Category Archives: Toride City

Announcements, City Life, Community Partners, Toride City

Welcome to Toride City in World Campus – Japan 2015!!!

Welcome to Toride

都内まで40分ですが、日本を代表する河川の１つである利根川が流れ、自然環境に恵まれた地域です。また、芸大がありアートの街でもあります。
WCI取手での活動のイチ押しは、夏の凧揚げ大会です。ホストファミリーの皆様と一緒に４０連凧を作り、利根川土手で凧揚げをします。涼しい川風に吹かれての凧揚げは最高です！！
他にも、地域の方々と日本文化体験も予定しています。是非、取手へ！！待ってま~すヽ(^o^)丿”

Even though it takes only 40 minutes to get to the center of Tokyo, there is rich nature in Toride city such as the Tone River, one of the largest rivers in Japan! And there is an art college in this city, so Toride is known as a city of art as well!

We have several activities for the World Campus – Japan program 2015, and “Flying kites” activity would be the most exciting part of your stay in Toride! We are going to make 40 kites with the host families and let them fly in the sky by the Tone River!

Also we’re planning to have some more experiences of Japanese traditional cultures! Welcome to Toride! We all look forward to meeting you!

City Life, Community Partners, Our Partners, Toride City

Introducing Our Community Partners for World Campus – Japan Program 2013 *** Toride

Toride LOC


Session 5: Toride City, Ibaraki (August 19 ~August 27)

Toride City is one of the bed-town communities of Tokyo, since it is 40 minutes from downtown. We are proud to have the Tone River, the largest river in the Kanto/Tokyo area. Along the riverside, the citizens enjoy bird watching, park activities, golf, flying kites and fireworks, etc.. Since Toride was a key traffic station between Tokyo and the Northern Japan during the Edo period, there are many historical heritages, including the local corporations which have been in operation for more than 100 years. Toride is working together with the Tokyo University of the Arts, to make the city surrounded by “Art” by holding many cultural and art events. Toride also has world famous companies including Canon, Nisshin Foods which makes “Cup-O-Noodle,” Kirin Beer.
As one of the activities for the World Campus Japan visit in Toride, we scheduled to hold a Japanese kite making session with a professional kite maker and fly them by the Tone River. It will be amazing to see all the participants’ kites being connected together to fly in Kanto’s blue sky.

取手市は都心から40分、東京のベッドタウンです。なんといっても最大の魅力は、雄大な利根川の流れ。四季を通じて野鳥の観察ができ、河川敷を利用した公園やゴルフ場、お正月には凧揚げ大会、夏は花火大会などあり、市民の憩いの場となっています。江戸時代には水運、陸運の要所であったので、歴史にまつわる史跡なども多く残っており、創業から100年以上も続く老舗もたくさんあります。また、東京芸術大学の取手キャンパスがあり文化的なイベントも多く開催していて、アートの町づくりを目指しています。世界に名高いキヤノンやカップヌードルでも知られている日清フーズ、キリンビールなどの大手企業の工場などもあり、新旧混合の「水と歴史溢れるアートの町」です。
ＷＣＩ取手での活動の目玉は、芸大卒の先生と凧の会の方々のご指導による「真夏の凧揚げ大会」です。真夏の夕涼みに利根川河川敷でアートな手作り４０連凧が大空に舞い上がります。

City Life, City Theme Activities, Toride City

Kite Flying Day!

Date of Activity: August 8th

kiteflying


After a delicious potluck lunch, everyone seperated into groups to get ready to make their own kite! Host families were part of the activity too, which made it more fun! Our group’s theme was “anime characters”. I remember seeing Anpanman, Pokémon, One Piece, and a lot of Ghibli characters such as Totoro and Gigi the cat! Actually, I love to draw, so this activity really brought out the artist in me. I’m sure it did for everyone else as well because I had no idea how talented everyone was! Even my host mother who drew Urashima Taro!

kiteflying


It was really the perfect day for flying kites. The weather was cool, and it was just windy enough! Not to mention that Ryokuchi Kouen was beautiful! At the end, our group won first place. “Monsters” coming in second, and “Game Characters” coming in third. Though I think everyone did an amazing job on their kites! Creativity points!!

(Alexandra Goitia, USA)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Toride City

Exploring the Old Established Stores of Toride

Date of activity: August 7th

Today we were divided into four groups, each one exploring a different old store located in Toride city. Afterwards we make promotional materials for the shops and presented it to local High school students. These are some of the things we learned about the shops of Toride:

The Doll Group: At the doll shop, we learnt a lot about traditional Japanese doll making and about other Japanese products such as fans and lanterns. The doll shop is 200 years old and is owned by Mr. Yamazaki.
(Natalia Hansen, Norway)

oldshops


The Blacksmith Group: Today was a very cool experience to find how a blacksmith workshop can evolve through the ages. Starting from knives, the work has adapted to make katanas and then finally shovels. It becomes amazing to think that these special shovels, that have sharpened edges, originated from the craftsmanship that creates a world famous sword.
(Alexander Daniel del Campo, The United States)

The Pickles Group: I went to the Shinroku Narazuke today. It was a Japanese traditional Pickles company. We tried the samples, and they were really different and delicious. We all enjoyed it.
(Ying Zhang, China)

oldshops


The Sake Group: Today we went to the sake brewery. The shop was a family run business. The sake was brewed in barrels for at least one year. Unlike wine though, the maximum a sake can age is five years before it turns bad. We had a tasting of it, and the taste had a hint of saffron on it, and the texture was mild. I bought two bottles of sake as well, so I’m definitely suggesting everyone to go.
(Alvaro Martin Mazorra, Spain)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Toride City

Learning Japanese performing arts

Date of Activity: August 6th


We started the day with making our own Obentou – lunchbox. It became a small piece of art – some made rice balls with faces almost too cute to eat. Then we split up into five groups; two days in advance, we had written our names on one of five lists, choosing one traditional Japanese performing art that we wanted to learns more about. One group tried Chanbara: You fight with a fake sword while wearing a balloon on the head and one in a strap around one thigh. The goal was to pop either one of the opponent’s balloon. The group had a competition in which I believe Daniel emerged as the victor.


Two groups learned to play one song on Japanese instruments. One group on the Koto – a string instrument shaped to look similar to a dragon. The song they learned was “Sakura”, a widely know song in Japan. The other group played the Taiko – large Japanese drums. Both the stance of the drummer and the rhythm is important.The fourth group practiced Nankin tamasudare. In short, this is a sort of dance with a sushi rolling mat. During the performance, one person sings what the performers are about to make with their sushi rolling mats. The rhythm of the singing is very catchy, and the shapes the mats can make are impressive.


I was part of the last group, which danced Yasugibushi. Both this dance and the Soran Bushi that we do during the Arigatou event, are traditional fisherman dances. However, the purpose of Yasugibushi is to be funny for the audience to watch. We all wore a small bamboo basket tied around our hips, and we carried a larger, flat basket. Then we danced a story about going fishing, catching fish – which sometimes escaped our baskets so we had to run after them – and being bitten by mosquitoes. And we had to walk with our knees and backs bent and move our hips while we walked – which undeniably looked ridiculous (which after all was the purpose of the dance). And we all had a lot of fun learning the dance and watching each other. I can’t wait for Thursday to see the other groups show us what they’ve learned, and I hope they’ll enjoy our performance.

(Torunn Olsen, Norway)