Chinchikurin - Concept Notes

Students

Masuda Village School is located in the central part of the village near the foot of the area. The school is housed in an ordinary old house that has been reconstructed.

Originally the villages students went to Tonari-cho elementary and junior high school in the neighbouring village, but the school was closed down due to the decrease in the number of children in the neighbouring areas, along with the merging of Tonari-cho with its neighbouring city of Naka.

One by one the students began to leave the village [Masuda] and the mayor of the village, sensing a crisis, decided to establish a village school in Masuda. The school is now registered as a mixed elementary, junior high and high school.

There is a large open space near the school site that was a lumberyard but is now used by students for exercise, though it isn't maintained.

Club activities don't occur because the school doesn't have a lot of interaction with the neighbouring communities. 

There aren't though people for group sports in the first place, and the facilities aren't available for individual activities. The students mainly work in the fields and look after the livestock, whilst the girls focus on sewing and cooking.

At the request of the parents, who are busy farming or doing other activities, the village has introduced school lunches. They are prepared by a woman from India*:

Monday: Vegetable curry

Tuesday: Chicken curry

Wednesday: Bean curry

Thursday: Fish curry

Friday: Mutton curry

Students who wish not to eat curry will bring their own lunches.

The village school has its own community centre, where a youth meeting is held every afternoon from 15:00. Originally it was supposed to be a group of boys gathered to assist the locals with chores, first aid, etc., but no one needs them, so its just a group of boys with too much free time on their hands, lazing around with nowhere to go.

Sometimes, a grandmother from the village brings them food.

Sometimes, the boys sleep in the community centre, but it depends on the day.

Sometimes, they develop mysterious games such as "Sock Bomb" or "Frying Pan Tennis" that soon became popular. When the boredom becomes too much, they decide to just leave.

In their spare time outside of the farming season, they can be seen improving their farming skills**.

In Masuda village, it isn't uncommon to see a seemingly ordinary elderly man become two-faced***, so the children train themselves from an early age. 

The children are trained from an early age because they are far from being on equal footing with the elderly villagers when it comes to rebellion.

*The migrant from India refers to Paola from Popee the Performer. She has an official character design and name but there is no significant mention of her aside from being the schools lunch lady

**Rough translation; it may be more along the lines of improving their specialties 

***Rough translation; possibly referring to a double sided nature