Mejiro Exchange

MEJIROGAKUEN

VOL.46

Mejiro University (Undergraduate, Postgraduate)
Mejiro University College
Mejiro Kenshin Junior and Senior High School

Mejiro Gakuen
4-31-1 Nakaochiai, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 161-8539 JAPAN
Tel. 03-5996-3131 http://www.mejiro.ac.jp

Ogilvie High School Visits Mejiro“I was so happily surprised when I saw how
enthusiastic the Japanese students were atlearning English.” – Sarah Brazendale.

DEC 2012
West Vancouver #45
School District Visit“We enjoyed the great tea experience and especially liked the chance to make it ourselves.”– Ashlie Watson and Ashani Gunaseelan.
“I really enjoyed the Japanese traditional tea
ceremony.” – Jessica Hutchinson.
Posing for a group photooutside of the school building

In September 2012, 18 girls and 3 teachers from
Ogilvie High School travelled to Japan for asightseeing and cultural experience. The 18 girls
have been studying Japanese for 4 years andwere extremely excited to see the country they
have been learning about and to practice theirlanguage. As inter-cultural communication is at
the core of what we study, it is always a highlightfor us to visit our Sister School, Mejiro Kenshin.
Our students were thrilled at the opportunity toexperience a Japanese school, and to try a variety of cultural experiences such as sushi making and Sado. They also loved the chance toexperience English classes and the chance topractice communication with Mejiro students.

“I enjoyed making the sushi, it was fun andyummy.” – Krystal Robins“In English class we learnt new words andplayed games with the students, it was reallyfun.” – Georgia Smith.
“The green tea ceremony was a new and interesting experience.” – Courtney Chaplin“I enjoyed playing games with the students andalso making the sushi.” – Saskia Heather.
We wish to thank the staff and students of Mejiro Kenshin for accommodating us again and
we look forward to hosting them in Tasmania.
Claire RoweJapanese Teacher, Ogilvie High School

Ms. Smiley (second from left), Mr. Frankowski(back), and Mr. Mukai (far right) with former
exchange students

We were pleased to welcome Ms. Maureen
Smiley and Mr. Michael Frankowski from theWest Vancouver School District, as well as Mr.
Moto Mukai from MYK Canada, to Mejiro Kenshin
on November 19th. They were happy to be able
to meet and have a chat in English with someof the Senior 3 students who have previously
studied abroad at schools in West Vancouver. We
hope they had a pleasant trip to Japan and Mejiro
and look forward to seeing them again.

Harvard Students Visit Mejiro

With students from the Senior 3-6 class

On June 29th, five students from Harvard
University visited Mejiro Kenshin Junior andSenior High School in response to a gracious
invitation by Haruko Morimoto, head of the international education department at the school, andHarvard Graduate School of Education alumnus.
The visit was organized with the goals of “giving students a chance to talk about school, life,and future goals with [the] Harvard guests inhopes of them becoming inspired” as wellas “to give [the] guests a chance to talkwith Japanese students”. The Harvard students spent time with two different English
classes, which both began with introductions by a Mejiro student, followed bypresentations and discussions led by theHarvard students. Each Harvard student
gave a brief presentation on their life at theuniversity, which was followed by a discussion about the academic and social aspects of both Harvard and Mejiro Kenshinwith each group as they rotated around theroom. Xiao Fu (class of 2013, government),
mentioned that some of the most common questions asked during this time were “Why did you
want to go to Harvard?” and “How much time doyou spend on homework?” although there werealso entertaining questions as well, for example
about favorite movie stars and boyfriends. Finally,
the classroom visit culminated with the Harvard
students offering short messages of advice andencouragement to the Mejiro Kenshin students.

With a lot of smiles and laughs during the visit,
reflected in the final group photograph, both theAmerican and Japanese students seemed to enjoy and learn from the cultural exchange. Tanya
Avilova (class of 2013, economics) reflected, “I
really liked hearing about the different varietiesof clubs that students were involved in, from tea
ceremony and traditional Japanese archery tolacrosse and hip hop dancing.”
The Harvard students were very grateful for how
warmly the faculty of Mejiro Kenshin welcomed
them, as they were even provided with a delicious school lunch with the English teachingfaculty. We hope Mejiro Kenshin students willcontinue to learn through international contexts
and, in the words of Tanya Avilova, would “like towish all of the Mejiro Kenshin students good luckin their future endeavors, and to remember toalways do what you love, because then you will
never feel like you are in the wrong place in life.”
Jeweliann HouletteClass of 2014, English, Harvard University

Encouraging Students to Study Abroad at the Toyosai Festival
Mejiro Kenshin opened its doors for two days in September for its annual
Toyosai festival. The international exchange committee prepared a roomwith the help of the ESS club and the international culture club to showcase
the exchange student program that has run so successfully year after year.
The room was colorfully decorated with posters that exchange students
had made about their trip abroad and you could see little souvenirs fromcountries such as Canada and Australia. Students who have come fromother countries to study at Mejiro Kenshin also contributed their posters in
English and Japanese. Other informative posters were also put up to give
people an idea about what goes on in the exchange program. Flyers wereavailable with more detailed information for those who showed an interest in
taking part in the exchange student program and a special world map withthe sister schools that Mejiro Kenshin is connected with were also given out.
Guests were able to have their questions about the exchange program answered by those who participated in the program and many stayed to takeToyosaipart in other activities as well. These two days during the festival were valuable to inform people about our exchange student program.
The ESS club and the international culture club also worked together with
the international exchange committee to make several special activities
in the room. A little café was set up where guests could place an order inEnglish and sit and enjoy a cool drink. People of all ages were able to makea bookmark with a variety of international flags, stickers and pictures. Many
enjoyed an English word puzzle and were praised for answering all the questions. DVDs were shown all day and you could hear students discussing theirEnglish ability and saying they needed to study more. Teachers, staff, alumni,
and students stopped by to see how things were going and chat with guests.
It was a joy to have this time together to encourage international communication and understanding in our corner at the Toyosai festival.
Lorna Sachie Asami
Chair, PTA International Exchange Commitee

My First Towasai

Visitors enter the school gates

Our school holds its school festival, called Toyosai,
once a year. At Toyosai, we share an enjoyable timewith visitors and let them know about our school
activities and traditions. Each class prepares eithera refreshment booth or an exhibition presenting
their work. In addition, clubs such as cheerleading,dance, wind ensemble, and sport clubs perform or
do some activity to show guests what their clubs
are about. They all work very hard to prepare for thefestival. Each Toyosai has its own theme. The theme
for this festival was “splendidness.” The student
council made a few changes to this year’s festival tomatch this theme. They built a new signboard with
an illustration of peacocks, a splendid Asian traditional bird. They also held a class T-shirt contest
for the first time and put up more decorations thanin previous festivals. Since this festival is held only
once a year, all the students looked forward to thisopportunity to exhibit the results of their hard work. I
hope visitors enjoyed our school festival.
Sachi Arai
Senior 2

My name is Meghan Strong and I am the new
International Education Coordinator at Mejiro
Gakuen. I took up my post at the beginning of
October this year, so just three weeks into thejob I was able to experience the yearly Towasai
Festival which was held at the university on
October 20th and 21st. The day before the festival students got a vacation from regularly scheduled classes in order to spend the day setting
up and preparing for the event. Many student
groups and clubs ran stalls at the festival sellingvarious foods ranging from traditional Japanesefestival foods such as okonomiyaki and takoyaki
to ethnic foods from a variety of countries suchas Korea, Thailand and Mexico. Walking aroundcampus it was difficult to control the urge to try
all the food in sight. In addition to the food stalls
set up around campus the students from the
Department of Confectionary Arts set up shop
inside Building No. 1 selling a variety of homemade breads, cakes and other sweets. I heard
from my coworkers that you have to get there
early because these delicious and low priced
sweets sell like hotcakes and that was definitely
true. By the afternoon there were already “SoldOut” signs posted at the entrance. After enjoying
a plethora of foods and sweets I was also able
to attend the special concert by Kana Uemura, afamous singer-songwriter known for her touchingsong telling the story of her relationship with her

Students crowd the school’s athletic ground wherea majority of the festival stalls were set up

grandmother. This concert was held especiallyfor the festival and many students and faculty
members attended. It was a treat to be able toattend the festival and I am sure that all thestudents, both those participating in running theevent and those who just came to enjoy, had agreat time as well.
Meghan Strong
International Education Coordinator

My Canada Trip
Canada is a beautiful country. We went to
Granville Island Market and rode the Aquabus on
False creek. Granville Island Market was wonderful! There were many different foods to eat. For
example; Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Italianand many others. It was very fun! I saw colorful
fresh fruits and sweet cakes. There were manykinds of cakes and a lot of chocolates in different shapes. For example, chocolates shaped likehorses, hearts, lady bugs and many more. I also
ate ice cream and saw many kinds of spices andcheese. I also saw seagulls and took pictures withfriends!! It was very fun.
I stayed at the Kodak family’s house. My hostfamily was very kind. I went to the beach in theneighborhood. There was one dog named Casa.
Casa likes people. I jumped on the trampoline
with my host sister. She is shy.
Some other time, I want to go to Canada again.
Ami Ojiro
Junior 3

I went to Canada for ten days.
I was in Canada for ten days. I
I stayed with a host family. The
spent time with the Backman
family was my host mother andfamily, the mother, older sister,
three children. My host motheryounger sister and brother. The
took us to Whistler where theolder sister’s name is Alexa.
Olympic Games were once held.
She was twelve years old. The
I thought Whistler was a very
younger sister’s name is Anina.
beautiful place, because there
She was nine years old at thatwere many unusual trees whichtime. But she is ten years old
I can’t see in Japan. I also went
now. The brother’s name ison excursions with my classNathan. He was fourteen years
Junior 3 students during their trip
old. I went to many places withmates. I especially liked Stanley
Alexa, Anina and their mother. It was fun for me. Park, because there were many totem poles
I was very happy to spend time with them. My which were very interesting. The totem poles were
host family took us to Park Royal, Sea Park and made by First Nations people. There were many
Capilano Park. There were a lot of trees in Sea interesting things which tell us about their history.
Park and Capilano Park. They were very beauti- My Canada trip was very interesting, because I
ful. Park Royal is a big department store. It was learned many things about Canadian culture.
wonderful! I had a very good time in Canada.
Hideharu Ono
Makoto Higurashi
Junior 3
Junior 3

Studying Abroad in New Zealand

School Trip to Kyushu

I went to New Zealand as
an exchange student forthree months. It was myfirst time to stay abroad
for a long term. At first, I
felt nervous, but thanks
to my host family’s
warmth, I could acclimate myself to life there.
Ta k a p u n a G r a m m a r
School, the school I
Nanae (right) with friends
went to, has many exchange students from many countries, so I made friends not only fromNew Zealand, but also from other countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, andFinland. We shared information about our own cultures with each other. It
was a wonderful opportunity to speak English.
I had English, Japanese, hospitality, tourism, and P.E. classes. I liked
tourism the best. I learned all about New Zealand’s sightseeing spots.
Sometimes we went to tourist spots near school. In hospitality class, westudied about the different foods of the world and even made some of thedishes. It was good for me to study cooking words in English.
After school on Mondays, I went to a social dance class with my host mother.
Sometimes it was hard for me to understand how to dance, but the othermembers in the class kindly taught me and I was able to enjoy every class.
At first, I felt it would be hard for me to live abroad because the cultures ofother countries are so different from Japan and I would have to use English
all the time. But, when I had to do things myself, living abroad gradually became easier. I learned not only English and about other cultures, but I also
discovered Japan’s good points. Lastly, I realized that my English ability isreal and that I can speak English.
Nanae Kojima
Senior 2

This school trip was avery precious time forme. I lear ned manythings which I could nothave learned in daily life.
On this trip, I acted asa school trip leader, but
I felt I could not fulfill
all my duties because I
wasn’t able to express
my thoughts when we
Kurumi (right) with friends at Isoteien
heard an A-bomb victim
talk. But, this experience taught me that even if I cannot express myself
well, it is not a big problem. The most important thing is to try to convey
my feelings to someone in my own words.
Another reason this trip was a valuable experience for me is that I am
interested in Japanese history. On the first day, we went to Isoteien,
which is a garden that was built in the Edo era. On the second day,we went to Kumamoto Castle whose huge stone steps were made byhand. I was only able to stay there for a very short time, so I want to go
there again and spend more time looking carefully at the stones, wood,
metal and exhibits. On the fourth day, we were free to explore Nagasaki
in groups. My group went to Koufukuji. It had a lot of information on
Chinese history and all the buildings there were painted red and black.
I was so impressed by it. I do not know why I felt so strongly about thatplace, but I wanted to stay longer.
This school trip was so much fun. Next year, we will have to study for our
entrance exams to get into university, so this trip was a good chance torelax before starting our studies.
Kurumi Hozaki
Senior 2

Studying Abroad in Australia
I went to SomervilleHouse in Brisbane,
Australia as an exchange student for
about three months.
At school, I chose theclasses I studied inJapan, including music, art, Japanese,Moe (right) and Ginger (left)
chemistry, and English.
I took many ESL classes. Although classes felt different and puzzling because they were all in English,
they were good for me. I especially liked the extracurricular activities. One time, we went to a beachon the Gold Coast called Mooloolaba. Another time
we went to Koala World. I was very happy because
I was able to learn about Australian culture.
At school, I participated in an athletic meet.
Students were divided into groups. Each group hada color. The colors were pink, blue, yellow, black,green and red. Also, each had a name. The names
were Gilmore, MacArthur, Chisholm, Durack,
Osburn, and Franklin. The names seemed to betaken from women honored in Australian history. It
was interesting because many students dressed up
according to their group color. Since my host sister,Ginger, belonged to Gilmore, I was in Gilmore, too.
My best memory of Australia was playing withthe band. We played in a festival called Ekka.
There were many visitors there so I was nervous, but I could relax because the students atSomerville were kind. And, when they applauded,
I realized it was good to play music. I thoughtthat through music, people can connect.
I had a wonderful time in Australia. I experienced
things not possible in Japan. I am so glad I went.
Moe Suzuki
Senior 1

I went to Tasmania in Australia.
Tasmania is blessed with beautiful
nature. My host family was a very
happy family consisting of five members. I like them very much because
they were so kind and took goodcare of me. My host sister, Nina,
plays hockey, dances and is in band.
I went with her to her dance lessons
on Fridays. Nina’s father, John, often cooked dinner. It was very delicious. Nina’s mother, Maria, often
made cake and cookies which werealso very delicious. Nina’s brothers’
names are Alex and Nicholas.
I stayed in Tasmania for threeAmi (left) and Hina (right) with friends at a school event
months and learned various things.
I studied abroad for three months in Tasmania as My host family took me places where there wasan exchange student. I had a fantastic time there. I a lot of nature. You could see a lot of stars athave been to the United States with my family be- night because the air was very clean. It wasfore, but I had never been to Tasmania. Therefore, like a planetarium.
when I arrived in Tasmania, I was so excited.
I went to Ogilvie High School. Ogilvie High
Tasmania is an island located south of Sydney, School is very large. It has a population of 850
Australia. I went to Ogilvie High School. Ogilvie students. Both the students and teachers areis very different from Japanese high schools. At very kind and friendly. I took math, Japanese,
Ogilvie, I could choose my favorite classes once outdoors, body and soul, food studies and P.E.
every three weeks so I was able to attend a lot In my outdoor class, I did rock climbing, bike ridof classes and make many friends. And, through ing and boxing. I found lessons in Australia to beconversations with my classmates, I was able to very different from lessons in Japan. I like classes
speak English.
in Australia better than classes in Japan.
Outside of school, I had many enjoyable experi- Tasmania is full of beautiful nature and very kindences. For example, I went traveling with my people. I will never forget my experience there. I
host family, and I went shopping with my friends. would like to improve my English skills and comFrom this experience, I learned not only English, municate with people in other parts of the world.
but also about foreign culture. Someday, I would And, I would like to visit Tasmania again. I had alike to visit Tasmania again.
very good time.
Ami Marui
Hina Asano
Senior 2
Senior 1

My High School Diplomat Experience
Now, these ten days have passed
by in an instant. They have beenvery delightful. We have many
wonderful memories of our time
together and of the friendships wehave made.
I remember talking about lots ofthings like American and Japaneseculture and romance, and joking
around with many people. Also, I
remember playing many sports andhaving meals together. Whenever I
was in low spirits, I remember myroommate cheering me up. I can’t
Akio (middle row, second from the left) with HSD members
speak English well, but everyone
was so kind. They corrected my
In August I went to the U.S. for three weeks on
English and tried to understand what I said. I felt
the AIU High School Diplomat Program. I was
so happy.
one of forty students selected to go from Japan.
We were able to visit many important places like I realized that even if I can’t speak English well,the IMF and the UN. We also participated in dis- I can communicate and make friends. This excussions with U.S. student representatives. The perience and the friendships I gained will be mydiscussions focused on current issues like peer treasure forever.
pressure and nuclear weapons. We also had theopportunity to do a homestay in Virginia for four This has been a valuable experience for all ofdays. On our last day in America, I had to give a us. Few things can compare to it. I believe thatfarewell speech at Princeton University. Here is because of our time together, we will be able tothe speech I gave:
overcome any obstacle in the future. We are sadto say good-bye to everyone. We will never forget
In the beginning, I was worried that we wouldn’t
our time here. Please keep in touch with us, andbe able to communicate with each other becausecome to Japan if you can.
we would be too nervous. But, because of theexperiences that we’ve shared, we have beenable to find a connection with each other andAkio Miyaoka
become friends.
Senior 3

Our Expectations of Studying in JapanWe are both students in the Mejiro University soccer at the university and asked if I could
JALP program. Since September 2012 we have play soccer with them. One thing lead to anbeen living and studying in Japan. We both came other and that same day I found myself joining
here with different expectations. For Akil it was the soccer team. A couple days after that Jin
the challenge of furthering his Japanese studies. Yeong also joined the soccer team. We have
For Jin Yeong it was the dream of changing the weekly training sessions. We look forward to
university he wants to attend. We both arrived at joining more circles.
Mejiro University at the same time and met dur- Living in japan does need some getting used to,
ing the introduction week for the new students of but the support we get from the people around
the JALP program. We are both studying in the us has been really helpful. We also want toN3 class. In the classes we study everything from thank everyone that helped us during our staygrammar to listening and writing. Jin Yeong and I until now.
help each other in our Japanese studies. We both
Akil Komur and Jin Yeong Kim
have the most trouble with Kanji in our class,Japanese Language Program (JALP)
since we don’t know the meaning of the Kanji we
Mejiro University
use during the lessons.
Next to studying Japanese it is also important for us to make Japanese friends.
For this purpose and to mutually improve each other’s language knowledge
we have weekly tutoring meetings withJapanese students at Mejiro. We also
exchange our cultural differences. Akil
has meetings where he speaks English
and practices Japanese. Jin Yeong has
meetings where he speaks Korean andpractices Japanese. Next to practicing
Japanese, belonging to a circle will allow
you to increase your social connections.
Besides our regular school activities weboth joined the soccer team. Joining
the soccer team was a lot easier thanAkil (foremost left) and Jin Yeong (right) with the members
I expected. I saw some guys playingof the soccer teamMy Special Experiencesin America

Mami (left) and Sam (right) at their yoga class

My dream is to communicate with people all over
the world. So, I started to study English in college and I have studied abroad in America twice.
I found two things about English, that it is just atool for communicating with people and in orderto do this I need to study background more.
Before I went to study abroad I was very shy to
speak English. However I became more positive after meeting my best friend Sam at a yoga
studio. In the beginning, I couldn’t understandat all what she said and I just answered “yes” toeverything. We couldn’t have conversations but
we hung out every day. After a month, I was able
to understand most of what she said. But I wasvery disappointed because I still couldn’t answer
correctly and I had trouble saying what I thought.
However, I never gave up trying! Finally, I wasable to express myself in English and I thoughtthat I want to go to a place where no one speaks
Japanese again.
Secondly, I went to America again for a month.
There I interacted with people from different
countries. I made lots of friends from other countries, such as China, Korea, Nepal, and so on.
Especially, I hung out with friends from Saudi
Arabia because I was interested in religions of theworld and they believe the Islamic religion. They
have strict rules, such as they can’t eat beef. I
played soccer with them after school every day
to be friendly. Moreover, I studied Arabic to befriendlier. On the last day before I had to go backto Japan, they made KABSA, a traditional Saudi
Arabian food, for me. It was so delicious. The
party was the most wonderful memory!
Since I came back to Japan, I became even morecurious about other countries. And I now enjoy
studying everything, talking to people and doing
desk work since I had the experience of studying
abroad. Now I am continuing to study English,
and have started to read the newspaper andstudy about the history of Asia.

Mami Ishiwata
3rd year, Department of English Language Studies
Mejiro University

VOL. 46 DEC 2012

Mejiro Exchange is published biannually by Mejiro Gakuen.
Views expressed in the ME do not necessarily reflect thoseof Mejiro Gakuen. Comments and submissions invited.