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Two Japanese students performed a traditional Japanese tea ceremony to staff and students at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic’s Windermere Campus last Friday.

New Zealand born Lecturer, Geoffrey Sinha and nine of his Tama University Japanese students are visiting Tauranga as part of an exchange programme. They had a very busy week in the Bay and the tea ceremony was to share a little Japanese culture with Polytechnic students and staff before leaving for the South Island.

Richard Van der Jagt, the Polytechnic’s Business Development Manager says the exchange has been an excellent experience. “Both students and staff have really enjoyed the interaction,” said Richard. “They did get a bit of culture shock as you would expect. In particular the hongi – the traditional pressing of noses, was a bit of a shock for most of the Japanese students; it certainly brought them out of their comfort zone!”

The students’ itinerary included a powhiri, high ropes course, a traditional kiwi barbecue, tour of Tauranga, attending ESOL classes, as well as interacting with other international and Polytechnic students.

Tama University has two campuses based outside of Tokyo and was founded in 1989. They’re unique in that their classes are all taught in English and run degree level programmes. The university is made up of a School of Global Studies and a School of Management and Information Sciences with around 2000 students in total.

“This was a very successful visit,” said Richard. “It brought a better understanding of different cultures and has developed future opportunities for staff and student exchanges.”

Mr Sinha and his students are now in Christchurch visiting Aoraki Polytechnic for a week before heading to Queenstown then back to Japan in two weeks time.