During lunch time on Friday March 12 some senior students of Japanese connected online via zoom with a group of students from Tomita High in Gifu Prefecture Japan.

Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to connect and try out their Japanese speaking and listening skills as well as make some new friends in Japan.

It was especially lovely to see Yui Sawai and Saki Kojima who were exchange students here at Avonside last year. The zoom experience even made it into the newspaper in Japan!

Some comments about it from the Japanese students were:

“We were able talk face to face on line. I’d like to have more opportunities like this”

“It’s a pity we can’t go to NZ at the moment but I’m glad we were able to have this kind of exchange”

We were also joined here at Avonside by Kien Ngo and Den Otsuki from Shirley Boys' High School.

Special thanks to Kei Ando from JTC, Christchurch and Yuka Shimanuki, JTC, who set up this meeting for us.