This week the students enrolled in the online Japanese course, had the opportunity to experience Japanese culture first-hand. Students have been learning about the amazing culture for the last term and a half with their online colleagues from schools in Sydney. It was a wonderful opportunity for us all to meet face-to-face and spend the day experiencing some of the things we have been learning about.
One of the things that became apparent to us is that we don’t have to travel to Japan to experience amazing Japanese food, craft, fashion, anime, manga, books, general culture, and grocery shopping experiences. It helps us to realise that as a multicultural nation, learning the language and culture is not only relevant if we get the chance to travel, but also in our own backyards.
We discovered, like most holiday itinerary’s, that the planning must always be flexible. On our way through the QVB we saw sushi ya (sushi stores), a Seiko watch store, EB Games filled with Japanese inspired items, just to name a few. Students were able to visit a store with the cutest Japanese manga-anime inspired stationary called Mint My Desk – this was not on our official itinerary, but we discovered this store as we walked towards our first stop – Uniqlo. At Uniqlo, we discovered versatile, reasonably priced clothes. Originally a shop in Hiroshima, called ‘Unique Clothing Warehouse‘, it now appears in all major shopping centres and sponsors some of the most prominent sports stars. A great place to find good quality, reasonably priced clothes. Also, Japanese artworks turned into t-shirts. One of the great things about Uniqlo, is that what we see in Australian stores is also what is in Japanese stores. A real connection with the culture.
We arrived then at The Galleries opposite the QVB. The Galleries is a multi-storied homage to all things Japanese, with a few other shops thrown in for good measure. There are Japanese restaurants galore, catering to all tastes and budgets. Muji “is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji’s design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste”; Kinokuniya bookstore – any book available but of course there is also a massive anime/manga section as well as a language learning hub (with Japanese as a strong emphasis) and you can even buy Japanese souvenirs and magazines. Of course, many of the students also tried Japanese food for their lunch and had to navigate chopsticks and unusual ingredients and flavours.
After that we found our way to Daiso – the Japanese equivalent of a thrift store with most things for $3.20. Wonderful products from Japan including food, crafts, household items, hair and beauty, kitchen…you name it they have it. It was tucked away neatly in Regent Place Shopping Centre which also pays homage to Japan with many restaurants, grocery markets, Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecakes, dorayaki (pancakes) and many others. If you wish to feel like you are in Tokyo, then head to Regent Place, as it has a real air of Japan about it.
Then, finally to World Square, where we did the very Japanese thing of having a mini photo shoot in the ‘Rainbow Room’, visiting the Japanese grocers and of course, Hokkaido Cheesecake – the real treat of the day. Hokkaido – the most northern island of Japan – is famous for its milk products, including delicious (oishii) cheesecakes.
One of the most inspiring parts of the day for the Year 9 students was to see the Year 11 and 12 Japanese students who are also learning online and realising that there is an exciting future for them in their language learning. The senior students spent the day polishing their speaking, listening, and eating skills with intensive language sessions with Mrs Campbell and Mrs Killham; something for our Stage 5 students to aspire to. A big thank you to Mrs Foster who also accompanied us on the day as she was an amazing help. We look forward to discussing the relevance of our day out to our culture and language learning in our next zoom lesson.
