Tokiwadai Middle School

Tokiwadai Middle School (常盤台中学) is a prestigious girls’ middle school. Of the currently named schools in Academy City, it is the one containing the most characters in the series.

Background
It is one of the five most prestigious schools of Academy City and is said to be the most renowned girls’ school in the world. It is also mentioned that it had once sparked an international incident for refusing to admit a girl from a royal family because she wasn’t good enough.

Currently Unabara Mitsuki's grandmother is the director/administrator of the school.

Student Demographics
Entry requirement is esper ability Level 3 or higher, and the school currently has less than 200 students. Of the 200 students, there are currently 2 Level 5 espers, 47 Level 4 espers, and the rest being Level 3 espers.

Uniform
The uniforms worn by all Tokiwadai students seen so far have been comprised of a short-sleeved white dress shirt worn under a light brown vest with the school emblem on the left side. For bottoms, the girls wear dark tan pocketed skirts that reach halfway down their thighs. There seems to be no uniform requirement for socks or shoes and other additions, such as Mikoto's shorts.

In Volume 12, it is mentioned like all other schools in Academy City Tokiwadai has a seperate set of uniform for winter time as opposed to summer. It comprises of a tan buttoned jumper (a shade darker than the summer vest) and a checkered blue skirt with black and tan criss-crossing lines.

Tokiwadai Middle School rules states, that students are not allowed to wear casual clothes inside the school or in the dormitory as it is still part of the school.

Campus
Tokiwadai is located in the School Garden, an area inside Academy City consisting of Tokiwadai and four other girl's schools, with a shopping area dedicated to the rich young girls.

The school is fairly large, other than the main building which probably holds its classrooms and a library, it also holds a track and field area and also a large swimming pool (which is used by staff to measure Mikoto's power). The school also contains a showering area.

Tokiwadai has two dormitories, one of them is outside of the School Garden and where Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko reside in, and the other one which is in the School Garden where Kongou Mitsuko takes residence.

Returning Bath Facility
Returning Bath Facility (帰様の浴院 (かえりさまのよくいん)) is one of the three bathing facilities to be found in Tokiwadai Middle School. It is a subsidiary of the school, and is used exclusively for students to clean themselves up.

Appearance
It is as large as five classrooms, and there are close to 90 showerheads. Each of them is separated by white partition boards and a sliding door. The door isn’t as big as the boards, which only hides the chest down to the thigh of an averaged sized middle school student from Tokiwadai.

In the anime adaptations, the shower room shown seems to be smaller due to perspective restrictions, showing only the shower partitions near to the wall. However, it serves the same purpose as it is in the novels. It has advanced shower controls, lockers, tables for glasses and drinks, cabinets for various bathing implements, as well as ornamental plants, and seats for students to sit on.

Activites
Other than the usual events the school participates in like the Daihasai Festival. Tokiwadai seem to hold a Midsummer Festival which is held in the dormitory that is not in the School Garden, here the students are to wear maid ensembles and have them welcome and serve guests, they give and invite the guests in demonstrations like flower arrangement, sewing, etc., and at the end of the festival someone from the festival is to give a performance. The festival is first seen in episode 19 of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun anime where Misaka Mikoto was voted to give the performance.

Factions
It is not known exactly how many factions there are in Tokiwadai, however it is known that a Faction (派閥) is an organization that functions like a scholar club.

Factions are an outlet for a group of students with similar goals to gather in school, to request for facilities and funding from the school’s board of directors, and to finally strike it big in a national event… Just by this definition alone, maybe a faction isn’t that much different from a school’s social club. Larger factions will get more contacts, funding, and inside information, so most of these outstanding students in their areas of specialties have a faction backing them, the more accomplished the faction is and the better the reputation the faction holds means that they have a higher influence and can gather greater power than other factions, even to the point were the strongest factions can have power and influence outside the school.

Shirai Kuroko pointed out that factions "protect" their own positions and thus if a powerful individual outside the school starts gathering members for some purpose, it's likely that a faction or several of them will try to hamper such act. The largest faction in Tokiwadai belongs to Shokuhou Misaki, who is even known as "the Queen of Tokiwadai".

Notable students of Tokiwadai
Level 5: Level 4: Level 3:
 * Misaka Mikoto
 * Shokuhou Misaki
 * Shirai Kuroko
 * Kongou Mitsuko
 * Kirifu Megumi
 * Awatsuki Maaya
 * Wannai Kinuho
 * Kobayashi Shimanaka
 * Usukinu Yasumi

Other students

 * Ringlet curl girl

Characters that are associated with Tokiwadai

 * Unabara Mitsuki
 * Tokiwadai Dorm Master
 * Watanabe