Japanese Cultural Tour

Murasakino Sister School Visit

Before our Japanese exchange students arrived, we were a bit nervous, but extremely excited to meet them. As soon as they walked into the room, we became even more excited and could not wait to meet our new family members.

Our family had the pleasure of hosting two students from Murasakino High School, Rio and Maki. As soon as we met them, we knew that we would have a lot of fun with them and make many new and happy memories. Both Maki and Rio were a tiny bit shy at first, but still very eager to learn about our family, and the way we live. As the visit progressed, they became more confident and talked about many different things, like hobbies, home life and even romance. Even though we are from different countries and lifestyles, we shared many of the same hobbies and things that we liked. Having two students doubled the amount of fun that we had, and both girls were beautiful, fun, curious and generous. There were lots of laughs, and each day was very fun. Their first meal was meat pies, and we were happy to know that they loved it, leading us to make it again on their second last night with us.

All of the students’ English was incredible, which made it a lot easier to communicate with them. Still, there were a few hiccups in pronunciation and word usage, which led to some confusion, and sometimes peals of good-natured laughter. They all helped each other with their English, and since both Maki and Rio stayed with our family, they were able to help each other when trying to say something. I hope that if I get a chance to travel to Japan, I will be able to practice communicating more in Japanese.

During class time, the students participated in the many different aspects of life at Chev. Some of these included sport, cooking, dancing and painting with elective classes, and helping the Japanese classes learn a bit more about their culture. The host brothers and sisters were lucky enough to be able to participate in some of these activities like the zoo visit, which was also heaps of fun. Our family did many things on the weekends and sometimes after school to show Rio and Maki the scenery of our area. 

We took them out to our family’s farm to show them some cows and kangaroos in the wild (although they jumped away as soon as we got closer). We went to Illawarra Fly, the beach, some sport games, and one of my dance competitions. Some afternoons were quieter and were spent doing homework and watching television together.

Both the Chevalier host students and the Murasakino students experienced a lot of new things during their visit, and we definitely learned a lot about each other’s cultures. I was able to connect a lot with both of our visiting students and was lucky to make two lifelong friends. It was an unforgettable experience for our family, and we are so glad that we decided to be a part of this amazing program at Chev.

When it was time for them to leave, it didn’t feel real until it was time for them to get on the bus. All of us were very sad, and we cried together, for the beautiful times that we had, and for having to say goodbye. I feel so grateful to have had this experience and I can’t wait to see Maki and Rio again in the future.

Thank you to Miss Robertson and the helping teachers for organising this program for all of us, it really brought us a lot of joy.

Evie S

Year 9