Day of activity: August 10^th 2015

Today was our final activity day here in Tama. We started the day off by going to a local community center and meeting up with some local Japanese students. We actually knew quite a few of them since they had organized various fun activities for us on personal day, so it was fun to meet up again and do something together.

Following our meeting up with the students, we were split into two groups for the activities in the community center: one group that would do tai-chi, and one that would cook lunch for everyone- I was in the latter group.

The special thing about the lunch we were cooking was that we would be making ‘Kyara-ben’- character bento lunchboxes. My team would be making Pikachu and Kumamon (the omnipresent mascot of Kumamoto city) bentos. At first, we simply made the other items that would go along with the characters: rolls of fried egg, broccoli wrapped in bacon, fried chicken, etc. Then came the tricky part: making the actual characters! Pikachu in particular proved challenging since I had to make the proportions of its face somewhat even- that went… Ok… As for my Kumamon, he ended up being more disturbing/terrifying than cute. But in the end everyone told us that our creations looked and tasted great 🙂

After lunch, we all visited a local driving school. I was rather impressed by the size of the school- they had several classrooms and simulators for teaching their students. We were greeted by one of the instructors who put us through a memory test that elderly Japanese drivers have to take. A lot of us came close to remembering all the pictures we were shown, but no one could get a perfect score (the ‘pineapple’ and ‘sparrow’ cards in particular proved difficult!). Once the test was over, we got to try some ‘drunk vision’ goggles- nothing like being drunk if you ask me, but still majorly disorientating! After that, some of us even got to try the driving simulators- the results left much to br desired…! Once our activities were done, the final group of participants received their well-earned certificates of completion. It was a very emotional moment 🙂

We had a great final day in Tama, even if it was tinged with the sadness of knowing that we would have to say our goodbyes the next day.

Simon Presley (Denmark)

Day of activity: August 5^th 2015

On the way from Abiko to our new host families in Tama, we made a stop at the National Diet building. This is the place where the people’s political representatives gather. It is similar to a parlament in Europe.

After a guided tour through the building, including the emperor’s chambers and the main meeting room, we had a chance to actually meet one of the people’s representatives. He was Mr. Kado from the Liberal Democratic Party.

We asked several questions. One of them was concerning his solution for the growing urbanization. Because young people go to the big cities, it leaves the elderly out in the countryside, with no one left to take care of them.

We were also curious about the coming summer olympics in Tokyo. More specifically, the games will bring a lot of foreigners to the country. At this point in time, the Japanese language skill and cultural understanding might not be sufficient to adequately host so many foreigners.

So, we asked Mr. Kado how he thinks this problem will be solved.

His answer included the belief in technological advancement in instant-translation devices, but also the fact that an influx of tourists (although mostly Asian)
could help the Japanese shed the idea of a secluded society (one that still lingers since the end of the Edo era).

Personally, I would have liked to hear some attempt to make the Japanese interested in going abroad themselves, instead of counting on the people of other nations to come to Japan.
Nevertheless, it was interesting to hear his opinion.

After our meeting with Mr. Kado, he was kind enough to pose for a group photo with us. A few minutes later we were back on track to meet our new host families in Tama…

Wim Naessens (Belgium)