The second base for the trip was our sister schools in Japan. A group of 10 students visited Fukuroi Senior High School in Shizuoka Prefecture. Shizuoka is about an hour south of Tokyo. The students travelled from Kyoto, catching a bullet train or shinkansen and then a local train. Fukuroi is a rural district famous for their production of green tea and several of the green tea bushes can be seen from the High School playground. There are over a thousand students in the Senior High School and it has a very active after school club program that all students participate in. English language skills are very good amongst the students and the school has set up a visit to Australia program, visiting the College every two years. Families in Fukuroi are always keen to host Australian students to practise their English and showcase Japanese culture and life.
Olivia B is one of our Year 10 Japanese Elective students who participated in the April school holiday Japan Trip. She was asked to reflect on her homestay experience. This is what she said:
“One of the highlights of my trip to Japan was staying with my host family. My host sister and her family had a lovely home and I felt very welcomed. Part of the Japanese culture is removing your shoes when you enter the house and wear slippers. Japanese houses are typically smaller than ours. At meal times we would bow our heads and say “itadakimasu” which means “let us eat”. My host mother’s cooking was the best food that I had on the whole trip! One of the biggest challenges was communicating, although I am learning Japanese and my host sister is learning English at school, there were times when we had to use google translate to understand each other. My host family asked me about my interests, I said is that I am passionate about marine science, so they took me to the aquarium. I was blown away when we arrived at the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium. It was better than Seaworld! We watched the killer whale and dolphin shows, we saw beluga, penguins, sea turtles, jellyfish and sharks. I had an AMAZING day there with my host family a day that I will never forget. I also told them that I was interested in seeing Mt Fuji, so the next day they drove me a few hours to the Fuji Sky View where we went on an enormous ferris-wheel which had spectacular views of Mt Fuji. We were very fortunate that it was a clear day for viewing the mountain. My three night stay was one of the main highlights of my trip. I was treated like part of their family. We were in tears when we had to say goodbye. We plan to continue staying in contact and I hope that they come visit us in Australia one day.”
Mrs Fiona Byrne
Languages and Christian Studies Coordinator
