Random thought: I’d love to analyse a bunch of anime and get a count of how often schools are shown as being on a hill or high ground.

I get the feeling from my memory like 90% of the time when a school commute is shown it’s always on a hill with the students arduously cycling or pushing their bikes in the morning, and then happily freewheeling all the way home.

I’d love to know

A) is my memory actually correct

B) if my memory actually is correct, is this an a media trope only (as in, a visual metaphor for the morning journey being unpeasant while the time after school is freeing and relished) or are Japanese schools actually on hills a lot of the time.