School Trips

Every year students in grades 4–8 travel to Kazuno in Gunma Prefecture. The goal of the trips is to extend learning experiences beyond the classrooms. Students are responsible for meal preparation, clean up and general housekeeping.

Visits to Kazuno meet a number of cultural, personal, and social learning objectives.

Students:

• complete the “rice cycle” that is first encountered in grade 5

• collaborate with students at our sister school in Kurohone and

• participate in a variety of valuable outdoor educational activities and team-building opportunities that enhance the middle school learning experience.

Learning about the Cycle of Rice

Students in grade 5 travel to Gunma prefecture to experience planting and harvesting rice with students from our sister school in Kurohone each year. Then Kurohone students come to Tokyo to pound the rice (omochitsuki), make rice cakes (omochi) and eat them with Nishimachi students.

Students in grades 4–5 spend three days while students in grades 6–9 spend five days at a lodge on the Niigata ski slopes. These trips are a part of the physical education program, and the focus of the trip is the development of ski skills. The trip also provides an opportunity to learn and practice responsibility and cooperation, and to socially and positively interact as Nishimachi community members.