October 31, 2012

KAIS International school gets Seiritsu Budo taster!

On Monday October 29, Seritisu was visited by 44 students from KAIS International School in Tokyo, who were given fun taster classes in both Judo and Karate by the PE department's Fukui Sensei and Richard Sensei.


Some students had previous martial arts experience, but for most it was their first time taking part in the world of sport budo!


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In the Karate sessions, Richard Sensei took the students through some speedy punches, kicks, and movement training, while telling them about the history of Karate.


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For the Judo sessions, Fukui Sensei instructed how to do a proper judo break-fall (to stop you hurting yourself by landing badly), and then went through some elementary Judo techniques.


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All the kids said they had a really fun time, and it was great to see them here!


For more information on KAIS international School, click here.

October 30, 2012

Chase's Edo Tokyo Museum thoughts

On Wednesday the International Department went to the Edo Tokyo History Museum, which was very fun and interesting.


While we were there we saw many different exhibits and learned lots of new things, but one thing did interest me a lot. In the residences of the Daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan during the Edo period, there were three gates to enter instead of one. Each gate would be used only be designated people. The plain one, used by common warriors or samurai, the second was used by the Daimyo and his family, and the third was only allowed to be used by the Shogun.


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The Shoguns gate, of course, was the most decorated out of the three of them and I thought it was interesting that the Shogun was so highly regarded in the feudal society that he would have special entrances for him to enter and leave.

October 25, 2012

ID Students go to the Edo Tokyo Museum!

The International students immersed themselves in the history of Edo as the department went on a field trip to the Edo Tokyo Museum yesterday.


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The students have been studying the Edo period in their Japanese History class, so this was a great opportunity to see some of the things they had read about up close.


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They could even reenact some of the privileges and duties of the older times!


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It will be interesting to see what aspects of the museum exhibit that the students found the most appealing!


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October 22, 2012

Chase's October web post

I have been in Japan for around 3 weeks now and I am greatly enjoying my time here.


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Since I arrived I have done many things, such as eating new food, traveling in Tokyo, and experiencing many aspects of Japan's culture. One of my new favorite things to eat here is called nashi, which is similar to an Asian pear but they are much larger than the ones in Canada. [Peter - Nashi actually ARE asian pears, but, like much fruit in Japan, they are considerably bigger and more expensive than their foreign counterparts. Nashi are very seasonal and the fruit is actually a kigo (seasonal word) used in Autumnal haiku!]


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Jesse, Chase and Annariina at Tokyo Skytree's observation center during a school excursion.


For traveling I have been to a variety of places; one of the most interesting places so far has been Akihabara. I went there the other week with the other two international students, Jesse and Annariina. While we were there we looked at many shops, and ended up spending over an hour playing games in one of the numerous arcades.


As for a cultural experience I have also gone to the funeral, that of my host family's grandmother, which was a very interesting and somber experience. Overall my current experience here is filled with many great things and I am hoping that there will be even more adventures for me to take part in.

October 19, 2012

Jesse's October web post

This month, we received a new exchange student from Canada, Chase. And because he is new, we decided that the only course of action was to take him out to Akihabara, the electronics and highly “otaku”district. [Peter - Otaku means 'fanatic', and can be applied to almost any hobby, however the otaku in Akihabara are noted for being crazy about anime, hi-tech products and videogames.]


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Source: tokyotravel.webatu.com


I must admit, up until this point I had not actually been to Akihabara, and I never really realized what I had been missing out on. For the first hour or so, because Annariina was late, Chase and I went figure shopping. This is a difficult task, especially when you watch and read as much anime and manga as Chase and I do, because there are just so many figures, and they are so unfortunately priced for an exchange student.


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Source: unframedworld.com


After choosing a 100 yen figure, we ventured to one of the flashing, blaring arcades close by. We are both somewhat shamed to admit that we completely failed at Dance Dance Revolution, and that we may or may not have spent a little too much time on the fighting games. But there was one game that there was absolutely no regrets about, and this was the Table Flipping Game™. [Peter - Table flipping, or "Chabudai gaeshi" is a Japanese cultural phrase coming from older times, and is usually used to convey severe anger/frustration and that the person flipping said table has generally had enough.] After witnessing this ridiculous and awesome game, we realized that we had had just the right amount of silly mixed with bizarre for the day, and promptly headed home.


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Source: sndfrosteyneko.tumblr.com


But of course, Japan decided that no, we were not done yet, and showed us a belly dancer protesting anti-piracy laws, along with a group of otaku wearing masks for the same reason.


Thank you Japan, for never ceasing to impress me, it was a great day out, yet again.

October 19, 2012

Annariina's October web post!

On Saturday (13.10.) my host sister I went to an event in Ryogoku, Tokyo. The event was held at one of the top floors of a shopping mall and was mostly about kimonos, but there were also jewelry, clothing, eyeglasses and other expensive products you could try and buy. When we arrived, my host sister’s grandmother was already there and gave us tickets so we could later on get obentou (lunch box) for lunch. Before eating we were looking some long sleeved kimonos and I was able to try one on.


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I wanted to try one very beautiful black, with purple flowers and glittery stuff, but they didn’t have my size on that so I tried a white one instead. It was so pretty. Everyone was like “cute~ (*^^*)” and wanted to take pictures and such. (/ω\)


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Then we took a look around the whole place, I wish I would have had money to buy some beautiful diamond/pearl jewelry from there. None of us bought anything so we just went to have lunch, which was pretty good although I’m not such a fan of Japanese food or seafood in general.
After lunch we tried on kimonos one more time and my host sister actually bought the one she tried on. It was really pretty blue with some sort of scenery print on it. (^o^) I tried a red one, which I liked a lot – it just caught my attention. I wish I could have bought one, but maybe some other day.

October 15, 2012

International Students visit Tokyo Skytree!

On Thursday October 11, after a nice relaxing morning of no classes, all of the exchange students met with Jesse's Home Room 1D to go to Tokyo Skytree. [Peter- Tokyo Skytree was opened this year on May 22nd, and is currently the tallest communications tower in the world at 634 meters tall and is the second-tallest manmade structure in the world behind Burj Khalifa in Dubai (830 meters!). At the base is a large shopping complex, as well as other attractions.]


source: wikipedia


After a short bus ride, we arrived at the base of the Skytree, eager to go up the tower. Before we ascended however, we went into the Sumida aquarium which is at the base of the tower. Inside, all students were entranced by both the cute seals and the penguins. The favourite of the exchange students was the huge tank of tiny eels, all sticking out of the sand. After we passed through the obligatory gift shop on the way out, the class gathered again, and prepared to climb the tower.


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Source: wired.co.uk


Once we had ascended, we had an excellent view of Tokyo from above, and it only got better as the lights of Tokyo began to light up, creating the image of a night sky on the ground. The trip was both entertaining and informative, and it really helped us to understand the sheer size of Tokyo. [Peter- Although the tower has been open for a while, the demand to go up the tower has been so great that until late August it was practically impossible to get a ticket! The students have been very lucky to get this opportunity.]


For more information on Tokyo Skytree, click here.

October 7, 2012

Annariina's Bunkasai Experience!

Last weekend was the long awaited bunkasai. My homeroom made a kissaten (cafeteria), where we sold drinks and sweets. My role was to yell outside the class and try to get as many people inside as possible. But the most common reaction was that people looked at me and said “cute!” and then walked past. It was fun though (^o^)/.


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The other thing I did was fortune telling for English Conversation Club. It was basically the same thing; yelling outside the room, trying to get people in, which actually is a lot harder than you’d think, and also the actual fortune telling. It was nice to have some conversations with people who came (*^^*) .





I didn’t have to be alone at the fortune telling, for most of the time, since Jesse was there too. We also had fortunes for ourselves when we had free time (o^^o)


The bunkasai was so much fun! And it was also nice to prepare for it, decorate classrooms and stuff. I wish I could have it again!

October 3, 2012

New International Department student: welcome to Seiritsu, Chase!

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Hello, My name is Chase.


I am from Nanaimo which is on Vancouver Island of the coast of British Columbia. I am 18 years old and recently graduated from high school, And instead of going to university right away I decided to come to Japan. For several years now I`ve been studying the martial art Taekwondo and I do have a black belt. while I am here however, I am thinking about trying other martial arts like karate or judo. My other hobbies include sculpture, Arts, Video games, and reading .I am very excited to have the chance to study at seiritsu and learn about the culture and life of japan while also being able to strengthen my japanese skills.


One of the main reasons that I wanted to come to japan is that I have, for as long as i can remember, been very interested in the japanese culture. wether it be anime and manga, or the belief systems and customs, I have thought of Japan as a place I would like to see.


I am looking forward to all the people I meet and the things I do while I am here in Japan and attending Seiritsu!

October 2, 2012

Jesse's Bunkasai Experience

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In September we held our “Bunkasai” or school culture fair. All of the clubs and all the classes choose something to make or do, and then sell or show it to people who come to the school that day. The event started on Saturday 29th September, and finished Sunday 30th. People from all sorts of places come to the fair, either because they live relatively close and it’s heaps of fun, or because they have friends and family at the school, or because they are graduates from the school.


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My Japanese Home Room was doing a “Meiro”, or maze, which consisted of lots of cardboard. I can now say that I am an undisputed master of sticking bits of cardboard to other bits of cardboard. The maze was one of the activities that needed a lot of effort setting up, but not much to actually run it. This setting up included hours on end of taping large pieces of cardboard to each other.


Because it was very low maintenance, most of the kids from my class could go out and do other things, so I was able to help with the English Conversation Club. In the club we continued the long tradition of fortune telling, also known as “uranai”. This meant drawing people in and chatting to them about how good their English is, and then doing the rest of the telling in English. This involved lots of talking to children as well as adults, so we ended up having a really good time even though we couldn’t really leave the room for too long.


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Overall, between keeping busy doing jobs, and frantic running around to find food in our breaks (which was delicious I might add), it was a really good weekend, and a huge amount of fun.

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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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