Girton Grammar Gojo Trip 2008

Sorry about the lack of updates

2008-10-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I have not been able to get on to update the blog much over the past couple of days. We have been very busy. I will strive to put some more photos up today as well as the Day 11 & 12 diary entries which I have just completed.

Today is the last day we will have internet access before we head home. So if you wish to add any comments for your son / daughter, they have been very excited when we print them out and pass them on.

Thank you and see you around 11:30 on Sunday morning when we arrive on QANTAS flight 423 from Sydney. This is a domestic flight, so you can come down to the arrival gate to greet us.

Brad, Paul and Megan

Day 14

2008-10-02T15:58:00.004-07:00

Friday

Story to come

Madeline Tucker

Photos to come

Day 13

2008-10-02T15:58:00.003-07:00

Story to come

Callum Stewart

Photos to come

Day 12

2008-10-02T15:58:00.001-07:00

Today started off at 7:30am where I woke up, had breakfast and got ready to go to school. The weather today would be the same as the past two days, miserable, chance of rain and low cloud cover. Today would also be a scary day because of the possibility of a Typhoon coming through Gojo. But in the end it didn`t happen.
School started at 8:40am with all students going to their home room for a brief period before heading off to the gym to hear campaign speeches so they could elect who is going to be the next Gojo School Captain. After the speeches, all students went back to their classrooms to commence period 2. My period 2 class was book keeping. Book keeping was an interesting class because I understood nothing. Period 3 was mathematics. Mathematics was fine, yet boring at the same time. Boring because I had already learnt what they were learning, yet fine because apart from English, it was the only class I understood. After math was ... I`m not actually sure what the class was or what they were learning.
After the `unknown` class was lunch. For lunch, a bunch of us went to the school cafeteria. I had an Obentoo, which is a bunch of Japanese food put into a lunch box.
After lunch, all the first year (Year 10) Gojo students had a meeting for the last two periods in the gym. So the Girton students who were in those classes spent their time in the Girton Staff Room.
After school, some students and their hosts went bowling. Which was great fun.
After bowling, my host family and I went to conveyor belt sushi, which was fun and delicious. After sushi, we went home and I was very tired so I went to bed.
The End.

Daniel McKenzie

Photos to come

Day 11

2008-09-29T20:37:00.001-07:00

Tuesday started off like any other. We met in the Girton Staff room at around 8:30, then headed off to class with our assigned buddy.
First period I had music. The class just happened to be working on an English song. `Yesterday` by John Lennon. Dave and I were forced by the teacher to stand in front of the whole class and sing it. Everyone already thought we were odd enough, let along a `ranga` and blondie singing every note out of tune.
We then had Japanese. I couldn't understand a thing and I sat there quietly pretending to take notes.
Next was PE. I was very surprised by the changing arrangements. The boys would leave the classroom while the girls removed their uniform and changed into PE gear, all while there were clear windows outlooking the hall.
In the gym we were all arranged into perfectly straight lines before we began some form of fitness / aerobics. Also PE was an all girls class.
I was fairly hungry by now, and was annoyed that I still had one more class before lunch, English. Finally something I could understand. Though I was surprised at how difficult the work was. Sentences containing `ought not to` and things I would never use in a conversation.
At 12:45 lunch arrived. Starving from the rule of `no such thing as recess` I was keen to crack open my obentoo (lunch box).
I was relieved my family gave me a fork to eat with. We ate in the classroom and people arranged their tables into small groups. In my obentoo was some rice, followed by these sausage meat things.
After lunch all the Girton students had a calligraphy class. We wrote kanji and learnt how to spell our name in Kanji.
When the bell rang, we headed out for a hike of about ten minutes to a gym. Girton v Gojo in a volleyball match. We mixed teams, Girton & Gojo, boys & girls. Everyone seemed to have a really good time.
At 6:30 we all walked down to a restaurant where we were served beef and rice. Girton students talked more with the Gojo students and practiced our language skills.
I then went home and while watching Mr. Bean, my host mother made a delicious fruit, ice-cream desert.
After a long day, I headed to bed.

Anthea Johnston

Photos to come.

Day 10

2008-09-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

Story to come

Ben Hughes

Gojo High School has been putting photos of us onto their home page. The link to their website is

http://www.gojo-h.ed.jp/

When you open up the page, you will see an area with the word `new` flashing up. Click on any of these links, and most of them will be pages to our students at their school. Please see below and follow the red arrow as to where you can find these.

More photos to come.

Day 9

2008-09-28T22:09:00.002-07:00

After a lovely 8:30 start, a bowl of shrimp for breakfast and a short car trip, Ashlee, Daniel, Callum, Sophie, David and myself boarded a train with our respective host students for a forty minute train ride to Osaka. On arrival, finding an ATM became a difficult task, taking more than an hour to find. After cashing up, we all hit the streets to find a Sega Game Centre for a few games. Despite the heat in the game centre, we all managed to use several thousand yen. Now, everybody knows that a professional gamer needs a nutritious lunch, so we all headed over to McDonalds for a traditional Japanese meal consisting of a big mac, large fries and a large coke. Once our stomach was content, a simple walk to the karaoke bar went pear shaped, with floods of Japanese people flying towards us revealing the risk of seperation. Despite this, we all arrived at the Karaoke Bar. After one and a half hours of singing, we all moved to the games again.
Dance, dance revolution was always in use and was just as much fun to watch as it was to play. Unfortunately, all good days have to come to an end, so we all boarded the train back to Gojo. On arrival, the group split up for dinner. My lovely host family and I went for a five minute drive to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. There I found out the true strength of wasabi.
My first sushi contained a little rice, a little bit of prawn and an estimated twelve kilos of wasabi. My host family seemed mildly surprised wehn my face started turning into a red traffic light. Once my family pointed out that I chose the spiciest sushi in the whole restaurant, I finished eight other dishes before throwing in the towel.
All in all, a very fun day.

Timothy Gibson

Many students visited Nara Temple and saw other sites around Nara. These photos were taken by Bradley Rankin on the tour that the Gojo staff gave Mr. Frye, Mrs. Tannahill and myself.

Mr. Matsuda (English Teacher) in front of a five story pagoda

Mr. Matsuda and Mr. Rankin in front of the pagoda

Mr. Uemura lighting incense as a sign of respect while Mr. Frye looks on.

The giant Buddha of Nara

Liz and her host family and friends at Nara

The temple that houses the giant Buddha.

A deer in front of a smaller shrine

A traditional fence line with magnificant decorative tiles on top.

Mr. Morikawa relaxing on our tour.

Looking down on Nara from a lookout vantage point.

Mrs. Tannahill and Mr. Uemura

Making mochi (rice cakes)

A traditional entrance to a house in Nara.

The edging of a roof line.

A small remberence statue.

Day 8

2008-09-28T22:09:00.001-07:00

After accidentally sleeping in, Liz and I found ourselves in a rush to pack our bags up ready to check out of the Kyoto Dai Ni Tower Hotel. The group met up at 8:00 and we set off to see Kiomizu Temple. We pciked up some breakfast at a Seven Eleven on the way. To get to the temple, we had to walk up an extremely steep road. It was a relief to get to the top.
We looked around the temple, for about an hour; the temples and pagoda`s provided a good photo opportunity looking out to the city of Kyoto.
We then split up and were allowed some shopping time at the shops set up along the road. The walk down was much more enjoyable than going up. Some of the items bought were wall hangings, fridge magnets and lucky charms.
We then walked back towards the hotel to find a plcae for lunch. Half of us chose to have ramen (noodles) while I and seven others chose Okonomiyaki because we liked it so much last time.
After lunch we changed into our school uniform, then lugged our suitcases to the station. We caught a train to Gojo which took about forty minutes. We were met at the Kashiharajingumae station by Mr. Morikawa and the Gojo school bus which took us to Gojo High School.
We met our host families and attended the welcome party. This was our first look at Gojo High School. I went home with my host sister, Asako, and her mother. On the way home we stopped at SATY, the local shopping complex to pick up food for the week. This included cereal, pocky, haichu and a welcome drink of CC lemon (Japanese version of lemon squash).
We went home and had dinner (spaghetti bolognaise), then I had a shower and went to bed after a long day.

Ashlee Elliott

Kiomizu Temple

Roof top of Kiomizu Temple

One of the many little shrine spots around Kiomizu Temple

Many people crowded the street leading up to the temple.

Window display of the many wares available for sale.

One of the many souvineer fan shops.

Another little shrine.

Selection of the many dolls available at the souvineer shops.

Students catching a quick forty winks before arriving at Gojo

Day 7

2008-09-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

Woke up startled and disorientated at 6:30am.
Stumbled down to breakfast at 7:00am and hurriedly packed my case for our trip to Kyoto. Wearing P.E. uniform to the station, we were easilt identified, but didn`t make us any less in danger of being swallowed up by the thousands of businessmen going the opposite way.
The shinkansen (bullet train) has to be one of the most comfortable transportation devices ever invented. Everyone is relaxed and looking forward to a new hotel in a new city. It took about two hours to get to Kyoto.
On arrival, we checked into the Dai Ni Tower Hotel (western style ... yay!). At the hotel we were met by Gen and his parents. Gen stayed with the Sokel family and knew Sophie really well. They took us to lunch and it was delicious. After eating lunch we went to visit Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) temple. It was very interesting to see the gold foiled pavilion (we knew it had to be fake).
After leaving the golden pavilion we visited Ryoanji. This is a very famous zen rock garden. It was very relaxing and peaceful.
We went out for dinner again to a very flash restaurant. We all had interesting meals, some had pizza, others had chicken.
Everyone is excited although a little nervous for the day ahead (the day we meet our host family). We can`t believe how quickly the week went by. I have never seen so many attractions or fit so much into one day. Every day was planned out perfectly and even if things didn`t always go according to plan, our group made the most of it.

Elizabeth Caltabiano

Photos to come

Day 6

2008-09-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today we were up at 7:00 for a 7:30 breakfast. We had the choice of Japanese or Western style, most of us having the first western breakfast in almost a week now.
We left New Hiroden Hotel for Hiroshima station where we caught a train (about 20 minutes) to Miyajima Guchi.
A ten minute ferry ride and we were on Miyajima Island, most famous for the proposal to Mrs. Rankin.
Deer roamed freely around the island, with gates on the toilet doors to stop them getting in.
The cable car is a great way to see a birds eye view of the surrounding islands, but being an overcast day, we were unable to see all that was there.
At the top of Mt. Misen, monkeys stay, play and eat free. With many photo opportunities, for some people, the monkeys were a highlight for the day.
It took us about 45 minutes to hike our way down (thongs not a very good idea) the mountain.
Lunch was eaten, a few more photos taken and we were on the ferry back to the mainland.
We travelled into Hiroshima for dinner and had some free time to shop around.
Karaoke was a huge blast with everyone stepping up and having a go.
We were in bed early, ready for a day of excitement to follow.

Verity Bright

Day 5

2008-09-24T08:21:00.002-07:00

We woke up, packed and said goodbye and thanks for having us to the staff at the Daimachi Bekkan. We went to the station and caught the subway into Tokyo station.

From there, we caught the shinkansen (bullet train). At about 2:00 we arrived in Hiroshima after changing trains at Shin-Osaka. We went straight to our hotel, checked in and changed into our school uniform and caught a tram to Hiroshima Peace Park where we went to the memorial museum. This was very confronting and sad to see the devistation effect the A-Bomb had on this city.

This park and museum is a reminder to the world the effects weapons of mass destruction have. We went back to the hotel, changed into more casual clothes, and then went out for tea as a group. We had trouble finding a restaurant that was big enough for us all to fit. Finally we found one big enough. We ate Okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes) which is the food that Hiroshima is famous for. It was very nice.

After dinner we walked back to the peace park. We met a science teacher who was there to pray. We spoke with him for a little while. When he left, a survivor of the bomb came over to us and told us his story of the horrific event which was very moving. The memory is still very vivid in his memory and he still sees the events of that day every day. He said we are the future and we need to make sure that something like this never happens again.

David Blades

Breakfast this morning

The breakfast room

Outside the traditional Japanese Inn

Liz and the Bullet Trian conductor

In the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Photo of all of us

Childrens Memorial at the Peace Park

The A Bomb Dome

David and Callum with a weird statue

We are all friends

The A bomb dome through the Peace Park

A Primary School Teacher the students spoke to while Mr. Rankin took the above photo

Day 4

2008-09-24T08:21:00.001-07:00

Today we did a lot in a short time. We had a wake up call of 7:00! and breakfast at 7:30. This was made up of ham, noodles, rice, miso soup and grapefruit. It was oishi (delicious), we then made our way down to the subway station to catch yet another train. We finally ended up in Hase where we went and saw the biggest Buddha in Japan (maybe even the world!). This was amazing to see how big it actually was!!!

We also had the chance to go inside the Buddha.

After spending some time there, we were given free time to roam the streets filled with unique little shops.

By this stage, it was about lunch time. We went to the corner 7/11 to get some fast take out Japanese food. You could get rice, noodles, obento boxes ... anything really.

Then we strolled down to the beach to sit and eat. The water was beautiful, but I wouldn`t call the san that. Then we were off again to another temple in Kamakura. This was a wonderful old temple. After looking around here, we all decided to go back to Harajuku. Everyone just loves that place.

We ended up busking where there were some Harajuku girls and we got 500 yen. After this we got more free time to shop and look around.

It was getting dark and we walked down to the biggest intersection in Japan. We walked through it and no-one got lost. We then went to find dinner. We found a nice little restaurant and ate there.

Then a little more shopping and looking around and then back on the subway to our home.

Sophie Beckerleg

Our breakfast this morning

Garbage collection day

The boys about to get in and give a hand

Outside a Japanese Primary School

The Primary Schools` Sports Festival

Ashlee making friends on the train

Infront of the Giant Bronze Buddha at Kamakura (Kanagawa Prefecture)

Liz, Stuart and Anthea pretending to be the Buddha

David, Daniel and Matthew doing the same

Building behind the Giant Buddha

A young boy at the Giant Buddha

A rickshaw operator

Lunch at the beach

On the beach

On a crowded train

A traditional wedding at the temple

A young girl at the Temple.

Day 3

2008-09-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

The day began at 6:30 in the morning, where everyone got up and got ready for our big day at Disneyland.
It wasn`t a particulary nice day, it was pouring down with rain and was very humid. We left the Daimachi Bekkan at 8:30 and walked to the train station for an hour and a half trip to Tokyo Disneyland. Before entering, our bags were checked and we had a twenty minute wait to get our tickets and fought through the crowds to get to the first ride, Splash Mountain. We tried to go on as a group, but the 180 minute wait prevented us from getting on the ride.
Most people used the fast pass idea and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Disneyland. The poeple who got to ride Big Thunder Mountain thoroughly enjoyed the ride and agreed that it wa sworth waiting all day for.
There was not much time for rides, as the crowds were huge despite inclemit weather.
After Disneyland, we came back to the Ryokan so that David could change his socks, and people to change out of wet clothes.
We went to Shinjuku to travel to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Municipal Building to the observatory. After enjoying the view for about thirty minutes, we went to the streets around Shinjuku station in search of some tea and some shopping.
On the way home, people were exhausted and many slept on the train, or on handrails on the street (Liz).

Matthew Bacon

Our breakfast this morning

Japanese Police Character

On a crowded train

At Disneyland

Posing with Peter Pan

Mr. Frye with Walt Disney and Minnie Mouse

Shinjuku Street Scene

Tokyo at Night

Day 2

2008-09-23T05:41:00.000-07:00

The day started with a delicious Japanese style breakfast in a tatami room in our Ryokan (Japanese Inn). During breakfast we had a small earthquake (3.0 on the scale)! It was an interesting experience.
After breakfast we met our tour guide, Mika. She was very enthusiastic about giving us the tour. First we travelled by train to Asakusa. We went to the Kannon Temple which was a Buddhist Temple. Around the temple was the Nakamise Shopping Arcade.
From Asakusa we travelled to Ueno and we walked to the Ameyagaokacho market. At the market there was a range of souvineers and seafood.
From Ueno we caught a train to Akiharbara (or Electronic Town). We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. The food ranged from fried chicken to curry rice to a Japanese steak. After lunch we had half an hour to check out Akiharbara. People bought all sorts of electrical goods.
Next we went to Harajuku. There were interesting fashion styles amongst some young people. We looked in clothes shops which were orientated towards teenagers. We then walked 45 minutes around the Meiji Shrine. This is a shrine of the Shinto religion. While we were there we saw a traditional Shinto wedding.
We then travelled on the JR trains to Ginza, a part of Tokyo near the Imperial Palace in the centre of the city. It was here were all the famous designer clothes and accessorary shops, like Gucci and Dior, were located.
We then travelled to Hongo San Chome station which is near the Ryokan. People had dinner at a Japanese restaurant or McDonalds. After dinner we walked back to the Ryokan where most people had a traditional bath.

Dean Armstrong

The entry gate at Asakusa Shrine

Salmon fish eggs for sale at Ueno

A different range of foods from Mushrooms to seafood.

David, Liz, Tim and Matt in front of some of the millions of vending machines in Japan.

Barbequed squid anyone???

Five Storied Pagoda at Meiji Jingu Shrine.

A traditional Shinto Wedding

People`s prayers at Meiji Jingu Shrine.

Display in Akiharbara (Electronic Town)

Watching a game of baseball.

Day 1

2008-09-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

Day One was fun and boring at the same time. We woke up early and arrived at school around 3am, ready for a long bus ride, then three flights - Melbourne to Brisbane, Brisbane to Cairns and finally Cairns to Tokyo.
The flights were pretty boring but we managed to entertain ourselves by sleeping or just mucking around.
After eleven long hours of travelling by plane, we finally arrived at Narita and caught a bus which was waiting for us into Japan`s capital, Tokyo.
Everything seemed pretty normal, until we found the toilets. One of the men`s toilets was like a bedpan that gets washed out. We then waited around at Narita Airport for the bus to our Ryokan, Daimachi Bekkan, which took about an hour and a half along the freeway. Finally we arrived at the Ryokan and were shown to our rooms.
Some of us then had a traditional Japanese bath, while the others went straight to bed, exhausted after a long day.

Stuart Aitken

Waiting in line at the airport.

Group Photo

2008-09-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Gojo Student Exchange Participants

Dean, Matthew, Madeline, Sophie, Daniel, Verity, Timothy, Ashlee, David, Anthea, Stuart, Elizabeth, Benjamin and Zoe (absent Callum).

Including Staff

Mr. Rankin, Mrs. Tannahill, Dean, Matthew, Madeline, Sophie, Daniel, Verity, Timothy, Ashlee, David, Anthea, Stuart, Elizabeth, Benjamin, Zoe, Mr. Frye (absent Callum).