Half way through our trip - Disneyland

Monday 29th September, a day all of us were looking forward too because we were going to Disneyland! Most of us were going for the first time and we were all so excited for this new experience!
It was a early start today, just so we could make the most of Disneyland! 9 am we reached Disneyland and all around us were people, lots of them!!! We went in and went with our groups!! The lines were really long for the rides and there were so many people there too! Thw first ride was amazing - the splash mountain! Then we went to the space mountain and we had the fast pass for this ride so we were on the ride in no time!! By the time we finished these rides we all went for a feed and then off to the next ride which was the pirates and the carribean one! Then we went shopping inside the castle and Payal and I got a glass heel with our name engraved on it! After this we did more shopping in the other souvenir shops and we bought a lot!! The shops were so amazing!!  We then saw the electronic Cinderella parade!!! Around 8:30 pm the fireworks 🎆 started and it was beautiful!  Following that we watched the castle show which was brilliant!! Finally after a long, fun and tiring 12 hours it was time to head back!!
This Disneyland trip more than an experience for an individual, it was a form of bonding with one another and spending time to get to know one another!!
I really loved today and I can't believe that we are half way to our trip, the experience so far has been fabulous and I'm looking forward to the upcoming days and to share my experiences with my family and friends back home!!!

The images below show us all showing off cool engraved bracelets we got from the woods and craft shop and also of fire from the scene of the castle show
The second image is of us having fun outside the castle!

 Niki Chawla

Having such a great time in Japan

Today we (my host family and i) took the train to Shibuya and pretty much wandered around for a bit . Saw the Hachiko statue as well as the scramble crossing, there was so many people there its nothing like New Zealand . While in Shibuya, we took a stroll through harajuku where there were many people there cosplaying as maids and other characters.
After that we went up this tower and got an amazing view of the city, it is pretty much a concrete jungle out here in Japan, in most cities anyways.
Finally we made our way home by train and bought sushi for dinner, it was delicious.

Last night we lit off some fireworks ( the small sparkling ones ) and had such a blast. So far the experience in Japan is just amazing. I wish i could stay here forever but yeah, gonna be back in New Zealand sooner or later :( There are things here that you will probably never find in New Zealand which is what makes Japan special to me.

27th September - with host families

Went to Akihabara with derek which was very fun but unfortunately no picture to show that but we went to a few shops that sold figures and to sega that had arcade games and claw machines which I tried and failed so many times hahahaha.......

That was pretty annoying but still quite fun. We went to quite a few places but unfortunately  no pokemon center lol.

Me and derek found arian and his host family which was pretty interesting because we made a huge group between my host family and his. Sadly enough we had to part each other and me and derek went back home but instead arrived at a station where we waited for the murakami family which was derek's homestay and we went to a festival called oirandou.

I had a ton of fun and I even saw payal nikki and melissa In kimonos which were pretty cute. Unfortunately my night came to an end afterwards and I went home.

Well until next time. Bye

Steven

Day 5: School Visit to Ono Gakuen

Japanese Activities with Ono Gakuen Students

Lunch with Ono Gakuen Students

Saturday 27th of September 2014

Waking up in the morning to go to the sports day/festival hosted by my homestay's daughter's school.

There are two teams and its
RED VERSUS WHITE
There were many events in this day and that included:

Running

Throwing balls into the hoop before it's time up

Meeting the mascot(the left supports red and the one on the right supports white)

Seeing a tug of war using sticks and dragging the stick to the teams side.

Relays
Red won the first one and then white won the next.

And much more events that I missed due to me going late.

Within this day there were many many people supporting the teams and their children.

After all this I went back home to chill and relax until that moment
Of
Making
T A K O Y A K I
that's right making it and eating it!

Just with my homestay and no one else.

Overall I can gladly say that I've had an enjoyable time watching sports and making Takoyaki.

Extras:

A somewhat view while outside

Day 5: snapshots

Rahul fully engrossed in the first activity at Ono Gakuen

One of the girls at Ono Gakuen was not like the others!

How many can you get in a selfie?

We were all sad to leave but happy to have made so many new friends 

Arian getting a little help from the ikibana expert at SIFA. 

26 September

Today was the school visit to ono gakuen in shinagawa, its a private, girls school and only made about two years ago. The girls waved us in and after a brief explanation we ate lunch in the cafeteria. At first it was a bit awkward as these kinda of meetups go but after the ice was broken everyone got along, language barriers didint hold anything back today as everyone was smiling. After lunch they made alot of things for us but everyone got something a little different, i got paper fans woth kanji and really cool origami, then it was our turn to give them our candles made from beeswax in shapes of sheep and hearts. After they were all nicely wrapped we proceeded to the hall where they sang the japanese version of let it go and we preformed our haka.


We went back to SIFA after a bunch   Of photos, goodbyes and facebook name sharing, there we got To have a crack at flower arranging and the ladies who taught us came to each of us and helped out thoroughly which was really nice, thanks to them they came out well.

Trip to Yokohama - Steven, Derek and Mark

Hi!!!

Today I, Mark and Steven went to Yokohama at 8:00am this was still rush hour so it was amazing to see everyone cope in the cooped up stations, and trains luckily I was in a less crowded train :P

Yokohama was spectacular with the weather we had I couldn’t ask for more. While looking at the great sights we also searched for some カルピス(a Japanese drink) for mark.

with all the great sights we saw I don’t think I couuld fit all the pictures I took J

We could not stay for too long as we had to head to the SIFA building to meet up with everyone so we could go have more fun.

Today we spent most of our time at ona gakuen an all-girls school it was an amazing school (looked really high class) and had lots of kind people we had lunch and did origami, made candles (which sadly they did not turn out as well as we hoped but It was still fun) and went to say goodbye by saying a few speeches and doing our school haka which everyone slightly regretted because we all thought that we could do better and the school sand let it go which was very fun, After that we all started taking pictures (I didn’t use my phone :P) and said our farewells which lasted until we left the schools street.

After that we returned to the SIFA building to do some flower arranging which was fun too.

i have many more photos but now i have to go and eat a delicous meal my homestay has prepared :)

25th of September. Shinagawa Gakuen visit.

Today the entire group visited the shinagawa gakuen. It is a primary school and a junior highschool (intermediate) merged together. We were then put into groups and then went to the classes according to the group ; i was put in the hard materials class. Once in side we practiced ruling straight lines down a piece of wood and cutting it. We were then given the challenge of cutting a perfect cut down two lines with a 3mm distance separate the lines and the see if the pieces would stand on their own. After one failure i managed to complete the challenge and make the pieces stand on their own. After that we headed to the firstyears class and made some origami. I quite enjoyed this as they were very happy and energectic and made it fun to be around them. We then had lunch with some of the students. Immediately after lunch we were told we had to sing our song pokarekare ana and so we did. But then we wanted to do the haka and so with michael leading us we delivered an awesome performance. While both the song and the haka was good i think we got a louder clap and more cheers for the great haka performance we did. We then visited a shrine. At the shrine we prayed and also got our fortune sadly i only got a small luck fortune. We then had free time at a massive mall complex where i ate the delicious kurobaagaa or black burger. I then headed to james's homestay's house (as my homestay mum had to work late) where we ate some delicious ramen. Yum.

Day 4: photo highlights

 

Niki and Alan make some adoring fans

 

Joining in Art and Hard Tech classes at Shinagawa Gakuen

Mark - famous in Shinagawa!

Day 4: Shinagawa Gakuen School Visit

Gideon gives a lesson in woodwork

Mixing it with Year 2 students

Lunch with students

Day 3: some more highlights

Rahul gives lunch a seal of approval, 

satisfied diners after a meal at Yorimichi Cafe, including birthday cake - Happy Birthday Adam-san! 

the dolphins put on a show at the Shinagawa Aquarium and 

Melissa, Payal & Natalie use fish instead of soap to clean their fingers.

Day 3: Earthquake simulation and city tour

Students get to experience the force of a Magnitude 9 earthquake.

Students impressions so far while shopping in an outdoor shopping mall in Shinagawa.

Opening words from Japan

After a super long day of travelling, finally made it to Japan! Even though we were extremely tired, the anticipation of finally being able to meet our homestay families made us alert. The next day I woke up, forgetting where I was. It was going to be a good day, I was going to Harajuku. I had an extremely fun day filled with shopping, Japanese fashion and the crowded streets of Harajuku with small stores selling jewellery, food, clothes, stationary and so much more. I can't wait to experience even more of the Japanese culture :)

Nibbly fish! (24th September)

Today, we spent some time as a group. We first paid a visit to the Mayor of Shinagawa, and that was probably the most formal occasion I`d ever been in (rather serious and professional). We introduced ourselves and then sang Pokarekare Ana again. With the blessings of Mayor, we went on to a city tour!
The first stop was the fire brigade, where we watched a movie (though it was surprising to see it was a short film based on an earthquake in Japan) and then shortly went on to practice extinguishing a fire with the fire brigade. It`s been a while seen I was able to yell as loudly as I could, so I really let loose when we yelled "KAJIDAAAA!!!". After that we went on to an earthquake simulation bus. It was me, Mark, Derek and Cath on the seats and, yup, no hands through the magnitude 7 earthquake.
While Kelly Tarltons in Auckland is a nice aquarium, I have to say Shinagawa`s aquarium was quite the eye-opener. Giant turtles, Jellyfish, A dolphin show, but what really got me was a tank we could put our hands in and these little fish (I think they were tadpoles?) just swarm right up to us and start nibbling away. Gosh that felt weird; nibbly nibbly fish.
Well, I`ve got my speech coming up for Ono Gakuen soon, so I`ve gotta get some practice in, see you later! -Arian.  

We've made it!

Yay! After 15 hours of flying we have finally made it to Japan!
The first plane ride was very turbulant and hard to get to sleep on so most of us were very tired when we got to Hong Kong. The next flight was better and sleep found me at last. When we arrived in Japan suddenly everyones tiredness become excitement. It was really hot but the bus taking us to the welcome cermony thankfully had air conditioning At the opening cermony we sang and introduced ourselves in japanese. We also met our host families for the first time. My host family is the Okamura's and they are really great. They took me to a japanese snack shop and let me loose to get anything i wanted. They cannot speak english that well but try very hard so i am pretty grateful for that. Today we plan to go to Harajyuku for some shopping! Wohooo

23rd of September

Hello, We finally arrived in Japan and it is so hot here, even when I sleep. Yesterday I met my host family and they were really nice. It was a bit awkward but once I gave them gifts and the scrapbook, it was easier to talk. It was kind of hard to communicate with them as I know only a little bit of japanese. Thankfully they know some english. The food here is tasty and interesting, I had some sashimi yesterday night for dinner with rice and miso soup (not sure if it is miso soup). For breakfast, I had ham, eggs, cornflakes for cereal and tea as my drink. Today I have no idea where we are going as I am writing this post in the morning at 9:11am. Since it is the first day, I don`t have many things to talk to about... Anyway, see you guys later. Natalie Jim

Meeting our host families!

Michael and James at Auckland Airport

Departure

Farewell NZ - Hong Kong here we come

Anticipation

Day: -19

Entry: 1

Anticipation,

I'm nervous,excited and its rising up... I can't wait for the day, only 20 of those to go. I think maybe I'll get some chocolate for the kids I'll be staying with, and maybe a greenstone tiki for the parents. I don't know, but I still have a little bit to go, so it's okay, for now... I wonder what airline we are going to Japan in, maybe a Boeing 747 400 ER or maybe it will be a Airbus A380, it seems exciting, going on a long haul trip. Maybe if we're lucky we can go and chill around Hong Kong for a bit, that would be awesome, Japan and Hong Kong, wow! Can't wait to see my home stay parents! It's exciting, the feeling inside is the bubbles in a coke bottle, slowly rising, getting after and faster, until it breaks  the surface! Any ways, see you guys in a while, Peace!

Rahul,