JAPAN TOUR 2024 

Over the next few weeks, we are going to share highlights of the Japan Tour 2024 with our community through the newsletter and at assembly. We hope you enjoy reading about our wonderful experience and amazing adventures. 

Osaka Castle 

Osaka castle was pretty fun. As usual we got on a lot of trains to get there but once we got to see the actual castle, it was pretty big. 

We walked up stairs and went into the castle and it was spectacular! The museum in the castle had samurai armour and swords and it had a map of the entire place. After a while of looking at stuff we went to the samurai costume area. The helmet I wanted was being used so I chose a different one.

Afterwards, we left the castle and went to an ice cream shop because everyone wanted ice cream as it was hot during our time in Japan. At the ice cream shop, they had vanilla and chocolate and a mix of the two flavours. They also had shaved ice with 2 flavours, strawberry and mango. 

By Flynn

Monkeys

It was day 8 when we went to see monkeys in Kyoto. The monkeys are called Japanese macaques . Fun fact : did you know that the Japanese macaque are excellent swimmers? The monkeys are located on a hill. It was around a 20 minute walk. Once we got there, there was a beautiful view of the city as well as a banana you can sit on to take photos! Obviously, we all wanted to feed the monkeys! We were given either apples or peanuts to give to them. There was a cage that we went into to feed the monkeys. Basically reverse zoo cages. Some monkeys would fight for the food, especially the older monkeys. Their target was the baby monkeys so when any of us were trying to feed the baby monkeys the older monkeys would scare them away. Once we all finished feeding them some of my friends and I went to explore a little bit of a higher section. We couldn't see much because there were heaps of people. It was just a higher area where we could see the monkeys on top of the roof. Of course we weren't allowed to go onto the roof but at least we could get a view of them. After a few more minutes it was unfortunately time to say goodbye to the monkeys. On the way back down, there was a slide! It was quite a big slide. The slide took you down part of the path down the mountain. We each got a turn going down! Seeing the monkeys, the city and having lots of fun was amazing! Maybe you’ll get to experience the monkeys too!

By Amelie

KIMONO

While we were in Japan we got to have a great experience of wearing a traditional kimono. There were various patterns, designs and colours.  The girls got beautiful floral designs with a lot of bright colours. As for the boys, they got single colours which were blue and some were dark and grey. For girls there were 3 layers for the dress and 6 layers for the belt. While boys had 1 layer for the dress and 2 layers for the belt. When we were all dressed, we put on some shoes which were like normal thongs for boys but for girls we had a little bit of a heel added to it. We also had to wear a special kind of sock to be able to wear the shoes comfortably. 

To take pictures we went to a gorgeous garden at a temple called Tenryu-ji where we took photos in front of the bamboo forest and a breathtaking pond. There were roses and flowers. In this different pond you could toss a coin and make a wish. A way that you could get good luck was to land a coin on top of a frog's head. A couple people got it on the frog's head but not many.  Thank you Sensei, Mie-Mie and Ainslie for this great experience. 

By Inez