Category Archives: City Theme Activities

City Life, City Theme Activities, Toyota City

Driving technology

Toyota Museum

Obviously, we couldn’t leave the City of Toyota without visiting… “Toyota!” Even though we couldn’t visit the cars factory itself, we got to see the Toyota Museum of Technology.

Now, you’re imagining a boring museum, full of old cars and stuff like that, right?

Wrong! The Toyota museum was surprisingly fun! In Techno-land, for example, you could do and try all kind of experiences, so that you could learn about physics forces that they use all the time to produce cars. And for those who love robots, they had one that would play musical instruments! We posted a picture a few days ago with a caption “Future”, check it out!

And, obviously, for those who love cars, they had one part where they would explain how things are done in Toyota factory. So, even though we couldn’t get to see the real factory, we understood the whole process.

We sure had a good time, hanging in the museum! The fact that the Nagoya college students were with us, giving us some explanations sometimes, made it a really good day!

(Ana Margarida – Portugal)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Toyota City

Frogs, flies, spiders and worms

in the rice field

When that morning we heard we were going to the community of Asuke to pick up weeds from the rice fields, it sounded like a cool experience but doing it was a complete whole new deal. Not only did we put our feet with just sox in the mud and picked up weeds from the rice fields, we also discovered a complete new world of flying, swimming and jumping bugs we had never seen before. Anywhere from frogs to flies to spiders to worms. They were all there, waiting for us to put our hands in the mud to jump, swim or fly either away or towards us.

The truth is, even though it wasn’t that pretty we had a great time going through the experience together. This was for sure a lifetime experience, not only coming to Japan but putting our feet in the mud, dealing with the bugs and doing it all with a bunch of friends from all over the world. Where else can you do something like that? where else can you get to experience this kind of things.

World Campus – Japan is THE unique access to Japan. Today more than ever, it teaches us to appreciate how comfortable we are at home and how to appreciate other people’s work.

City Life, City Theme Activities, Tama City

It’s simple

Arigato Event

Arigato Event. Many of us start to tremble just to hear the sound of it. Doing a “show” in Japan?! That might not be the greatest idea for those who are stage fright or simply think that they don’t have any special talent. So, why is the Arigato Event something so important for World Campus International?

It’s simple. You don’t have to be talented. You don’t have to feel comfortable on stage. You just need to put your heart into it.

We spent a wonderful week in Tama. We met fantastic people from the local community, college students and many others that were so, so kind to share with us their cultures and their lives. But, on the top of it all: we met and lived with the most marvellous host families that welcomed us into their houses and treated us as if we were their own children. How do we repay such kind of kindness?

Arigato Event is the key of it. The people from Tama, who made our week unforgettable, came to see us. Yes, we were nervous as hell – after all, we wanted to make something beautiful, something that our families and new friends could enjoy. We didn’t want to mess up! But no one was worried about talent. We just wanted to say, from the bottom of our hearts, “Arigato” – or “Thank You”, in English.

It worked. Arigato Event in Tama was very emotional – after all, it was our last day in the city. We had to say goodbye to many people who we considered friends already. Arigato Event made even more tight the bonds we created all week.

And yes, there were a lot of mistakes. Some people forgot their lines. Some other forgot their lyrics. Some even forgot the moves. But, honestly?

We all had the time of our lives. And we are certain that the Tama community had a great time too.

(Ana Margarida – Portugal)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Tama City

Tokyo Tour

Tour of Tokyo

Tama is a city located very close to Tokyo, so, World Campus – Japan could not go to a city close to one of the most populated cities in the world and not visit it. The university students we met on the fist day in Tama, very nicely accepted to take us on a really cool tour of Tokyo. They took us everywhere from shopping at Shibuya Station, one of the biggest train stations in Japan to Tsukiji, the biggest fish market in the world.

Nothing like getting a tour from the locals, they know those places where as a tourist you never get to see. That’s how we do tourism in World Campus – Japan. Pretty unique!

City Life, City Theme Activities, Tama City

Potluck of Cultures

Yukatas

After a super nice morning at the University of Kokushikan we went back to our usual meeting place in Central Tama. When we entered the room, it was filled with local people, all different kinds of food and flags. It was so nice and we felt so welcomed.

The minute we entered the room, people started talking to us in english, pretty good english in fact, trying to know more about us and our specific countries.

Some of them, had already been to my country, Canada, so we could talk about it and the connection was immediate. After the conversation started we began to eat all the amazing food there was around on different tables. There were a bunch of very traditional sweets and other japanese dishes like Dango (Sweet Rice Cake) sushi rolls and fried tofu. Everything was so delicious, I wish I had more space in my belly 🙂

After the eating part ended, the local community members had prepared some traditional japanese games and cultural activities for us. We could try on the summer kimonos (Yukatas) and take pictures with our friends from World Campus – Japan.

The funniest activity of all was the Ninin Baori, where a person had to feed another person but without seeing anything, actually seating behind them. It was messy, delicious and crazy funny.

We also experienced a Tea Ceremony where we drank japanese tea, and ate japanese sweets. Played Japanese card and chess games and also Go (Chinese Game) all this with very skilled people, so no much hope for winning the games. It was so much fun and so different than the games we play in my country.

The afternoon finished with everyone dancing a traditional festival dance around the room. We learned so much in a very short time but it was so nice… I should never forget.

(Eve Marmen – Canada)