Soka High School Visit

On Saturday we were invited to visit Soka High School in Japan! My university was actually founded in Japan--hence the name Soka University of America. But here, there's an elementary school, a middle school, high school, and a college! So we gathered up some of the students who were studying abroad and went to visit the high school, where we would meet students considering attending SUA.

It was really fun to see a new part of Japan--the transit alone took about half an hour by train, I would say. It was great to see some familiar faces from my college--I didn't know how much I missed them until I saw them again. Everyone was from different programs, comparing our different curriculum was interesting.

When we arrived at the high school, I was shocked at the wonderful welcome they gave us! As we walked into the school, there was just a line of students clapping and welcoming us. At the end of that line, there was the huge banner you saw above. We all felt so important! It was totally insane. Afterwards, they had us introduce ourselves as we sat in a long table, in front of the students. We were basically arranged like we were about to hold a panel. I decided at that point that I was far under-dressed.

They assigned two high school students to guide each one of us around the school, which was stunning! Definitely different from the high schools back home. It's very open and colorful. There are tons of windows, all of them somehow completely clean. I didn't get many shots of the inside, but it was amazing. Here are some pictures of the outside:

The students were also kind enough to give us a performance on the shamisen. The shamisen is a Japanese instrument--when you think of traditional Japanese music, you're probably thinking of the shamisen sound. It sounded amazing! And they let us play a bit ourselves, basically showing us how to play a song that was probably the equivalent of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars in terms of difficulty. But still, it really tires out your thumb! The shamisen is not for the faint-hearted. I would definitely not mind learning to play it, though. Pictures below:

It was a super fun day, and I hope I'll be able to visit the high school again sometime. It was difficult conveying myself in Japanese for the entire day, but I felt that I made really good friends with my two guides (one of them had the same name as me--Hana! That's a first). Hopefully I'll be able to see them again soon.

We ended the day at a restaurant you probably know of: Denny's! But Denny's is quite different in Japan. It's actually much fancier--everything about it feels more gourmet. For example, this is what I had at Denny's that night:

Did you ever imagine that they'd serve udon at a Denny's? I know I didn't. I definitely want to go back and try out different dishes there.

The trip was incredibly fun, and it ended up making me a little homesick in the end. It was so great seeing all my friends again, and it was a welcome break from my schoolwork. I was really thankful for my study abroad adviser for putting everything together (he even paid for all our food)! I had a great time, and I think my fellow students did as well.