Date of Activity: August 1^st

Today the World Campus Japan members and a bunch of University students split into seven groups and explored different parts of Tokyo. Two groups went to Asakusa to see the Senso-ji – a huge, red temple where you can experience Buddhism in Japan. Afterwards, one group went to Sky Tree town and explored, and one explored traditional stores nearby.

Another group went to the electric Akihabara. The place was filled with anime and manga stores. And terribly cute maids! Speaking of which, apparently Ikebukuro is the new, upcoming Akihabara, and one of the groups went there. In Ikebukuro there were also a lot of manga stores, in addition to a kind of food theme park. The group also went to a traditional Japanese garden.

Some people travelled to Shibuya and Harajuku, two very popular and famous areas in Tokyo. They visited the Meiji shrine and saw the huge torii – the gate that symbolizes entering a holy place. Furthermore, they got to see an aspect of the modern Japan: Unique fashion.

The second last group went to Ueno. They had lunch in the park there, and they also went shopping, and since they had some time, they went to Akihabara as well. The last group went to the Diet Building and the garden close to the Imperial Palace. It was very educational.

Date of Activity: July 31^st

In the Pantheon Tama there would be a potluck party for us. It was organized by a local group of ‘older’ people who are learning languages. When we came in, it was like we were celebrities. There were a lot of people, and we of world campus had to walk through them in a row and received a big applause. After the formalities the party started. There were 4 tables full of all sorts of delicious Japanese food. In the beginning I was uncertain how I would start to communicate with people of the local group, but that wasn’t necessary. Everywhere where you just stood, people would come to you and start a conversation and you had to struggle you out of it to be able to eat, which was fun.

When every tummy was full, the group organized activities to get to know the Japanese cultural side. The first thing I tried was the Soroban (abacus). This was so much fun, to get to learn how to use such an old and useful instrument and how ingenious people where to get up with such a device. After this I got dressed up in a Yukata. Then I got to do calligraphy. We also played a Japanese sumo game; you have boxes of different sizes, with on top a circle and two sumo players of paper, and you tap on the sides to throw of the opponents sumo player. Basically you smash on the box and with that you’ll see who the winner is. Then I experienced how to create tea correctly for a tea ceremony. And I finished with writing a wish on a paper and hang it in a tree. So it was a fun, yummy and educational day with a lot of nice people.

Date of Activity: July 30^th

While the new participants where practicing for the Arigato event, the veterans where going to Tama center to do a scavenger hunt. We formed two groups to let it be a challenge. And a challenge it was! The staff really made an effort for the challenges. The first challenge for our group was doing the Macarena in a public place. While dancing with red faces, people where already looking weird at us, but we had fun. After this we had to do things like: make a jumping photo, take a weird photo with the police, find out in which year Tama-station was established, make a guy wear a dress and much more. So it was educational, (we got to learn about the Tama center), embarrassing, fun and we got to know each other better as well!

(Nicole Tolman, the Netherlands)

Date of Activity: July 29^th

Since my family noticed that I am in love with studio Ghibli they had a little surprise for me. My host mother bought tickets for the Ghibli museum, which was sold out as usual, through an auction. When I heard the news I was jumping around of happiness.

The museum is at the edge of a beautiful park which could have been a setting for one of the movies from Ghibli. Unfortunately it’s not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but we could make some nice pictures from the outside.

The museum is crowded with people especially kids running around. And that’s the entire idea of the museum; it’s a place where children can run around freely and play in a huge fluffy cat bus, or learn in a very playful way how animation works. Also there are some rooms for the grown up which show the original paintings and drawings from several movies, as well as storyboards.

In the museum there is a small cinema in which short animation movies are shown which you can only see when visiting the museum, so that is pretty special. And of course you cannot leave the museum without being to the roof where a garden is, and in between the garden there is a life size Laputa robot of which you can take pictures.

To end the day we went to a shopping mall in Nakano were a lot of dump stores are with tons and tons of manga and anime goodies. It was a great day and I enjoyed every second spending in the museum and the shopping mall.

(Ellery Oosterberg, the Netherlands)

Date of Activity: July 28^th

Today the new participants had an orientation about the session and the program in general while the returning participants had time to explore Tama. Afterwards we all had lunch together before moving to Tama Bousai center. At this facility, you can experience different disaster simulators and learn how to prepare in case one occurs. We were separated into two groups, rotated doing three activities. My group started with watching a movie in a small movie theatre. It told the story of the Earthquake and tsunami of March 11^th. It was interesting not only to learn about the immediate effects of the disaster, but also of the aftereffects. It appears that the news reports in our countries give a somewhat limited image of what really happened and how dire the situation was for the Japanese people. A lot of people were deeply touched by the footage.

Then we experienced an earthquake simulator. It was basically a platform designed to look like a small Japanese kitchen. An employee from the facility taught us how to react when an earthquake hits – crawl under the table and hold the table legs so that your hands wouldn’t be crushed by objects falling down, etc. Since we knew it wasn’t real, it felt more like a theme park attraction than an actual earthquake. However, it was a good experience to know what it feels like and have a clue what to do in case an earthquake occurs.

The last activity our groups did was to learn how to escape from a smoky room in a burning building (no worries – although the smoke was thick, it wasn’t dangerous, and it smelled like candy for some reason). The smoky room was built as a maze, so we had to follow the exit signs to find our way out. Also, there were built in sensors in the walls, so if we didn’t crawl, they would register us, and we would lose points. A guy from the facility told us that in a real situation, instead of loosing points, we would get smoke in our lungs and die faster. So I was relieved to find out that no one in our group lost any points! Also, I feel more prepared in case of an emergency, so I’m happy I got the chance to visit the Tama Bousai center today.

(Torunn Olsen, Norway)