Seiritsu International Education

It wasn’t a totally smooth start as a few of our students were late but we were still able to get back on schedule fairly quickly. To be fair, it can be difficult for foreign students to find their way to a new area. We always remind them to go early but somehow there is usually one person who gets delayed or lost.

With beautiful blue skies but a cool wind, and a quick stop at the cemetery talking about some history of the opening of Yokohama, we made our way to the Yamate 111 residence next to Harbour View Park.

From here the students were given a challenge. They needed to make their way to the pier called Osanbashi. Along the way they had to take some pictures of some different popular or famous sites.

This was excellent practice for the Japanese students who are going abroad next month. The map and the keywords were all in English. This is what it will be like when they go overseas. However it is still very easy for them because all the signs here are in Japanese. And if they are lost they are still in Japan. They can easily ask someone for help so there is a level of comfort that they will not have in a few short weeks.

We met up at the pier, took a quick walk around it, and then we proceeded to the museum where the Japan Times newspaper was having their exhibition celebrating 120 years of circulation. It was incredibly fascinating to see some of the old newspaper articles talking about some of the points of history such as: The coronation of the Taisho emperor, the 1923 Kanto earthquake, the day after Pearl Harbour, and so much more.

The newspaper museum was also was kind enough to publish a picture of a newspaper article with our picture in it. Every student got a copy of this.

From here we then went for lunch at the World Porters shopping center. After lunch, we went to the red brick warehouse. There was a Christmas market and lots of interesting things could be seen. Some of the students rang the bell praying for peace.

Finally we walked back to the Minato Mirai area and we said our farewells there.

It was a wonderful day and we were able to do a lot. And in the end students had a great day interacting with each other.