Day of activity: July 6^th 2014

The 6^th of July was host family day as well as the eve of the Tanabata festival where people in Japan write down their wishes on pieces of paper and hang them on bamboo. For this host family day I joined Jeremy Cullen and his host family on a trip to the beautiful mountain village Aso.

While in Aso we visited a large tunnel spanning 550 meters with a small stream running through the center. This tunnel was decorated with dozens of hand made hanging decorations of various designs including popular cartoon characters, soccer players and Kumamon of course; all made by local school kids.

Afterwards for lunch we went to a restaurant called the Soba Dojo where Jeremy and I made our own soba by hand and then ate it!

To finish the day we visited an onsen to soak away the fatigue of the day. It was quite an unusual and interesting experience sitting in an outside bath in the pouring rain; definitely something I would like to try again!

Ellis Jones (U.K.)

Today we visited Kumamoto Prefectural University and Kumamoto YMCA. The university students all study English and introduced themselves to us in English, much to my surprise. We responded by introducing ourselves in Japanese. We then decided to play a ‘stereotype game’, in which the students all wrote down their impressions of all 9 countries represented by World Campus (and one by a British teacher). Students (and teachers) then got a chance to comment and correct these statements. It was a nice icebreaker and a truly amazing way to learn about each other’s countries, as well as seeing what other know about your country.

We then moved to Kumamoto YMCA, where various foreigners study Japanese. We spent over 1,5 hours talking to each other in small groups, learning about everything from their country to their dreams for the future. It was a rather pleasant experience, seeing as we now got a chance to have some serious conversations with people our age in a similar situation as ourselves, despite the fact that some languages barriers were still present.

This was followed by a short trivia game about our countries as well as the YMCA student’s countries. The questions were hard, but interesting, and taught us a lot.

Oda (Norway)

Today, we went to Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto. This hospital is unique because of the so-called Stork’s Cradle, where people can give their baby away anonymously. Before the visit, we did some preparation at a nearby YMCA, which consisted of basic information about the hospital and the Stork’s Cradle, and we had several debates about topics like abortion, nationality, and anonymity. Because these topics are so delicate and hard to answer ethically, there were many different opinions. We also learned a lot about our countries though these conversations. Generally there are a lot of opportunities if adopting in the participating countries, but not many of them have something similar to the Stork’s Cradle.

When we got to the hospital, we first got to look at the Cradle itself, where people can physically give up their baby. You can either ring the bell for assistance from the staff, and then decide whether you still want to give your baby away, or you can just put the baby in the special baby hatch. Even though you can do it without talking to the staff, there is a letter in the hatch addressed to the parents. This explains that they can get their baby back if they get regrets in the future.

These and many other topics were talked about in a PowerPoint presentation by the founder of the baby hatch, Dr. Hasuda. He also explained why the organization was founded; to stop the killing of unwanted babies in Japan. In spite of the internal debate in the Japanese government, the permit was granted to Dr. Hasuda in 2007. During the rest of the meeting we could ask Dr. Hasuda questions.
The day was very educational and contributed something very special to the program, I believe.

Amalie Nielsen (Denmark)

Date of Activity: July 2^nd

This morning was a little bit chaotic. It was raining, and there was a lot of traffic, so nobody arrived on time. As most of us were here we went to visit the Director of the Tourism Department of Kumamoto, an enthusiastic man whose English was pretty good! After that we moved to the building where later this day the Arigato event would take place. We rehearsed for the Arigato Event and it soon became evening. People started coming in the event room. Although there were less people than in the last city – probably because it’s Monday today – it was so much fun!

Everybody had a great time, and I think after the Arigato Event everybody had a great last night with their host family.

Iris Spruit – The Netherlands