Malaysian Interns’ Journal at Kitakama No.09

2016年10月15日(土)

Here comes the long-awaited school event – the cultural festival at Kitakamakura Joshi Gakuen! For the past few weeks, the teachers and students have been working extremely hard on preparation for such an important school event. On the day before the cultural festival, an opening ceremony was held in the school hall. During the ceremony, an advertisement video for the school festival involving the principal, teachers and students was shown. The video got the audience in the hall giggling and laughing because it was creative and humorous. Everyone seemed really thrilled and excited for the event to begin.

Unlike most of the Japanese school festivals that I have been to, Kitakamakura Joshi Gakuen’s cultural festival was held indoors. On both days, Kimberly and I invited some of our friends to visit our school festival and join in on the fun. I was really impressed by the effort students put into decorating and setting up their classrooms with different kinds of themes and activities.

Besides that, the students were able to come up with some brilliant marketing strategies to attract the guests as they were roaming around the school. It was really hilarious and entertaining to watch the ways they approached the guests and persuaded them to buy the items they were selling. Furthermore, Furukawa-sensei treated both Kimberly and me to a serving of Japanese snacks at the tea house. The oshiruko and konnyaku tasted really great on a rainy day.

Throughout the day, I spent most of my time watching musical and theatrical performances, taking part in mini games, and admiring students’ presentations organized by respective clubs. The session I enjoyed most was to learn how to play the Koto from the students. The instrument reminds me of the Chinese Guzheng 古筝 as both instruments share many similarities. This is because it was said that the Koto was originated from the Guzheng. However, the difference is that the Koto has thirteen strings, whereas, the Guzheng has twenty-one strings. All in all, I had a lot of fun visiting the school festival last weekend!

(Xara)