A City of Learning and Culture: Kyoto’s Doshisa University and Hiyoshigaoka High School

When I first came to Kyoto, I thought I knew what made the city special.

Like many people from outside of Japan, I imagined Kyoto through its temples and shrines, its geiko and maiko, and the centuries of craftsmanship that have earned it a reputation as Japan’s cultural capital. Those things certainly exist, and they remain an important part of Kyoto’s identity–but I was completely blindsided to the fact that Kyoto is also a city of students.

Home to 36 universities and junior colleges and roughly 150,000 university students–nearly one in every ten people living in the city–Kyoto has long been one of Japan’s leading centers for education and research. 

As I learned more about Kyoto through my time living here, I found myself wanting to understand this side of the city as well–and it was that curiosity that eventually led me to Doshisha University’s Imadegawa Campus.

On July 23, I had the opportunity to tour the campus with a current third-year student. 

Before arriving, I had read a little about Doshisha’s history and immediately found myself intrigued–founded in 1875 by Joseph Hardy Neesima after returning to Japan from the United States, Doshisha was established with a mission extending beyond academic achievement. Neesima hoped to cultivate people of integrity who would contribute positively to society, emphasizing education that developed intellect, character, and compassion together–even today, those founding ideals remain woven throughout the university’s identity. 

I found Doshisha strangely familiar to the many private Christian universities in the States. The brick buildings and modern full-wall windows reminded me of many East Coast colleges. Walking through campus, I noticed building names drawn from the Bible and from Neesima’s own writings. When I first saw the university’s emblem, I even wondered if its three triangles symbolized the Trinity before learning its actual meaning from the website–a representation of Doshisha’s philosophy of balancing intellectual, moral, and physical education. The many small discoveries throughout my tour reminded me how every university carries stories and traditions that students may walk past every day without realizing.

One place that particularly stood out to me was Reihaido Chapel.

Completed in 1886, it is recognized as Japan’s oldest surviving brick Protestant chapel. Standing in front of the structure, I could not help reflecting on Christianity’s long and often difficult history in Japan. As a Christian myself, seeing a place of worship preserved with such care was really meaningful. I was also struck by the way Japanese culture remained beautifully present within the chapel itself–visitors remove their shoes before entering, a familiar Japanese custom that exists comfortably alongside Christian worship. Rather than feeling contradictory, the two traditions seemed to complement one another, a symbol of the lovely reminder for anyone visiting Doshisa that faith and local culture do not have to erase each other.

Yet despite all of this history, what surprised me most was not the architecture, but the students. 

According to my guide, we had arrived during finals season–the study spaces buzzed with quiet concentration, while other areas were filled with groups of friends enjoying lunch together before summer vacation, and as I watched them, I suddenly found myself thinking about Arizona State University. Students hurried to class, and friends laughed together over meals, construction projects seemed to be everywhere, and people looked stressed about exams–the more time I spent on campus, the more I realized something that almost made me laugh. 

University students are the same everywhere.

Inside one of Doshisha’s learning centers, nearly every table was occupied with books, notebooks, laptops, and coffee cups covering the desks as students prepared for exams. Seeing that was strangely comforting–although the buildings, language, and scenery were different, the atmosphere felt remarkably familiar. 

It seemed as if students everywhere share the same worries about deadlines, celebrate the same approaching vacations, and spent long afternoons studying with friends. For me, being able to observe students was one of the most meaningful moments of the visit. 

Living in Kyoto had challenged an assumption I did not even realize I had carried with me that Japan would somehow feel fundamentally different. And yet on my trip to Doshisa I found something wonderfully ordinary–people my age studying for exams, friends spending time together, and students building memories they will probably remember for the rest of their lives.

The university’s temporary library, Neiseikan, offered another reminder of those similarities. As my guide explained that Doshisha’s main library was currently under construction, I couldn’t help smiling–at Arizona State University, students often joke that campus construction never truly ends. Hearing a student on the other side of the world make almost exactly the same observation reminded me that some experiences really are universal.

And just like that, I had stumbled upon yet another one of Kyoto’s greatest strengths. 

The city is famous for preserving its past, but it also invests deeply in its future through education, with universities like Doshisha existing as places where students from around the world gather to learn, form friendships, and prepare for whatever comes next. 

Before arriving in Kyoto, I thought its greatest treasures were its historic buildings, but after spending time at Doshisha, I realized another treasure walks its streets every day.

Its students.

As I left the campus, I found myself thinking that perhaps this is one more way Kyoto preserves itself. Not only through temples, shrines, and historic districts, but through generations of students who continue learning, questioning, and contributing to the city. Seeing that side of Kyoto reminded me once again that beneath its history is something deeply human–and that may be what makes the city feel so timeless in the first place.

A day later, I got to explore this idea further in experiencing a very different side of Kyoto’s educational landscape. Instead of centuries-old brick buildings, I was walking into a modern high school, and instead of university students preparing for graduation, I met teenagers just beginning to imagine what their futures might look like.

On July 24, I had the opportunity to visit Kyoto Municipal Hiyoshigaoka High School, where Kyoto City Hall’s Start-up Section had organized a special entrepreneurship program featuring Gillian Santos, CEO and founder of the Philippine technology company AniHan Technologies. This presentation was being held in one of the school’s most unique spaces, lovingly called HELLO Village. Unlike a traditional classroom, HELLO Village is designed as a place where students can relax, study, practice English, and connect with people from different cultures. International students, Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs), and members of the local community are all also welcomed into the space, creating conversation opportunities for Hiyoshigaoka students that might never happen inside a typical classroom. As someone who is fascinated by intercultural communication, I found the idea incredibly exciting–I feel like too often language learning is thought of as memorizing vocabulary or studying grammar, but HELLO Village approaches it refreshingly differently. Instead of asking students to learn English only from textbooks, it gives them opportunities to build relationships with the people who speak it, and in doing so, English stops being just another school subject and becomes a bridge between people. That philosophy felt remarkably similar to many of the ideas I had encountered throughout my time in Kyoto.

Kyoto is not only preserving buildings or traditions–it is also creating spaces where people can meet, learn from one another, and build community.

After exploring the space, students gathered to hear entrepreneur Gillian Santos share the story behind AniHan Technologies, a food loss prevention tech start up based in the Philippines that develops technology that combines sensors, software, and data analysis to help farmers make better decisions, emphasizing prevention from the very beginning rather than attempting to solve problems after they occur.

I learned later that by inviting entrepreneurs like Santos into schools, Kyoto City Hall hopes to encourage young people to think creatively, embrace new ideas, and imagine themselves becoming future innovators. Watching the students listen, take notes, and ask questions, I wondered how many of them were hearing a story like this for the first time. I wondered if one day, one of them will be standing at the front of a classroom sharing their own.

My biggest take away was the atmosphere of possibility around that morning. HELLO Village is not simply a room for practicing English, but it is a place built around curiosity. Whether students are speaking with an ALT, meeting international visitors, listening to entrepreneurs, or simply spending time with friends, they’re encouraged to see the world as something larger than their own classroom. That openness feels important–learning another language is ultimately about more than communication. It is about understanding people whose lives may look different from our own and realizing that, in many ways, they are not so different after all. 

It was kind of incredible to watch the Hiyoshigaoka High School students take that same energy of curiosity and connection into listening to and asking questions to Santos in English.

Visiting Hiyoshigaoka High School was in an odd way unexpectedly nostalgic.

Like many people outside Japan, much of what I knew about Japanese high schools before arriving came from anime, movies, and books. I was amazed at how walking through the hallways almost felt familiar–there were shoe lockers waiting by the entrance where I knew that students would change into indoor shoes before class, and the classrooms looked strikingly similar to those I had seen countless times on screen, and even the baseball field sitting beside the school looked exactly as I had imagined. For a brief moment, it felt as though I had stepped into one of those stories I had seen countless times before.

But that feeling of novelty genuinely lasted only a few minutes.

Soon I stopped noticing what was different from the American school system and began noticing the glaring similarities–students whispered to friends before class, and some discreetly checked their phones beneath their desks. Others adjusted their hair or uniforms without thinking, and when the presentation began, notebooks opened and pencils started moving across the page. 

I felt almost upset at myself that I had fallen into that same trap–these students were not characters from an anime, they were simply high school students. They laughed with their friends, worried about the future, got distracted, and paid attention… In other words, they were just like the students I knew back home. That realization, although a continual one, felt surprisingly meaningful this time around. Sometimes, the differences between cultures are the easiest to notice, but the similarities take a little longer to fully sink in.

As I reflected on the visit later that afternoon, I found myself thinking back to Doshisha University. 

One day, I had been walking through buildings that had stood for nearly 150 years, and the next, I was watching high school students imagine what the next 150 years might hold. Together, those experiences reminded me that Kyoto’s identity is not built solely on preserving the past, but it is also built on preparing for the future. By investing in education, creating spaces like HELLO Village, and encouraging young people to think beyond the boundaries of their classrooms, Kyoto continues to nurture the next generation of leaders, innovators, and global citizens–and perhaps that is yet another one of the city’s greatest lessons.

A city becomes timeless not because it refuses to change, but because it continues to invest in its people.

Kyoto Municipal Hiyoshigaoka High School HELLO Village
https://www.sumunaramiyako.city.kyoto.lg.jp/topics/2024012302/ 

Doshisha University
https://www.doshisha.ac.jp/en/