October 11, 2011

Pop's Bunkasai Experience

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Hi, it's Pop here!


The last weekend we had school festival so everyone was very busy. We have to woke up very early in weekend and went to school in weekend. At our International room we had Fortune telling in English. So when people came in, we let them spin the fortune machine- then we will got the number and we had to tell them their fortune.

It was very fun to do that even though sometimes I couldn't translate for them.


All the English conversation club students had to do an interview in English about the International Department student's names, age, where we come from, something we like about Japan, what languages we can speak, and what our special skill was. After this we had an English contest! The interview made me feel very nervous! I was the only person in the International Department that had no idea what to show the audience. But in the end I showed that I could say tongue twisters such as “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood”. Kaname also told me a Japanese one, but I couldn't say it on stage.

Thank you for a great bunkasai! it was very fun!

October 11, 2011

Gabu's Bunkasai Experience

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My experience of the bunkasai was that it was fun to see the whole school getting involved and that everyone was really trying to make it as fun as possible for both visitors and schoolmates.

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I thought that it was really fun and interesting and I think it is a pity that Swedish schools don’t do anything like this because it is a really good idea!



I thought that the best things were all the stage performances and the train club!
Thanks for letting me experience such a good bunkasai!



Gabriel Levander

October 4, 2011

Jessica's Bunkasai Experience

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I got off to a rocky start on the first day of the Bunkasai. First of all the Bunkasai started at 10am so I thought I would get there early at about 9am, but it turned out that I needed to be there at 8:20am so I was late. I also showed up wearing the wrong clothes too, so it was a double whammy. During the sports carnival everyone went to the event wearing their sports clothes with their class t-shirt over it, so I did the same thing for the Bunkasai too. However when I got there I saw everyone else wearing their normal school uniform with their class t-shirt over it so I had to go home to change back. Other than that the rest of the weekend went well.



I was involved with three different rooms: the English Conversation Club, the Art Club and my Homeroom. We had the International Department and the English Conversation Club together where we each took turns to tell fortunes, or "uranai", to the Japanese people in English and then we had to translate them into Japanese. Some fortunes were direct and easy to translate such as “Wearing red tomorrow will bring you good luck”, while some were very vague like “You should spend less time thinking and more time doing.”


We also got to go on stage, where the Japanese girls from the English Conversation Club interviewed us and introduced us to the community. After the interview we had 10 seconds to present our ‘Special Talent’, my talent was playing the guitar. They later sent me into the hall way with the guitar to attract customers, which actually worked since one lady said she followed the music.



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In the Art Club’s room we made a little art gallery.



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Last week everyone prepared their best works and made little frames for them and hung them up. We each had to name our works (in Japanese) so I close really simple titles to avoid messing up, my works are the two middle ones.



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We also had the new Art Club magazine on display, where everyone contributed something towards it. I made a comic (manga).



For my homeroom, we made two rooms for the festival the Haunted House and a Kid’s Room. I have no idea why they we made two rooms since everyone else only had one room but it was handy since the teachers made us close the Haunted House since something bad happened a previous time. Everyone really put their hearts into making the Haunted House so in comparison they really didn’t count the Kid’s Room, which didn’t need any management like some of the other rooms which were shops or attractions. I was lucky since I was involved with other clubs, so I didn’t get as depressed as some people. The funniest thing is that they kept the bleeding dummy from the Haunted House and put it in the Kid’s Room and filled his belly with candy!



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When I was off duty I went looking around at all the other rooms. Some of them were really cool. There was a planetarium, casino, miniature train room, and many more. One of the classes had a gold fish catching game, which I’ve only seen in anime. You have to use a paper paddle to catch as much fish as you can before it breaks. A lot of people said that it was hard but I ended up catching about 13 fish with one turn. It looks as though I’ve got a new special talent.



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On the Sunday the International students (ryugakusei) including me had the privilege of carrying the Mikoshi.



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The Mikoshi is a portable shrine that people carry around in the streets during festivals, however it is extremely heavy. With the help from the professional Mikoshi carrying guys we marched into the school were the other students joined in and helped us carry it in. The Mikoshi had little bells on it so we had to keep shaking it up and down to ring them. It was exhausting, but also a fun experience.


Over all the Bunkasai was awesome! It was great seeing everyone working together to make something as amazing as this. There were two major differences from the Sports festival, the first being that I can understand more Japanese compared to before. The last time I didn’t participate in many sports because I didn’t understand what people were saying but this time I was able to understand and contribute my own ideas too. The second thing is that I’m not alone anymore, yay! The new international students have really made life more exciting and fun, thanks guys. Also the Japanese students in my class are starting to accept me more so that also made a huge difference. I feel as though I’ve gotten to know my class more from working together to set up the rooms for the Bunkasai. I hope I can continue to get to know them more and make more friends while I’m here in Japan.



Jessica

October 4, 2011

Nick's Bunkasai Experience

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Thursday morning we had another early homeroom at school, but for a change we did not have a normal day, because today was the big preparation day for the Bunkasai. To begin with I just thought it was just pupils’ parents that were coming to the Bunkasai, but I soon found out that I was wrong. The International Department had to give fortunes and my Japanese homeroom was going to make a casino. At my homeroom we had to change all of the tables, which was obvious since we had to make a casino. After we did that, we played Blackjack because everybody had to be a card dealer for either Blackjack or Poker at the Bunkasai. After I played a couple of rounds of Blackjack, I went to the second floor where the International Department had their display room.


For the rooms decoration we had to make posters of ourselves, so people who entered the room could get an idea of our personalities. We had to finish them before 11.30 because we had to practice for the English club’s stage performance, where Japanese students had to introduce all the students from the International Department. The other ID students had started their posters before me, so I had to hurry up. My poster was actually quite good, considering that I did it in half the time.


The English club practice was more about giving the Japanese students confidence since they had to stand on a stage and speak English in front of an audience. But the international students had to do a ”special skill”, and Gabu and I had to do Soccer ‘keep-ups’ (juggling the ball with our feet) to each other, so we practiced most of the Friday. The rest of the day we just prepared for all the ‘magical’ fortunes we had to do.


School on a weekend, that’s quite new for me; in Denmark the whole weekend is off. So when the alarm went crazy at 6 o’clock in the morning I thought it was Monday again. At the school we started in our homeroom, since we had to fit into their plans as well. I got a blackjack dealer shift, but nobody knew what time it was going to be, so we agreed that I just should drop in after lunch.


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Then the clock struck 10 and it was time to get ready for the English club stage performance. The stage performance went smoothly. Gabu and I did 16 keep ups so we were happy; compared to how many we did the day before when we practiced, 16 was actually quite good!


After the stage performance we had to do the fortunes, we used a system the international department developed 2 years ago, where you got this wheel of fortune with balls inside [a bingo tombola – Peter] with numbers, then customers get a number and then the number fits with one of the envelopes where there are a fortune inside, very smart. To begin with there weren’t many customers, so Gabu and Peter got this good idea that we could walk around and say “Uranai”(Japanese word for fortune-telling) with a poster in Japanese and English, which attracted a lot of customers.


Jessica and I watched Richard-sensei and Peter-sensei’s karate show, where Peter-sensei destroyed 7 boards with reverse roundhouse kicks in a very short time and Richard-sensei kicking through a concrete block.


After the karate show I went to my homeroom and was Blackjack dealer, which was a very funny experience since I don’t have that big a Japanese vocabulary yet. But I did it and nobody left the table while I was dealer, so I consider that as a good sign. The rest of day we walked around and advertised ‘Uranai’ and in the end of the day we actually did it so well that we took 117 customers for the day. But the highlight of the day was that I won 2 goldfish at another school stand.


On Sunday the guys at my homeroom told me that I had no shifts, so that gave me a lot time to advertise our room. The Japanese students seemed to love the way we advertised because it was like an entertaining for the other Japanese students to see Gabu and I walking around with the sign where there was a picture of a very strange Fortune Teller on.


The second stage performance with the English club went very well. Gabu and I actually reached 40 keep ups on the stage, so it was more than acceptable. Even Peter was impressed by our performance! On Sunday we also had to carry the “Mikoshi”, the local shrine. When you watch it looks very easy and that it is very light, but I now know that it’s far from light! We were told to carry it our shoulders but when you then have to hoist it up and down, it kills your shoulders. Anyway we carried it into the school and out again, it was a very social feeling, but too heavy if you ask me!


For the rest of the day I walked around with the Uranai sign and shouted “Uranai”. At the end of the day, when we counted how many customers we took, we reached 126 customers!


One thing I noticed was that people with no relationship or family in the school also went to our Bunkasai, which I think is awesome that we got such an interesting event! Furthermore, my homeroom was the fourth most interesting room at the Bunkasai, which I think is even more awesome!

October 4, 2011

Tatiana's Bunkasai Experience

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The school festival Bunkasai was fun, even though I am not used to coming to school on Saturday and Sunday. I haven’t been here for long, so I couldn’t really help my homeroom except for making a few decorations. So I mostly stayed in the international room.


We did fortune telling in English, it was a good experience because it gave us an opportunity to talk a little bit with Japanese people of all ages, from kindergarten kids to older ladies. It was sometimes a little bit hard to translate some of the fortunes to Japanese, but I think we did okay in the end. It was also a good training!


I didn’t have a lot of time to see all the other classes’ rooms, but from what I saw they all did an amazing job! The dance club, cheerleading shows and other performances on stage were awesome, and the maze/quiz room was fun even if I didn’t understand all the questions.


These two days were tiring but very fun, it was a unique experience.

October 4, 2011

It's our latest international student, Tatiana!

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My name’s Tatiana. I am from France. I’m 20 years old, so I have already graduated from High School. I want to go to University in Japan, but I wasn’t sure that I was ready yet, so I decided to come to Seiritsu for a gap year and take the opportunity to improve my Japanese and English skills.
I started studying Japanese 2 and half years ago, but it still is difficult, especially writing.


It is the third time I came to Japan; the first time was over two years ago. I like J-pop and Japanese fashion a lot, so I am happy to be here because in my free time I can go shopping. Other things I like to to in Japan are karaoke and purikura, it is fun to go there with friends.
I also like Japanese food; I can eat everything except for wasabi!

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about Seiritsu

Seiritsu Gakuen is a private co-educational high school created in 1925 and it is located in Tokyo, Japan.

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