Seiritsu International Education

Hi my name is Todd Lindsay. I have recently moved to Japan and Seiritsu from Melbourne, Australia. I am currently 16 years old and in year 10, although I am year 11 age. I am very excited to be here and to see what I can achieve with my time at Seiritsu. For the first two weeks, my family was visiting Japan with me.




Since I have arrived I have experienced a couple new things for me, such as; Jump Rope Competition and Singing the School Song. I have also made a few friends during my time here.

I am in the soccer program and I am living in the dormitories at Higashi-Washinomiya, north of the school. My soccer performance has already lifted despite not have been playing much, which I am exicted about.

I am slowly settling into the Japanese lifestyle, but it will take me a long time to completely settle in.
If you see me around the school ground please don’t be shy. Come and say hi to me, I would love to meet you and it will help me settle in a lot more easily.

writer: staff  date: 12:00 PM | Life at Seiritsu

For 2018’s spring holiday, I traveled to Singapore for 5 days. It was a fantastic experience for me.

I went to Universal Studios in Singapore. I had never ridden a roller coaster before, but I finally was able to in Singapore. It’s really exciting and cool.

Food in Singapore is also perfect. They have foods from all around the world, especially Chinese cuisine and Southeast Asia cuisines. I ate a famous food in Singapore called “Bak-kut-teh”, which is a kind of pork soup that uses Chinese herbs and lots of pepper. That was sooo good and delicious

I went to the Singapore National Museum too. I got a sense of Singapore’s history and modern power. It made me learn a lot of this tiny but strong country.

writer: staff  date: 9:49 AM | Life at Seiritsu

This holiday, I not only went back to China, but also went to visit many scenic spots. Let me tell you where have I been to.

I went to Hakone with my mom. We stayed there for two days and enjoyed it a lot. We walked along the long shopping arcade in front of Hakone Station. There were many souvenir shops and delicious local foods. We were so excited! We ate onsen manju (manju is a bun with a sweet center). Hakone is famous for its soba noodles so we at a lot of this dish

The next day, we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum, It is one of Hakone's many museums. We chose this one because it has many paintings and sculptures, the most important of which are Picasso’s paintings. We visited Picasso exhibition room and were surprised by his paintings. This museum is built in the mountains and I think they wanted people to enjoy the combination of art, people and nature.

My favorite spot was this building called Symphonic Sculpture. It looks like a normal building outside but once you go inside you will be amazed by it. The hundreds of rocks set in the wall were painted in different colors and made into different shapes. It was really beautiful so many visitors stopped to take pictures.

After that we rode the Hakone cable car. We took the cable car to some scenic spots I had been to one of these places before, and I remembered that we tried the hot spring black egg, so we tried it again. It was very delicious. We also got a good view of Mt. Fuji!

We finally went back to our hotel and enjoyed the hot spring at night! That was a wonderful trip to Hakone!

writer: staff  date: 10:20 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Hay fever was something I never thought I’d worry about, but it is slowly becoming a part of my daily life. Before I realized it, my nose always gets this tingling, irritating sensation when I walk outside. I thought I just caught a cold or maybe even the flu again. (I was out for a week with the flu in March and it is something I never want to experience again.)

The truth suddenly hit me when I heard that people usually develop hay fever after five years in Japan. F.I.V.E. It’s so much shorter than I expected. For now, I am simply enduring the irritation and earnestly praying that I actually am not becoming allergic to pollen. How will I smell all those flowers after all?

Do you have allergies? If so, do you have any tips to prevent symptoms from developing overtime or at least a day?

[For most students visiting or moving to Japan, you probably won't have much difficulty with hay fever. But if you have it in your home country, you might want to bring some medicine. Just in case... (Brent)]

writer: staff  date: 1:30 PM | Life at Seiritsu

Hey! Let me take a minute to introduce myself; I am a new teacher at Seiritsu Gakuen. Everyone calls me JC. I am from the countryside in the USA, and I have lived in Japan for many years. First I lived in Fukushima, and now Ilive in Tokyo. I have many new and interesting duties besides teaching English at Seiritsu. I am also responsible for helping international students (China, Mali, Korea, Australia and so on) to adjust to life and school life in Japan, and tutoring them in subjects that may give them trouble such as the Japanese language. I am new at all of this but am learning fast, and am really starting to enjoy myself. As we say in Japan, Yoroshiku!

writer: staff  date: 10:32 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Hello everyone! JET teacher Laurence here.

During spring break, I decided to not travel anywhere. Instead, I did a lot of what in English we call “Spring cleaning”. Overseas, a lot of people feel like the start of spring is a good time to clean their entire house. This means also replacing damaged furniture, clearing up their closet and cleaning small places and corners they usually ignore. I think a lot of people in Japan feel the same in Spring, don’t you agree?

Personally, I did a lot of laundry, including my bed sheets. I also put my winter clothes away and my heater and took out my summer and spring clothes and my electric fan.
Of course, in Japan, spring means hanami. I did go on a big picnic with friends. We had a lot of food! It was very beautiful.

How about you? Did you clean your house at the start of spring? Did you have a hanami party with your friends?

writer: staff  date: 10:42 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Hello everyone!

JET teacher Laurence here.

A new school year in Japan means club introductions(クラブ紹介)! The JET teachers were, of course, in charge of the English Conversation Club. Something special about the English club is that our members are allowed to join one more club. This means that some of our members were not able to come help us. Thankfully, our vice-captain and a few of the members were able to give us some of their precious time to help.

Everyone learned a line or two of dialogue they had to repeat in front of the visitors. We also took out of a lot of games to show students how much fun we have at the club. We don’t want students feeling stressed when thinking of joining.

It’s all about making English fun.

Overall, I think our club introduction was a success! We hope this means a lot of new members this year. Let’s make English fun for our new and returning members!

writer: staff  date: 1:35 PM | Life at Seiritsu

Every year, we have an afternoon at the start of the school year set aside for students to demonstrate or explain their school activity to the newcomer students. All of the homeroom classes move around the school to the various rooms and locations to see what clubs are available.

Our school really likes to promote the idea of sport and study together. We use the concept of 文武両道 which is often quoted as "pen and sword in accord." Club activity is normally a major part of a student's life. So, on top of their class studies, we hope the students get involved in a club and learn and experience a lot there.

This day is important in many ways. Some clubs work really hard at getting new members and others just focus on getting people already interested in the same topic or activity. Our English club tries to get more members every year so that the fun and games are even more fun. Wish us luck!

writer: staff  date: 11:53 AM | Life at Seiritsu

We were lucky again this year for the annual school greeting ceremony. All of our students greet each other and meet the new teachers on the first full day of school. This greeting is done outside and the weather today was fantastic.

The new first year students all face the continuing students and we all bow to each other and give a welcome. It is over quite quickly and then we get short little introductions from the new teachers.

This year, we have a new full time member in the International Department. He had to get up and say his part as well. It went over quite well and had some good friendly chuckles at his joke.

Watch this page for his self-introduction blog post. It is coming soon!

For the students and staff, "Yoroshiku!"

writer: staff  date: 11:48 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Do you remember your first day at school of junior high or senior high?


For many people in North America, they do not. For many of us/them, you just show up at school, get your books, get your locker, get a list of your classes, and go home. However, here in Japan, there’s a little bit more involved with starting the new school year.

To begin with, there is a ceremony where the parents often attend. This year we have approximately 400 students joining our school. Most of them are for the senior high school but we have two classes of students joining us in the junior high as well. So on top of the 400 new students we had about another 700 parents and family members in the audience.

The ceremony is fairly short at our school. There are only a few speeches. One is given by the head of the student council. And there are speeches given by both year representatives for the junior high and the senior high.

The principal gives a speech as well. This year our new principal gave his first speech as principal. He had done may before as the vice-principal but this was his first as principal. It was a good speech.

The students finished up with class pictures and then went out to enjoy the rest of a wonderful day.

Good luck everyone! We look forward to working with you closely over the next three years!!

writer: staff  date: 11:46 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Today is the day before the entrance ceremony for the junior high and high school.

The teachers and the students help set up the auditorium for the big ceremony tomorrow. It’s amazing how fast the gym gets transformed. Everyone is excited to accept the new students into our Seiritsu family.

See you tomorrow!!

writer: staff  date: 11:45 AM | Life at Seiritsu

When March started, I was incredibly excited. Why? Because graduations were coming up and seeing my students graduate is a pure joy. I did not expect to see my fellow teachers “graduate” with them though; but things do change and that’s what so great about March as well.

I found out in different ways about a teacher leaving Seiritsu Gakuen to enter a new chapter in their lives. I also celebrated their departure in many different ways. One teacher leaving the school as well as the teaching profession found a new career and a partner for life--as a person who loves love, I was sure to wish them a happily ever after for their nearing marriage. For another teacher, we had an intimate ladies’ night at a family-owned ramen restaurant and ate our conscious away.

Of course, two of our international department members, Peter and Coren, also parted ways. Their farewell parties (送別会) was a great final hurrah to celebrate their contributions to the growing department. If you’re reading this post, good luck you guys!

How did your March go?

writer: staff  date: 1:30 PM | Life at Seiritsu

It’s that time of year again!

Schools are starting up. In Japan the school year starts in April. And since today’s the first day of April, we have our first entrance ceremony marking the beginning of the new school year this Sunday. In this case, we are holding our entrance ceremony for the kindergarten.

During the ceremony, the current second and third year students of kindergarten welcome the brand new first year students. Typically, kindergarten starts at three years old and finishes when they are six years old so we can see that there is such an amazing difference between the little kids who are just about to start and the kids who are looking at finishing this year. I am sure many parents are impressed by our new third grade kindergarten students.

In this picture you can see the head of the kindergarten giving a speech to the students and the parents.

Good luck everyone! We are confident you will do well! We look forward to playing with you all year!

writer: staff  date: 11:42 AM | Life at Seiritsu