​Although I was very excited, it hadn't hit me yet, that I was going to Japan. I was curious about all the things that will happen on our trip. The bag limit was 23kgs, luckily my bag was under the limit. After checking our bags in, we went upstairs to say our goodbyes to our families, our goodbyes were said and it was off to the plane. 

Luckily, i had window seat so it was very easy and nice to get videos of the takeoff. Next to me was Tina and Gabby, the rest were seated in the middle. I had a fun experience on the plane basically because i got to see the others reaction to the flight and having funny chats. I had salmon and beef casserole on the plane, it was very nice. 

As a long 12 hours went past, it felt good to get out of the plane, except it was very humid and hot. After grabbing our bags and getting through customs we caught a couple trains and walked up a couple stairs with 20+kg bags. After a couple train stops and stairs, we finally reached “our airbnb" only to be greeted with an old man saying “NANI?!?” in confusion 😂. The place wasn’t “the place". We made a wrong turn and ended up at a motel type place. After a lot of detective work, we found the place to also be greeted with a pinned lock. The owner sent us the pin. It was about 9pm and about 20 mins later of trying to get the pin open, because it just wouldnt open, we telling the owner that we needed some help, she barely communicated and when she did, she realised he gave the wrong pin. Us being frustrated already, we got into the house finding that it was barely anything like the pictures. It was very tight. We just dealt with it and bought dinner. I had a shower, chilled out for a second to take in what just happened, and went to sleep. That was the end of my hectic day on my way to Japan. Thank you for reading!

Step aside, VIP coming through

Going to dinner at Novotel was an interesting experience. On the way there, i already had high expectations, i knew it was a fancy and expensive place. When we got there, we got directed to a table that was on its own side, and was separated from public tables. At that moment, i felt like a VIP! We sat at this huge table that was separated from the others and a wall between us. The table was so big that sometimes I couldn’t hear what the others were talking about on the other side! There were some things that i experienced for the first time, like placing a handkerchief on my lap, and washing my hands in a bowl. The food was very nice and got me very full. I’m very thankful to the people who prepared the food, to Mr Ali, Mr Pierce, and Novotel for letting us experience these activities.

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​During term 2, I've been going to Japanese language classes, were we obviously learn the Japanese language. In my opinion, the language is really complicated to learn, for example , there are different ways of counting. Counting numbers, people, money, there are different ways of saying these. Numbers for example is like ichi, ni, san, whereas counting people is hitori, futari, sannin. So learning them was a bit confusing. Besides those, learning a couple phrases wasn't as hard as remembering the numbers. Japanese class was very interesting as i learnt about Japanese customs. 

We also had exchange prep were Mr Ali would explain the details of what would be happening while we’re there. The information that I heard was also interesting. I got to talk to my partner, his name is Ryunosuke. He likes to play baseball and basketball, and also exercise. He also walks/bikes to the train, catches the train, then buses to school, despite having to get up early, I’m excited to bike or walk early in the morning, it would be really refreshing. I’ll make sure to talk about my experience with that. I’m looking forward to meeting his family which is, his dad, mum, and 2 brothers.
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As the lessons go by, the more exciting it gets to go to Japan. Hopefully I will remember to blog all my experiences in Japan! Thank you for reading!s

I am very grateful to be one of the first students to be going on the exchange to Japan. I am very excited to be going on this trip for 2 weeks. I am excited for what will happen during my journey to japan and in japan. I am prepared for the preparation stage and learning the language. So far it has been a good experience. I would like to thank Novotel for sponsoring this trip and the staff members that supported me. I would also like to thank my parents for encouraging me to go for this opportunity. I look forward to the upcoming classes and the trip to japan!



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