10/17 Sports Day

Last Friday (10/11), we held Sports Day. 

The weather was perfect and everyone had an amazing time.

As this year is the twentieth anniversary of our school opening, we added a new event in which even family members from could join in on the fun!

 

 

With this, the big school events of the second term have come to an end. We thank everyone for their cooperation with the culture festival and sports day. Before we know it, we will be approaching the end of the second term. How will you spend the rest of your second term? Decide your goals and study hard for the rest of the second term. 

10/7 School Assembly

Today we had a school assembly.

At our school, we have an assembly every month to talk and remind everyone of how to use their time wisely in the coming month.

The second semester has many school events and we have seen many students struggling to find balance between the events, club activities, and studying, but in struggling and doing their best they have a chance to grow significantly, so we hope the students will continue to do their best in every aspect of school life. 

The awards ceremony for the culture festival was also done.

Awards for the best stand-up comedy duo(Manzai), stage performances, food stands, and pamphets were given out. 

Congratulations to the students that won awards.

We are excited and hope that students give their best at Sports Day this week.

10/4 ③ Culture Festival Day 2

This will be the last post about the culture festival.

The focus of the second day of the culture festival was the third-year's food stands, the second-year's exhibitions, and the variety of performances (dance, song, band) from students who volunteered to perform.

 

 

The weather was not great on the second day of the festival, but despite that students found ways to enjoy themselves. After the ending event, there was a surprise for the twentieth anniversary of the school being opened which everyone got very excited for. 

Thanks to the cooperation of many people, we were able to successfully hold the festival.

Once again, we would like to thank everyone for their support.

Next week Sports Day will be held.

Let's all do our best to enjoy Sports Day!

10/4 ②　Culture Festival Day 1

This time, we will show you how day one of the culture festival went.

The first day focuses on the stage performances which took place in the gymnasium. After the opening event, three groups of students performed stand-up comedy (called Manzai in Japanese) to start the day. After that, the first years, brass band club, calligraphy club, dance club, and theater club had their performances.

  

  

The first year students were probably unsure of what to do at their first culture festival, but they showed us a variety of interesting performances from dances to plays. After that, the performances from the cultural clubs got everyone pumped up and excited. 

There are a lot of students who will retire from their clubs to study for college entrance exams after today's performances. We think many of the students that performed, both first-year and third-year, gained a lot of confidence from performing in front of such a large crowd. We hope they can use this experience in the future. 

 

10/4 ①　Culture Festival Preparation

Our school will hold the Culture Festival, or Shuousai, from October 3rd to October 4th over the course of two days.

We will post about the festival in several parts.

First, we would like to show you all the preparation that took place on October 2nd, the day before the festival.

At our school, each grade does different things for the festival.

First-year students will perform on stage, second-year students will prepare an exhibition in a classroom, third-year students will open a food stand on the second day, and students who want to or belong to cultural clubs will also perform on stage.

The first and second year students are preparing for their performances that will happen on the first day of the festival, and the third year students are also making careful preparations for opening their food stands.

The first-year students who will be presenting on stage had a rehearsal, where they tried to find issues and make last minute improvements before the real performance.

We will introduce how the performances went in the next post.

9/18 「Nara Kyoko Bunko」Grant Selection

We are pleased to announce that our school has been selected as a recipient of the “2024 Nara Kyoko Bunko” grant, one of the educational projects of the Nara Kyoko Bunko.

Today, a presentation ceremony was held in the main conference room of our school.

At the presentation ceremony, Mr. Maekawa, full-time board member, talked about how our school was selected and the projects of the Nara Kyoko Bunko.

 

We plan to report the activities using the grant on our school website and in the library newsletter.

9/2 Second Term Opening Ceremony

Today was the opening ceremony for the second term. For the first time in about a month, all of the students were gathered in the gymnasium.

The principal spoke about the meaning and differences in ”making good on one's word" and "letting your actions speak for yourself". 

In your school life, there are students who voice their goals to those around them to encourage themselves towards achieving that goal, and there are students who in order to create an environment that is easy for everyone to learn in act without saying a word. These were two examples given by the principal. 

In the second term, there are many school events such as the Culture Festival and the Sports Day. 

Looking towards these events, we want each student to think carefully about what kind of actions they should be taking to have successful and fun school events this term.

7/19 First Term Closing Ceremony

The principal spoke at the closing ceremony for the first term. 

He said, "While continuing something that is important, if you do not start something new you can not continue doing something. Take the first step and have the courage to find something new."

We hope that students will challenge themselves and work hard both in club activities and in their academics during this summer vacation.

 

Please take care of your health in this hot summer and we look forward to seeing you healthy in the second term.

7/12 Introduction to the Baseball Club

The baseball club at our school participated in the second round of the Nara prefecture qualifier for the National High School baseball tournament.

Our opponent was Kashihara Gakuin High School. We have not faced them in a match since the Spring Tournament in 2009. 

The brass band club came to play music to cheer on our baseball club. Many students from many other clubs, alumni, and parents also came to cheer on the team. 

The teachers that were there to supervise the students were very surprised at the number of students that came. 

 

In the bottom of the first inning Kashihara Gakuin scored one point, and again in the the fifth inning scored five more points.

However, in the top of the ninth inning our team scored five points and came just one step from tying the game.

The match unfortuntely ended in a loss, but we were all moved by the team's will to never give up until the match was decided. 

Thank you to all the teachers, students, and parents that cheered on our baseball team until the very end.

7/11 Home Economics Club Kindergarten Visit

Around 40 second and third year students in the Home Economics club visited Ikaruga Higashi Kindergarten.

On the day of the visit it rained, so the students and the children at the kindergarten did things like playing with blocks, playing with clay, and reading picture books in the classroom.

 

The children at the kindergarten also enjoyed a panel theater presentation prepared by the third year club members.

Thank you to everyone at Ikaruga Higashi Kindergarten for allowing our students to visit.

6/24 Class Field Trip 2024

In Japan high schools, once a year each class takes a field trip somewhere in order for the students to deepen their bonds and relationships with their classmates. First year students choose from places within Nara prefecture, while second and third year students can choose to go places outside the prefecture as well.

The pictures below show a first year class that went to Ikomasanjo Amusement park in Ikoma, Nara. 

The students enjoyed trying every ride, some even finding a ride they particularly liked and riding it over and over several times. Everyone looked like they were having a great time together!

Next, below are pictures of another first year class that had a barbeque together. 

          

 

This class went to Heisei Haibara Children's Forest park. Before going to the park, the students had to shop for ingredients within a budget while also making sure to buy food that everyone could enjoy together. After arriving at the park and starting the barbeque, some groups struggled to get their fire started, but everyone seemed to be having a good time together.

 

Below are pictures of the second and third year classes. As mentioned before, the second and third year classes had the choice of going to places outside of Nara prefecture. Many classes decided to go to Osaka and Hyogo. 

Several second and third year classes also enjoyed barbequing with their classmates.

After the school field trip, the last remaining school event of the first term is the closing ceremony.