Students at STFA Yung Yau College tested their language skills at the school's first Japanese Cultural Festival.
The Tin Shui Wai institution introduced mandatory Japanese classes to its junior forms last year, becoming the first secondary school in Hong Kong to integrate the language into the curriculum.
At present, more than 1,000 Yung Yau students from Form One to Three spend one-and-a-half hours per cycle on the language.
Last Thursday week's festival included solo verse speaking and calligraphy contests, demonstrations on 'kendo' (the art of samurai swordsmanship) and 'sadou' (tea ceremony), as well as a video show on youth festivals in Niigata, Japan.
The students were taught how to wear a kimono.
They also exchanged ideas with undergraduates taking the Japanese course at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and pupils at Hong Kong Japanese School. Hundreds of students performed 'bon odori', a traditional Japanese dance around a bonfire, to bring the curtain down on the festival.
'It was very successful and everyone had an enjoyable time,' said Eliza Ho Yee-lai, a Japanese instructor at Yung Yau.