All posts by Thomas Greve

City Life, City Theme Activities, Suita City

Shopping districts of Suita

Today some of us got to go to the JR Suita shopping district. Our mission was to evaluate what we like about the place, and how it could be improved in order to revitalize it, since the shopping district is in a declining state and needs help to get back on its feet.

We visited two craft shops (Terubonoya and PaoPao), a comic store (Kitamoto), a tofu shop (Kurata-syokuhin), an optician (Vision-Megane) and an okonomiyaki shop (Oishinbo). After the tour, we got together to try out some Japanese foods (including natto, tofu, umeboshi, takoyaki and okonomiyaki) and talked about what we thought about what we saw. We were also asked to write down our comments and ideas to improve the shopping district.

Visiting a traditional Japanese shopping district was very interesting, since in Finland we mostly just have malls. The staff in each store were very friendly and it was amazing to see the craft masters work on their products, since usually you never meet the people who make the product you’re buying. The food was delicious, especially tofu donuts and okonomiyaki, and the staff had a great time watching us eat the different foods.

It was a lot of fun to take part in the improvement of an area. Together as a group we came up with many ideas, such as clearer maps and trails to make it easier and more interesting to explore, decorations to make it more pleasing to the eye, and utilization of social media in advertising. I hope our ideas will really help them out and that in the future it becomes a flourishing shopping district once again!

A big thank you to Suita shopping district staff for letting us take part in this experience!

Veera Hasala (Finland)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Suita City

Job experience and bon dancing in Suita

In the morning, we had a nice meeting where the counselors explained everything that was going to happen today. After the meeting, we were out in our scheduled groups and left to our shops. Our group would be helping out in Senri temple. The people working there were so nice; the first thing we did was drinking matcha tea and seeing a beautiful tea ceremony. Because of the matcha’s bitterness we also got a red bean paste cake filled with mochi.

After that we sang a song and they explained how Buddhism came to Japan from India. After a while we had to say our goodbyes and go back to the Senriyama community center. There we got a nice lunch from the kitchen staff. They’re so nice to talk to. While we were eating, Yui, from the local organizing committee, who does some of the activities with us explained what was going to happen in Kansai University. Not only did we get a tour of the University that explained where everything is located, we also went to their little museum and got to play games with the students there.

After all these fun events, we still had one thing planned: a bon dance practice at Senri temple. There we got to see how a summer festival works. We got to write a wish and hang it on a bamboo tree. The bon dancing we were taught was really tiresome but super fun. So, to give us some energy we ate some shaved ice and watermelon! It was such a fun day.

Samantha Bressinck (Belgium)

Arao City, City Life, City Theme Activities, Omuta City

Bittersweet goodbyes: The last activity day in Session one

Group photo with the helping staff of the stamp rally at Eruru
Group photo with the helping staff of the stamp rally at Eruru

Today we first started with a stamp rally event in an arcade mall.

We were divided into 8 groups and each group was assigned to a flower shop, a sports shop, a tea shop, a cafe, a Swedish restaurant, a Japanese snack store, a deli store and a clothes store.

We had students from National Institute of Technology, Ariake college (有明高専) to help us and we could chat with them during the stamp rally. When children and their parents came to the store they greeted us using “hello” and “my name is —-” in our own languages such as Swedish, Dutch, Spanish, Finnish and so on and if they were able to say the greeting words then we gave our stamp on their rally sheet. I was a cameraman during the event but I could see all the kids and parents seemed having fun with talking with us although they were nervous to say the words from the beginning and atmosphere in the all the shops were very welcomed!

It was the first time to have this event in WCI but it all went smoothly and about 120 people including kids and their parents registered to join the activity, which means we put our stamps about 120 times, but it was worth to it! The purpose of this activity was to bring kids to the arcade street and let them know what kind of shops there are. Even though we didn’t think we helped with the sales of the various shops it was a nice opportunity to get the people know the stores and hopefully this opportunity brings about an another one and that those who visited us would come back to stores to buy stuff in the future.

After lunch, we went to Omuta shrine where daija (dragon float) was exhibited. People living around this area join Daijayama festival since they are young so it’s very familiar festival and although the festival is in middle of July they start making daija and practicing ohayashi which is a traditional festival music sounded by drums and flutes from May.

After visiting the shrine, we came back to Eruru and had our session wrap up.

Everyone shared how they broke out of their comfort zone and one of their best experiences during the session. Let me share some experiences from people; trying to eat natto as much as possible even though they didn’t like it, using Japanese style bathrooms, practicing dancing and performing it on the Arigato events! It wasn’t all unconditional fun, sometimes it was difficult to accept other cultures or things, but if possible everyone tried to have new experiences and adapt changes.

It was only 3 weeks but we spent most of the time together and through every activity we got closer and all the time we spent together became memorable.

Thanks, everyone, for making this a great time.

To everyone
One, two.. GOOD JOB!!

Shoko Mizuno (Japan)

Arao City, City Life, City Theme Activities, Omuta City

Curry and Arigato Event in Omuta

Lunch break and relaxing with the two Colombians and Isak
Lunch break and relaxing with the two Colombians and Isak

Japanese people have something with the food. When they know I am from Colombia, the first thing they would ask is “what are some Colombian food?” or “what’s your favorite Japanese food?” Afterward, the question would probably be “where is Colombia?”

Today, 30th of July, we’ve got the challenge to actually cook our food, and not just eat Japanese food. Our task was to make Japanese style curry. Got to say I was worried about it… it wouldn’t be nice to end up with no lunch because we messed it up. But we made it!

Some curry, lots of rice, salad, that is never forgotten here, and some sweets, such as pancakes which were my favorite. The curry was amazingly good! I am still having trouble believing we did it. It is not complicated, just needs patience.

After lunch, we had a proper break as we hadn’t had one since day one in World Campus – Japan. Back then the staff were soft to us, because after that, the breaks became 5-minute breaks for the bathroom and drinking water, max 10. Too many things to do, no time to lose. Plus, we really needed it because the tiredness has accumulated from these 2 weeks, almost 3, and there are even some sick people among us… nothing to worry though.

Finally, we had to get ready for Arigato Event. Though my friend Natalia, the other Colombian girl, was feeling sick in the afternoon, she was better for the actual event! I was so relieved she didn’t have something serious.

Got to say, from the bottom of my heart, that I was so nostalgic and sentimental at the time someone made me realized that it was the last Arigato Event for session one, and the last for me in total. It has been amazing and unbelievable, this journey with World Campus International, and I am at days of the final goodbye! Feeling part of a group, a place where to feel comfortable, is something I really appreciate because I am not good at integrating. And this feeling was strong and alive in all time around Arigato Event. I am so glad and proud to be able to say I made amazing friends.

Nicole Rosario (Colombia)