All posts by Thomas Greve

訪問地, 大阪府吹田市

Personal Day in Suita

In Suita we had our personal day and at first I didn’t really know what to do or where to go. I had wanted to make my host family something Dutch so I decided to do that first. In the morning I went shopping with my mother and sister. I made “wentelteefjes” for lunch and luckily everyone liked them! During the cooking they were taking so many photos I felt like I was part of a cooking show. Afterward I discussed with my host family what I should do next. I had talked about wanting to visit Osaka Castle so my family suggested that. They made sure I had all the information I needed to get there but they were really worried so in the end they just sent my host sister with me (even though she’s 12 years old).

It was really hot and the walk from the station to the castle took way longer than I expected but it was worth it. Osaka castle is not only gigantic but also really beautiful. We spent some time in the gift shop (airconditioning!) before returning back home. I watched a movie with my host brother…. and fell asleep quite fast. When I woke up we were already halfway through the movie but it was still fun to see Toy Story in Japanese. After a delicious dinner me and my host sister went to bed quite early because we were absolutely exhausted! But all in all, I had a really fun day.

Hannah

お知らせ, 大阪府吹田市

Kansai Daigaku



The plan today was to get to Kansaidaigakumae (in understandable English; the train stop in front of Kansai University) by 09:00 A.M. Not everyone met the given time so we were a bit late, but everything worked out in the end and around 09:30 A.M. we were ready to leave for Kansai University! It was a short walk and as we got closer to the university more and more students appeared around us. We were a real treat to watch apparently, because about every single one of them looked at us as we climbed the spiral stairs that led to the front gate (foreigners, ohmygosh!). It was really hot and personally I felt a bit ill, but once we got to the room World Campus International was assigned to we cooled down thanks to the wonderful invention called airconditioning. As we fooled around among ourselves a Japanese university student came in and called for our attention. She explained she was our host for the day and invited one of her professors to speak to us about Kansai University. Said professor gave us a lot of statistics about the university and told us about the partner universities all around the world which got some of our WCI members interested in an exchange programme.

When she was done we were instructed to be seated in groups consisting of both Japanese university students and World Campus Japan participants. In my group were two female students called Kaede and Yui, together with Nina from Denmark, Alvaro from Spain (officially a Dutchie) and myself. Therefore three countries had to be represented. We were given a large piece of paper and color markers and after talking about the differences in student life in those countries lined up all the points. Once every group had finished writing down their points we had to give a group presentation. It was actually really interesting to hear about how things work in, for example, Norway and Finland, and every person in the room was at least at some point in time surprised by hearing something new.

A while later we were given some presents: an uchiwa with the famous Big Wave (by Katsushika Hokusai) on it, a towel and lots of information documents. Since it was really hot outside those presents came as food to a starving man. And we got ￥500 worth of lunch money to spend in the university cafeteria! Yes for free moneyz. The cafeteria was a big place and compared to the Netherlands there was so much food to choose from. I got some fried shrimp with rice and it was the nicest thing I’d had all week.

After everyone was done eating we moved to the gym and changed into our work-out clothes. The next activity was innebandy! Also known as floorball, it’s a type of hockey played with different equipment and slightly different rules. We, along with Japanese university students, were grouped in teams and started practicing with each other. Then after about 15 minutes the real deal started; matches! Really, one second we were standing all set and ready to go and the next everyone was running and bumping and shooting away balls at an amazing speed. Lucky for me I played it in high school so I knew what to do, and that is to absolutely NOT attack, otherwise you’ll simply get smashed by the main players. It’s really fun though and after playing I really felt that I bonded more with the World Campus Japan members. I also made some new Japanese friends during the aftertalks (yay!), and I’m sure everyone had had a good time.

When everybody (including the Japanese children and elderly people who also played) was done we thanked everyone for a lovely day, handed over a Thank You card to our host student and all left for the train station, where our day came to an end and we all parted ways to our own host families.

Sabine Jacobs (The Netherlands)

訪問地, 大阪府吹田市

Interaction at YUIPIA




This day didn’t quite turn out like I expected. The schedule said that we were to have ‘interaction’ with local people and students. These students included primary and secondary school students. I remember thinking about what in the world was I supposed to talk about with primary school students? It turned out that the interaction was mostly playing games. Not just with the little kids, but also older children, students and volunteers.

There were five main games, and I played them all, except for igo. It looks a bit like chess. I tried to watch a learn how it is played, but even with Julian’s generous assistance, I couldn’t make sense of it. The other games were fun. I liked Wii Sports, but “Superball” (fishing little balls out of the water with a little paper strung in a hoop) was pretty difficult. The other games, pet bottle bowling and darts were really fun. Hiroko and Noel, who were volunteering, taught us a Japanese card game called Babanuki (literally: ‘without joker’). I want to play it again. For lunch we made takoyaki (although without octopus) and onigiri (rice balls).

A special thanks to Naoto, Shuuto and all the other people who worked on this day. You made this day so memorable!

Karo Kankus (Finland)

訪問地, 大阪府吹田市

Meeting my host family in Suita

Meeting my host family for the first time was a special kind of experience. I was greeted by a 7-year-old boy clutching a Pikachu in one hand and his mother in the other. At first he seemed unsure of what to make of me, and I was a little concerned whether or not he would accept me. It’s amazing just how small children can change; by the time we got home, we were already best friends, he even wanted us to sleep together (the next day we even showered together. This is not unnatural from a Japanese perspective). The mother and father were very warm and welcoming. Admittedly, the first day I felt more like a guest than a family member, but that is only natural, I think. of course, when you are treated like a guest, you kind of start acting like one, and it took some time to get out of that mentality. I think I managed it, and by now I feel more like a family member.

Espen Nielsen (Norway)

訪問地, 島根県益田市

2013 Host Family Day Masuda



Today was our host family day in Masuda city. After a luxury breakfast, Nina and I went painting with our host-mother. She taught us how to paint traditional Japanese style flowers on a piece of bamboo. The result looked pretty good, and it was quite easy to do as well. Next, our host-father took us to his own vegetable garden and rice field, which were next to the house. He told us a lot about the different vegetables he was growing in the garden as he picked them. The vegetables that he grows in his garden are used in the dishes they cook, which is really amazing.

After this tour of the garden we went by car to a school, where we would see kagura (a type of Japanese play) performed by children. All the other participants and host-families were here as well. The first play was about a family whose 7 daughters had been eaten by the 8-headed dragon Orochi. They were getting desperate since their 8th daughter would be the next victim, and so they prayed to the gods. Their prayers were answered and they made really strong sake to get Orochi drunk. After an epic battle Orochi was finally defeated, and the family lived happily ever after. During the break after the first play we got to experience ourselves how it is to wear the Orochi costume, play one of the drums or wear one of the kagura costumes, which was really interesting.

The second play was about Ebisu, the god of luck, who was going to catch a Red Snapper for us to bring good luck. Of course he did not catch it immediately, and since he threw around candy every time before he would give it another try, we got a lot of candy. After a couple of times he did manage to catch the fish though, and to celebrate it even more candy was thrown around.

After the kagura we went to an onsen, where we spent about half an hour in the hot water before we went to an udon restaurant. This was definitely a great ending for a great day.

Lieke Vermeulen (The Netherlands)