12 Dec 2023
Minasan Konnichi wa !!
Weeks 6 and 7 of this term were an exciting time for the Languages faculty and year 10 students studying Japanese. 24 students accompanied by Simpson Sensei, Potter Sensei, our Principal Mrs Campbell and our mighty mascot Fergle the Frog, took part in Kirrawee and Komae’s long running student exchange program. If you can remember, our Komae high school students came to visit Australia and Kirrawee High School back in August and stayed with our Year 10 host families. On the 12th of November however, we began our journey to Japan with a 9 and a half hour flight that felt like the longest flight ever but was filled with excitement and some interesting plane yoga. Once in Japan we had the single handedly, best 2 weeks of our lives. We are forever grateful we were presented with this life changing opportunity and so strongly recommend it to oncoming Kirrawee High School students. I mean, how many people can put their hand up to say they spent 2 weeks in Japan with their friends??
For the first week, we were at our sister school Komae High School, located in Japan’s capital city Tokyo. At Komae, we did lots of interesting and fun activities, including calligraphy, ikebana (traditional Japanese flower arrangement),taiko drumming, tea ceremony and much more. We also attended regular Japanese classes with our hosts which was really interesting.Japanese classrooms have up to 49 kids in each class and they are constantly changing their shoes to keep the insides of the school so clean. Staying in our host family's house was also very different and a great experience where we got to practise our Japanese and daily life in Japan. We made many new friendships and connections with Komae students and their families and within our Kirrawee group. We also had a day visit to the Tsukiji fish markets and then Kamakura on the coast to see a huge beachside Buddha and temple.
During the second week, we visited Tokyo Disneyland for a whole day and got to stay for the night time parade. The next day we rode the Nozomi shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Kyoto which averages speeds of over 200 km/hour. We then stayed in Kyoto (2nd ancient capital of Japan) at the Sparkling Dolphins inn .During our stay in Kyoto, we had the opportunity to see the Kinkakuji Golden Temple, Nijo Imperial Castle and Kiyomizudera Temple which is built on stilts and is perhaps one of the most famous temples in Japan. We also completed a day trip to Nara (1st ancient capital of Japan) to visit Todaiji temple and the deer park.This bullet train trip was one of the many highlights of our trip and it will be something that we will all remember forever. This group of 24 Kirrawee students have now become closer than ever and have created forever friendships and memories.
The connections and bonds we formed with each other on the trip and our Japanese hosts were the highlight of our trip. We also looked forward to singing on our bus trips and eating school lunches with our new Japanese friendship groups. Learning about their culture and speaking with my friends in Japanese was challenging but very fun. I know that these new friendships will last forever. Another highlight throughout the trip for many were the many purikura photos we took. The widely popular photo booth and filter for teenagers was experienced by many students on the trip.