Sunny dispositions in the Land of the Rising Sun

Hi! Miss Roche here again! I just wanted to drop into the blog to let you know how very proud we are of our GCC students! Each and every one of your children have blown us away, time and time again, with their incredibly good attitudes and ability to adapt to every new challenge, including (but not limited to) communicating freely with their Japanese buddies.

Many times we have witnessed the pure joy the students bring to the local people with their sunny dispositions as we travel around this wonderfully unique land. Their genuine curiosity, interest and attempts to connect with respect at all times have dotted a delightful path across the Japanese mainland. A lovely elderly Japanese man seated next to me on our last bullet train ride genuinely offered his observation that our students were ‘otonashii,’ which is essentially the highest praise that can be bestowed upon a young person in Japanese culture. This phrase means ‘no trouble,’ describing a calm persona that makes few demands on others. We have heard this word applied to our students by many of the staff at our sister school already. You can be very proud of them!

While I am typing this post, let me take the opportunity to issue a public apology to the students in my capacity as an occasional lunchtime-beverage-purchaser. My unintentional gift of the opportunity to sample some vegetable juice that could only be described as ‘tomato soup concentrate in a box’ was one of the trip’s first gastronomical challenges and we are thankful the students remained on the journey with us, post-juice! After choking down a carton of this veggie juice myself, I am grateful for the student’s continual good grace that has been characteristic of their delightful company. Well done!