1月12日は2年間本校で日本文化体験をしてきたJET青年のアレックスさんの最後の来校日になりした。日本の伝統文化を海外に発信できる生徒の育成事業として、東京都指定を受けて取り組んできた締めくくりとなります。
　４時間目に来校したアレックスさんは、本校ALTのデヴィン先生とともに弓道の授業を受け、弓を射る体験をしました。

　以下に2年間の体験を振り返っての感想を紹介します。

　Hello, my name is Alex Matson and I’m a New Zealand ALT who works at Shakujii High School, near Shakujii Nishi JHS. For the past 2 years I’ve been regularly visiting Shakujii Nishi for the day (around 9 times a year). These visits are part of my job as an ALT on the JET programme (organized by the Japanese government), and the purpose of them is for me to participate in traditional Japanese activities with the students, as well as speak English with them.
　These activities have included: writing calligraphy, learning judo, writing tanka and haiku, watching and judging students’ English speeches, creating origami and other paper art (kirie), participating in tea ceremonies, learning how to properly put on yukata, watching a famous rakugo performer, playing koto, making traditional Japanese sweets, playing traditional Japanese games with the students, and practicing kyuudou archery. All of these activities were extremely interesting and enjoyable for me, and the students too had a lot of fun. I would never have had an opportunity to do these things otherwise. The highlight was playing the beautiful koto, something I had wanted to do for a long time.
　After these class time activities, I usually ate lunch with the students, who were always very friendly and asked me lots of questions, and I got to talk to them about New Zealand and my life in Japan. The teachers too were very welcoming, and helped organize all these activities for me. Thank you Shakujii Nishi, for all these great experiences!