Japanese Wednesday Class Exchange Event 2026.7.22

On July 22nd — the last Wednesday class to be held in this building — we held an exchange event. Since this would be our final time all together in this space, everyone enjoyed games and quizzes as a way to talk with as many teachers and classmates as possible.

We started with self-introductions while making our own Country Name Bingo Cards. On a 3×3 grid, everyone wrote in the home countries of the participants. The learners did a wonderful job writing in both hiragana and katakana. Once every square was filled in, the bingo tournament began! Each time the bingo machine called out a country, we marked it off. Getting two lines was a bingo! Both adults and kids got really into it, all chasing after the "grand" prizes — or so we joked!

Next came the team ping-pong-ball relay game. Balancing a ping-pong ball on a spoon, players passed it to the person next to them while counting each pass. The team that reached the highest count without dropping the ball won. Strategizing as a group on how to pass it quickly without letting it fall made for a fun time as well.

Finally, we finished with a team quiz competition. With questions about everyday numbers — like the size of Japan or the official count of foreign residents in Kanagawa Prefecture — volunteers and learners pooled their knowledge to come up with one answer per team.

Starting in September, our venue will change, and our class times and days will also be split up. But let's all keep improving our Japanese even more, and enjoy events like this together again!