[inspic=695,,fullscreen,400][inspic=694,right,fullscreen,400]Abiko – This is our third city in the World Campus – Japan spring tour 2009 for those who have been traveling starting from the first session, but for the new participants, this is their first city. Some of us are still struggling with culture shock, with our new host families, and with our new community. But I believe we are all enjoying this moment deeply in our hearts.

March 28^th was our host family day in Abiko! Host family day is when we spend a lot of time with our host families, starting from when we wake up until we go to bed. Yay!! It is such a nice day for everyone.

In Abiko, a few of the host families planned to have a picnic together. Kaho, Atsushi, Philip, Naoko, Nicolina, Guang, Daniel, Amanda, Jaime, Mustafa, Selly, and I had a wonderful picnic outside of a small kindergarten! Our host families called it an o-hanami party which means enjoying and cherishing cherry blossoms and of course bunches of oishii (delicious) food.

Honesty, that day was so awesome, a sunny day with tremendous love! It started with a lot of fun games. We played many traditional Japanese kids games, such as Jankenpong (rock, paper, scissor), hide and seek, dodge ball, and many others. After some of the energetic games, our host families already prepared tons of delicious food for us, it was super oishii! And for sure, we are falling in love with Japanese food!

Although the cherry blossoms weren’t in full bloom yet, and a couple of host families including mine and Kaho’s couldn’t join us, we enjoyed our time together. It was such a wonderful moment in my life. Their laughs, smiles, love, and caring will always be in my heart, and I believe all of us feel the same way!

(Amanda Soeprobo, Indonesia)

[inspic=692,,fullscreen,400][inspic=693,right,fullscreen,400]Abiko is one of the many satellite cities of the mega metropolis that is Tokyo. Although it is much smaller and more relaxed than its gigantic neighbor, Abiko is still very much an urban setting with its own share of environmental issues.

Like many other cities throughout the world, Abiko is struggling to preserve some semblance of nature in the face of urban development. Choosing to preserve nature is never easy and often times makes little economic sense. A mall, golf course, or apartment complex will most definitely generate more revenue than an undeveloped piece of natural scenery. It is then quite remarkable that a few concern citizens of Abiko chose to stand up and protect the little nature that is left in the city. In the past few years, even a planned kindergarten was blocked from being built in the “yatsu”, the wild area of city. Not to worry though, the kindergarten was built on a different site!

The effort to preserve nature in an urban setting is admirable. During our walk in the “yatsu”, we saw many different plants and a variety of animals including frogs, insects, and birds. Although the “yatsu” does not compare with a more traditional countryside setting such as Uda city in terms of nature or even aesthetic beauty, it is still amazing considering its status as a bedroom community of Tokyo.