Japan Sister School

Hi, I’m Gus Walker - one of the lucky few that were fortunate enough to be a part of the elusive Japan trip.

On September 15th, I left for Japan with the school for two weeks. The over 10-hour flight wasn’t my favourite thing ever, especially since I despise sitting still for long periods of time but it was far outweighed by how magical the experience of Japan was.

During our first week there we were all staying at a host family’s home. I got a very considerate Japanese individual named “Sosuke”. However, before we were even able to get to the school to meet our host family, we had some difficulties getting to the school. Our bus driver for that day accidentally arrived at the wrong school due to their similar naming, we were basically stranded at the other school for an hour until Suzuki Sensei was able to create a solution.

With my host family I got to experience Japanese culture with Japanese people. Sosuke’s family was so nice and understanding and helped me through my time with them. The favourite thing I did with them was having tempura made by Sosuke’s grandma because we had a lovely conversation, and the tempura was extremely delicious. But alas the second week came around and we had to leave our host families. After some sweet goodbyes and lots of photos everywhere we left to experience a wild variety of Japanese culture.

And it would be remiss to leave out the fact that we were able to go to Universal Studios Japan and Tokyo Disneyland, both of which were magical experiences. Personally, out of those two my favourite part of either of them was the Harry Potter World from Universal. I’m extremely fond of Harry Potter so I instantly loved this part, and I was able to get some exciting stuff from Harry Potter World. Namely, an interactive wand, and keychain of one of the houses in Harry Potter, and butterbeer - a famous drink in the series.

But after naming all the most exciting parts about the trip it would be rude not to mention the hard work and dedication that Suzuki Sensei, Hickey Sensei, and Andrews Sensei put into making this trip possible and extraordinary. Unfortunately, I can’t elaborate more on my time in Japan, but rest assured it’s as magical as you think it is.

By Gus Walker

Year 9