This past term has been my first at Seiritsu and I can say it has been the best term I have ever experienced in a school. From the excursions (where I took the photo below) to the simple daily classes, so far all has been a joy to experience. I look forward to what the next terms bring in the way of experience and education. My Japanese has improved greatly. And I hope to continue my education under the instruction of my various sensei.
In this term, I entered the Seiritz e-sports team of league of legends, and became the captain.
Although our team is constructed of almost all newbies, my team mates always train very hard. That makes me feel responsibility to prove our team has a good experience in the match coming soon in December 25th and 26th.
The League of legends is a game which affected me a lot in my childhood. I got a lot of interests, excitement, relaxation and most importantly I got friendship through this game.
I can still remember when I was in middle school I went to the internet cafe with my homies, turned on the PCs and it felt like paradise from the stress of study. Now it's just like yesterday once more.
It's kind of dream for boys to play esports in school, and our school made this come true. Appreciated!
Even though it's only half way through this month, this is my last week at Seiritsu and probably my last blog post. Already this month has been so fun!! After test week, which was a little harder than last time, my class friends and I went to Disneyland together. It was freezing cold and raining so much but thanks to that we didn't have to queue up for anything! It was so fun and I'm so happy to have been able to go with such great people.
As well as going to Disneyland, this month I've been saying goodbye to a lot of my family members as I probably won't see them again before I leave. I really want to thank them for everything they've done for me while I've been here and I'm gonna miss them so much :( Not just my family, I'm also going also so sad to leave all the great friends I've made at Seiritsu. My class friends have helped me in so many ways and have made my dream of going to Japanese high school a reality. Also, Sophia, Todd, Gaoussou, William, Rebecca and Zoya.
I've enjoyed international class with them so much and I can't imagine not seeing them everyday anymore :(( Especially Sophia, we've become such great friends and I'm so happy that she's part of my life.
Finally, Brent and JC are the ones that have done everything for me and I can't express how grateful I am. I've enjoyed my time at Seiritsu so much and could not imagine a better environment to go on exchange. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a super Happy New Year!!
This term at Seiritsu was really a busy one!
First our singing club went to sing at the Kitaku singing festival. We sang two songs! One is called "Kokoro no Hitomi". I love this song so much! I wish I could sing it everyday! We worked so hard and the audience all clapped their hands for us! We were all so happy!
The other unforgettable thing that I did was climb Takao mountain with my friend. I met my friend at the station. We first rid on the Takao Touzan railway. It is the steepest railway line in Japan, operated once every 15 minutes, with the entire ride taking 5 minutes. It was getting more and more slippery as the car went on and on. It was really a wonderful experience. We climbed for 30 minutes, and we had all kinds of delicious food on the way to the top! We had tenguyaki, dango, mushroom soup and oden! The most famous one there was the tenguyaki, but I liked the dango best. It was the best dango I have ever had!
We finally reached the summit of the mountain! It was just the time for sunset! The view was so good as we had an overview the city. We enjoyed the sunset and the maple leaves. We also saw Mt Fuji beyond the sunset! What a wonderful day!!!!!
Today I went to Odaiba with the other international students. We saw a lot of cool things at one of the museums we went to. We watched a cool movie in 3D, but I don't remember most of it because I fell asleep. I'm sure it was an interesting, but the reclining chair and the dark made me very sleepy. Here is a picture we took before the movie started. We got in trouble because we were not supposed to take pictures inside the theater, but the picture turned out cool so I think it was worth it.
After the excursion, me, Amy and Rebecca rode a big kanransha (ferris wheel). It has been a long time since the last time I was on one, so it was a little scary. Especially when Amy stood up to take a picture.
Overall, I thought the excursion was a success. We learned about earthquake safety, and got to do some sightseeing in this beautiful place.
Today our junior high school went on a special trip to a new facility called Tokyo Global Gateway.
This facility is a place for students to test their English in life-like settings and while trying entertaining activities. It is separated into primarily attraction areas and immersion areas.
In the active immersion area, our students were able to try programming and also talking about their city and community.
In the attraction area, the students role-played missions at a book store, a cafe, and a campus student centre. They did a great job!
One of the major premises at TGG is for students to get actual chances to use English. We encourage this a lot at our school and this is a great facility to add into our program.
Last week we went on an excursion to Odaiba. This time it as only the international students.
First we went to the Disaster Prevention Park. We learnt how to escape and keep alive in an earthquake. The park was built like the streets after sn earthquake. Through interactive quizzes, we learned about the danger and how to survive it.
Then in the afternoon, we went to the Miraikan. We watched a 3D movie about space. It was so dark and so silent that almost everyone feell asleep except Amy and Gage. But it was really good and relaxing.
At last Amy and Sophia and I went to ride the big ferris wheel. The scenery was very good, you can see the wonderful night view and also the sea.
It was really a wonderful day!
This term has been really good for me. I have been able to start running again and doing some training, and I'm gaining more fitness and losing weight which I am very happy about. Hopefully by the end of January I will be playing regularly and working up the teams.
Also this term we had potato farming which was a lot more fun and a lot dirtier than I expected and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoying spending time with my Japanese classmates as well as the students in the international department, two of who are with me in the picure below. I am looking forward to what the new year brings me at Seiritsu.
A few days ago I went to Odaiba, a large sprawling district of Japan. There were many amazing and intricate parts of the city with many large, man-made structures and monuments to see. These structures. Include things such as the Rainbow Bridge and the largest Ferris wheel in Japan. Overall it was an amazing day and it was great to spend time with my fellow international students.
By far the most coolest thing Odaiba presented was a life size Gundam sculpture - by life size, I mean it towers over most smaller structures in the area and really is an amazing sight. After the main parts of the trip we ventured to a 3D theater and watched. A short but fun movie. All in all the trip was a great joy.
We went to the Odaiba in this excursion time.
It was really cold to be in the area near the sea during winter, but I still had a good time there.
The first stop was the Disaster Preparedness center, I studied how to live when great earthquake coming, but I may only lived for 40 hours according to the test result, lol.
Then we went to the science museum, it gave me a new vision of Japanese technology, and the giant ball movie theater in the museum was just too comfortable.
I love the city view on the automatic electronic train in Odaiba, I just stood in the forefront of the train, when I watched the Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba sky wheel and the Tokyo Bay, that made me feel swag.
Such a nice trip. I love Seiritsu.
In this last term, many cool things happened.
-First I met a new freshmen from Washington state in the US. His name is Gage. He's a good guy and funny. Here is his picture (he was cold).
Secondly, we went to ODAIBA to finalize this term with an excursion. ODAIBA is known for its amazing and futuristic buildings and design. We visited ODAIBA's famous areas like (Sicience Museum,Rainbow Bridge ...) I spent some good times with the other international students.
I personally learned a lot that day from our great guides (Brent, JC, and Scarlett).
My favorite moment was taking a break at the brand news spots and eat some spicy Indian food. I really enjoyed it!
In December, all the international students went on an excursion to Odaiba. I had a great time and the built environment there reminded me a lot of Sydney Olympic Park in Australia. The Yurikamome monorail (which was actually like a bus) was really convenient, although it was a bit expensive. The scenery you could see from the windows was really nice. It was interesting to go the Disaster prevention area as we could see what the aftermath of a real earthquake could look like. The place was so well designed it looked real!
Also the Miraikan was really cool. There were a lot of robots and things like that and it really made me consider the future of our society. I especially liked the planetarium movie as the displays were so beautiful (even though it made me really tired) and it made me feel like I was really in space.
After the excursion was over, Sophia, Rebecca and I rode the Odaiba Ferris wheel which used to be one of the tallest in the world! (like a long time ago). Thanks to Brent, JC and Scarlet for taking us and organising the excursion, I had a super fun time :))
International Christmas parties
For the past few years our international department has been holding Christmas parties for the junior high school students. It is a chance to introduce western cultures and important holidays held overseas. Especially now that it is growing in Japan, it is good to give them some exposure to what some of the original holidays are like.
Besides holiday games we also do a craft. And this year we added a short movie in to the program.
As always our students managed to do a great job interacting and learning about foreign cultures.
Merry Christmas
Today the international group from Seiritsu went on an excursion to Odaiba. We were all surprised at how many foreign visitors are here. And everything in this area has good support, including English and Chinese (and other languages too!).
We visited many interesting spots on the trip.
There is a wonderful facility in this area that lets you experience what it is like immediately after an earthquake. It is called Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park. We got to learn how to deal with the aftermath and how to make things like slings from plastic bags and chairs from plastic bottles. The voice coming from the rubble had an extra impact.
We highly recommend for visitors, especially for residence, to come check out this facility.
There is a facility in this area called Miraikan or "National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation". It has a lot of interesting materials involving science and our lifestyles. Many people get hooked on the game involving sending your desire to the future. Many others are enthralled with the robot and androids.
The real time massive globe hanging is truly impressive.
This is another site that we highly recommend to long time visitors and residents.
It was a great trip and when we finished the sun was setting and a few people stayed behind to get a view of the Rainbow Bridge all lit up. It was a nice way to finish the day.
My name is Gage J Keller. I was born May 14th, 2002 in Washington state in the United States of America. Washington is a very large, but cold state in the northwest of the US. I was raised in Tenino, a small town south of Seattle.
Washington is where I called home for about 16 years before coming here to Japan. About 2 years ago, I was in a program called the "Explorers". This is where I grew to like public service. I hope to become a public servant myself.
My life in Washington has taught me much that I hope to use here in the future, but I also hope to learn much much more in Japan. I look forward to the future.
Seiritsu Gakuen is a private co-educational high school created in 1925 and it is located in Tokyo, Japan.