Cowra-Seikei Exchange

Exchange Students - Airi & Jemma

We have unfortunately come to the end of our Seikei Exchange student, Airi’s time here at Cowra High School.  She has been a wonderful addition to our school, bringing talented contributions with her photography and saxophone playing, and an appreciation for her Japanese culture.  We will miss her very much and wish her every happiness and success as she heads back to Japan.

Jemma Pokoney has also returned from her exchange, happy to be home with family but very grateful for her experience.  You can read about both girls’ experiences below.

If you are interested in becoming involved in this exchange, please see Mrs Megan Perkins at school. Also, if any of the families in our community are looking for the special experience of hosting our next exchange student Haruna, Mrs Perkins would be most happy to hear from you.

Jemma Pokoney's Year in Japan

I have just spent twelve amazing months in Japan and it’s hard to find the words to describe how wonderful my exchange year was.

When I first arrived in Japan I couldn’t believe that I had decided to travel half way across the world for a year and started thinking that I was absolutely crazy! The feeling of not knowing anyone, not knowing how to speak the language and so on had me feeling very, very uncomfortable and full of doubt.

I was welcomed so beautifully to my first host family and quickly became adjusted to the food, language and culture.  It had become sink or swim and I wanted to make sure I swam well. I joined the Kendo Club and the English Club and loved spending time in my extracurricular activities, building friendships that will last a lifetime.

I got to compete with Seikei High School in kendo, a form of martial arts, and in English debating. I loved representing my Japanese high school and feeling like one of them. I joined in many different festivals like the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Summer Festival and many many more cultural events. I had fallen in love with Japan and how they embrace everything and take everything on board.

I had six host families during the year and created many many memories with all of them. I had 10 sisters and no brothers which was a truly rare and wonderful experience as in Australia I have one younger brother and that’s it. Having 10 sisters was a beautiful treasure and they all made my experience in Japan awesome.

I made friendships with people not only from Japan but also Germany, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, America and more. These friendships I will treasure forever and I loved how we all could share the wonderful thing called friendships even though we have completely different backgrounds and cultures.

I was Class Captain of my Japanese class and Vice Captain of my English Club. Both of these roles I held with pride and will always be grateful for. I went to the kendo summer camp and learnt a lot about kendo as a sport and martial art. I had a domestic flight to Shukoku where I spent about a week with my friends from Seikei High School. I got to climb all the way to the top of Mount Fuji, went to Disneyland and DisneySea 3 times, Universal Studios Japan and much much more.

There were times when I felt very sad and tired but these times were outweighed by all the great moments I had. An exchange year is not an easy thing to do and perhaps one of the hardest things you can do in your lifetime but trust me it is one of the best things you will ever do.  It’s like a big rollercoaster that goes up and down.

I have friendships, memories, a fluent Japanese tongue and accomplishments that I will take forever and no one can take that away from me.  I fell in love with Japan, the people, the culture, the food and much much more and I thank everyone for letting me have the best privilege in life in Japan as an exchange student for a year.  “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer”.

Airi Nishihara Farewells Cowra High

Good morning everyone, my name is Airi Nishihara.  I came from Japan as a 46th exchange student from Seikei High School. I came here in end of last March and I’m about to finish my one year exchange in Australia. It has past so quickly since I came here about 11 months ago. Way too quickly. Different culture, different language and being apart from my family and friends used to make me cry for many times, like I did on the first day of the school. However, it was a start of the wonderful journey.

I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences this year that I can never forget. I’ve been to Melbourne to see an AFL match, Sydney for sightseeing, Albury to stay on the farm and the Wyangala and Carcoar Dam to play some watersports, just to name a few. All the places were just too beautiful to explain and also very different to what I’ve seen in Japan too. Of course I absolutely loved a country lifestyle in Cowra and I don’t know how I’ll manage back in Tokyo.

The excursions I participated in helped me to make unforgettable memories with my friends, as  Camden visit, ski trip, CKC Cup, Drama trip in Sydney and a swimming carnival just recently. I actually wish that I could have those excursions in my school.  Well of course we do have some great trips but unfortunately we don’t have strong connections with other schools like Cowra High with Camden, Canobolas and Kelso. And it is also what you get at school to be able to challenge everything because of the smaller number of students compared to my school. So I’m very pleased that I had these opportunities this year and I think it is something that you should be aware of and proud of.

I’ve had four great host families while I was here. I just can’t thank them enough for looking after me and accepting me as if I was a part of the families. Although their different lifestyles and different age of children gave me whole new experiences, what I pleased the most was welcoming me as one of their family members and making a place that I can be comfortable and I feel like being at home. So I’d like to thank all of you who hosted me for everything and I promise I’ll visit “my home” when I come back.

I got many opportunities to perform what I’m passionate about which is playing the saxophone. I played at the Night of Music, Rotary meetings, Probus Club meetings, Jazz concert at the Japanese Garden, busking and the dinner for a visitor from Japan with the Mayor and Councillors. I’d never played by myself in front of the people as I’ve only played with 60 students in my orchestra.  Music doesn’t need any languages to impress audiences and it turns out a lot of fun and opportunities to see many great people whom I would never see if I couldn’t play an instrument.

I also developed interest about drama and photography thanks to my teachers. I love how you have lots of electives and find what you’re interested in because our choices of the electives are not as many as yours.  But I was lucky to find what I can express myself as I thought I had nothing to do with artistic subjects because I only have learnt drawing at school. So I’d love to continue developing my passions that I found in here because they are the things that Cowra High School gave me.

This year was not easy though what I got after all was not just an English skill, but also all of my special friends, families, teachers realising how important my family and friends who support me are, visiting all the beautiful places and having a hometown in overseas. This journey wouldn’t be as great as it was without any of you so thank you so much for having me this year.

It was also honoured to be a part of Seikei-Cowra Committee as an exchange student. There’ll be one year exchange program, two weeks excursions and you could be a host family for the students from Seikei High School.  If you’re interested please go and ask Mrs Perkins and I can’t wait to see you involved in the Seikei Family.  There’ll also be an Olympics in 2020 in Tokyo so please visit our beautiful country and you’re more than welcome to visit me any time.

It’s not a goodbye, it’s just a good luck until I see you again!