May 30, 2012

International students practice their debating skills

During the week of May 21-25 all Seiritsu students had their midterm exams. The international students also took exams for the subjects that they learn within the International department: High level English, Japanese, Japanese history, and Japanese geography. After the week of exams finished, the students practiced their debating skills by saying what they would do with a $20,000 loan.


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Here is Nick convincing everyone that getting a university education and a good job would be the quickest way of paying back the loan!


Debating and public speaking is a very useful life skill, and Seiritsu's International Department encourages all students to develop these skills as best they can during their time here.

May 28, 2012

Japan Experience! 2012 will have... Taiko Drumming!

Only 17 days left until the registration deadline!


In the run-up to the Japan Experience! 2012 registration deadline, we are showing some great events that all participants can take part in. Today you can see the Japan Experience 2010 group having some great fun with Taiko drumming!


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Taiko drumming may look easy, but you have to use most of your body as well as keep a steady rhythm to get the biggest noise from the drums. It's great exercise and fun, particularly in summer!


to make sure you don't miss out on Taiko drumming and download your registration pack for Japan Experience! 2012, click here.

May 25, 2012

Japan Experience! 2012 will have... Ghibli Museum!

Only 20 days left until the registration deadline!


With only 20 days left until the Japan Experience! 2012 registration deadline on June 15, here is a picture of previous participants enjoying a trip to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo!


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At this location, you can learn all about the animations of the world-famous Studio Ghibli, producers of Academy-award winning Spirited Away, as well as My Neighbor Totoro (pictured in the background!) and Howl's Moving Castle. You can also see original drawings and paintings, as well as a unique Ghibli animation exclusive to the museum!


For those who are interested in how animation works, there is a special display showing all the fantastic methods of making still images come to life. It's not to be missed!


For more details on the Ghibli Museum, click here. Or, to download your registration pack for Japan Experience! 2012, click here.

May 23, 2012

Seiritsu watches the total eclipse!

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In the early morning of May 21st Japan was lucky enough to witness an annular solar eclipse. This is where the moon is not quite large enough to completely cover the sun, so the eclipse produces a ring-like effect. A perfect alignment passed right over Tokyo, so the Seiritsu science club arrived at school very early to observe the phenomenon using a powerful telescope.


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An annular eclipse is called 'kinkanshoku' (金環食), which means 'eating of the golden disc', which is appropriate because most people were having breakfast at the time!

May 22, 2012

ID Students go Rice Planting!

On the week of May 7th-11th the International Department students went to the rice fields near the school's sports academy dorms in Washimiya to go rice planting (taoue, or 田植え). This is a great experience for the students to interact with their Japanese home rooms, learn more about Japanese agriculture, and have some fun and exercise in the sun!

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Rice is a staple food in the Japanese diet, and is the most commonly grown non-perennial crop in this country. The relationship that Japan has with its rice, and in particular how it is planted and the time it takes to grow and harvest, is embedded in the country's folklore and religion. Whether it is in making New-Year rice cakes, preparing Japanese rice wine, or involved in the celebrations of Autumnal harvest festivals (matsuri, or 祭り), to say that you have helped in part of the rice cycle is to say that you have truly experienced a core tradition of Japan.

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Rice is grown in wet paddy fields that are heavily irrigated in the spring, which is the time when the rice is planted. It also becomes home to a variety of wildlife, such as frogs, which the high school kids love to catch!

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Pictured is Nick and Jesse with their slightly-less-than-pristine Japanese home room.

May 16, 2012

Tatiana's May web post

Last Saturday [May 12th] I went to Tokyo DisneySea with Pop and Annariina. We decided to go now because the weather has become quite warm, but it is not yet too hot like in summer, so it is the ideal temperature to spend the day outside and enjoy all the rides!


Even though we met quite late in the morning, due to Annariina not really knowing her way around the trains yet, we could go on all the attractions that we wanted.


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We even bought cute character ears and took pictures with some Aladdin characters.
The scariest attraction was, without hesitation, the Tower Of Terror; we literally had to drag Pop all the way inside because she was so scared that she tried to run away. In the end it was really fun!


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When we went home, it was already dark, so we had the occasion to see the scenery inside the park in both day and night settings; It is really beautiful, and looks like another world compared to usual Tokyo.


On Sunday, all the exchange students were invited to dinner with Aoi, one of the Japanese English Club students, and her family. We all went except for Gab.


First we went to take purikura, which was very fun, because all 6 people were trying to fit inside the picture and it was hard not to cover each other's face sometimes.


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Then we went to karaoke, and we stayed there for 3 hours. We sang a lot of songs, both in English and Japanese.


After we had all shown our incredible talent at singing, we met a Japanese friend of Aoi’s, and then we went to her house to have dinner with her family.


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We stayed at her place for some time, playing with her adorable dog, and then enjoying her mother’s kara age [fried chicken], then we all went home.


It was a quite busy but very fun week end, and it put me in a good mood to start a new week of school!

May 16, 2012

Gabriel's May web post

Last week on Friday [May 11th], my class and Nicolas' class went rice planting together. It was very interesting. First we departed from the school at 10.30 and were at the Seiritsu Football fields at around 11.30. When we arrived there we ate lunch. We had to bring our own food so my lunch was white bread, cookies and crackers. Also some mitsuya cider, it was super delicious!



We went to the rice fields at around 12.30 and then planted rice, along with the frogs and the insects. I didn’t think that the fields would be as muddy as they were. In Tochigi [where Gabu often goes to help with his host family on a farm at weekends - Peter] they look like small lakes everywhere but now I was in the actual 'lake' I noticed that it was more mud.



When we were done with the rice planting, we went back to the football fields and washed our legs and arms. But in some people's cases they had to wash their whole body after wanting to jump in with the frogs.



It was a very interesting day.

May 16, 2012

Nick's May web post

Tatiana, Annariina and I went to Takaosan on April 15th. We went there because it is our geography project topic [this term's geography project is a presentation about a natural tourist spot, and although not necessary for the presentation, many of the ID students wanted to go to the areas to understand them better - Peter].


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Nick doing some karate 'self training' while taking in the Takaosan atmosphere!

After the long train ride we finally arrived at Takaosanguchi Station, where we were met with colorful scenery. We started our ascent at about 11 o’clock. On the way up we ate a multiple number of ice creams and entered the monkey park.


At about 15:30 we reached the top; unfortunately while we had been ascending the nice sunshine had turned into clouds, so we were unable to fully enjoy the view from the top. We had to descend quite quickly, since Annariina had to be home early. It was a good day, especially because the weather was good.

May 16, 2012

Pop's May web post

Hi, Pop is here again to tell you about this month’s experience. It is already May, so it’s quite warm outside. Tatiana, Annariina and me decided to have fun at Tokyo DisneySea on Saturday May 12th.


We met each other at Maihama station at 11o’clock, quite late in my opinion but since it was not very crowded so the maximum time we had to wait was only 1 hour. We went to 7 attractions; one of them was the ‘Tower of Terror’ which is a sudden-drop thrill ride. I promised to myself that I would never go on that attraction, but suddenly Tatiana and Annariina grabbed both of my arms and dragged me there! I was very scared and almost cried but Tatiana and Annariina didn’t give me any sympathy, they laughed and teased me instead!


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When we finally were in the attraction lift, it went upwards and showed us what was happening inside the tower. It reached the top of the tower and the door in front of us opened itself to show the scenery of Disney Sea. It was so high that I couldn’t help but swear (in Thai)! The camera took a picture with my mouth open, so it seemed like I was smiling with happiness… suddenly the lift drop into a free-fall and I screamed my lungs out! It was the most horrible feeling I’ve ever had. When it stopped, my hands and my legs were trembling -__-



But then I realized that the Tower of Terror was awesome and I really enjoyed it. I think I have to thank to my nice friends who tried to make me know how awesome the Tower of Terror was. I really want to ride that attraction again!

May 16, 2012

Annariina's May web post

Hello, this is Annariina writing!


Tatiana, Pop and I went to Tokyo DisneySea last Saturday [May 12th], and had a lot of fun there. We were supposed to meet at Maihama station at 9:45 am, but I got bit lost with the trains so I was about an hour and ten minutes late. Oops!


After finally arriving there, we went on a little rollercoaster and then ate, before heading to the awesome rollercoaster with a 360⁰ loop [this is the famous and popular ‘Raging Spirits’ ride – Peter]. We only went for 7 different rides, if I remember correctly, but it was very amusing. We dragged poor Pop to the Tower of Terror and she was panicking while in the line. Tatiana and I even sang to her to calm her down! It was so much fun. In the end I found the Tower of Terror, well, not terrifying but maybe a bit creepy.

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We ate some weird popcorn such as strawberry flavor, bought lot of not-so-useful stuff (like Minnie Mouse ears) and had tons of fun. I want to go there again someday.


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May 16, 2012

Jesse's May web post

Hey it is Jesse, with my first official post!


During Golden Week my host family and I went to Takayama, in Gunma prefecture, and spent time at a Japanese farm.
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Me with my host family, looking at some awesome goats at Takayama.

We also went to Nikko, where there is a very famous shrine, along with the almost universally known “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” monkeys [The shrine is Nikko Tōshō-gū, which is dedicated to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and contains his remains, and these monkeys are the famous ‘Sanzaru’, called ‘Mizaru’, ‘Kikazaru’ and ‘Iwazaru’- Peter]. We headed through the temple and saw the three gigantic gods of mercy statues; we should be pretty glad that these are gods of mercy, because you can certainly cause a lot of harm with one thousand hands!


We then headed up the incredibly steep steps to the shrine. Inside there was a tour guide who explained the whole place, its history, and also the protocols of the time. Afterwards you could go around and look at all the ancient architecture, which was fairly amazing. Having survived the mysterious and scary Oni as we entered and left the shrine I felt pretty holy, and had a pretty awesome time.

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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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