World Campus Japan is all about giving you an experience of being a member of Japanese society, on (mostly) equal footing with real Japanese people. In my mind, nothing accomplices this goal as effectively as helping to prepare a festival. You are right there with the Japanese, doing the same work with the same goal in mind. Specifically, our job was to put up tents for the booths. When there was nobody around to tell us what to do, I ran around looking for work on my own, mostly carrying stuff around for people.

The summer festival of Uda is in a typical format. It consists of a baseball court with a stage at one end and surrounded by rows of tents at the others, with a tower in the centre. The tents provide shelter for shops, food stalls, games et cetera. At the end of the festival, people dance around the central tower, a dance called bon-odori (lit. lantern festival dance).

On the festival day, two other participants, Alvaro and Karo, and myself were followed around by a television team from a local channel, who watched us eat stuff and play games while interviewing us. They also filmed our pitiful attempt at bon-odori.

The festival ended with the most amazing display of fireworks I have ever seen. Shells were fired from less than 100 meters away and covered the night sky with light.

You can go to festivals as a tourist in Japan as much as you wish, but no festival will be quite as good as one you help make happen. It just makes me really warm and fuzzy when I think about how I made a real contribution, no matter how small, to Japanese society

Espen Auseth Nielsen (Norway)

Today we had to say goodbye to our families and friends in Suita, Osaka. I had so much fun with my family during the week, and I had to fight back the tears in my eyes when it was time for us to depart. It has been an amazing week, and I tried to say goodbye to them with a smile.

When we had just left Suita, everyone was feeling a bit sad. But when I saw the mountains that surround Uda, I began to feel nervous again. What would my new host family be like? What kind of people will they be? Will I be able to connect with them as well as with my last host family? Thankfully, the answer to that last question is yes!

We met our families over dinner, a few hours after we arrived. Each member of WCI was assigned a certain object, which the families had taken with them, and they put in a closed box. Each member had to look for their assigned object by feeling inside the boxes. Thankfully, I found my object, a dog collar, straight away. Immediately after that, I started talking with my host family! They were a bit reserved in the beginning, but so was I. Thankfully, after a while we all lost our shyness and starting enjoying the evening. It was so much fun! We talked about the differences between The Netherlands and Japan, everyone’s hobbies and dreams, family, pets, etc. we kept talking, even after dinner, at my host family’s home until late at night. My nervousness was completely replaced by a sense of anticipation for what will hopefully be an awesome week in Uda, Nara!

Lisanne Pool (The Netherlands)