
I’m so happy I was part of this club full of talented yet kind people. I love and miss them so much!
Also we made our own Santa costumes so don’t judge!
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Happy New Year!!
During the New Year’s period, my host family was kind enough to bring me to my host dad’s parents’ house in Shizuoka. Of course, when we talk about Shizuoka, the first thing we think of is Mt. Fuji! We drove there in the morning so during almost the entire trip in the car I got to see Mt. Fuji in front of me.
It was just so pretty to look at in the car >.<
It was really fun to be able to travel with my host family since I know other students don’t necessarily have the opportunity to do so. I’m so grateful for their generosity.
Wish you guys a Happy New Year!!
あけましておめでとうございます!!