1992 School Magazine

CULTURAL ENRICHMENT

EXCHANGE To JAPAN On our departure from Australia, the nine of us had sweat- ed in thirty-degree heat. Departing Japan six weeks later, we remembered that feeling as we struggled through Nagoya airport wearing several layers of heavy jumpers, blazers and overcoats, hoping to reduce the weight of our luggage, made incredibly heavy by gifts from our kind hosts, and by ou^ inability to resist Japan's exciting shop- ping possibilities Minutes later, we had paid our $1000 excess luggage bill, and turned to the task of extricating our host sisters from the worship of "The Dragons", a famous Japanese baseball team who were catching our flight, and whom half of Japan had come to farewell.

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Learning to permrni the tea ceremony Living in Japan was a very new experience, both cultui'ally and socially. Apart froni the obvious language diffei'ence, 111ere were CGI'lain o1hei' things that I'equil'ed some acclima- lisino to, such as raw fish, seaweed and Japanese pickled plums. (The mole faint-hearted ainong us made fi'equeni emei'gency dashes to "Mister Donuts".) in addition, we had to adapt to a new code of behavioui', where SIui'ping at meals is polite, slippei. s must be woi'n instead of shoes inside most buildings and houses, blowing you I' nose in h'on I of an o1hei' person Is exilemely I'ude, and sitting cross-legged I'eaches unheard-of lieigliis of impoliteness The oil. 15 who visited Matsusakt\ found that the students there were subject to additional rules - no perming o1' colouring the nail', no piei'CGd ears, and going 10 the movies or talking to mein bel's of the opposite sex, even on weekends and during 1101idays. Fortunately, as "gaijin" (foreigners), we received a measure of leniency. in fact, both OUT host schools went to a 101 of trouble to make us feel at home, and at the same lime, they o1'gallised many special classes and activities for us, sucli as a Tea Ceremony, flower arranging (Ikebana) classes, and lessons on the Koto, a Japanese stringed insti'ument On the social side of school life, we wei. e like untalTied savages compared to the genei'ally coy and dainty Japanese students, who all call'ied pocket milloi's and combs to fix theii' perfectly coiffed hair dullng I'ecesses, and who, aftei washino their hands, would dab them daiii- lily with handkerchiefs, instead of the AUSti'allaiT school- girls' custom of a quick wipe o11 tile skirt However, it was clear Inai, fundamentally, we shaled SImi- jar Intel'ests, and oui' general opinions, though coloured by our respective societies, tended 10 merge. We laughed logethei' with our host-sisters and families at the hanal Japanese television game shows, and at 111e television add featuring Am old Schwarzeneggai' jumping ai'ound in a happy-coat selling vitamins.

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Cooking class at Matsusaka 11 wasn't until we were sitting in the plane, comfortably de-layered and calmed, that there was a chance to reflect on all that had transpired in the previous six weeks spent at our sister. schools - HITayama Gakuen Tsushima Girls' High School, host to five of us, and Matsusaka Girls' High School, host to the other four of us.

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Playing the Koto

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