At our April executive committee meeting on Tuesday 3rd April William D'Arcy spoke about his short term exchange to our sister city Susono over his 2017-18 summer holidays. William's engaging and informative presentation was accompanied by a slide show featuring many images from his amazing time in Japan.
The 3 host families William stayed with during his exchange featured throughout his presentation as well as the many friends he made at school and the places visited with host families throughout Japan. William's enjoyment, excitement and increased self-confidence came across during his presentation as he spoke about the range of experiences encountered during his all too brief time on exchange.
William spoke about his visit to Kyoto and his shinkansen (bullet train) journey, playing with his host family in the first snow of the season, being served fire ramen for lunch, trying his hand at Kyudo (Japanese archery), eating KFC on Christmas Eve, watching the New Year sunrise in Hamamatsu, eating unagi (eel) pie, and participating in a tea ceremony with 15 other (female) students as among many other trip highlights.
Prior to leaving for Japan, William was less than enthusiastic about attending school during his exchange but ranked this as one of the highlights of his stay. He was blown away by the friendliness and kindness extended to him and was clearly the coolest kid in school! The bonds of friendship made during his exchange will last a lifetime.
In fact, upon returning from exchange to commence his Year 12 studies, William went out and got himself a part time job and is now saving for and planning his next trip to Japan! Like all who travel to Japan William has come away with an amazing range of experiences and can't wait to get back there. We all know that such experiences can be life-changing and the Frankston Susono Friendship Association is pleased to have been able to support William's short term exchange to our sister city Susono!
The following video was created and edited by William and presented at our March executive committee meeting:
https://www.facebook.com/frankstonsusono/videos/1224368767665485/
