Japan and China Trip - March 13 to March 24, 2016
During Spring Break 2016 twenty four students, parents and teachers from Belmont and Royal Bay Secondary Schools toured China and Japan for twelve days.
In Beijing, we saw the Temple of Heaven where we joined a group of dancers. We walked around the massive Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, drove past Tiananmen Square, enjoyed a Peking Duck Dinner and ended the evening by watching a Peking Opera. One of the highlights was walking on the Great Wall of China, and most students rode a special slide on the way down. We also visited a tea house and a jade store, rode a rickshaw to the Hutong and tasted the cuisine of a local family.
In Beijing, we saw the Temple of Heaven where we joined a group of dancers. We walked around the massive Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, drove past Tiananmen Square, enjoyed a Peking Duck Dinner and ended the evening by watching a Peking Opera. One of the highlights was walking on the Great Wall of China, and most students rode a special slide on the way down. We also visited a tea house and a jade store, rode a rickshaw to the Hutong and tasted the cuisine of a local family.
Upon arriving in Kyoto, Japan, we visited The Golden Pavilion and Nijo Castle where we participated in a tea ceremony. We spent the afternoon with students from our 'sister high school', Kyoto Giadai Nishi High School at the Toei Kyoto Studio Park and posed with samurai. The Fushimi Inari Taisha showcased hundreds of beautiful orange Torii gates. We also visited the Kiyomizu Temple (known for its verandah height, which overlooks the valley) and the Bamboo Forest, as well as seeing performances of traditional Japanese art in the evening.
We boarded a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hakone where we took a Lake Ashi cruise. We went to Atami Hotspring Resort and we were served a traditional 12 course meal, wore a yukata (cotton kimono), bathed in the soothing hot spring waters and sang Karaoke. Next day we went to see the Great Buddha of Kamakura (towering 37 feet).
The sightseeing tours of Tokyo included the city's most popular attractions, such as Akihabara (a cultural centre for anime, manga and electronics) and Harajuku in Shibuya (a fashion hub for young people). We also toured Odaiba where there are multiple attractive shopping malls, and where we took a group photo in front of the gigantic Gundam statue. The Asakusa Temple and Meiji Shrine were prominent landmarks that we all enjoyed.