Seiritsu International Education

Dylan with his homeroom, 1A, and the card that they made for him. His homeroom teacher, Hamano Sensei, is on the very left.

Dylan shares a laugh with the captain of first year's soccer team.

As the school year winds to a close, we say farewell to Dylan who, after a year at Seiritsu, ends his time early here to return to New Zealand. But before he departed, he left this message...

My 11 months in Japan has been a great experience in many ways that I did not expect when I arrived. Before I arrived in Japan, I thought I already was strong mentally and physically, but the Japanese proved to me that I was no more than another person that plays soccer in Japan. They showed me that to be good at what you are doing you have to work hard in all aspects of life. Things like cleaning, dishes, school, soccer, practice, running, running, running, getting training ready and many more needed to be done properly or I did not get to play. And that is what I wanted most- to play.

The first 6 months here were the hardest as I had never worked so hard for this long of a period in my whole life. There were times when I wanted to just say I was finished and just fly back to New Zealand but resisting these temptations are the things that make you stronger in the long term. If you don��t accept them, you just accept that you have them and use it to your advantage.

I have only been away for a year but it feels like I have been living in Japan for 5 years or more. This year has strengthened me in every way possible. I now know what it really is like to work hard and to try to understand a different culture, but I still cannot imagine what it would be like to actually be a Japanese person.

I also now feel like I can tackle life at full speed as I know what it is like to be at the bottom of your game and to have no confidence at times. I have experienced it and the ways to get myself back on top, so if it happens again, which in no doubt it will, I am prepared. It was also a good age for preparing as 16 is a lot closer to adult life that I thought. My time in Japan will never be forgotten for reasons that I can not explain in words.

A special thanks to the Fukuda family for believing in me, Richard for helping me out with everything that needed to be done to help me stay in the country and Lawrence for teaching me more in one year than I have ever learned in my whole life at school. Also a big thank you to the soccer staff at Seiritsu for helping to make me strong. I am very grateful to Hiroshi Miyazawa and Wynton Rufer for getting me into this school and Seiritsu Gakuen for giving me this opportunity and I hope the school continues to succeed.

By Dylan Windust

Dylan has been a joy to have at the school and in the International Department. We wish him and his family all the best in the years to come.