MYTLINI, Lesvos – Students of Toyooka High School in Japan completed their visit to the Lesvos-UNESCO World Geopark and the island’s petrified forest.

The visit is a follow-up to similar educational visits made in previous years, with great success, and has created the conditions for the establishment of the geopark and the fossilised forest as an international educational destination for Japanese pupils to visit.

Japan’s Toyooka High School is designed as a “superscientific” secondary school by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology of Japan. Its students are particularly interested in studying various disciplines and their applications to society.

Students from Japan participated in the experiential educational programme “Crossing the Lesvos Geopark: 300 Million Geological Stories at 96 Km – Fossilised Forest of Lesvos” curated by the educational activities of the Toyooka Museum of Natural History. The aim was to record similarities and differences between the Lesvos Geopark and the San’in Kaigan Geopark in Japan, to get acquainted with the Petrified Forest, the geological phenomena still active in Lesvos and to observe their effects on the landscape and life but also to get in touch with the history and culture of Lesvos.