Thomas from Sweden reports about his experience.
Category Archives: Omura City
Martial arts and dancing
This Saturday started with a morning meeting. Our 4th counsellor was finally able to join us starting today, because he first had some exams to finish. After the introductions and meeting finished, we once again started our practice for the Arigatou Event under the guidance of Maki-chan, well-loved by the returning participants.
Because World Campus International / World Campus – Japan celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, we have a lot of dances, more than usual. One of the songs we’ll be singing in in Japanese as well, so we need a lot of practice, so we can show our host families a great Arigatou Event! After having gone over the Arigatou Event for this week, we left for another destination, the local Shorinji Kenpo dojo.
At this dojo, we would get to experience Shorinji Kenpo, but not before we had some lunch: curry made for us by the parents of the children who train there. During lunch, we had a chance to chat with the children a bit. Once everyone finished eating we cleaned up and got to hear a presentation about Shorinji Kenpo and its history. The founder of this martial art wanted to create a way of living in which you improve both yourself and those around you, and together with his knowledge of martial arts he created Shorinji Kenpo. After the presentation, we also got a demonstration from both the children and the teachers. Even some of the very young kids were really good. Finally, we could also practice some of the moves, with the children who train at the dojo.
All in all, it was a great day and although we ended quite early, we moved around a lot, so everyone was a bit tired.
Sabine Boom (The Netherlands)
A very important lesson and takoyaki in Nagasaki
Today, we all went to go see Nagasaki. We took a train ride there (probably the first experience on a Japanese train for some of us!) and ended up at the Nagasaki Peace Museum. This museum is dedicated to the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. By displaying a lot of information, pictures and items from the place the bomb fell it gives a very clear overview of what happened that day and what the effects of the bomb were.
Even more impressive was the speech from an atomic bomb survivor (hibakusha in Japanese). He was twelve at the time it happened and he lost his mother and three of his siblings to the bomb. It was a very educational and emotional talk as he could describe everything that he saw back then in detail, giving an even clearer image of what happened there than the museum itself. Personally, I had been to the Nagasaki Peace Museum as well as the one in Hiroshima before, and I think having the chance to talk to an atomic bomb survivor added a lot to understanding what the people who experienced the atomic bomb went through.
After our time in the museum we split up for lunch and some free time in Nagasaki. I, Charlotte, Whitney, Sabine and Sami went to a temporary exhibition about Studio Ghibli in the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture. It was a lot of fun, there were a lot of cute and pretty items on display from the movies, for example a life size Totoro and Cat Bus. We are all very fond of Ghibli movies and it was super fun to see a whole exhibition dedicated to them.
I think the most interesting part was an explanation on how the animations are created. There were original sketches, notes and paintings that showed the process of animating. Even though all information was in Japanese it was easy to see how it all worked by looking at those. It was a really unique chance to see something like that!
Upon getting back home, my host family had a really nice surprise for me: as I had told them my favorite food is takoyaki (little dough balls with octopus inside) they treated me to a takoyaki party. Using a hot plate on the dinner table, we all made a whole lot of takoyaki together. It tasted just as good as in the restaurants I ate it at, if not better.
Jana de Bondt (The Netherlands)
An introduction of participants of World Campus – Japan session 1, 2016.
A couple a days ago we traveled from Omura to Kumamoto and we made a little introduction of our self in the bus.
Arigatoo Event
The day started out by all of us rehearsing for the Arigatoo Event at the Kori Community Center. The time went by so fast with people goofing around and enjoying each other’s company. Some of us even went to the nearby shopping center and had pictures taken in a Japanese photo sticker booth, or “purikura”. It was so much fun, even though we were in a hurry to get back to rehearsing.
Around 4 o’clock we moved to the location of the Arigatoo Event, Shu-Shu. It has a really pretty view over Omura, and you can see really far in clear weather. It was really nice to see how the landscape and mountains change with the time of the day.
Finally it was time for the event! Even though I was really nervous, I also knew that I was amongst friends and that it really did not matter if I may not be the best singer or dancer. They will cheer for me anyways. I am really amazed by how energetic and helpful people are! Everyone was really helpful and the night enjoyable. I will never forget this.
At the Arigatoo Event we had a lot of important speeches from the LOC and the representative of the mayor’s office for example. But what surprised me the most was that the venue, Shu-Shu, normally wouldn’t be open on that time, but due to the influence of the LOC’s we got to have this party in such a nice place. I am very grateful for this!
After speeches we had dinner with our host families followed by our dancing performances, picture slideshow of our time with our host families in Omura, thank you cards being read and ending with our singing performance. The last song I was really nervous about because I had a solo representing my country. But feeling the energy from the audience and my friend made me relax and I was able to have fun. It is not about having a nice voice, but the fact that you do it to create joy.
Then the local orchestra played and we all got to dance! It was SO much fun! I really missed dancing and being able to dance with both host families and friends was really nice. Everyone was happy, energetic and especially the boys drew attention with their group dancing. Everyone really gave it their all during this event. And I am really grateful to have been able to say “thank you” to the host families, LOC’s and everyone else involved in this trip in such an enjoyable event.
It is sad to think about this being our last day in Omura, but at least we were able to say our thanks and make people enjoy themselves, creating laughter and smiles. I am pretty sure not a single one of us will forget this day – ever!
Arigatou Gozaimasu!
Anna-Louise Lydom, Denmark
