Day 3 - Ito Gakuen

Let's imagine that today is Wednesday September the 26th and not September the 27th.
I forgot to post on the blog yesterday >.<  (haha)

Visiting a school that ranged from Year 1 to Year 9 was the first time for me. I could not get over the fact that there were Primary and Intermediate students learning in the same school. However, I got over that and learnt to appreciate it. First, the Principal of Ito Gakuen presented a speech to us and Mr Burden and Ms. Knell gave a speech back to show our appreciation. Then, we were taught the schools layout and what type of activities they have in the school eg. Club activities, athletics day and many more. After learning about the school, we were given a tour of the school. To my memory, Ito Gakuen, had 6 levels (I apologize if I am wrong). It was very different to Lynfield College in New Zealand due to the 6 levels, a HEATED pool, and overall, the size of Ito Gakuen was quite small compared to the size of our school in New Zealand. There were many stairs to climb and go down and some of us struggled towards the very end. During the tour of the school we were given the privilage to visit some of the Primary classes. We went to an English class, a music class and an Art class. The children were VERY ADORABLE. After the tour, we were given a very warm welcome with the drums, speech, musical performance with the Koto and the Shamisen (I hope I got the names right) and each of us were given a drawing from an art class.

We then went to our classes and I went to class Year 9 class number 4 with Avril. All of the students welcome the two of us by decorating the class, throwing small pieces of paper in the air over our head and having a 'WELCOME ELAINE AND AVRIL' at the back of the class on the blackboard. Then the students came rushing since they were intriged by Avril's eye and hair colour. We had lunch with them and I could not believe that I was served a bowl of rice, a potato dish that I didn't know but was really nice, a bowl of soup, a carton of milk and a mandarin. The lunch was rather unbelievable when you compare the lunch that the students eat in the school to our everday sandwich. The Japanese class that Avril and I were taking part in had a random Kanji test at the start and my piece was paper was beautifully blank. I could't read anything -.-
But the class was really fun and the teacher and students were really funny. Though I could understand what was going on, I had trouble understanding what they were learning about the Japanese structure in the text book. The guy next to me was very kind but quite and shared his book with me. To much of my surprise, the class was filled with laughter and entertainment. It was almost like Mr.Boasman's physics class. Also, I found out that the guy who was very kind and quite had his birthday yesterday. I nicknamed him Birthday boy xD
At the end, I gave him the rugby ball keyring like gift as a thank you for having me and as a birthday gift when class had finished. Avril and I then returned to 'the base' and then went to Oimachi and then returned to SIFA and went back home with our host family.

This concludes our long but short day.

Elaine Lee.