Japan opens eyes to new world
By Ula Clark, Bella Shephard, Thomas Dummel and Declan Cantamessa, Year 6, St Francis Xavier’s School
FIFTEEN excited students and five courageous teachers left Cairns on June 27 for our enlightening cultural trip to Japan.
We landed at Kansai Airport at 8pm so we stayed at the airport hotel for our first night.
The next morning, we caught a bus and began our four-hour trip to Taketoyo Kinuura Elementary School, where the second stage of our amazing experience began.
The bus jolted to a stop as we pulled into Kinuura Elementary School and we were greeted by a very excited principal.
On this first day we answered questions about Australia and performed our songs at a whole school assembly.
We then went home with our homestay families where we spent three nights.
Some of us went to a sushi train restaurant where you can order dinner on an iPad and the train delivers your meal directly to your booth.
Other students got to go to a massive arcade where you could play a variety of different sports, video games and rollerskate.
The next day we spent some of the day in the classroom and then went to visit the Mayor where we were served a traditional sweet from the area.
After that we went to the INAX Tile Museum where we made tile art creations to bring home.
We were very surprised at the different learning environment from Australia.
The classrooms had wooden desks and chairs, a chalkboard and no airconditioning. It was summer in Japan and since it was hot and humid in the classrooms the students were asked to bring a school hand towel to wipe their foreheads when they were hot.
At both schools that we visited the students played before school in the morning and at first break.
At noon the whole school stopped for a hot cooked meal and in our room two students came through the classroom door pushing a food trolley.
They were wearing face masks and gloves.
While the students were preparing to serve the meal, other students moved the desks into small groups.
For lunch on our first day we were given a bowl of delicious tuna salad with Japanese mayonnaise (yum!), a bowl of rice, a small bowl of noodles and soup and a container of milk.
After lunch, selected students returned the dirty dishes to the kitchen and then all of the students cleaned their classroom and the school.
Some of us helped to sweep the stairs and the classroom, while others wiped the floors with a wet mop.
Imagine if we had to do this in Australia!
That afternoon a special karate performance was put on for us by some students at the school. We got to dress up in a gi and practise some karate moves.
On Sunday we caught a bus to Nagoya where we hopped on the Shinkansen to Kyoto.
The Shinkansen is a very fast train and our carriage was almost silent.
This is where our public transport experience continued because we had to then catch the subway to Notre Dame School.
Our new host families were waiting for us at the school gates and we got to experience our second Japanese homes.
The next morning, we arrived at school by bus, subway, car or by walking. So different from Cairns! Lunch time play was great at Notre Dame as they had a big basketball court and soccer field on artificial turf.
Everyone enjoyed bonding and playing with the students.
After we returned to class we participated in class activities including calligraphy.
One thing we really enjoyed doing was having a music lesson on a koto (a stringed Japanese instrument) where we played the traditional Japanese tune Sakura.
We also got to participate in a real Japanese tea ceremony.
What an amazing experience!!
We left Notre Dame and our second host families on Tuesday afternoon and stayed in a hotel at Universal Studios in Osaka that night.
On our last day in Japan all 15 students took a trip to the seven storey Osaka Aquarium.
While we were at the aquarium we saw lots of amazing sea life including: whale sharks, stingrays, dolphins, seals and huge Japanese spider crabs.
It was really cool watching the whale sharks gracefully gliding through the blue water and really scary watching the giant spider crabs crawling around.
That night we caught our last plane home and the trip was really fast because we slept all of the way home.
We arrived in Cairns at 5am and had to brave customs because some of our souvenirs needed to be declared!
How glad we were to see our families on the other side of the exit doors, but so sad that our cultural exchange had come to an end!
However, we are looking forward to Japanese students visiting us in Australia this week!