Wanna Buy a School? Jungle Gym Included!

The incredible shrinking Japanese population has led to some interesting problems. One is that because there are so few children to fill up schools, cities have been forced with unloading hundreds of shuttered public school buildings. The problem has been that finding buyers has been difficult, especially in rural areas. One city in Hokkaido, which had to close 7 of its 9 elementary schools in 2008, decided to put the properties on Yahoo Japan's auction site, which would expose the properties to a national audience. The plan worked. Final sale price for one school, compete with pool, gym and playground: $300,000.

Driving School Camp Only $2500! Free Cake!

I was talking to a student today and he had a flier for this driving school camp. In Japan, you have to pay a private driving school an absurd amount of money for training before you can even take a driving test. Because of this, there are a lot of companies competing for young would-be trainees by offering week-long stays in the mountains, and other perks. Even after paying thousands for training, there is no guaranty you will pass an actual driving test. He was shocked when I told him high school students in America get free driver training classes as part of our FREE public education.

He was still excited about this driving camp though. They put you up for two weeks in Nagano, and on Fridays you get a cake buffet! As excited as he was about the cake, he was really looking forward to the manga reading room and the all-you-can-play PS3 video game area. Maybe he can practice for his driving lessons with Grand Theft Auto...