By Yssa Imperial
On the 15th of June 2018, fourteen incoming Grade 11 students travelled all the way to Tsu City, Japan to participate in the Woodrose Cultural Exchange & Leadership Program with Saint Joseph Girls’ School. After listening to the stories and advice from the group of students that went the previous year, and when it was finally time to go, we were all so ready to meet the Japanese students who would be our host sisters for the next ten days.
For more than a week, my friends and I learned a lot about what it’s like to be a student in Japan. Some of us commuted to school by train, bus, and/or car, while others simply walked to school from their houses. We also participated in a number of classes and tried our best to understand what was going on as the classes were mostly conducted in Japanese! We enjoyed special homemade obento lunches with our homeroom buddies, joined the abundance of clubs and varsities that the school has to offer (such as Hand Bell Club, Koto Club, Badminton Club, etc.), and explored the whole school while waiting for our host sisters, who all had extra-curricular activities after classes.
Although there was the unavoidable language barrier between the Woodrose students and majority of the Saint Joseph students, we still found ways to communicate with one another. Aimee Tuazon, a participant of the exchange program said, “As much as we did our best in learning basic Japanese language, it was still a little challenging when we had to speak it in normal conversations.” Fortunately for her, she befriended a Mexican exchange student and a half-American, half-Japanese student in her homeroom, and they were able to help her communicate with her other classmates.
Personally, I felt that the Japanese classes were really helpful as they gave me a chance to talk to my Japanese classmates, even though most of the time, we’d end up communicating with each other through gestures!
My friends and I also had a chance to experience Japanese culture by wearing a yukata, a traditional Japanese kimono that is usually worn in the summer. We also learned how to play the koto, a traditional Japanese string instrument, and participate in a traditional tea ceremony while wearing our yukatas.
We were also lucky enough to join the whole school in watching a musical concert at the Mie Center for the Arts featuring performers playing rock music using traditional Japanese instruments. We all had a blast jumping along with the musicians, who were somehow able to turn a traditional Japanese concert into a rock concert!
For the second year in a row, Woodrose students held “Let’s Enjoy Tagalog” classes, where we tried our best to teach the Japanese students some Filipino words and phrases. Because this was such a rare occasion in their area, we were all featured on Mie’s local television and newspaper!
One of the major highlights of this program was our visit to Ureshino Catholic House, a home for the handicapped. There, we danced the tinikling and sang the Bahay Kubo song for the handicapped residents. We all enjoyed making them happy with our simple performances, our affectionate gestures, and our smiling faces. We repeated this performance, along with an excerpt of our award-winning Sabayang Bigkas, for the Years 2 and 3 students back in the school. Everyone had so much fun, trying to dance and sing with their new Woodrose friends.
Another major highlight of the whole trip would probably be the “Josephinpics Sports Festival” which is the name of the school’s annual intramurals. We were grouped into teams by year level and even received team shirts from our homeroom classes. We joined the different sports and games with the students and teachers, like a running relay around the track, the tug-of-war, and a dancing game. It was a lot of fun to be out in the sun and experience a sportsfest the Saint Joseph way, and see that there are a lot of similarities between their intrams and ours.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. It was very hard for us to say goodbye to our host families whom we spent so much time with exploring Japan during the weekend and just having some fun together at home. Though we were very sad to leave, we all went home with a lot of wonderful memories, lifelong lessons, and many new friends. The Woodrose Cultural Exchange & Leadership Program was one adventure that my friends and I will definitely never forget!