By Hannah Marchbank (Year 11)

On Saturday 19th October, the Years 11-Upper Sixth Art, Textiles and Business Studies students embarked on a spectacular week long trip to Japan. On the first day after waking up in Kyoto, we toured the Kinkaku-ji temple before going to the textiles centre to see a kimono fashion show. We then had the opportunity to try kimono-dyeing techniques; it was a great start to the trip.

The second day was an impactful and sombre visit to Hiroshima. There was a beautiful display of colour paper origami cranes held together by strings. The cranes are a symbol of peace, and a memorial to Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was two years old when she was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. During our visit, we also saw other schoolchildren, and after a few friendly waves and interactions, we made it into an objective of the trip to talk and interact with many people as possible. A group of schoolchildren approached us to practise English and then gifted us paper cranes before saying goodbye. After Hiroshima, we visited the holy island of Miyajima island. The visit was one of the most memorable moments of the trip because we wore yukatas and enjoyed a traditional Japanese dinner.

Every day just got better, we went back to Kyoto via a very busy bullet train, which was a fun experience. We participated in Zazen Meditation at the Ryosokuin Temple, and then walked nearby to take part in a traditional tea ceremony, where we got to wear beautiful patterned kimonos.

The next day we went to the Toyota Motomachi plant in Nagoya, which was very interesting and insightful (personally I liked the robots and sitting in the cars the best). Afterwards, we took a bullet train to Tokyo. Since it was dark, we didn’t get to see Fuji-san (Mount Fuji) on our travels but we did get to enjoy a Ramen in Tokyo station before going to our hotel in Ikebukuro.

There was torrential rain during the penultimate day, but nothing would stop us from visiting Harajuku, which is known internationally as a centre of Japanese youth culture and fashion.

During the last day, we visited the tranquil Meiji Temple where we made a wish for the school, watched a wedding, saw small children in kimonos praying with their families. In the afternoon, we walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, where there were a breath-taking 360° rooftop view of Tokyo and Mount Fuji. To end the trip we had a blast at karaoke, singing our hearts out to as many songs we could think of.

The trip was an amazing experience and by the end of it, none of us we did not wanted to leave, as Japan was so welcoming.