Japan By Jesse

• Jesse Bonnici, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2008

It was bright and early in the morning when I woke up because I couldn’t get any more sleep than I already have. I started doing my hair and brushing my teeth like I normally do every morning, accept today I WAS GOING TO JAPAN!!
“Yes Mum” I said, “I have packed everything in my suitcase,” as we arrived at the airport. In a couple of hour’s time I would be making my way onto a massive jumbo jet on our way to Japan!!
As I’m saying goodbye to my family, I see a tear in my mother’s eye, I wipe it and I say to her “Don’t worry, I’ll only be gone for two weeks, it’s not that long!...Yes mum I’ll miss you too” Before I know it, I’m on the plane to Japan, did you hear that correctly? No I don’t think you did, I’M GOING TO JAPAN!!!!!
About 8 hours later I’m landing in Kyoto. First things first, we took a bus to the hotel that we are staying at for a couple of days. I’m bunked with another girl that goes to our school, all night we talk about how lucky we are to have this opportunity and also discuss some of the adventures that we may have and the chance to experience during our stay.
The next morning I reach out for a hug from my mum, and then realise that I am not in Australia anymore, so I then got ready for today, as we visit one of the most beautiful cities in Japan, Osaka.
WOW! I am now entering Osaka (which was only a 15 minute train ride). There are almost 1000 temples in all of Asia, and here I am now standing right in front of the most special one of them all.. The Golden Temple. I sure would love to touch it but it is so sacred and if one thing goes wrong, I may as well get the next ticket back to Australia!!
The next part of my adventure was finally meeting my home stay family for the first time. I was really excited to meet them because these are the people who I have been emailing for quite a while now. There was a mother, father and a daughter. The next day I went to their primary school called Mito Nambu. I was so excited. How was I going to tell everyone back at school what I was experiencing? How different is a kid’s life in Japan compared to ours back home? Do Japanese students have to do homework? Do they have chores they dedicate to after school? What do they do for entertainment? I was about to find out.
My time had come to depart my home stay family, Kyoto, and Japan for that matter.
That was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, and I will hold onto those memories forever, and may my cultural experience help me further my Japanese education.