It is hard to believe that 10 days have already passed since our Japanese visitors from our sister school, Ibaraki Nishi High School, arrived from a balmy 38 degrees in Osaka to our foggy Kyneton winter. However, there was a great buzz in the room in both Japanese and English as the SHCK students met and got to know their exchange students.

Over the week, the Japanese students joined various classes with their hosts, participated in an EAL lesson and attended our academic awards assembly. They also learned a lot about Australian school life by doing seemingly normal things such as visiting our school canteen. Some students even attended an Outdoor Education class where they practised putting up a tent!

The second week culminated with an excursion to the Malmsbury Primary School. The students and teachers from Ibaraki Nishi High School experienced a very short VLINE train ride and then played soccer with the Primary School students. Then it was time to come inside and rotate through some Japanese activities. The activities included Uno, Kendama (cup and ball), and Daruma san ga koronda (The Daruma fell over), origami and fukuwarai (placing parts of the face onto the piece of paper blindfolded). The Malmsbury Primary School students then gave a lovely omiyage to our visitors. We would like to thank Jaimiee Rice, the Japanese teacher at Malmsbury Primary who is also an assistant Japanese teacher here at Sacred Heart, for the thought and preparation into the activities. It was greatly appreciated by all.

Thursday saw the farewell pizza lunch with speeches and exchanges of gifts before attending their final lesson with their hosts. Then, Friday morning, it was time to say the final goodbye. Where there many tears. We are sure this is the beginning of many long-lasting international friendships.

A huge thank you to our generous host families who have opened their homes to our Japanese guests, and to the broader SHC community who have made them feel very welcome.

We look forward to welcoming our French sister school Lycée Notre Dame du Roc in Term 1, 2028, before our Japan Study Tour later next year.

Some of the wonderful places our host families took the Japanese visitors:

AFL game, Mt Macedon, Meeting Cows, Shopping, Local footy game - Visiting Sovereign Hill and Ballarat wildlife park. Melbourne- shopping day, local football and netball, family Japanese dinner, wildlife park, first day at SHC, Collingwood v Geelong at the MCG, visit to the Ballarat Wildlife Park, sushi making night at home, Spiderman the movie, visit to the granite rocks in our paddock in Baynton.  Local Footy, Graffiti in Melbourne, Icecream in Melbourne - Melbourne Skydeck, Night Market, extended family lunch.