School’s Japan trip fantastic experience
‘‘The purpose of the trip was to grow the students' understanding and empathy for Japanese language and culture.’’
Seven Year 8 students from Morrinsville Intermediate School, accompanied by their principal Jenny Clark, recently returned from an exciting two week visit to Japan. This is an annual reciprocal exchange with Shibuya Makuhari Junior High School located in Chiba, Tokyo, and is part of a wider Waikato Intermediate Schools’ initiative.
Fifty four students and eight principals made the trip this year.
The purpose of the trip is to grow the students’ understanding and empathy for Japanese language and culture.
Students were billeted with Japanese families for the duration of their stay which was one of the highlights for the students. The students are warmly welcomed into their homes and treated with absolute kindness - one family took their student to visit Mount Fujiama, a five hour drive from Chiba, demonstrating how keen they are to give their host student a fantastic experience whilst in Japan. They are a very proud nation.
While on the trip the students experienced school life, taking part in calligraphy lessons, art classes, PE, music, manga drawing, traditional green tea ceremonies and even and English class. They visited three schools including their host school, an international school and an elementary school.
Beyond school they visited a number of tourist attractions including: Tokyo Tower, Sky Tree, Mesci Museum (robots and science museum), Disneyland, Sumo Museum, Disney Sea, Tokyo Zoo and Kaisai Sea Life Park.
Of course the vast range of shopping malls were on the agenda with the students enjoying purchasing gifts for their friends and families.
Last week the seven students shared a presentation to the rest of Morrinsville Intermediate students, outlining their favourite aspects of the trip and their key learnings.
These included how clean Japan is, how honest and caring the people are, how much fun it is to meet new students from other schools and make lifelong friends, the tasty food and how they enjoyed getting to know their host families.