The senior high ball day, after a long postponement, was eventually held today. Students spent a day of fervour competing in volleyball, basketball, table tennis, and "balls in the basket". As one might expect, there were squeals of delight, cries of regret, and tears from both winning and losing teams. The common factor was that all the students had a fun filled day playing sports and doing their best alongside their pals.

With little more than a month left at school, the 6th year students are having "manner classes". These classes, held in the school's tea ceremony room, are taught by Sokyo Hirao, a former Fuji student, and they give the students a chance to practise bowing, tatami etiquette, and basic tea ceremony techniques. The students gave off a very commanding, yet dignified, air as they put in practice what they had learned. Looking at these young ladies, it is glaringly obvious that their flight from the nest is now rapidly approaching.

On Monday, the fourth year students will be on their way to Kyoto to start their school trip. Today, they attended a Mass held to keep them safe on their travels. Have fun and we'll see you soon!

Six months have now passed since the first year students entered Fuji and in that time they have been supported by many people including their families, teachers, and classmates. Today, a liturgy service was held in the tranquil setting of the Maria Convent during which the students presented to God a letter containing their thanks to the various people who have helped them in the past half year.

Fuji University will be hosting visitors to Japan as part of a JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) research project lasting two months, and 25 sixth year students attended the opening ceremony. Through this, the students were able to better understand what the aims of this project are, and what the visitors from Africa are striving to improve in their host countries.

This event proved to be intellectually stimulating for the students, who are thinking about what their next step as adults will be.

Participating countries:
Burkina Faso, The Democratic Republic of the Congo,
The Republic of Mali, The Republic of Niger,
The Republic of Senegal　(12 participants in total)

This morning, the first period for class 1-2 was science and this happened to be a showcase lesson given for the teaching staff by the science department. The theme of the class was “Properties of Various Gasses” and the focus of the lesson was on carbon dioxide. At Fuji, science classes use the “look first, then experience” philosophy.

During the lesson, the students learned about the production and properties of carbon dioxide all the while having the actual material at hand. Teachers from a variety of subjects gave lots of constructive advice on the class and this will enable us to continue to improve the classes being offered.

On Sunday, the anual Sapporo-Portland speech contest was held. Third year student, Emi Kojima, participated as the Fuji representative and came away with first prize. Emi's speech talked referred to "The Wizard of Oz" and this, coupled with her exquisite English, left a very strong impression on her audience.

Emi will travel to Portland as an ambassador of the city of Sapporo this spring, making this the sixth year in a row a Fuji student has been chosen for this trip.

A group of visitors from Cambodia visited the school today after classes had finished. The present 2nd years have been involved with raising money in support of well digging in Cambodia since Advent of last year, and they were happy at being able to spend some time together. The 2nd years will be involved with Mr. Uchida, a Buddhist monk who devotes his time to building orphanages and diggin wells in Cambodia.

Due to the suddenness of the visit, the students only had about an hour to spend with Mr. Uchida and some of the orphans he has helped, but they enjoyed every minute of it.

As part of the 6th year home economics elective class, a group of ladies affiliated with various Hokkaido fishing cooperatives came to the school to give the students a special lesson on cokking using some of the finest sea-based ingredients Hokkaido has to offer. Many thanks to the "Sensho Fishing Cooperative" which organised the event.

Third year student, Sayane Hamasaka, took part in the Junior High School Takamadonomiya Cup for English Oratory last Sunday and was awarded 1st prize for her efforts. The speech, about going back in time to Edo (old Tokyo), was extremely expressive and she used this to great effect to give an excellent performance touching on environmental issues. Sayane will make the trip to Tokyo at the end of next month to take part in the national finals.

Over the last month, the fifth year classes have been going to the Hanakawa campus of Fuji university to do experiments thanks to the cooperation of the university’s Food Science and Human Nutrition faculty. Teachers from the faculty have welcomed the students to come and try some experiments which show just how much we use chemistry in their daily lives. Naturally, many of the reports about this class suggest that the students are all too aware of the proverb “seeing is believing”!