What a wonderful 10 days we have recently enjoyed with our 19 Myojo students and 3 staff joining our Woodend community.

This year was the 13th visit for Myojo Gakuen students and staff. All of the Myojo students were visiting for the first time which made for a very exciting time.

We had 19 fantastic host families, with many hosting for the first time. Our host families were very busy over the 10 days taking the students to many places around Adelaide and involving them in a wonderful family life.

While here at Woodend students had a number of fantastic experiences like Sports Day, a Central Market visit with the Yr 6/7 classes, skipping with Mr Z and his class, choir with Ms Gregory, visiting a junior primary class as well as being part of a class and experiencing day to day events.

We welcomed Myojo students with a Welcome assembly where 4 Yr 5 students confidently presented their self introductions and the Yr 1 and 2 classes sang a fantastic Japanese version of “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.

The Farewell Assembly is always a wonderful show case of the Myojo students’ talents and this year was no exception. We watched dancers, kendama players, Rubik’s cube masters, soccer stars, skippers and an amazing violin player. It was a great assembly and a lovely send off.

After 10 busy days, students and staff headed back to Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.  The goodbyes  are always a sad time but shows us that great friendships and bonds have been formed.

We are very grateful to all 19 host families. This year it was great to see the new families join those families who have generously taken part in previous years also. This great program could not happen without the support of all the wonderful host families. Arigato~.

Thank you to everyone involved in the homestay program and we look forward to another great experience next year.

 

Welcome Assembly

Myojo Family BBQ

Lunch on the River Torrens

Lunch on the River Torrens

Shopping at the Central Market

Skipping with Mr Z’s class

Farewell Assembly

Time to get on the bus for the airport