Prince Eugene’s Summer Fashion During Midterm Exams

Ah, it’s over!

June 17 was the last day of the mid-term examinations for the first semester. Students in plain clothes walked out of the school gate of Tsukuba University High School in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, with bright smiles on their faces.

Chikubazuke High School has two semesters, the first and second semester, so the first semester midterm exam is held in mid-June. As a rule, club activities are suspended for a week before the test. Since it is the first test of the new school year, it is the first test for first-year students. They may be a little nervous.

 

Prince Hisahito of Akishino also took his first exam after entering Chikuzuke, which he had longed for. The first-year students had tests in five subjects: Day 1: Geography Comprehensive, English Communication, Day 2: Basic Biology, Logic and Expression I, Day 3: Mathematics.

On the last day, the students leave the school before noon, but those who have club activities go to club activities in the afternoon, and those who don’t go out with their friends.

Prince Eugene is a member of the badminton club.

He said, “Our badminton club is not like a rigid athletic club! It’s more like a group of people who want to be involved in club activities, but don’t want to be ‘totally devoted’ to them, and want to study hard at cram school and other activities as well.

However, as an athletic club, the school not only engages in extracurricular activities, but also plays games against other schools. His Imperial Highness Prince Eugene is also said to be involved in new student activities, such as picking up the shuttle, while standing behind the older members of the club who are practicing.

No “School Ranking” is Announced

This spring, Prince Eugene entered Chikuzuke from a junior high school affiliated with Ochanomizu University through the affiliated school advancement system. At the time of his enrollment, some people on the Internet congratulated him, but others asked whether he would be able to keep up with his studies, and some even complained that his test scores would be low.

“In the first place, Chikuzuke does not announce test rankings (laugh). (Laughs.) In fact, we don’t even give the average score for each subject, or the deviation score. Neither the students nor their parents know where they stand in their grade for the entire three years of high school, and they are not that interested in it,” said a parent of a second-year student.

Generally, preparatory schools provide “career guidance” by looking at past academic performance and rankings within the school. Many middle-ranked schools sell their “accuracy” as a selling point. However, the school does not provide career guidance, nor does it know which students in a grade or class have the best grades.

“Therefore, many students go to cram schools to prepare for entrance exams. Since internal students do not take the high school entrance exam, they start attending cram schools from around the second year of junior high school to prepare for the university entrance exam. There is a strong awareness that learning at school is not equal to taking entrance exams.”

There is no ranking within the school, and “only on rare occasions” are students given guidance on entrance examinations and supplementary classes offered at the school. If this is the case, does this mean that Prince Eugene, who is expected to go on to college, will also have to attend such cram schools?

First-year student “Eugene-kun”

When Eugene first entered the school, he was always surrounded by SPs and other “adults” on the way to and from school, but recently there has been a slight change.

“When I was walking down the hill from the school gate toward Gokokuji Station, the boy walking right in front of me was Yuuhi-kun. I thought, “Oh, maybe there are no ‘adults’ around today.”

At Chikuzuke High School, where there is no uniform and students are free to wear whatever they want to school, it is “very noticeable” when “adults” join the line to and from school.

“The first year students are easily recognized because they are the first to wear their own clothes in high school,” he said. “There are a lot of people who are fashionable from the start, but most of them are a bit dowdy (laughs). Eugene’s fashion for going to school is not particularly conspicuous, nor is it extremely tacky, but it’s just about right. White T-shirt, navy pants, a hoodie, and black sneakers. In the second and third years, the fashionable kids become more and more fashionable. But before the summer break of the first year, I guess that’s about it.”

 

Eugene spends most of his time at the school with a few boys. At Chikuzuke, students do not change classes during their three years of high school, so it is likely that his current classmates will be his best friends for the rest of his life.

In July, the school is planning to hold a “Tateshina Seikatsu,” an event in which each class will stay at Tateshina Dormitory in Tateshina Kogen, Nagano Prefecture. We hope that His Highness Prince Eugene and the students at the school will be able to spend fulfilling days together.