Seiritsu International Education

Junior high school students arriving to challenge the high school entrance test.

From last week the school has been holding entrance tests for regular Japanese elementary students who want to enter the junior high program, and junior high students who want to enter the high school program. Depending on the course, tests are held for Math, Japanese, English, Science and Social Studies.

For the high school students, there is also a 5 minute interview with two teachers, during which the students are asked questions like how do they go about achieving their goals and why do they want to come to Seiritsu.

The next school year begins in April.

writer: staff  date: 12:31 PM | Life at Seiritsu

New Years in Japan is different from New Years at home. In Japan it is a holiday when families get together to celebrate, while in France most families do that in Christmas, and prefer to spend the New Year’s eve with their friends.



Since I don’t have my own family or a host family in Japan, I met some friends from France and we had a small party at their house. At midnight, we went to Meiji Jingu Shrine for hatsumode, the first visit of the year. France is not a Buddhist or Shinto country, so no-one does that at home.






We were at the shrine early but we still had to wait one hour in the cold weather to finally accede to the main part of the shrine where people can make their prayers. The waiting line was neatly organized, in a very Japanese fashion, with policemen holding signs that said “Walk” and “Stop” to control the crowd and avoid having everyone rushing to the front gates. Afterwards, we went to buy some omikuji; fortunes for the year. I got a “very lucky” one, so I hope I will have a very good year!　



On the next day, the 1st of January, I received some New Years cards. These are also something we don’t have back at home, but we send Christmas cards, which are basically the same except we send them a week earlier.

writer: staff  date: 11:53 AM | Life at Seiritsu

My New Year’s holiday in Japan was wonderful! I went to various places in Kansai and Kanto. In the beginning of the holiday I went to Ninomiya station with Tatiana, just to find some country side but then I found that it is also on the coast. Then I went to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (Big Buddha), which was so beautiful and big. I also found that Kamakura is on the coast too.


In the middle of my holiday, around December 28th, I went snowboarding in Niigata. That was my first time ever because there’s no snow in Thailand so I couldn’t try it before. I found that it is harder than I expected. I fell down many times! It hurt but was still fun.The next day I was in so much pain that I slept all day!


    


On the New Year’s Eve, my host mother had to work so there was no party at my home. That was quite sad. I always have New Year party at my home in Thailand. But everything got better after I watched The NHK Uta Gassen because I had wanted to watch it for a long time!


From January 4th – 7th, I went to Kyoto to meet my friend and sleep over. We went to many places in Kansai. At first day we stayed in Kyoto, the second in Osaka, the third in Nara, the fourth day in Kyoto again and then I went back to Tokyo. The Kansai trip was fun, there are a lot of places to visit in Kansai area, and it’s great! I love Kansai! The next day I went to Tochigi to see the strawberry orchard, it was cool! I love everywhere in Japan. I am happy that I spent my holiday in so many places of Japan. This was the best holiday ever!

writer: staff  date: 11:37 AM | Life at Seiritsu

My Japanese New Years was very different compared to a Danish New Year’s Eve, since in Japan New Year’s Eve is considered as the main event of the holiday.



This holiday I was together with my host family and two of their friends, when the friends arrived at our house we started the preparation of our dinner, Sukiyaki and homemade Onigiri. After dinner we talked and played Wii. Just before midnight we went to some friends living nearby so we could “jump” into the New Year together. Afterwe all said “Happy New Year” and drank all of our champagne we went to the local shrine、to pray for a good year. However my uncle must be careful because the shrine’s fortune telling told him that he is going to have a bad year again!





The Japanese New Year is very different to the Danish because in Denmark usually young people celebrate New Year’s together with their friends at a party instead of sitting together with their family, but the reason of this is that in Denmark Christmas is the day where you are together with your family and New Years you are together with friends, and this is other way around in Japan where Christmas eve is considered as a Date night and New Years is the day you spent together with your family.

writer: staff  date: 11:26 AM | Life at Seiritsu

The holidays here in Japan are definitely different from in Australia.


One of the main differences is that Australia has a Christian culture, and they believe that Christmas is more important that New Years, compared to Japan which believes that New Years is more important than Christmas.


Another difference was the seasons, from December to February it is summer in Australia and we usually enjoy the Christmas season by singing Christmas carols, going to church, exchanging presents with loved ones and gathering together to have lunch with our families, which includes having barbeques. Occasionally there is the danger of bush fires, since most people live so close to nature reserves, but I’ve been lucky enough to avoid them.




Even the Christmas cake is different from Japan. Our Christmas cake is a very dark coloured cake, which is full of alcohol and dried fruit. I was very surprised when I saw Christmas in Japan, after seeing all the decorations hung up I first thought that everyone here celebrated it, but I was wrong. In Japan Christmas is treated as a romantic date night, instead of a time to spend with their families. My friends told me that they went to Tokyo tower to see the illuminations, which they expected to be in red and green, the traditional colours of Christmas. Instead they saw pink hearts on the tower, which made them think of Valentine’s Day.


When I think about it, the holidays are reversed from what they are back at home. Compared to in Australia, where Christmas is a family holiday and New Years being a time to hang out with friends, Japan is the opposite, where they go out with friends on Christmas and spend time with their families on New Years.





At midnight this year, my home stay family took me to some nearby shrines, where we clapped our hands and rang the bell at the front. The first shrine only had a few people, but at the second shrine we had to wait in line for almost an hour! Some other Japanese New Year customs are that people eat very fancy Japanese styled breakfasts, such as mochi (a squishy type of food made out of rice) and fish. They also send out special postcards that arrive exactly on New Year’s Day.

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It was very interesting being able to see the differences and similarities in our cultures.

writer: staff  date: 10:57 AM | Life at Seiritsu

I celebrated New Years in Tochigi prefecture with my host family. I made mochi (rice cakes) and had a great time. The New Year in Japan is a lot different from Sweden because it’s more important; in Sweden we just go outside at midnight and look at fireworks and then go back inside again. But in Japan there is more traditional things to do as for mochi making and a lot of food to eat. It is also more religious than in Sweden when you go to the temple and pray and so on.






I prefer the Japanese New Years over the Swedish one because you actually do something instead for sitting and playing on the computer with your friends all night ,which I do still enjoy but not as much as this!

writer: staff  date: 10:57 AM | Life at Seiritsu

It will soon be 3 months since I came to Japan.
That means I just finished the first quarter of my gap year.



The five of us in the international class got to know each other better, so classes together are always fun!

We sometimes go to karaoke or take purikura together after school too.






Karaoke is really fun; I discovered that I like the same songs as Jessica and Pop… Even though their music genres are very different! It made the karaoke experience even more enjoyable!



One day, I also went to Asakusa with Pop, I could discover a more traditional part of Japan by going to the Sensoji temple. I also took a typical tourist picture in front of the Kaminarimon.






On another day, I went with Jessica at Harajuku to do some shopping. We went into the shop of her favorite designer’s brand, h.naoto, and by coincidence it was on that same tat the new winter collection came out. While I was browsing through the dresses, thinking that they were really expensive, a man in his forties came and started talking to us in English. I was going to ignore him after a while, but fortunately Jessica is better than me at knowing faces, and she suddenly asked “Are you h.naoto?” it turned out he was. I almost ignored an internationally recognized fashion designer, it was embarrassing. Then he invited us to go to his fashion show the following week, and since I would have felt bad leaving the shop with empty hands, I bought a hat.






As for school, I am starting to get used to most things. My Japanese skills have improved enough to talk with my classmates, and I understand most of what is going on during classes.
Last week, all five of us went to imohori, picking sweet potatoes out in the countryside in Saitama. It was quite tiring, but we got to eat good curry rice with sweet potatoes in it!

Recently the weather is becoming very cold, so I have bought a scarf and gloves to wear on the way to school. But this is only the beginning, and it is supposed to stay cold until April. I hope I will manage the whole winter without becoming sick!

writer: staff  date: 10:21 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Nick has settled into his studies at Seiritsu really well- here he is shown enjoying Japanese class with his Japanese home room. Although the level is predicatably very high, Japanese language classes do help introduce important vocabulary to the international students, and because of this immersion they feel that their Japanese ability really starts to take off!

writer: staff  date: 1:05 PM | Life at Seiritsu

As well as studying together in the Japanese, Japanese history, High Level English and Japanese Geography classes that are run by the International Department, all international students participate in regular classes with their Japanese home rooms. Here, Tatiana is focusing on her English.

writer: staff  date: 1:01 PM | Life at Seiritsu

As part of their curriculum at Seiritsu, the international students get to try their hand at Shodo. This is unsurprisingly a firm favourite among all students! Here Gabu is pictured in the Shodo classroom, practicing his latest Kanji.

writer: staff  date: 12:47 PM | Life at Seiritsu