From 24 July to 3 August, 12 high school students from Nagoya visited Sydney for a ten-day study tour.
First, they visited Blue Mountains Grammar School to experience classes in Australia for four days. After that, they headed to Jamberoo to meet some of the Sydney-Nagoya Sister City Committee members and their host families. At night, they had a good time enjoying dinner at a popular restaurant in the area where the students also surprised everyone at the restaurant with a traditional Yosakoi dance performance. The host families also kindly took the students to Kiama to do the Gerringong Coast Walk during their stay. They learned not the only about beauty of Australia but also the Australian culture and way of life.
On 31 July, they visited St. Aloysius College to attend classes with its students. During the class, students formed teams to take part in a quiz about Australian and Japanese culture and language which proved to be a lot of fun.
On 1 August, the students paid a courtesy call to Sydney Town Hall and met with Councillor Robert Kok, representing the Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore. Following a delightful tour of Town Hall led by the President of the Friends of Sydney Town Hall, member of the Sydney-Nagoya Sister City Committee and recent OAM recipient, Mr Kieran Tonge. During the courtesy call the students also met with members of the Sydney-Nagoya Sister City Committee and the Consul General of Japan in Sydney, Mr Keizo Takewaka. A wonderful time was had by all at the Lord Mayoress’ room, especially when the students did a Japanese dance for all in attendance. After the Courtesy call to Sydney Town Hall, the students visited CLAIR Sydney and interviewed CLAIR staff about life in Australia and career advancement while talking about their goals for the future.
On 2 August, the students visited two private high schools, Shore and Wenona, both located in North Sydney. All the students tried their best to communicate in English with the Aussie students who participated actively in group discussions.
On 3 August, the students visited Taronga Zoo. Taronga and Nagoya Higashiyama Zoo, as part of their sister-zoo relationship, have been exchanging a variety of different animals over the past 30 years, ever since the first Koala came to Japan in 1984.
The students were really proactive in sparking conversation with locals in English during the study tour and a student representative also made a speech during the courtesy call at Sydney Town Hall. We believe the students will be active global citizens in various fields in the future and wish them all the very best.
