Christmas is coming soon.
On December 14th first and second year students in senior high school baked Stollen which is a German traditional Christmas food.

An exchange student from Germany, Julia, told us how to make it.

It was easy to make.
First, we weighed the ingredients.
Second, we mixed all of them in a bowl.

Everyone kneaded it with their hands seriously and they looked so happy to receive Julia’s advice.

And then, we baked the dough in ovens.
While we baked it, Julia introduced the culture of Germany.

Her presentation was very interesting.
Especially, her singing voice was beautiful and wonderful!!

We also sang three Christmas songs and wrote Christmas cards in German.

We thought the pronunciation of German is more complex than that of English.
We could know a lot of things about Germany.

Around that time, we noticed a good smell coming from the ovens.
Finally, our Stollen was completed!!

Then, we ate it with everyone.

All the students enjoyed it!!
We were satisfied with this session.
Thank you Julia!
We were really happy to spend a great time with you!!

~Recipe~
Serves: 6
Ingredients: A.  250g of flour (1 cup)
100g of almond powder (3.5 oz.)
75g of granulated sugar (5 Tbl)
85g of unsalted butter  (6Tbl)
125g of yogurt (half cup)
60g of dry fruit (4Tbl)
2 teaspoons of salt
1 egg
Vanilla to taste
B. 15g of melted butter (1Tbl)
powdered sugar to sprinkle on top for decor
Preparation: pre-heat the oven to 180C (350 F)
Method: 1. put the ingredient in A into a bowl and mix
2. bake the dough in the oven 180C for about 40minutes
3. as soon you take it out, spread the melted butter on it
4. cover it with the powdered sugar

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

There were general cleaning and a closing ceremony today.
We will start the winter holidays from tomorrow.
Though we won’t be able to renew the blog as often, if you watch our activities, we will be very happy.
We all wish that you have a Merry Happy Christmas.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

Hello, everyone. We have written about the International Youth Conference for Peace in the Future five times. In this blog, we will introduce the discussion as a summary of this program and “Hiroshima Appeal” which was made from the members’ opinions.

○Discussion

There were three topics. Discussion was held over three days, and we had seven groups. Each group discussed the topics, put their ideas onto big paper, and presented their ideas in front of all the members.

○Hiroshima

After this meaningful discussion, a group prepared “Hiroshima Appeal.” During this time, members discussed different topics.

Then, “Hiroshima Appeal” made by the presenters was presented in front of everyone, and improvement were made. It was read at the closing ceremony.

Hiroshima Appeal 2015

We, the 71 members of the International Youth Conference for Peace in the Future 2015 (IYCPF), gathered together in Hiroshima with a common aim: to discuss what we can do as young people to work towards peace. In this, the tenth year of the IYCPF, we have been inspired by the lasting bonds of friendship the conference can create, as symbolized by the attendance of past participants. We reaffirmed the importance of the IYCPF, and discussed the role of the conference in providing a framework for our efforts to work towards peace.

We believe that the most significant roles and achievements of the IYCPF are as follows:

• Providing an opportunity to learn: from Hiroshima, from our respective cultures and histories, and from each other’s different perspectives.
• Providing an opportunity to communicate and interact, leading to greater mutual understanding and acceptance.
• Providing an opportunity to discuss and share ideas about peace, in the widest sense of the word.

We stress our ambition to develop the conference into one involving as many participants as possible, from as diverse a range of backgrounds as feasible. We will further strengthen links with past participants, and make use of internet-based communication during the conference, so that participation is as broad as possible, irrespective of the participants present in Hiroshima.

We appreciate the value of taking part in cultural activities during the conference, but alongside this, we stress the importance of devoting more time to discussion, both between participants, and in the form of lectures or workshops given by experts in peace.

We stress the importance of increasing the online presence of the IYCPF, both for the benefit of the conference itself, and also in order to facilitate ongoing contact and the strengthening of links between participants after the conference.

We recognize the importance of taking advantage of what we learned while in Hiroshima, and of taking action in the following areas: sharing, participating and developing.

We pledge to share our experiences and the knowledge we gained: with our local communities face-to-face, and with the global community through social media.

We pledge to actively participate in existing peace-promoting projects wherever we can.

We pledge to develop our own peace-promoting projects, and to work towards the ongoing development of the IYCPF.

Our time in Hiroshima has reaffirmed to us the importance of peace, and the significance of the IYCPF as a framework in which we as young people can work towards our common goals. We vow to build on the achievements of the past ten years. Our endeavor starts now.

August 13^th, 2015

Van (Vietnam)

Apart from my feeling about IYCPF 2015, I think this is great chance for youth people to understand and share the ideas about the peace not only in the past but also around the world.

In addition, I believe that if we have more time to discuss in IYCPF timeline we would have a rich variety problems and more time to share more ideas. It leads to the better plan for our projects which we told in the discussion.

Especially, I attracted in some extra activities such as bon-dancing, the best dance style I have ever tried, visiting high school and the peace museum. I had the great experience with Hiroshima and its history.

By writing these blogs, we hope people reading then will have a better awareness of world peace.

Thank you so much for reading our six blogs.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

Especially in the last few months, I’ve made so many really good friends and had lots of wonderful experiences with them that I really fear the moment where I have to say good bye…

Club activities gave also been great fun: cooking delicious food in the cooking club, going on trips or competitions with the hiking club and trying difficult sports in the Kendo, swimming and tennis club!

In every club, I got to meet so many nice and interesting people, who were always there for me when I needed help!

Next blog is about her last month in Japan.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

We’re participating in the “Green Baton Movement”, which is a project of support for the disaster area of the Tohoku earthquake.

We will raise eight young plants until next spring and send them to the disaster area.

This winter is warmer than an average year.

Young plants have turned red beautifully.

The Virgin Mary is gazing at them.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

In September school started again and we were busy with many different events line the tenting with the hiking club on Miyajima and my first sports festival.
I was the rider while we did a human-horse race and had to grab cakes in a plastic packing hanging from a string above my head.
We got to share the cakes afterwards, which were delicious!

It was also fun to watch performances of the other grades, especially when the teachers dressed up as different movie characters.

Soon after that we had tests, which was the first time for me to participate in all the tests in Japan.
It was really, really difficult.
I think I’ve never studied so hard in my life before!

But when the tests finished I was really relieved, happy and could look forward to the next big event: Okinawa!!

So, right in the next week, we went on a study trip to the beautiful island of Okinawa.

There, the warmly-welcoming people, delicious food and spectacular scenery made we fall in love with the island so I didn’t want to leave!
We learnt so many things about the cruel, bloody Okinawan war and listened to a lot of interesting, deeply emotional lectures.
But we also had fun, for example cutting sugar cane and then making juice and toffee out of it, or in the luxurious hotels we stayed at.

We are going to introduce her experiences in the latter half of the second term.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

Ms.Takata who is a graduate of our school came to this school on November 19th.
She delivered a lecture to us.
We were surprised to hear her talk, as she leads a life with ups and downs.
It was interesting, for example, she became a pupil of a picture-story teller a few years ago.
His name is “Yassan”.

We heard that Yassan had left her many wise sayings.
All of them are wonderful.
Besides the lecture, we heard many episodes in her life.
She taught us valuable lessons.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

I’m in second grade in high school.
I took part in the program called High School Diplomat last summer for three weeks.
This program consists of three parts: Washington and New York tours, home staying, and an exchange at Princeton University.

In the Washington and New York tours, I visited not only tourist attractions such as Central Park or the Hard Rock Café but also international or organizations and agencies such as the U.N. or Pentagon.
I felt the great scale of the U.S.A and world.

When I stayed with a family in Virginia, I was surprised at the big size of America.
Almost all the food in the supermarket I visited was more than twice as large as that of Japan.

I spent the last 10 days in Princeton University in an Exchange program in which 40 American and 40 Japanese high school students participated.
I had an American roommate.
We had so many activities I can’t tell everything here, for example, diplomats talked, had a dance party and a cultural day and so on.
It was very fun for me to share our ideas and experience a lot of events together! We became a HSD family!
The biggest thing I learned was the danger of stereotypes.
Once people make stereotypes, it’s difficult to correct them.
I thought communicating with not only language but also gestures or facial expression and accepting the others’ ideas were important to build a true friendship.

On august 6th, my friends and I gave a presentation on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The title was ‘What is Peace?’
After that presentation, many friends came to say ‘Good Job!’ or ‘I want to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki someday!’
When I heard that, I felt very happy.
We made the Peace Bridge by writing messages for Peace.
I am thankful for every person who was involved in my participation and everyone I met in those 3 weeks.

Thank you.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

The drama club

We are the drama club.

We practice on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

We put on a play three times a year.

Before we stage a play, we practice it, but in between plays, we usually make short dramas and practice in order to make progress in acting.

Making stage sets together is fun.

Please look forward to our blog being updated.

Each of the students puts mascots on their school bag in order to distinguish it from the others.
In this way, we appeal to individuality.
There are a lot of unique mascots.
We’ll introduce some of them!!

Does he look a little moody?

Can you guess what it is?
It’s a Japanese-style confectionery called “Sakura-mochi”, pink-colored sweet rice cake wrapped in a cherry leaf.

In Japan, we often eat Sakura-mochi in spring.

What is she staring at?

This is the character for Japan’s National Volleyball Team, “Vabo-chan”.
The big eyes are so cute!!
Some of the students put the same mascot as their friends’.

If you press its back, the heart pops out.

We will research more mascots and tell you about them.
Please look forward to our blog being updated.