Japan Exchange 2023

In October during the first week of the half term, four pupils from St Paul’s School and four pupils from St Paul’s Girls’ School spent a week in Japan on an exchange visit with Jishukan High School in Toyohashi. Charlie Kirby (Lower Eighth) writes about his experiences below.

We arrived at the train station late on Saturday after a long and tiring journey from London to Shanghai to Tokyo and finally to our destination, Toyohashi. Here we were greeted by our host families with whom we were to spend the next week. On the next day, we had time to explore the city with our hosts, whether that was visiting a nearby temple, going to a nearby festival or trying out some local dishes. It was great to have a day to settle in before the beginning of our week at school.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were to be spent at Jishukan High School, an amazing opportunity for us to discover just how different daily school life was for our exchanges. From English speaking practice with the Japanese students to eating lunch with them in their classrooms to taking part in typical high school lessons, the days were packed with action along with various other activities which we were lucky enough to try. This included a calligraphy class, where we learnt the proper way to write out a kanji character with a paintbrush and ink, along with a traditional tea ceremony, in which we got to experience making matcha tea in the traditional Japanese way. We were also lucky enough to watch poster presentations from the Eighth Form equivalents which gave them a chance to practise their spoken English and gave us the opportunity to hear about their interests. Overall, getting to spend a few days at Jishukan High School and meeting so many new people who wanted to talk with me and ask questions about life in the UK is an experience that I am immensely grateful for and will certainly never forget.

We spent the remainder of our time in Japan on trips to the nearby cities to see the more typical tourist destinations. The stunning beauty of the ancient architecture of Kyōto, the old capital city of Japan, was the first of two. We were lucky enough to try a very traditional Japanese lunch in between visits to Kinaku-Ji, the world-famous Temple of the Golden Pavilion, as well as Kiyomizu-Dera, an ancient Buddhist Temple which straddles the side of a hill, and the Fushimi Inari Shrine, characterised by its 10,000 red gates which wind up the mountain. For our second day trip, which happened on the final Saturday, we were accompanied by our exchanges to Tōkyō, where we had multiple activities prepared for us. Firstly, we climbed the 634m tall Tokyo Skytree, from which we looked over the city of 35 million which appeared to stretch all the way to Mt Fuji in the distance. Next, we visited the Tokyo Fire Department to take part in a natural disaster experience, in which we got to learn about how to best keep ourselves safe in extreme conditions whilst also being able to try out some fun and unique simulations. Unfortunately, it was soon time to have to say an emotional goodbye to our hosts after visiting one final temple together. We returned to our hotel rooms for one final night in Japan. The next morning we got up early in order to fit in the last few things on our itinerary, including a walk through a local park to a busy market where we could pick up some final souvenirs and have a last Japanese meal before it was time to return to the airport.

Leaving was certainly the most bittersweet part of the trip – in just the span of 9 days, I had become accustomed to a Japanese way of life thanks to the cultural immersion and the amazing generosity and hospitality shown by our host families that we were able to experience, that I really felt as if I was leaving a second home. I nevertheless felt so lucky to have been able to take part in this exchange, or, at least, the first phase of it. I really hope that, since the reintroduction of the programme after COVID-19, the future students on the trip will be able to take part in what truly is a once-in-a-lifetime trip and enjoy it and cherish the memories taken from it as much as I do.