This is the “Nishitsu Survey (temporary name)(we might do another survey to decide this name too)” section, where we turn “a quick question for readers + the results of the previous question” into an article👏 Updated every Friday at 8 p.m.
(Hiratsu runs surveys too.Hirakata Tsushin This is a tribute project)
目次
Our Previous Survey Was
“What do you remember most from your school days?”
Submission period: January 27 to February 3
Number of responses: 26
Let’s take a look right away.
Stories About “What do you remember most from your school days?”
A catfish in the high school pool?
I caught a big catfish in the Muko River, but it wouldn’t fit in the fish tank at home, so I released it into the high school pool. During pool class, everyone was squealing while trying to catch the catfish with their hands. When I was in elementary school, I once caught around 100 crayfish in the Muko River and brought them home, but the tank was too small, so I put them in the bathtub and my mom got really mad at me. That trauma may have turned into the catfish story.
Male, 50s
Shorentai and Churentai
As someone on the baseball team, getting to go onto the field at Koshien four times was the best experience.
Male, teens
Elementary school field trips
Most of our field trips were to Kabutoyama, and the route always took us along back streets, going right past my house on the way there and back. I remember lending out our bathroom once.
Female, 40s
Churentai at Koshien
At the end, the cheering squads exchanged cheers, and both cheering for other schools and being cheered by them got everyone incredibly fired up. It’s an unforgettable memory.
Female, 50s
When I was in first grade, I gave the student representative greeting at the school music concert in front of a huge crowd.
My homeroom teacher wrote the greeting for me and told me all I had to do was memorize it and say it, so I accepted without thinking too deeply. When I went home and told my parents, they made me practice the greeting over and over at home every day until the event. At the time I was honestly fed up, but now that I’m a parent myself, I understand how my parents must have felt.
Female, 50s
The backup day for the sports festival in my second or third year of junior high
On the backup day for the sports festival, there was no school lunch, so everyone brought a packed lunch. Since periods 5 and 6 were integrated studies, the whole grade decided to go eat lunch on the Muko River riverbed. After fourth period, we all walked about 40 minutes from our junior high school to the Muko River riverbed, ate our lunches, played tag, and played with the bubbles the teachers had prepared. Looking back now, I think it must have been pretty tough for the teachers to take our grade, which was honestly quite rowdy, all the way there without any accidents…
Female, 30s
Shorentai and Churentai at Hanshin Koshien Stadium
In elementary school, only sixth graders could participate, and in junior high we got to dance and run relays at Hanshin Koshien Stadium for all three years. It was held during the baseball off-season, so I remember it being cold.
Female, 40s
Shorentai and Churentai
I only participated in the group gymnastics, and while I wished I could step on the infield dirt at Koshien, in the end both elementary and junior high were in the outfield. But the outfield grass was soft and felt really nice too.
Male, 20s
Baseball
Nishinomiya has lots of schools and fields, and throughout elementary school I spent every weekend playing youth baseball at Kawarabayashi Park and on the Muko River riverbed! I kept playing baseball all the way through university and became a baseball person! And now my son, who is in his final year of kindergarten, has joined a youth baseball team, and I’m living the same kind of life I did decades ago as a coach lol
Male, 30s
I went to Koryo Junior High School. Back then, there were so many students: 15 classes with 50 students in each grade!! On field trips and school trips, we would tear down the road in 15 sightseeing buses.
Fifteen buses really was a sight to see.
Female, 60 or older
When I was in high school, I broke the rules on a school trip
The destination was Hokkaido. But it was boring!! We weren’t allowed to go out, so… that’s why… my friends and I secretly planned a midnight stroll, slipped out quietly, enjoyed the streets of Hokkaido at night, and then slipped back into the inn. Then we saw a figure blended into the wall…⁉ A sister!! Somehow, we had been completely found out（笑）It was a Christian school, you see. Huh? What happened after that? Well, I’ll leave it to your imagination.
Female, 60 or older
Squid dissection
In science class, we dissected crucian carp. Ugh〰 so gross〰〰 But the boys were really excited about it. A little while later, the science teacher said, “Next time we’re dissecting squid.” Woooooo! The whole class was fired up. The next day, when I entered the school gate, there were squid hanging from ropes between the trees（笑）After a few days, they had turned into dried squid.
Female, 60 or older
The social studies teacher
I used to mutter under my breath wondering how he could talk so fast nonstop… It was like he was chanting a sutra.
Female, 60 or older
Memories of summer peace studies
In sixth grade, we were required to go to school on the anniversary of the end of the war during summer vacation for peace studies. There’s a song my homeroom teacher sang that I’ll never forget: “Wakataka no Uta.” Even as a child, it really touched my heart.
Female, 60 or older
Basement flooding
The day after heavy rain, I went to university and the basement classrooms were completely flooded!! Even the professors were in a frenzy with buckets and brooms〰😂
Female, 60 or older
Camping and swimming in the sea
In my first year of junior high, we went camping upstream along the Sakasegawa River. We split up pots, cutting boards, knives, ingredients, and everything else among us, stuffed them into huge rucksacks, trudged along the mountain path huffing and puffing, and when we finally reached the campsite we were wiped out. At the end of the instructions, the teacher in charge told us, “That toilet was handmade by the teachers. We dug a hole with shovels and made a box out of plywood. Don’t break it〰” The way he proudly emphasized the handmade toilet was funny（笑）In my second year of junior high, we went swimming at Awaji Island〰 It was fun〰〰
Female, 60 or older
Signal
A duo called Signal, which was popular at the time, came to our university festival. “Hatachi no Meguriai” — do you know it? Even this auntie was young once😂
Female, 60 or older
The Churentai story about “both cheering for other schools and being cheered by them got everyone incredibly fired up, and it’s unforgettable” is unforgettable to me too. Koshien Stadium already feels like another world, and I really think Nishinomiya is a great place where elementary and junior high school students can have that kind of experience! Thank you all for sharing your wonderful school-days stories! They warmed my heart!
Next Survey
“If you became mayor of Nishinomiya, what huge, huge dream would you want to make come true?”
I once heard the phrase “Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real,” and when I looked it up, it seems to be a famous quote by the French science fiction writer Jules Verne.
With that in mind, if I became mayor of Nishinomiya, I’d build a castle in the sky above Kabutoyama. Then people could ride an airship from Koshienhama, land on the castle in the sky by glider, and play La〇uta at the castle. It would be the big project that all humankind has been waiting for, and I want to make it happen right here in Nishinomiya!(No “Balse” allowed)If that turns out to be impossible, I’ll hedge my bets and say I’d like Gardens to install a VR version with the same content（笑）
So, in that spirit, please think up and tell us your huge, huge dreams on a scale no politician would ever actually say out loud. We’d be happy to hear something like the dreams you had as a child. No need to be serious — please just relax and have fun with it.
Survey results are here ↓
There are six questions.
- In one phrase, what big dream would you like to make happen in Nishinomiya? Something like “A castle in the sky above Kabutoyama”
- If you have any specific ideas for that big dream, please tell us
- How old are you?
- Please tell us your gender.
- Please tell us the area where you live.(Whatever area name feels right to you is fine)
- What kind of Nishinomiya Tsushin articles do you like?(Optional)
※Survey responses may be introduced in an article🙇♂️
↓ Please answer below ↓（scroll within the frame）
(If the embedded form does not appear, please use this link）
The submission period is about 1 week
The deadline is February 9
