Clarence Lab summer camps guide children towards genuine, reflective growth that lasts long after summer.

Several schools in Japan offer summer programs, yet there is a vital difference between being busy and truly learning. Many children spend their weeks on activities like archery or crafts without any experiences that reshape their perspective. The issue isn’t the activities; it’s the lack of reflection. Without offering space for a child to ask themselves or their peers what they noticed or how they’ve grown, the impact is temporary. Clarence Lab bridges this gap, supporting children towards reflective growth that lasts long after summer.

What is Clarence Lab?

[

](https://cdn.savvytokyo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/Clarence-Lab_Top_790-x-445-px_2.png)In both places, the principle is the same: the place is the teacher.

Clarence Lab is the experiential learning arm of Clarence Education Asia, the educational group behind Phoenix House International School and Rugby School Japan. It runs summer courses across two locations: a working horse farm in Hokkaido and a creative studio in central Tokyo. In both places, the principle is the same: the place is the teacher.

Clarence Lab Summer Camps

[

](https://cdn.savvytokyo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/clarence-education-asia-home-farm1080x676.jpg)Two landscapes. One philosophy.

In Hokkaido, that teacher is the forest, the field and the open sky. In Tokyo, it is the city’s creative energy, its streets, museums and the way people share space. Two landscapes. One philosophy. Children learn most powerfully when the environment itself, not a worksheet or a screen, is the primary source of inquiry. 

**Hokkaido: Eco Lab  **

[

](https://cdn.savvytokyo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/HHF-Horses-with-children.jpg)A residential camp on a 100-hectare working educational horse farm.

Eco Lab is a residential camp on a 100-hectare working educational horse farm, approximately 15 minutes from New Chitose Airport. Children sleep in tents they pitch themselves, and spend their days between the forest, agricultural fields and campfires. The farm’s rewilding project is central: when children sow native seeds into prepared ground, what they plant will be growing next summer. Evenings end around the campfire with a child-led reflection circle and a 360° astronomy tour. 

• **3-Day Young Explorers (Ages 9 to 13): **June 29 – 1 July or July 3 – 5

Fee: ¥130,000 

• **5-Day Explorers (Ages 10 to 14): **July 6 – 10 or 13 – 17

Fee: ¥195,000 

**Tokyo: Expression Lab **

[

](https://cdn.savvytokyo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/Expression-Lab.jpg)Explore Tokyo through a weekly theme.

Expression Lab is a five-day daytime program where children explore Tokyo through a weekly theme: Water, Light or Sound. Mornings take them into the city through the lens of the week’s theme: neighborhood walks, hands-on experiments and an immersive mid-week visit to a museum or gallery. Afternoons are spent in small creative groups building a single project over the week: a collaborative tapestry, a sound-and-movement piece or an expression through poetry and storytelling. Friday ends with a family showcase for children to share what they have experienced. 

• **5-Day Explorers (Ages 8 to 11): **July 6 – 10 (Water Theme), July 13 – 17 (Light Theme), July 20 – 24 July (Sound Theme)

• Fee:  ¥120,000 

• Time: 8:50 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

**How Does the Learning Stay with My Child? **

[

](https://cdn.savvytokyo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/Journal.jpg)Each child keeps a Clarence Lab journal across the week.

Every day revolves around a single inquiry question: “How do you build trust without words?” “What is a local detail you almost didn’t notice?” “How do we make space for each other?” The question shapes the morning’s fieldwork, the afternoon’s creative work and the evening’s reflective conversations. Every child keeps a Clarence Lab journal across the week. It is not a workbook. There are no correct answers. Children write, draw and map what they experienced in their own voice. The journal is where an experience stops being something that happened to a child and becomes something they understand. Parents tell us it is a keepsake that their little ones cherish the most, long after the course ends. 

Each day closes with a reflection circle, led by the children themselves. They listen to someone else who experienced the same moment completely differently. They discover that their perspective is one of many, and that this is not a weakness but a way of seeing more clearly. 

Clarence Lab Philosophy

[

](https://cdn.savvytokyo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/clarence-education-asia-phoenix-house-international-school-building-entrance-1080x675-1.jpg)An educational experience designed around real places, responsibility, and long-lasting impact.

Clarence Lab is an educational experience designed around real places, real responsibility, and the kind of thinking that stays with a child long after the week is over. As Course Director Teto Parvanov puts it:

“Every child deserves the space to find their authentic voice while they’re still growing, not years after they’ve left education.”

Applications for Summer 2026 close on May 18. Register for Clarence Lab summer camps on the official website: www.clarencelab.com