Date: December 15th, 2016 (Thursday) 18:00～
Venue: Sasebo Palace Hotel
As a part of youth exchange program, high school students of Coffs Harbour, sister-city of Sasebo, visited Sasebo for student exchange with Shimizu Junior High School from December 10th to 17th. JAS hold the welcome reception for teachers and 6 students from John Paul College, Shimizu Junior High School and host families for building up a lot of goodwill.
【The Coffs Harbour Youth Delegation in 2016】
24 exchange students and 3 accompanying teachers for short period visited Sasebo from Mount St. Benedict College in Australia, sister school of Seiwa, from September 30th (Fri) to October 3rd (Mon), 2016. During their stay, they learned a lot of Japanese culture and peace.
Students of Seiwa Had Opportunity to Develop Relations with Exchange Students from Australia.
12 teachers associated with the Good Samarian in Australia visited Seiwa High School. During their stay, they visited Seiwa High School and Sakura no Sono kindergarten for making inspection on Japanese culture and peace.
Observe Classroom Instruction.
Experience Activity of Traditional Japanese Dance.
We had the 34th Japan-Australia Society of Sasebo Annual meeting and reception.
Date: September 14th (Wed) 2016
Venue: Annual Meeting: Sasebo Tamaya 7F
Annual Meeting
Thankfully, Mr. Norio Tomonaga, mayor of Sasebo-city, Mr. Tom Yates, Consulate General of Australia in Fukuoka, and the guests including about 135 members participated in the reception. It was a great success.
Mr. Kaneko, the chairman of JAS made the opening speech.
Mr. Kaneko gave clear explanations on the whole shebang of JAS and current actions for the guests and new members in a comprehensible way.
Mr. Tomonaga, mayor of Sasebo-city, delivered speech on behalf of guests.
Mr. Tomonaga spoke to attendee words of appreciation for lively activity of JAS.
Mr. Yates, Consul General, has been participating every year since 2012.
We were reported concerning cooperation of economic and education between Japan and Australia in recent years.
Mr. Nishimoto who took up a post as superintendent of Education Sasebo this year proposed a toast.
We were caught up in the Mr. Nishimoto’s clear-cut manner of speaking.
All of attendee enjoyed buffet and Australian wine and spent great time together.
Young beautiful voice that was clear of Seiwa Singers which is the annual event.
It was a little panic for students at the sudden encore, but they showed school song in a stunning 3-part chorus. The graduates of Seiwa also involuntarily humming, the atmosphere of the venue was now one.
Mr. Motooka who is Managing Director and General Manager of Kyusyu Bunka Gakuen has wowed the venue. To pray for the further development of Japan-Australia Society, it became the final curtain in the powerful three cheers appropriated to conclude the reception.
Group Photo of the 34th Japan-Australia Society of Sasebo Annual reception.
The delegates was interviewed at the Coffs Harbour Airport and introduced on “The COFFS COAST Advocate”as shown below.
WELCOME: Japan-Australia friendship Society president Takuya Kaneko greeting Rob Avery, of the Coffs Harbour Rotary Club.
EIGHT Japanese delegates arrived in Coffs Harbour this morning to renew their sister club status with the Rotary Club of Coffs Harbour.
A new memorandum of understanding will tonight be signed by the Coffs Harbour and Sasebo Rotary Clubs at the Coffs Harbour Surf-Life Saving Club.
The delegates will today tour the Coffs Coast visiting local business leaders, community figures as well as meet with Coffs Harbour City Council to discuss their sister city arrangement.
Coffs Harbour Rotary president Tim Alexander is delighted to once again host Sasebo delegates on the Coffs Coast.
Goshi.info director Tetsuko Nichols embraced her long-time friend Takuya Kaneko, Japan-Australia Society of Sasebo president, when he touched down in Coffs Harbour.
August 24 2016
"We are quite pleased and their hospitality to our groups when they have been in Japan has been overwhelming so we're hoping to rise to the occasion and reciprocate for them today," Mr Alexander said.
"Any relationship between different cultures is good, we can chip away at understanding other cultures in a small way continuously can't do anything but good in my view."
Members from the Australia-Japan Friendship Society also greeted the delegates at Coffs Harbour Airport this morning.
Founding president the society, Patrica Degens established the group in 1990s. Mrs Degens said the visit reaffirms strong Coffs Harbour and Sasebo relations.
"It will continue our friendship and the relationship between Coffs Harbour and Sasebo people," Mrs Degens said.
Among the delegates was Japan-Australia Society of Sasebo president, Takuya Kaneko who said he was grateful and excited to return to Coffs Harbour and reunite with friends.
The delegates' trip was delayed on Monday due to a typhoon in Tokyo.
The message from Mayor Denise Knight of Coffs Harbour is appeared in the Sasebo City Community Publication “PR SASEBO” 2016 Vol.786 (the May number).
She shared her impressions of Sasebo and the episode when she visited with her husband in 2014.
The Seiwa 9th Graders went on a school trip to Australia from March 2 to March 8, 2016. They were able to gain many valuable experiences through visiting MT.ST.BENEDICT COLLEGE (Seiwa’s sister school), staying at their host families during the trip.
We have received some reports about the trip.
The Seiwa’s Australia School Trip in 2016
Nozomi Furui
There were so many things that I learned during one week stay in Australia.
First of all, I found difficulty in communicating in Australian English since some words and pronunciations were different from American and Canadian English.
However, after spending some time with my host family and the locals, I was gradually able to understand what they were saying.
On the weekend, I was invited to my host family’s relative’s wedding. I celebrated the bride and groom with their families and friends. It was held at the beach so I enjoyed the great view of beautiful ocean. I spent three days with relatives who were very pleasant and friendly and had a lot of fun with them.
Second, I found cultural differences. I knew, of course, that there were some between two different countries but they surprised me after all. For example, the students can take classes what they are interested in as much as they want. They are allotted to their own “house” instead of home classroom like ours when they enter the school and they keep the same house until they graduate. Through this experience, I found this system was nice because they were given opportunities to meet many different students in each class.In addition, I found that they need to press the button of the pedestrian light to cross the street, also they need to raise their hands to stop the bus.
I tried and experienced many things that I never done before and I would like to apply what I learned in this trip to my life from now on.
Takumi Yoshimura
During this 6-days trip in Australia, there are many things that I felt, learned and experienced for the first time. For example, I had to raise my hand to stop the bus, saw double decker trains, and many others that I never knew.
I will never forget the Australian people impressed me deeply with warmth of hospitality when I could not communicate well in English, they tried to find easier words for me. They also gave me, a stranger, warm smiles.
This experience made me realize that I have to thank my own family in Japan who always take good care of me by listening, feeding and cleaning.I was full of worries during the trip, but now I am very much happy and satisfied with good experiences I have had in Australia.
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