All posts by Thomas Greve

City Life, City Theme Activities, Uda City

Tea ceremony

Day of activity: July 21st

We started today by learning about Uda city. Everybody is interested in this city because of it’s long history and beautiful scenery. We prepared lunch by ourselves. It is my first time to make sushi and udon and my team members cooperated so well. I was so happy and surprised about that! In the afternoon we got the nice chance to wear a yukata. They are so beautiful and colorful. Wearing the yukata we experienced sadou (japanese tea ceremony).

Tea Ceremony


Our gorgeous teacher showed us how to drink green tea, but actually everybody’s attention was focused on the way we sat. I really liked today because I experienced many new things and got a better understanding of my friends.

Yue – China

City Life, City Theme Activities, Community Partners, Uda City

Muroo-en Elderly Home


Date of activity: July 20th

Today we visited muroo-en. A elderly home surrounded by mountains, fireflies and beautiful nature. We entered the building and immediately mingled with the elderly. The man who sat next to me had never met anyone from the Netherlands and we had an interesting talk about dutch culture and language. Soon after that all world campus members introduced themselves and their countries with some interesting or fun facts. Did you know that there are more bicycles than inhabitants in the Netherlands? – this is one of the facts about the Netherlands and especially for Japan, a country with lots of mountains, bicycles are pretty rare. After our self-introductions we played a short game with the elderly and then had a short tour around the facility.



After lunch we visited muroo temple. A temple which is very famous for it’s long history, one of the first temples which females were allowed to visit and it’s 700 stairs. Especially the latter will stay with us for a while after.

Even though the Temple was very beautiful we had to struggle to get to the top. Finally there we visited the main temple and enjoyed the scenery from up high. The temple seemed really old and it’s wonderful to see that it was still in use like it was over a century ago. Going back down the 700 stairs I was talking to a Japanese woman from the YMCA of Nara who accompanied us. I asked her why all the statues were wearing red bibs and sometimes red hats. She was very eager to share her knowledge and explained me in full detail what she knew about it. It was a fun, interesting, but tiring day. The thing is, I slept so well that night!

Jurriën – Netherlands

City Life, City Theme Activities, Uda City

First Activity Day of 2012 in Nara

Date of Activity: July 19th

On our first activity day in Uda, Nara we got to experience a form of zen meditation called “zazen”. Some days in advance I had already heard some rumours that there was going to be a man with some sort of whipping stick involved, hitting people if they were sitting in a wrong position or falling asleep, etc. Me being me (I’ve tried meditating before, but I always ended up tired after 10 seconds) I figured that I’d probably be one of the first being hit.


We drove up to this really nice temple called “Renshouzen-ji”, where we were met by the monk that was going to guide us through the zazen. The first thing we did before we started was to join our hands in prayer and bow to a statue of Buddha. We then proceeded to another room to begin the zazen. Already at the first part, where we learned the right way to sit, some people were having difficulties. We had to first put our right ankle on our left thigh, and then our left ankle on our right thigh, which can be REALLY hard. And painful. When meditating, we had to sit in this position without moving, with our backs very straight, not even moving our sight and – that was seemingly the most important part – not moving our thoughts. We were told to count our breathing from one to ten over and over again until the meditation was over. I’m not sure if there was even one person who managed to do this throughout the whole thing. We ended the zazen by bowing to the statue of Buddha again.


After having lunch, we met up with a bunch of elementary school kids and played lots of games from our countries with them! For about two hours the room was filled with running, screaming and laughter, a big contrast to the silence we experienced during the zazen earlier that day. We ended the day drawing personal flags. Soon the floor was covered with rainbows, animals, moustaches and whatever else people felt represented them. Oh, and everyone was given ice cream. That made me happy.

(Maria Sørlid, Norway)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Suita City

Making obento and cutting bamboo

Date of activity: July 17th

This day was sunny and hot in Suita City. We all have had different experiences with our host families during the week and also different transportation experiences. Some of us are driven to the facility, some of us ride the train, some of us walk a little and some of us walk a lot.

Anyway, we started the day by having a morning meeting, and then we started preparing Japanese lunch-boxes or ‘Obento’.

These boxes are what people take to their jobs or different activities, but they have become almost a work of art!

Bamboo and Obento


You can make cartoon characters with your rice, or make little sausages look like octopus, wrap cheese like if it was candy, it’s so crazy! But it was really fun.
After that, we took the train to a park where there is a small Bamboo forest area.

Bamboo and Obento


We met up with some local volunteers that take care of the area, cut the bamboo, take out the weeds, and keep it clean. I learned that bamboo, when it’s starting to grow, can grow up to 50cms in one night! I have also learned, here in Japan, that you can eat Bamboo! It’s quite delicious.

We got to experience cutting down bamboo trees and also make our own bamboo footrests. Another unique experience! Keep the fun coming!

Paulina – Mexico