Last month, I and three other teachers from my school took a group of thirty (yes, 30) students on a trip to Japan. We survived to tell the tale, twelve days later.

The ups

First, getting to spend time with my students was amazing fun. In Aotearoa (New Zealand), we are taught that the best learning comes from teachers that value relationships. I really do like getting to know my students, what they like (Pokémon Go, anime, manga, and rice balls, mainly), what they don't like, what they want from life, etc.

Getting to know these snapshots helps me to understand where they come from, how they learn, how they take in unfamiliar experiences; from this, I build new arsenals of teaching techniques, how to write materials for them, and how to accept their way of living, thinking, and being in my classroom.

There were students who clearly had never been outside of their comfort zone for nearly as long a period of time. At least one had never been overseas, another never away from family for so long, and so on. Many had never made independent decisions about food, thinking about pricing, managing a budget.

Although we had pre-planned activities, some really exciting (Teamlab PLANETS!) and some more sombre (Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum), much of the students' time was taken up with practical, daily activities: walking between places, catching trains and trams, buying snacks from vending machines, browsing restaurant menus with unfamiliar cuisine, and working out the confusing directions around Japanese subway stations.

One that stands out in my mind: a student who said, resolutely, that they don't eat raw fish. We wind up at a kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant and, lo and behold, they wind up having some and even more than the rest of us! At the yakitori-ya (chicken skewer restaurant), there they were chowing down on hearts! I know the vegans and vegetarians amongst you may squirm but for me, the moral of the story is the way they happily exited their comfort zone (after some initial hesitation). That's what travel is about!

Plus, I had some fantastic staff with me on the trip. I planned the itinerary and so on but, really, I wouldn't have made it out alive without them. Two members of the senior leadership team with excellent leadership skills and ad-hoc decision making when I was absent (I spent a couple sick, see below) and patience to spare.

The downs

Let's double back to some of these students only just learning to make independent decisions because that was not easy for me who has had to act independently for a long time. That's another post, for another day.

Whilst it was fantastic so see everyone grow as people, help each other out, and be a real support… it wasn't an even progression. Some of these students weren't already equipped with the notions I'd hoped.

In public, they were loud. Very loud. We encountered other schools, including another group from Aotearoa and a couple from Australia; they weren't nearly so loud. I overheard some hotel guests call us the loud ones. That was embarrassing. I told my students so and, to their credit, they got a bit better about it.

In the street, some of our students would block up narrow paths, cut off pedestrians, or even just about wander into oncoming traffic at crossings. Thank goodness I assigned myself the (unpaid) job of keeping them all alive, right?

A group of thirty crossing a street takes quite a long time, particularly on Japan's narrow roads, but did our students let cars through? Let other pedestrians fit on the narrow crossings? Stop crossing once the little green man turned red?

For as much as I appreciate their growth, I was taken aback by how low their baseline was. The growth was tremendous but I'm surprised a few of them hadn't been involved in some kind of traffic accident prior to then, even back home.

Then there's the incident that really caused me grief: a student, not a national of Aotearoa, lost their passport. To be able to return to Aotearoa with us, they had to (A) report their passport lost in two cities (which took up a day's worth of travel), then (B) take them to their country's embassy (which took another half a day), and (C) deal with the anxiety the whole time, worrying about what happens if it's not sorted in time. Fortunately, it was all sorted and they're back home (in Aotearoa) safe and sound.

Not to mention our group was passing a cold or a flu around for a few days, so naturally I caught it about three quarters of the way into the trip. I became hotel-bound for a few days and missed out on Teamlab Planets (though I'd already gone twice so I was fine with that), Tōkyō Tower (which I'd already been up once so I was fine with), and some other thing (which I presume I'm still fine with).

Once again, thank goodness for the staff who came with me. Pillars of strength when I wasn't sure what to do, sorting a lot of things out behind the scenes.

Lessons learnt

Of course, none of the issues encountered couldn't be overcome. I'm sure I could've better taught the students about how to manage money, how to decide what to eat, given them some pointers on what to buy on day one to ease that transition, and so on.

I think my students tend to be a bit complacent about their position in society. On the whole, many come from well-to-do homes and most of them not from ones that struggle on the financial department. A lot of decisions are out of their hands because they've never had to think about them.

How to respect the atmosphere, to be quiet, to think about others when crossing a road, to let pedestrians past, to understand that the Japanese have right of way in their own country whilst we are merely guests… These are lessons they won't have learnt. I'm only too happy to teach them. I actually think doing so next time will be exciting, in a way!

(Though, I can't believe I have to tell students to look both ways before crossing a street but if that's what it takes, fine.)

So, key points:

• Watch after students on a trip. They mightn't know how to look after themselves.
• That said, teach them how to exist, how to think of others; if they don't know, a teacher is a great person to … well, teach them!
• Praise them when they learn, when it becomes second nature.
• Hold on to my students' passports myself!
• Don't plan the things you want to do the most right at the end. You might get sick!