Today I noticed that about one quarter of the junior high school is it’s own separate building. A building I had never been in. In fact, a building that is never used by anyone. I have been working here for almost two months and I only notice this now? To my credit, from an American standpoint, this is an impossibility. I keep finding various rooms within the functional part of the school that are never used and I am just boggled. With the American problem of overcrowding in schools, every last usable inch is not only utilized but vehemently fought for and protected. There would never be open, empty rooms that could be used for classrooms. There certainly wouldn’t be an entire three story building ignored. It doesn’t look like it’s in disrepair. It just looms there, unwanted and creepy.

Even with the absence of a large cafeteria (Public schools in Japan don’t have cafeterias. The students eat at their desks.), this junior high is much larger than my middle school was. My middle school was overcapacity and still managed to contain over 1,000 students. This double-winged Japanese junior high school only has to handle 300 students. Even without the extra building, about half the school is dead silent and empty at any one time.

I hear the number of students has dwindled over the decades as the birthrate in Japan has been declining. If this school was ever full, I can only imagine how much of an effect this is having on Japan. But it’s possible that whoever designed the school just went on severe overkill.

As an American, I’m so jealous.