The “Lycée Franco-Japonais de Tokyo”, More Than Just a Building.

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Good-bye LFJT…Adieu Lycée Franco-Japonais de Tokyo!

A few days ago, former students, teachers and staff of the Lycée Franco-Japonais reunited to say goodbye to the building that was known for a long time as ‘the only French school in Japan’.

Over the next month (May 2012) the school building will be demolished and the “Lycée” as we know it will no longer be.

For 45 years the LFJT has been home to tens of thousands of francophone pupils looking to receive a French education in Japan, some of them attending the establishment from the age of 3 until 18, as the Lycée was a pre-school, a primary and a secondary school all under the one roof for many years (until the building could no longer provide for the increasing number of students).

The Tokyo French school not only welcomed French and Japanese nationals (many of them ‘Franco-Japonais’) but many other nationalities from all continents… you could have France, Japan, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Senegal, Holland, US, England, Korea, Zaire, Brazil, Syria…in the one classroom!

Needless to say that this last time occasion to say ‘sayonara’ to our school last Friday caused a few tears and sparkled a lot of nostalgia from all of us former LFJT students now spread out all over the world again…there will be no physical evidence left for us to go on a pilgrimage to.

But whether you attended for just a year or completed your whole education at the Lycée Franco-Japonais de Tokyo, it seems we all retained fond memories of that episode of our lives.

Looking at our facebook comments and chats that came out of last week’s event, it’s not so much the building itself that we reminisce about, but what happenedinside (and around) that building…

The French school was known as the shabby one compared to the other international schools…we had no gymnasium, very poor facilities, we used to complain and feel embarrassed…and yet, we are now begging the current principal to dedicate a wall in the new school with pictures of our old ‘Lycée’ to remember, we are taking and sharing pictures like crazy, filming live and some of us are even stealing the furniture to bring back home! I also hear that we are now digging out and reproducing the LFJT T-shirt…and orders are flowing.

Just to show that during those fundamental years of our childhood and adolescence, it’s not so much the colour of the walls or the size of the chairs that we remember, but the ‘good times’ we experienced within those walls.

Some funny memories emerged in the chats between those who couldn’t be there in person but reunited online to attend the event live.

“Remember the day we were dissecting frogs in biology class?”

“Remember the fights in the refectory at lunch time?”

“Remember the day she lost her contact lenses and the whole school was looking for them in the playground?”

“Remember the ‘funny business’ going on behind the white P.E mats?”

Isn’t it funny how as grown ups we can’t remember what we did last Saturday but still we can recall with great details what happened that day in school some 25 years ago?

This made me realize even more that it’s not the school buildings or the house that you live in that your children will remember the most but the good times shared with those around them.

Whether you attended the Lycée Franco-Japonais de Tokyo or any other school in the world, I’m sure you can relate…childhood memories last forever, they can’t be demolished just like a building…let’s make them good for our kids too!

Do you have any vivid school memories? please feel free to share them in the comments box below…

‘Anciens du Lycée’, n’hésitez pas a partager vos histoires, experiences, frasques ou tout autre souvenir de votre temps au Lycée Franco-Japonais! (login to facebook first).

Pour le blog en Japonais, allez chez Lyoki Napator: Mischievous System of Lyoki !!!

Merci et a très bientôt !

x

~Jennifer