On Friday the 6th of July 2019, 13 students and two teachers embarked on their journey to Hamasaka, Japan via Singapore on a 15-day school exchange.

Two years in the making, our students worked hard fundraising for the journey, learning the language and understanding the Japanese culture.

During the stay at Hamasaka Junior High School, an exchange that originated in 1993, saw our students spend time in a Japanese school and living in a Japanese home.

The staff and students of Hamasaka Junior High School were amazing and treated us very well showing that famous Japanese hospitality. 

As a group, we have enjoyed being able to communicate across cultures where the language was a challenge. The language did not stop us as we were still able to understand each other and along the way expanded our Japanese language and understanding of culture.

We were impressed by the Japanese students' commitment to their education - starting early in the morning and finishing their day at 6 pm following the completion of their compulsory club activities. Our students experienced these long days including the 292 steps climbed in the morning to get to school and descending them on the way home. Impressively the students of the school even clean it spotless at the end of each day!

The final part of our journey was to deliver the 1000 origami paper cranes made and deliver them to the Peace Park in Hiroshima as a  mark of respect of "Sadako and the 100 paper cranes". A very moving experience.

Finally, we would like to thank Hamasaka Junior High School, the families who took care of our students, parents/families of our students as they supported them and prepared them for the trip (and helping with the fundraising!).  Also our supporters and sponsors including RCG Creations Limited who kindly supported the purchase of our travel tops.

Teachers:
Mike Hart
Mary Chisnall

Students:
Louis James
Liam Evers
Harrison Shore
Dean Brown
Shaugn Kilgour
Ollie Graham
Gina Field
Ashleigh Lawler
Bailey Pike
Alexandra Eginton-Abbott
Sofia Tizzard
Hillary Cooper
Paige Packham