Day of activity: 2013 August 12^th

Today, after eating our breakfast and rolling up our futons, we all got on the back of a little pickup truck and headed to our destination to interact with the locals.

We arrived early so most of the people weren’t there so we chatted with those who were already there. When everyone got together we split up in groups and did some games to break the ice. After getting to know each other we went into the fields to harvest vegetables. The sun was scorching that day but it was a lot picking up the vegetables (and the tomatoes were especially delicious!).

After harvesting a bunch of vegetables we got back to the facility and started cooking the curry and Naan bread (a type of Indian bread). One thing for sure was that a lot of people cried, since we had a lot of onions to slice. After cooking everything we sat down and ate together, it was so delicious! Curry really goes well with Naan bread!

After lunch we played a scavenger hunt with our group. We had to take a picture of a very specific plant that only grew in that area, a funny picture with one of the locals, and capture three types of insects. Needless to say, I wasn’t very keen on catching bugs but it was actually a fun experience! After that we got to play a game where you have to smash a watermelon in half whilst blindfolded, it was a lot of fun and the watermelon was really refreshing after all the fun we had! After that we said goodbye and went to refresh ourselves in the river and then we went to the onsen to get nice and clean.

That night the innkeeper had made us a feast and we had a very good time together chatting and listening to music. Today was a very nice day, I wish we had more time to enjoy the mountains, but we have left to the city now for a new adventure so I’m excited and looking forward to meet the host families!

Álvaro Martín Mazorra (Spain)

Date of Activity: August 27^th

Today we went to the Toyota factory. Although it was short, and we only got to see a small part of the factory, it was very impressive. The most amazing thing we saw was a line of robots that all moved at the same time and burned pieces of the car together. I felt as if I were in a science fiction movie. After that we went to the Toyota museum. It also looked a little futuristic. We saw a robot that had lungs and could play trumpet by itself, and many other cool things.

We had lunch all together in a Chinese restaurant – it was good! In the afternoon, the participants either had a half “personal day” or a half “host family day”. Together with Dieter (Belgium) and Maria (Norway) we went to the Osukannon shopping street in Nagoya. We visited a temple, and after on we went to a Neko café and a maid café. A Neko café is a café where you can pet cats and just relax. It was very calming, but we had the most fun in the maid café. A maid café is a place where you are served by girls in cute maid costumes. We got to eat delicious cakes, and we had the time of our lives – it was a great experience! The maids drew pretty drawings on our plates with chocolate and strawberry sauce. I recommend everyone to visit a maid café at least once – you won’t regret it!

(Tine Van Den Broecke, Belgium)

我孫子市での10日間の旅はあっという間に終わりを迎えてしまいました。
そして今日からは今年最後の訪問都市となる豊田市での活動がスタートです。我孫子のパワフルな皆さんとお別れをした後は、バスで揺られること7時間半、ここ、豊田市にやってきました。実行委員長やひろさんの挨拶の後、豊田市でも早速マッチング。ただ、ここではゲームでのマッチングです。全員名札を外し、自己紹介もないままゲーム開始です。
最初はリーダーじゃんけん。とはいっても普通のジャンケンでは面白くないので、豊田市並びのその近辺の特徴を当てはめたじゃんけんです。車・もみじ・カヌー・もも。
それぞれの動きを教えてもらい、その動きと同じであれば負け、座って勝ち残った人が勝ちというゲームでした。次に行ったのが数合わせゲーム。 “数合わせゲーム”
音楽とともに踊り、最後に指定された人が1～10までの数字の中から一つ選び、自分の国の言葉で数を言う。その人数で集まり、その輪の中にホストファミリーがいればめでたくマッチングというゲームでした。幸運にもホストファミリーがすぐに輪の中にいた人から次々と抜けていき、私はなんと最後の4人まで残ってしまいました。その後ホストファミリーから幾つかのキーワードとともに言い当てて頂き、無事お会いする事が出来ました。これから5日間という短い時間ではありますが、ここ豊田市で締めくくりに相応しいような日々を過ごせる事を楽しみにしています。