First Day

A long flight and a good day at school.

Our flight left on time from Vancouver.  JAL gave us great service.  We all had our first Japanese meal on the trip in the airplane which was pretty good for airplane food.  We had to circle Narita airport for a while because one runway was out of commission (never found out why) and had to dash to make the connecting flight to Nagoya.  Got into Nagoya at 8 pm and took the short walk to the airport hotel.  Many of us got a snack at the convenience store beside the hotel and then to bed.

Breakfast at the hotel on Friday morning than off to the train station located in the airport for the 40 minute ride into Inazawa city.  Mr. Suzuki met us at the station with the Aichi Keisei school bus which took us to the school.  It was great to see Mr. Suzuki again.  He taught at KSS for two months in the fall and helped prepare our group for the trip to Japan.  Meeting an old friend again was reassuring for all of us.

Connor and Masato on the train from the airport.

When we arrived at the school we were met by principal Adachi and shown to a meeting room where we deposited our bags and had a brief explanation from Mr. Suzuki about the plan for the day.

Mr. Suzuki describing our day.

We were given a tour of the school and brought to the gym for the welcome ceremony.  All of the students and staff were there.  The students were neatly organized with the boys on one side and the girls on the other sitting neatly in rows on the floor.  The master of ceremonies for the event was Yuna.  Yuna was one of two Acihi Keisei students who were on a two month exchange at KSS in the fall.  She did a great job running the ceremony in English and Japanese.  Mr. Adachi gave a very warm speech in which he described the growing connections between our two schools over the last 7 years through short and long term exchanges and one teacher visit  (Mr. Suzuki).  Then our principal gave his speech starting by thanking our hosts in Japanese and then giving his speech in English describing the growing connections between our schools as well.  Mr. Suzuki translated.  Next up was the welcome speech by the Aichi Keisei student representative - Rina.  Rina was the other Aichi Keisei student who was with us in the fall.  She gave a heart warming talk in English describing her experience with her host family in the Qualicum Beach area and her time at school.  Finally Jayde was up as our student representative.  He gave his speech in Japanese with confidence and good pronunciation.

Jayde's speech

Once the speeches were over, the presentations began.  First up was the cheer leading club.  Ten girls in cheer leader outfits that would not be out of place on an American campus.  They did their cheer routines using popular music adapted to songs that promoted the school.  Very enthusiastic and well done.  We then had a traditional dance performance of 'soran bushi' by their traditional dance group.  Soran bushi is a fisherman's song meant to encourage the hard labour of pulling in nets.  Groups from across Japan vie to perfect and extend this dance.  We have tired it at KSS too!  We then say a modern dance group and the fashion design club.  The girls in the fashion club put on a fashion show showing us the yukata they had designed and made.  Yukata are light cotton kimono worn in the summer.  Finally it was our turn.  Our students got on stage and sang two songs we had prepared - one in English and one in Japanese.  They did well.

soran bushi

Yukata fashion show

Getting ready to sing

All the presentation groups

After the welcome ceremony we joined a cooking class who had been waiting for us.  Each of our students joined a group of three Aichi Keisei girls and prepared a Japanese dish called 'Oyakodonburi'.  The students washed and cooked the rice and then prepared and cooked a chicken, egg and vegetable mix which was then put over the cooked rice.  We ate together with the Japanese girls.
After lunch we got on the school bus with our Japanese student hosts and went to visit the 'Inuyama' temple and then 'Inuyamajou' or dog mountain castle.  This Buddhist temple was founded around 400 years ago and is now famous in Japan is the place to go to get blessings that prevent car accidents.  Inuymama jou is a small castle on top of a mountain that dates back more than 400 years to the warring states period.  This was a terrible time of civil war that lasted 100 years.  The castle was an important defensive position beside a rive between two warring states.  Very cool place.

Matt and Rose placed burning incense in the urn and then waved the smoke over themselves to get a blessing.

Inuyamajou

We did a bit of shopping in the district around Inuyama jou and then took the bus back to school.  When we got to school the host parents were waiting for us.  After brief introductions our students were off to their Japanese homes.