Day of activity: July 9^th 2015

Hello, my name is Arno. I’m from Belgium, and today I want to talk about my experience with today’s zen buddhist meditation.

We arrived yesterday at the second town: Uda. This place is absolutely stunning, but the complete opposite from major cities such as Osaka, last week’s city. On day one, we went to a local Zen Buddhist temple near a small village. I was surprised at how young the head priest looked (maybe it was his bald head).

First came an exciting explanation about what posture to take and how he would assist us in staying focused… by smacking us with a long stick. It was a very unique experience: you have to thank the priest for the smack you are about to recieve, and thank him again afterwards. It was a lot of fun (although I had difficulties with leg cramps and nose itches, because I couldn’t move).

Afterwards we could ask questions to the priest. This was the most interesting part for me. It’s nice to hear the opinion of people with an entirely different way of thinking and culture, such as today’s priest. People asked questions about earthly desires (such as love), the religion itself, and his opinion on other religions. I wanted to ask so much more, but alas, time was up.

Today was very interesting! I’m Looking forward to the next zen buddhist meditation later this week.

Arno Ceriez (Belgium)

Day of activity: July 24^th 2014

Today was both an interesting and fun day.

The first activity of the day was visiting an elderly’s community centre – a place where people who are 60 years and older can come and interact with each other, or gather for different events. There, the local people had prepared a rather extensive show for us. This show included traditional Japanese dances, magic and ventriquilism (talking without moving the lips). Both the performances and the local people at the centre were very nice, lively and full of energy, and there were no clues of this being an elderly’s centre! What was even more astonishing was the age of the dancers. One of the dancers was 80 years old! This is something I would never have guessed; neither from her appearance nor from the way she danced. The whole show ended with us, the World Campus Japan (WCJ) members, performing Soran Bushi and Hana wa saku. It really seemed like everyone, both performers and audience enjoyed the whole show. Also, during Hana wa saku, some of the locals even had some tears in their eyes, which I found very touching.

After an absolutely delicious lunch buffet made by some of the local people, of which I ate way too much of, we went on to experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This was an experience that really met the WCI component of hands on curriculum.

The first step of conducting a tea ceremony is putting on either an Ukatta for the summer half year or a Kimono for the winter. So luckily, when considering how complicated and time consuming taking on these traditional Japanese costumes is, we got to wear ukattas (they consist of fewer parts than kimonos). To get a grasp of how complicated this is, you actually have to take classes to learn how to put on kimonos and ukattas! Luckily, we had skilled and nice helpers, or teachers who assisted each one of us in putting on the ukatta. However, it is not only the putting on of the yukata that is complicated; also moving around in these costumes is quite difficult. So this was also something we had to be taught.
When everyone had their yukatas on, and gotten instructions of how to move around in them, the tea ceremony could start. The ceremony consisted of eating something sweet , followed by drinking green tea, and is supposed to symbolise a moment of peace and equality. As mentioned by many of the participants, after the ceremony, a very elegant (there was not only a special way of acting, and receiving the sweets and tea, but also a set way of holding the tea cup and drinking the tea!), delicious, interesting, and for many also painful experience.

Most WCJ days we finish the day’s programme and spend the evening with our host families. Today however, the LOC had planned a pot luck party for us (WCI members and host families) for tonight. This turned out to be a great and fun evening, filled with loads of delicious food. In short, a great ending of a memorable day.

Mai (Norway)

Day of activity: July 23^rd 2014

It was already warm when I walked to murou shinkou center. After meeting up in the morning we went to an elderly home called murou-en and interacted with the elderly people. I talked with a man who was 90 years old, but it was quite hard to understand because my Japanese is not that good yet. But with the help of the staff of the facility, we talked about Japan, his and my country. He was really funny! We then played a chopstick game. We had to pick up rice grains, beans and other things with chopsticks and move them to our bowls. The man cheated to help us by moving the rice grains and other things to our bowl using his hands. Then it was time to say goodbye to them after they handed us origami umbrellas. We got a tour of the facility and all the elderly where happily smiling to us as we passed. We then said our last goodbyes and left the facility on the way to eat lunch. We ate Japanese curry and it was very delicious. It was then time for the last event of the day. We walked to Murou-temple and then had a guided tour through the temple. To reach the top of the temple we needed to climb a lot of stairs! Eventhough it was tiring and hot to reach the top it was definitely worth it, because the scenery you could see from the top and the temple on the top of the mountain were very beautiful. At 4pm it was time to return to murou shinkou center and end the day. We then all went back to our host families to eat and take a rest.

Iris Remans (The Netherlands)

Day of activity: July 22^nd 2014

Today started with a lecture about nara prefecture and Uda city by former school teacher Mr. Matsumoto. He taught us about the history of the region according to the kojiki, the oldest history book of Japan, compiled in the year 712. At the time, people did not have a concept of Hokkaidou, so nara was seen as the center of Japan. The first emperor made a pilgrimage to Nara to stop the fighting in the country.

Afterwards, we went to Kaedo no Sato, a garden and research facility with over 1200 species of maple in its garden. Its mission is to develop new species of maple which can withstand global warming. I had no idea the “maple” family had so many subspecies, with such a variety of leaf shapes and colors. The chief of the facility guided us around and explained the different species to us. We then received a lecture about leather imprinting. All in all it was a fun day and I learned a lot about maple trees.

Espen (Norway) & Amalie (Denmark)