Pure Water Temple, Kyoto

This past January, for the second year running, a group from Rock Point School traveled to Japan for ten days. Five students, accompanied by Headmaster John Rouleau, tutor Isaiah Keepin, and residential educator Diana Sette made the trip to Kyoto and to Tottori prefecture, Vermont’s sister state in Japan. To prepare for the trip,the students had spent time last fall with a Japanese friend of the school who taught them some Japanese words and phrases, and gave them tips about Japanese customs and culture.

Before leaving on the trip the students were asked to write down what they were most looking forward to, or most dreading about the trip. One student wrote, “I am more excited than I have ever been. I was eight years old when I decided that Japan was my “home”, and now I can finally go. I cannot really write down all the things that I’mexcited for specifically, but I’ll try – food, culture, Pokemon,people, sights, sounds, smells, the language, art, temples.” Isaiah wrote of the difference between what he hoped to get out of the trip and that which the students were looking forward to. “For me,there is a special joy of bringing young people to see and do something that I love. For them, it is a school trip, a very new thing, an exhilarating leap into the unknown. Come to think of it, I suppose the trip means all that to me as well.” John writes of the effect that
such a trip will have on the students, “The best part of this time is imagining these particular students in Japan, wide eyed, having fun and forming group bonds that will last long after the trip.”

Dinner Party in Otsu

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School Visit in Tottori

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Florio and Austin practicing

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Where's Wilson?

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