Nakano junior high school students visit Wellington for the first time in six years
For 17 days from Friday 26 July to Sunday 11 August, 15 second and third year students from Minami Nakano Junior High School, Nakano Junior High School and Nakano Higashi Junior High School visited Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, for a homestay, school experience and visit to facilities. Due to the Corona disaster, this was the first time in six years, since 2018, that secondary school students had visited in this way.
The first week was school experience, with 10 boys attending Wellington College and five girls attending Sacred Heart College. They had special English lessons for two hours a day and the rest of the time they attended the same classes as their host students.
The first three days of the second week were spent in Wairarapa in the suburb. We walked around Castle Point, a scenic spot by the sea, and admired the star-filled sky. They also visited a marae, a meeting place of the first national people Maori, to learn about their different cultures.
The second two days were spent sightseeing in Wellington. They visited Zealandia, a wild reserve, House of Parliament and Te Papa (National Museum).
At the farewell party, the Japanese students sang the New Zealand national anthem, danced the Soranbushi and some gave tearful speeches thanking their host families.
The students must have grown up a lot after being away from home, communicating in unfamiliar English and learning many things through this valuable experience that they could not have had in Japan.
