Date of Activity: August 8^th

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!

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)

Date of activity: August 7^th

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)

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)

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)

Date of Activity: August 6^th

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)