The last two days have been big days for the Brentwood students! Yesterday (Sunday) all students were welcomed to Ono High School with a ceremony. As Ms Campion was sitting up the front, she wasn't able to take any pictures! But there will be some to come at a later date! After the ceremony and refreshments, students went home with their host families - although some had to wait a little longer than others as some of the Ono students had practice for sports day. Today was our first day of school at Ono High School. An early start was had by all as students needed to be at school for a 7:30 start! For some this meant a 6am departure from home. The day began with a formal welcome to the school with a full school assembly. Congratulations to Kimberley for giving a speech in Japanese to over 1200 people! Many staff at Ono SHS commented on how excellent her Japanese was! The rest of the day was spent joining the host students classes and lunch. After lunch there was a cooking class where everyone made dango. Although there was a range of sizes produced, it was an excellent experience. After cooking we went to the multi-media room and participated in a number of activities including making spinning tops, origami, traditional toys and finally a game of 'Darumasan ga koronda!' - a Japanese version of What's the time Mr Wolf. After period 7 (which ended at 4pm) there was cleaning and then table tennis. Georgia was the star of table tennis with a great ability to return the ball with both speed and accuracy! Well done to all the Brentwood students - they made us very proud today with their can do attitude and their willingness to adapt to the unknown!! Today we headed out in the warmth of the Osaka sun. Armed with water bottles, sun screen and a sense of adventure, we set out sights on the Osaka Aquarium. On of the largest tanks in the world gave us the opportunity to see a whale shark up close.
After a quick lunch, Ms Campion tried to lead us to a shrine she wanted us to see, but it was hard to get to on our tickets, so after a few trains that brought us no closer to out destination, we decided to change our plans and head to Dotonbori. We got to shop, relax and take lots of photos of all the crazy advertising. Ms Campion managed to find us a small Buddhist temple to visit, where moss has grown over the statues as people pray to the gods by throwing water over the statues. Paige even got a special 1 on 1 tutorial on how to do it right! We finally made our way to our dinner location - a restaurant called Chibo. Everyone ate their fill of delicious okonomiyaki. Tomorrow we go to Ono to meet our host families for the first time. Another exciting day ahead! Arrived safe and sound in Hong Kong. First leg of the journey is complete. Just getting on the plane to Osaka.
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Members of the Japan Trip
Angie Ethan Naomi Austin Paige Gyu Li Nicholas Meng How Jackson Katie Kiara Georgia Aaron Ronin Ethan Lily Kimberley STAFF Ms Campion Mr Lilly |