School Excursion (2nd year students)

2024/07/02

School Excursion (2nd year students)

On May 2nd, we had a school excursion around Tokyo. The meeting place was at Tokyo station, and after that we separated into groups and went to our destinations. My group was supposed to go to 5 places, but unfortunately due to a lack of time we were only able to go to 4 of them. The first destination was Shinagawa Aquarium. On the way there, we met tourists from Taiwan who were looking for a drug store. Fortunately, a boy from my group could speak Chinese and we helped them find it on maps, and after that, we proceeded to walk to the aquarium. The aquarium had a lot of different kinds of fish, dolphins, penguins, snakes, octopi, and even a shark at the end! I had a great time watching them and was able to take about 200 pictures. Due to our schedule, we couldn’t stay there for too long, so we soon went to our next destination which was a restaurant. It took us some time to get there and order our lunch, which is why we had very little time left to eat.

After eating, we went to our 3rd destination - a workshop of tsumami zaiku, which is a traditional Japanese fabric flower craft. There we each got to choose the colors of a small piece of material to work with and were taught step by step how to make the beautiful flower. The flower was glued to a keychain, so now I have it on my pencil case as an accessory. After the workshop, we went to our last destination which was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Observatories. There I saw a beautiful scene of Tokyo from a height of 45 floors. After looking around for some time, we decided it was time to go back to school, thinking that other groups were already there, but when we arrived, we were shocked to see we were the first ones back. That was my whole fun day of school excursion.

(L.I.)

We went to Meiji Shrine first. We walked the road and saw many trees, it made me relax. We took a lot of pictures because it was fun. We arrived at Meiji shrine and there we threw a coin and clapped our hands two times. Next, we went to the science museum by train. We saw many things that we learned at school. We did many things, so we got tired. We went to Komachi to eat lunch. We were tired but the lunch was very delicious, and it made us liven up.

After we got our energy back, we walked to Atelier amichi. We made leather wallets and decorated them. We were going to give the wallets to our parents. Making leather is not easy but the teacher taught us kindly and we made it quickly, so we could use our time decorating. We had a great time. The place that we visited last was Sumida Aquarium. We walked about 15 minutes to Sumida Aquarium. We felt a little tired but when we entered, our feelings changed and we were interested. There were many beautiful fishes and we took too many pictures. After having a great time, we bought souvenirs for our family. It was a fun and interesting school excursion.

(R.Y.)

First, we went to Tokyo Skytree and went to the highest place that we could go. We went to walk on the glass floor. It was very cool, but the glass had quite a few scratches and was a bit disappointing. After that, we went to Sumida Aquarium. We saw many types of sea animals and the penguins were especially cute. We ate ramen for lunch after that and it was delicious.

Then, we went to a place where we could experience Japanese traditional crafts. It was a place called Edo Bekko Tanaka. We made little key charms out of turtle shells. We first cut the shells into the shapes we wanted to make and then filed them. We let the pros do the finishing touches and while they were doing that, we watched a video of the process. We were given a sheet of paper about the history and a quick explanation of the process. While we were talking about what we should do next, our key charms were perfected, and they looked amazing! Before it wasn’t reflective and it looked a bit dull but now, it looked like some kind of jewel!!

(M.Y.)

First we went to Kinshi Park. We had our sports festival in the gym next to the park last year, so it brought back memories. We still had time before our handmade activity, so we played in the playground a little.

Then we went to the handmade activity. Our group’s activity was Japanese Lantern making. The shop seemed a bit small from the outside, but when we entered the shop, we saw many lanterns hanging from the roof, and it took my breath away. I enjoyed experiencing the lantern making.

For lunch, we ate hamburgers at Roppongi tower. The hamburgers were very big, so we became full. French fries came with the hamburger, and they had just the right amount of salt.

After that, we walked to the National shin art museum. There were many types of art. The girls and the boys split up into 2 groups, and we got lost, but we were able to join up later.

Finally, we went to Kyū Shiba Rikyū Garden. There weren’t many people that day, so we were able to enjoy the scenery. It was very beautiful.

The excursion was fulfilling and awesome. Time passed very fast. I found many new good spots in Tokyo. I want to go to the places I visited again.

(S.A.)

I experienced Edo-Furin, Japanese traditional glass wind chimes, in Shin-Okachimachi. Before this experience, I thought you just drew a picture on glass. But when I got there, I learned that we must whistle the glass. It was my first time to whistle glass, so I was really surprised. Then, I whistled it! It looks quite easy, but when I tried it, it was too difficult for me. The professional craftsman said that it takes about ten years to learn how to whistle glass and make beautiful furin. We made furin by using a glass that we whistled, and I noticed the sound of it made was different in each one. My furin sounded like a bird. It was high-pitched.

Then, we drew pictures on our furin. The assistant told us that each pattern has a meaning. For example, Fish means ‘Money’, dragon fly means ‘Win’, and so on. I chose to write dragon fly, because I want to win for everything(⌒∇⌒). Our team members drew different patterns. A girl drew a flower, and another girl drew fireworks. I thought each furin we made showed our personalities.

I did not know much about Edo-Furin, but now I know what it is, and what it is for. And I learned that traditional culture is especially important and necessary for us. If there is a chance to try a traditional culture, I want to try it and learn many things from it.

(S.F.)