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,