Monthly Archives: 7月 2012

訪問地, 地域学習, 島根県益田市

Masuda school-visit day

Date of activity: July 5th

The day starts off perfectly; rain is pounding down so terribly hard, arriving dry is something only the best accomplish. Today we’re doing the last school-visit of the WCI program this year, so everyone is super excited. The group is divided among the elementary- and junior high school, with eight going to the junior high school. This means that our little group is exactly the same size as the group of students in the whole school. It is actually the smallest junior high school in the prefecture. We spend the day presenting our different countries and learning part of a traditional rice-planting song called taue-hayashi.

masago junior high


I’ll miss going to japanese schools, because the children are truly interested in my dull live. I Love it!

Marijke – The Netherlands

訪問地, 地域学習, 島根県益田市

Kaguya hime

Date of Activity: July 4th

In japanese folklore there is an old story called Kaguya Hime. A old bamboo cutter went into the bamboo forest and saw a glowing bamboo. He cuts the bamboo and within is a little girl: Kaguya hime. The bamboo cutter takes the girl home and together with his wife he raises kaguya hime.

Today we went into the bamboo forest as well, to cut some bamboo. It reminded me of the Kaguya hime story. Unfortunately the weather forecast was not accurate. Instead of a sunny day it became a wet rainy day. Therefore we had to stop bamboo cutting even before we started, we were lucky however we did cut some bamboo before we went down the mountain on which the bamboo forest was located.

kaguya hime


We went to a small camping site were we had to cut some bamboo into our own cups, which was actually pretty cool to use. Meanwhile we were waiting for the rice to be cooked so we could start our lunch: onigiri!!!!

Because of the knowledge of the onsen visit later on most of us were pretty exited. The day ended with a visit to the nursery school which was behind the host family house I currently live in. Because it will soon be tanabata we made decorations with the 1 to 4 year old kids. It was great!


Ellery Oosterberg – The Netherlands

訪問地, 地域学習, 島根県益田市

Traveling from the prefectural capital of Kumamoto to the rural village of Masuda

Date of Activity: July 3rd

The skies over Kumamoto city were crying forcefully as we left our host families behind this morning. Despite our (too) short stay in the city, we left with heavy hearts. For the following 6-ish hours we traveled by bus from the Island of Kyushu to Honshu. Some were sleeping, others talking excitedly, sharing candy or enjoying the scenery. We ate lunch around noon next to the huge bridge that connects Kyushu and Honshu, and sat in a row with our obentos while enjoying the beautiful view of endless sea and mountains.

Around four thirty in the afternoon, we arrived at the Fureai hall Mito in Masuda.

The first WCJ day in Masuda


We were all a bit weary, and somewhat confused when we were told that the major were to attend the Host family welcome ceremony. However, we all turned “genki” again as we played a game together called “Ninja”; taking turns we jumped across the room trying to hit other people’s hands. It really wasn’t as brutal as it sounds (the final breakdown between Vaya and Kyle was very exciting, and the latter emerged as the victor).

The ceremony started with speeches from amongst others the major, and he sincerely welcomed us to the city. Afterwards each host family came up to the stage where we sat and called our names, we took a picture together and joined them in the audience. Then a local group performed two songs on Taiko – traditional Japanese drums.

The first WCJ day in Masuda


The first song was lively. But the second song, a lumberjack song, was truly powerful. A woman playing a small wooden flute did the opening part, the sharp and melodious tune taking us far far into the ancient forests of the Japanese country side. And the energy of the drummers – every strike felt like a thunderbolt splitting a tree trunk in half. Feeling somewhat awed after the performance, we left the hall with our new families….

Torunn Olsen – Norway

訪問地, 地域学習, 熊本県熊本市

The Kumamoto Arigato Event of 2012

Date of Activity: July 2nd

This morning was a little bit chaotic. It was raining, and there was a lot of traffic, so nobody arrived on time. As most of us were here we went to visit the Director of the Tourism Department of Kumamoto, an enthusiastic man whose English was pretty good! After that we moved to the building where later this day the Arigato event would take place. We rehearsed for the Arigato Event and it soon became evening. People started coming in the event room. Although there were less people than in the last city – probably because it’s Monday today – it was so much fun!

Kumamoto arigatou event


Everybody had a great time, and I think after the Arigato Event everybody had a great last night with their host family.

Iris Spruit – The Netherlands

訪問地, 地域学習, 熊本県熊本市

WCJ – YMCA student day 2012

Date of activity: June 30th

Today we split op in 4 groups and went to various places in kumamoto city accompanied by kumamoto university students. The 4 groups visited: the art museum, an old shopping district and university, the Kumamoto castle and an old town. The following are stories and impressions of the activities given by participants from different countries:

My group went to visit the Kumamoto art museum! It was super interesting because I bad never seen ancient native Japanese art before. The museum was surrounded by beautiful cherry trees, near Minamoto castle. After that we visited a shrine. The place had a kind of magical energy and you can feel the Japanese culture there… we had a lot of fun with the university studies who came with us!

Today I got to visit the famous castle of the city and prefecture of Kumamoto. I went there with 3 other WCI members as well as 5 members of the YMCA, who are Japanese students currently studying at Kumamoto University. They want to get in touch with foreign students by participating in an exchange program or by visiting another country short-term. We went to the castle on a very humid and rainy day. When we arrived at the castle we were completely soaked by rain and sweat. But when we were actually within the castle walls the rain stopped and our awesome tour began. We first visited the oldest part of the castle after which we went to the greater complex, the official hall where the officials would gather in the old days.

Kumamoto Castle


The interior is amazing and functions nowadays as a museum. The main tower is rather sober in it’s interior and shows the military of the castle. After we visited some other parts of the castle we wrapped up and went back to the YMCA building.

Today we went sightseeing in Kumamoto city with YMCA students. If they hadn’t been with us we would have gotten lost for sure. Among things we discovered was an antique Japanese secondhand store, which was rather cool!

YMCA student day


They had a wide range of items, from kimono’s, fans and umbrellas to dolls, pottery and wooden rafts, in short a lot of Japanese antiques! In general, we had a lot of fun just being together with the students, although it was rainy and we all ended up getting soaking wet.

This day our group went to an old town in Kumamoto city. Joining us were 3 Kumamoto university students, all majoring law. On the way to the old town we had a nice talk with them about various subjects about Japan and our own cultures. When we arrived at the old town we fled into a Scandinavian themed cafe and drank a variety of delicious drinks. Because there were European maps all over the table we talked about traveling a lot and talked about the various places that each of us visited. We learned a lot about our travel experiences and some of us found out new places in the world they want to go to someday. We walked around the old town for a bit when the rain started again. Luckily the leader of our group knew a place nearby that we could visit for a bit. The place was a ryokan, a typical Japanese hotel. What was special about this place was the basement. The basement was a special room for making t-shirts with some kind of wax-system. We were all really impressed in how beautiful the designs were. After having been shown this we all went back to the YMCA building while chatting some more with the Kumamoto university students.

Paulina, Anlong, Joakim, Jurriën – Mexico, Netherlands, Norway