Day of activity: July 13th 2015

Just like every day, I woke up at 7 o’clock, but unlike everyday, our breakfast was bread and jam. It was a nice change after all that rice. Our host (Kumamoto) Ken-san drove us (meaning me and my roommate Anders) to Uda’s community center. There we would experience one of Japan’s greatest traditions: the tea ceremony.

First we all needed to change into Yukatas. This traditional clothing is just like a kimono, but lighter. After a short photoshoot everybody got their spot on the tatami mat- and that’s when things got serious. We sat down in the most uncomfortable pose ever! Some of the World Campus Japan members did a great job of hanging in there. I however gave up pretty quickly due to my bad knees. We learned all about the history of the ceremony, about what to do, and what to avoid. Some of us even got to make our own tea!

After the ceremony, we gathered in the great hall again. Being in Japan for 13 amazing days already, this seemed like a great opportunity to reflect on our stay so far. We likened our experiences to those of one another, some good, some bad. All of them were very educational. The last part of the day was spent preparing for the arigato event. Before the families arrived, we did an entire rundown for our new friends Ryoko and Keiko, who came all the way to Uda from Kyuushu just to spend two days with us.

After this we gave our host families a great show. We danced, sang, played games, and read thank you-letters. I even got to play a traditional song with my host-dad: we had practiced this ‘Sakura-song’ every evening and had had so much fun doing so!

To end this lovely day, our host family took us out for dinner. We went to an Indian restaurant, which was once again a nice change from all that (delicious) Japanese food.

Tanguy Declercq (Belgium)

Day of activity: July 12^th 2015

Today we went to visit the elderly home ‘Murou en’!

The purpose was to interact with the elderly residents, overcome language barriers, and bring some variety into their day. I really enjoyed spending time with them, especially since I had never interacted with elderly Japanese people before. It was a little hard to converse to begin with, but it got a bit easier once we started collaborating on the paper collage we were making. It was a beautiful image of Mount Fuji.

They were very sweet, and I was very happy that they seemed to be happy about doing this activity with us. I wish we could have spent more time with them, especially when I saw how sad they were to see us leave…

I’m really glad that we did this activity!

Later, after visiting the retirement home we carried on to visit the Murou temple, where we were guided through the lower part. The guide was very knowledgeable, and I learned many interesting facts about the temple and aspects of japanese religion. The temple grounds were really beautiful! The trees were tall and green, and the stairs to the top took you through some of the forest. The walk to the top was very hot and tiring, but the view at the top was worth it! I will never forget this beautiful place.

Iselin Erikssen (Norway)

Day of activity: July 10th 2015

Today we went to Akame falls to have a ninja experience! I really enjoyed the time I spent as ninja. There was a big and beautiful natural park, with houses built in the ninja’s style, meaning with hidden doors and things like that. There were so many trees and a big waterfall.
We threw shurikens! I have never done it before, but it was really good. And it was the activity that I liked the most of all. We also did some climbing on a wall. It was very difficult because it was too slippery. But it was very fun. After that, we learned about other ninja activities, such as moving on ropes and walking on narrow planks. We wore ninja costumes of different colors the whole time. At the end, we got our ninja certificates 🙂 And we felt like real ninjas:)! It was a good day!

Tamara Djuraeva (Usbekistan)