First day ‘welcomes’ at Gifu Shotoku Gakuen School….

Get a cup of coffee or green tea before you sit down this entry!  It will take a while to read….
We were welcomed in many ways when we went to Gifu School!!! 

First we were welcomed by the children who were dressed up and doing a dance to Disney music.  They were very cute. 

Then we went inside, took our shoes off and put on our inside shoes before going to assembly. We were asked to sit up on the stage.  We looked out onto about 300 children.  The senior children who welcomed us and lead us through the welcoming assembly spoke in very good English.  Then we were asked to individually introduce ourselves.  We did so in Japanese and English.

The Principal then welcomed us and Miss Hill gave a reply.  We then gave gifts to each other.  

The children then sang us a song. We replied by singing our National Anthem. We were proud of how we sounded.  Next we were given some gifts each. 

We then left assembly and were given some more gifts by the Principal and Deputy Principal!  This was followed by morning tea.

Next we were taken to the art room to do some calligraphy.  We were shown what we needed and then the children helped us to write the word ‘friend’.  We had to do the strokes in the correct order and you couldn’t go back and fix up any brush strokes.  We had to sign our name in Japanese down the side when we had finished.  We all had a few goes and then selected our best two.  One was given to Gifu and we got one to take home.   We were given a calligraphy paint brush each to take home. 

Next we went to a PE dance lesson.  The teacher used a microphone to teach the children. The children all had PE uniforms which included a hat. We all participated in the dance including Ms Spencer and Miss Hill.  
We had lunch with the children.  They sang a blessing before they ate.  The children served each other lunch.  While we ate lunch we were introduced to the children and asked questions by the class.  While they get provided lunch they have to bring their own chopsticks.

At the end of lunch all the children got brooms, scrapers and cloths and started to sweep and polish the floors, stairs and sinks.  Everyone had a job.  The teachers didn’t have to watch over them!

After lunch we went to the hall again where we got to see a traditional Japanese fan dance by some children from the school who were dressed up in Kimonos. (This was Ray’s highlight of the day).  They were tutored by the number one dance teacher in Japan.  She then taught us how to do the Japanese fan dance.   We were good at picking up the details.

Then we went on a tour of the school.  We saw pictures of ourselves and our school on the walls! 

After school we were taken to the Gifu tower which was 135m tall.  We went up 100m.  You could see the view out of the lift as we went up.  There was a cool playground below which we visited after being up the town.  It had a flying fox (this was a highlight for Kaiya), lots of mazes and a bouncy pillow (Kate’s favourite part of the day).  There were lots of flowers in the park.  As they locked the park up they played a tune over the loud speakers to tell us that it was time to go home.  

Finally we had the last welcome of the day.  We were taken to tea at the University.  We had tea with the children and parents of the children who came to New Zealand and the teachers (this was Tutawake, Tiana, Hannah, William, Miss Hill and Ms Spencer’s highlight of the day!). After a couple of speeches we ate tea.  At the end of tea were shared gifts.  We felt overwhelmed with the welcome and hospitality.  We were very appreciative and humbled.