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Aiko Goldston
Mrs. Crichton
AP English
9 December 2013
The Hollow Noise of Bamboo
It was seventh grade summer when I went to my first Japanese dormitory middle school,
Kitaura, in Japan. At first, I was scared and nervous about the idea; the school was three long
hours away from Tokyo in a province called Ibaraki. My mom had coerced me to stay for four
weeks and I finally had agreed after much persuasion from her and my other friends going to the
school. Kitaura is the sister school of the japanese school I attended in San Jose, California,
which made it a little more comforting to know that all my teachers had attended this school
when they were younger. Three students from San Jose were already there and one more was
coming in a week which also put me at ease.
To get to this secluded school, I had to take a train, a two hour long bus ride and an hour
long car ride. I remember watching from the bus, the bustling city slowly turn into green fields
dotted with small farmhouses, long, lazy rivers, and tall bamboo forests. Everywhere I looked
was flat and green and soon it all mixed together into one great blur. Time passed pretty slowly
but finally, the bus reached the small and decrepit bus stop that the principal was waiting to pick
me up. The car ride to the school seemed to also take ages and as time went on, I grew very
nervous. After turning onto a small road, a shiny, polished sign guided us into the campus,
located on a hill surrounded by lush trees and green shrubs. We drove up another hill and
arrived in front of an old, white, four story building which turned out to be Sharon, the girls
dormitory; my home for the next four weeks.
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The dorm looked downright shabby from the outside compared to the nearby boys
dormitory, which looked new and modern. The girls dorm is four stories, each with one
bathroom. Two out of the three summers I went, I got a room on the first floor, which was
where the newest and cleanest rooms were. The fourth floor was closed during my second and
third summer because the of the Fukushima earthquake and the possibility of more
earthquakes. Even though the newer rooms on the first room were pretty and neat, they were
very humid and had the most moisture in the air. I significantly remember one day, I plodded
into my room at around midnight, exhausted from a meeting. As I entered my room, I was
greeted with the stench of an unkempt zoo. The air was dense and the smell was overbearing. I
tried to eliminate the stink with some flower perfume but to no avail. I remember laying on my
bed, giggling to myself about how badly it stank and how I would this would probably never
happen again. I felt oddly safe, surrounded by my 3 sleeping roommates.
The school is on a steep hill and the road to the hall was surrounded by an ominous
bamboo forest, which I loved the most about the campus. The bamboo forest was dark and
mysterious; the fact that no one was allowed to go into it added to my curiosity and
admiration. Sadly, I never explored it because of the rule. Instead, I threw little pebbles at the
stalks and listened to the small hollow noise it created. I remember spending evenings there with
a few friends, throwing rocks until my arms ached. The bamboo forest put me at ease and
calmed me down.
At this boarding school, I was able to experience how Japan operates its school
system and the affects religion had on it. A typical day consisted of praying about twenty times,
cleaning, going to school, doing extracurricular and clubs, studying, and playing a sport. Since
the school is Seventh Day Adventist Christian, a branch of Protestant Christian, praying and
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worshipping God is the most important aspect at school and in the dorms. Every morning, all the
girls would go to the cramped dorm chapel and recite bible verses, listen to sermons, report
current events and sing songs. Praying preceded and finished every activity like eating, starting
a class and playing a sport. The prayers always consisted of thanking God and wishing good
upon the teacher or student. Because I am not religious at all, it was interesting to see how
people prayed and worshipped their God; I was able to pray decently and recite bible lines after
closely listening to them day after day. I was also able to see how God was a big aspect of the
school life which I had never experienced before. The students and teachers at the school made
me feel welcome and always prayed for me when I arrived and left, which left me feeling
charmed (dont know if i want to use that still) to have known these people .
During my stay, I was able to improve my Japanese and see what it was like to live in a
dormitory. It was surprising how cleaning was a very important aspect at school; everyone
cleans the dorms or classroom at the school at least once a day. I knew that cleaning was
important to Japanese culture because it created a clean environment which was better for
learning, but it was very remarkable how many chores there were which involved cleaning.
Although the cleaning chores were sometimes very tedious, like cleansing each rung on a fence
or gathering the dust inside of the wheels on a chair, it taught me the importance of the
cleanliness and the difference it made. I felt much more relaxed and ready to focus when my
desk was clean and tidy. The Big Cleaning Day, which always occurred on a Sunday when I
was visiting, was when everyone would scrub and sweep all the classrooms in the school and re
wax the floor. After all the students combined hard work, the classrooms looked polished and a
better environment for learning. The day after this day was always calming and refreshing
because everything was spotless and fresh compared to the hot weather.
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The Japanese school system has always interested me because of all the differences from
the American school systems that I am used to. I really appreciated attending this dormitory
school for 3 summers and I do not regret any day of it. I learned a lot about religion , the
importance of health and the close bonds teachers and students have in my Japanese culture. I
sometimes reminisce about my days spent there, laughing about the experiences and struggles
and thinking of the hollow bamboo echo. Kitaura helped shape me into a better student and
person.