All posts by Thomas Greve

Arao City, City Life, City Theme Activities

Ichi go ichi e

Protector of the South

Ichi go ichi e – (Once in a life time)… That’s what it was for us, the opportunity that we had during our host family day in Arao. After having a great Soba Noodles Lunch and walking through a great garden with a river, we went to our final stop of the day. A recently built temple where we not only took the most amazing pictures you could imagine, which we’ll share at the end of the week, but we also had a once in a life time opportunity.

Inside the temple you can find four statues of gods, like the one on the picture above. They protect the west, east, north and south. This particular one is the God that protects the South. The best part of the visit started when a man approached us, introducing himself as the artist that makes the statues. I have to say, it was already a pretty nice experience to be able to see the statues, even nicer to be able to meet the artist, I was already happy with the visit at that point, then the unexpected happened… He invited us into his art studio where we had the chance to see the statue of the God protector of the West, being made. We counted the pieces, about 100 of them, we smelled the paint and saw the colors being mixed, to create an amazing piece of art. No one has this kind of opportunity, ever. The artist never opens his studio to anyone besides his team, young interns from the local university.

Host family day: Great food, great site seeing, once in a life time opportunities… Ichi go ichi e

Arao City, City Life, Our participants

First night down, many more to go!

Lu and Kyle

Lu and Kyle were part of a very excited group of people that had the opportunity to meet the night of June 5th at the Manda Mine Museum in Arao, Japan. Host families were nervous but excited to bring home a new daughter or son, and finally the work the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) has been doing for a long time, is paying off, as you can all see on the picture above.

Host families can be very diverse, sometimes we go from having just a single mom to having a young family with two babies and a pet. It makes us understand who they are and their very own family culture. Thanks for hosting us and making us feel part of the family.

Our first night was now done, many more are coming our way and the excitement keeps growing as the time passes by. We’ll keep sharing our experiences with all of you readers. Stay tuned!

Arao City, Our participants

Summer 2010 staff members are ready, are you ready?

Staff Training in Arao

After hours and hours of traveling from our home countries and cities, we finally made it to Arao, Japan. Tired? Yes. Jet lagged? Yes, Excited? Yes.
We spent a good amount of time getting ready and prepping everything for your amazing tour. All we need now is for all of you participants to get here so we can let the adventure begin.
Get excited, get packed… We are waiting for you. Are you ready?

Yui, Jake, Bertha, Hiro, Hideto and Celi,
Your staff members.

Our participants

Meet Yui Mihara from Japan in Summer 2010!

Yui Mihara

Konnichiwa!

My name is Yui Mihara and I’m the Assistant General Manager for the 2010 summer program. I will work closely to other managers to assist their areas, assisting logistics and will be the interpreter on the road. I come from Osaka, Japan where I was born and grew up.

This is my 1st time to work for WCI and I’m so thrilled to meet all new people, share the experience and discover my own country. I know that I will learn a lot about my own culture from the people we’ll meet, places we’ll visit and I’m very excited for the new challenges I will face.

I’ve been enjoying nothing better than working in an international environment for last 9 years; international school in Osaka for 6 years where I was responsible for operating several programs, admission, accounting and being a mediater between teachers and parents. I left home in 2007 to work for another organization called Up With People where I taught dance and coordinated a production with international group of people and had an opportunity to travel various countries for several years.

I love traveling, dance and movies. Meeting and working with people has always been and will always be something I pursue in my life. I enjoy getting inspired from people and having an impact on each other.

I can’t wait to meet each of you and get to know the individuals this summer. If you are still looking for something to delight your life, join this adventure with us!

(Yui Mihara – Assistant General Manager in the Summer ‘10 Road Team)

Our participants

Meet Celiana Dolovitz from Venezuela in Summer 2010!

Celiana Dolovitz

Hola,
My name is Celiana Dolovitz, my friends call me Celi. I will be the External Relations Manager for the 2010 Summer program, responsible for all types of media, including social networks and everything that has to do with external activities and postings. I am from Venezuela but i have been living in Mexico for a year now.

I went to school for Graphic Design and Marketing / Advertising and have been working in International environments for the last eight years, where I learned the beauty of cultures and how much I love traveling and meeting people from other countries.

World Campus International is giving me the opportunity to get to know people from different countries and share my culture while I travel through beautiful Japan creating great relationships with the group I will travel with and with the people from the places we will visit.

Can’t wait to start and meet you all.

(Celiana Dolovitz – External Relations Manager in the Summer ‘10 Road Team)