2023 JAPAN STUDY TOUR

During the last school holidays, 18 students from St Andrews College travelled to Japan with Mr Finnerty, Mr Culbert and Miss Matsufuji on the 2023 Japan Study Tour. In Japan, they visited many different places and also our sister school, Isahaya Commercial High School, in Nagasaki. During their stay in Japan, all students had opportunities to learn about the language and its culture on hand that is so different experience compared to Australia.

For the first week, they went to many places including Tokyo, Nara, Kyoto, Osaka, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukuoka. In these places, they visited a variety of famous places including the World Heritage sites such as Sensoji Temple, Harajuku, Nara Park, Kiyomizu Temple, the Golden Pavilion, Osaka Castle, Itsukushima Shrine, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Oura Cathedral Church and so on. 

In order to travel to all these places across Japan, they had to take bullet trains with the JR Pass. It was such a wonderful experience to take one of the fastest train in the world and was very handy. They saved a lot of money with the JR Pass as well. Of course, they all got to go shopping every day while we were having sightseeing tours and they ate delicious authentic Japanese foods while having fun.

In the second week of the Japan Study Tour, they move to Nagasaki to visit our sister school, Isahaya Commercial High School. As soon as they arrived there, our sister school teachers and students welcomed them with a happy and excited face. During their visit in Nagasaki, all the students had an opportunity to have a homestay with Japanese families for 6 nights. In order to survive the homestay experience, our students had 10 Japanese Cultural lessons at lunchtime during semester one. Hopefully, they were able to extend their knowledge of Japanese culture and learn more Japanese from their host families. We also hope they will keep in touch with their host families and visit them again soon. 

One of the highlight events in this tour was our sister school’s sports festival. Our students and accompanying teachers enjoyed watching the Japanese sports festival because most of their activities were very different from ours.  

Overall, it was a fantastic learning experience for our students and they really had a great time during the entire trip. We would like to say thank you to parents and guardians whose children participated in the 2023 Japan Study Tour. We won’t be able to make the tour successful without their intercultural understanding and strong support. 

Now we are looking forward to having another Japan Study Tour in the near future.

Ms Mariko Suzuki 

Leader of Learning - Languages

Miss Miho Matsufuji

Teacher of Japanese