More than 15 students from Cowra High School will depart on the trip of a lifetime today as they head over to Japan for a two-week visit.
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During their visit, the students will see the ancient city of Kyoto, visiting traditional temples, shrines, gardens and Hiroshima as well as visit Seikei High School.
Cowra High School student Olivia Perkins said she is looking forward to the trip.
“In the first week we will be sightseeing,” she said.
“In the second week, we go and visit our sister school in Tokyo and there, we will be hosted by host families and we will stay with them for a week.”
She said it will be a great opportunity to see former exchange students from Seikei High School.
“Seikei, which is the sister school, treats us to a lot of activities, cultural Japanese activities that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise,” she said.
She said students will take part in classes at Seikei during the trip.
“We don’t go with host brothers or sisters, we go with buddies,” she said.
"So we have buddies while we are at school and the buddies take us to all our classes so their usually in Year 11 or 12 so we go to their elective classes.”
She said school life in Seikei is a bit different to life at Cowra High School.
“They have about 40 to 45 students in a class over there, we sit in with them and listen in on their lessons,” she said.
Cowra High School teacher and trip coordinator Megan Perkins said they would be seeing many different sights throughout the trip.
“We will be staying in traditional Japanese cabins, with traditional Tatami mats,” she said.
Mrs Perkins noted that Cowra High and Seikei High School have had a 46 year relationship through exchange.
“It’s a very special bond,” she said.
“We are extremely grateful to Seikei High and Mr Katsura and Mr John Millon, former Cowra High teacher, both of whom have been extremely generous.
“As coordinator, I would like to thank again the parents of the group tremendously for the support of the trip.”