It was Arigato Event Day and even when this day is usually very packed, the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) members from Ueda planned a potluck for after the event which normally doesn’t affect our schedule.

This day we, World Campus -Japan Participants were going to cook the meals for the Potluck! We splited up into 5 teams and cooked something from our countries and cultures, we had everything from Caseroles from USA to Guacamole (Avocado Dip) from Mexico. From filled Red Peppers and Tomatoes from Greece to Mash Potatoes and Beef from Canada. It was defenitely very Oishii (delicious in Japanese).

Everyone cooked what they could with the ingredients they could find in Japan. The families enjoyed the food and so did we, but most important, We learned from each other and from ourselves, about team work, recipes, flavors and cultures and we had a great time doing it.

Some members of the community of Ueda got together to teach us how to cook Soba Noodles (Buckwheat very thin noodles that you can eat cold or hot)

Of course we started by making the dough for it and adding all the ingredients. After the dough was ready it was time to stretch it and cut it as thin as we could. We made the dough, cut the noodles, cooked them and ate them. They looked more like Udon noodles (thick noodles) but the taste was great, to give ourselves some credit. 🙂

After this awesome time we the community, we went to Kita Middle School for an hour of interaction. This time we really took advantage of those 60 Minutes we were given to get to know each other.

We introduced ourselves, danced sang and had an amazing time together. The students, usually very quiet and shy when it comes to interaction, specially with foreigners, really opened up and enjoyed the activities we planned for them.

They were dancing and signing with us like one big group of friends. Results like the one we had that afternoon with the middle school students are the reason we do our best to interact and to make it fun, not only for the students at the school but also for ourselves in World Campus – Japan.

From the bus we could see the faces of the residents of Tombo House (House for handicap people) who were already excited to have us there, even when we were still inside the bus.

As soon as we got off the bus, they gave us a very warm welcome, they were ready to start the interaction and so were we.

World Campus – Japan members played a few traditional japanese games, the one on the picture was the most competitive, fun and hard one. Some of us were successful, some other just enjoyed watching others try.

The bottom line was not the actual games, it was about the happiness we were bringing to the Tombo House residents by just spending a good hour playing and interacting with them.

Sometimes we forget how important the little things in life are but in days like this i remind myself to enjoy those little actions because they could lead to amazing results like the one we had that day at Tombo House.

Six Schools and 2200 Kids are being benefited by this eight million dollar facility ran by 22 employees.

I am talking about the school lunch facility of the city of Ueda, where they even have a special room to cook the food of kids with allergies… Pretty well organized I must say, and the best of all, most of the energy they use to cook comes from the solar panels located on top of the building.

In Japanese Schools, the lunch hour is an actual class, it’s called Food Education. The kids learn from early age, how to eat healthy, they also learn about manners and even about portions and how to make sure everyone gets something to eat. Kids are assigned to serve the food and after the meal they check how well their classmates eat as a whole group.

As we all know, every country has their own system an after our tour at the facility we had time to share the different systems.

We thought the United Kingdom system is the most fun, interactive and fare system of all. Totally Harry Potter Style.

The schools are divided into groups or “houses” just like in Harry Potter. Each group competes to get points for eating healthy food, a teacher is assigned to eat with individual students, rotating everyday, that way they can evaluate how the student is eating, what they eat and how healthy the food is, the student’s eating habits basically.

Another very interesting thing about the system in the UK and that it might have nothing to do with Harry Potter is the fact that the school lunch is cooked taking in consideration the religion of the majority of the students there. If the school population is mainly Muslim, they will not cook anything with pork or if the majority of the students are from India you won’t find any beef in the menu at that school.

Interesting eh? the beauty of diversity and accepting differences.