Avoiding Japanese-style toilets was just one cultural encounter on a 12-day visit to Japan for four year nine students and seven year 10 students from Tenterfield High that included experiences with the country's infamous rush hour public transport, buying ice-cream from a vending machine, seeing Japan's largest indoor Budda, "very trendy young adults" and the devastating Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

The student's Japanese teacher Miss Yvette Phillips with help from Larissa Brown accompanied Tahliea Merchant, Emma-Lee Murray, Shaniese West, Rachel Collins, Amy Battistuzzi, Hannah Halliday, Katie McMeniman, Nicole Shearman, Danielle Ware, Melissa Ware and Ambre Woodard on a trip that included Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Osaka.

For many of the students, including Danielle Ware, this was their first trip overseas. "We come from a country town, the biggest city we've seen is Brisbane so to be chucked into Tokyo is something else, its so big, bright noisy and exciting," Danielle said.

The students said they were daunted by the cities they visited, and were surprised by the way the Japanese people treated them.

"I actually felt famous. They loved us," Ambre Woodard said, "We were very popular in Kyoto, they came and took photos with us."

Miss Ware said, "The people were really helpful and so polite. If they saw us and thought we were lost they would try to help. Even if they couldn't speak English they would try to use body language to communicate."

Miss Woodard and Miss Ware said that seeing the destroyed Hiroshima Dome, a shell of a building positioned under the epicentre of the atomic blast that destroyed the majority of the city on August 6, 1945, was the most memorable experience of their trip.

"I liked Hiroshima, that was a memorable place. I got to ring the peace bell," Miss Woodard said.

"The Hiroshima Peace Park was my favourite, it is so symbolic. We made a chain of paper cranes and left it there, and wrote messages of peace as well. It was very confronting," Danielle said.