This year, Megan, Grace and I were lucky enough to get the opportunity to go on an exchange to Tokyo, which is the first time Mount Anville students have ever gone to the Sacred Heart School in Tokyo before. And we had the most amazing experience!
We left Dublin on the 8th October, and arrived in Tokyo the next day, where we would stay for 2 weeks. We received a great welcome and saw their beautiful school, like our own. We also met our lovely host sisters - Reo, Risa, Anzu and their parents, who made our time in Tokyo so enjoyable.
Throughout our time in Tokyo, all together we covered a lot of ground - the Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, Kamakura, Tokyo Dome, Harajuku, Shibuya and the statue of the dog, Hachi, to name just a few! And we also got to go DisneySea Tokyo when the students had the day off.
We learned a lot about their culture; the sempai-kohai relationship in the school, their education system, the role of women in Japan, even their system of going on escalators! We learned a bit of Japanese - "Moshi Moshi" if you're saying hi on the phone or "Kawaii" if you think something's 'cute' which was us a lot of the time!
We got to take part in two Japanese Calligraphy lessons (with the help of our student-translators as the teacher had no English at all) this was so fascinating to see and do! We also went to a Grade 1 English class where we sang "Do, Re, Mi" and they even gave us each a Japanese cloth as well.
We also presented to their school about Mount Anville, after it there were lots of Japanese students applying to come to Ireland to Mount Anville but unfortunately only 3 can come back which is a pity as we made so many friends over there and we would love them all to come back. During our time there we taught them about Ireland, some Irish - they didn't even know it was a language, and told them, during their English classes, places to go in Ireland if they ever came!
Apart from everything else, we got to enjoy the Japanese cuisine, which we would all agree was delicious! Trying Soba, Ramen, Yaki-Soba, Sushi, Kibidango, Dango, Macha ice-cream and having obento boxes for lunch which I certainely miss!
The teachers, students and families were all so kind and good to us while we were in Japan, they were so curious about Ireland and our life and they alway wanted us to have the best possible time! It was truly an amazing experience with great people! Thank you to Ms Walsh for organising it, as well as Nahoko (Japanese co-ordinator), our Japanese host families and our Japanese classmates!
The Japanese exchange students - Nanoko, Mirei andYui are coming in March for 3 weeks and we are very excited to have them in our school!
Isabelle McCarthy
