Get OUT There!
A rugged place with raging white water, alpine bogs, smoking volcanoes, and awesome powder snow—this describes only a small fraction of what can be found on the northern island of Hokkaido. HIS is dedicated to providing a wide variety of opportunities for students to Get Out There!
Overnights in Nature
As part of the curriculum, secondary students make two annual excursions into backcountry of Hokkaido.
Dominnomori
An annual overnight trip in the woods of Hokkaido Citizen’s Forest north of Sapporo for the Junior High. Students are divided in to mixed grade-level patrols of about 6 students. The day starts icebreaker activity, tent-set-up, and lunch.
Afternoon consists of a major tri-annual activity: mountain biking, mountain climbing, and nature hike/leadership activities. In the early evening, dinner preparation starts with cooking in patrol groups. After dinner, there is a campfire.
The next morning is breakfast and packing up the tents. There is usually time final team-building activity before the buses take us back to HIS.
 |
Soranuma
An annual autumn overnight trip into the local mountains for the senior high. The trip consists of a 90-minute hike up to a lake-side mountain hut. The hut is two stories, and able to accommodate over 50 people.
After the hike up, the students engage in various team and skill building activities all afternoon. The early evening consists of dinner preparation and cooking in small student food groups. After dinner, there is a campfire. |
 |
 The next morning is filled with breakfast and packing up. A short homeroom-competition activity occurs, followed by the hike down the mountain at noon.
|
Takino
Our annual winter Takino trip is an overnight held to promote school spirit, build cooperative skills, have fun, experience the great outdoors of Hokkaido, and to learn new things in new ways. Takino is integral part of the HIS curriculum.
Takino Suzuran is a nature park about 20 minutes south of HIS. It includes a large outdoor area for exploring, a huge open field, a building with dorm rooms, baths, cafeteria, classrooms, and a large gymnasium, as well as ample outdoor equipment.
A variety of group and individual activities, including relay races, snow shoeing and x-country skiing, the annual Capture-the-Flag competition, the Knowledge Bowl, and plenty of team-building competitions outdoors in the snow.
Adventure & Leadership
To further encourage and support growth in the field of outdoor education and leadership skills, Hokkaido International School offers two extraordinary programs to challenge students in a diversity of adventures, in risk-taking and risk-management, in public leadership and private reflection, and in general … to go where and do what they never thought possible.
AdHOC
Adventure Hokkaido Outdoor Club (AdHOC) is loose-knit organization that one weekend goes swimming under a waterfall, the next climbs a snow-capped peak, and the next hunts for little snow bugs at a local park. It is all doing what we never done before, and exploring the wide variety terrains and destinations of this northern island.
For more on AdHOC, go to www.his.ac.jp/adhoc/
Outdoor Leadership Certificate
The lessons learned and the skills acquired when acting in leadership roles transfer benefit to all aspects of ones life. Hokkaido International School believes in giving leadership opportunities to the students. As such, high school students can engage in a unique certificate program, requiring three-years of work and six major requirements, all to bolster their abilities, confidence, and charisma in the area of outdoor leadership.
