Category Archives: 地域学習

訪問地, 地域学習, 長野県上田市

第一セッション　−　オリエンテーション

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数々の地域活動に参加し、様々な地域の名所見物もしましたが、ツアー始めの二週間の焦点の一つはオリエンテーションでした。オリエンテーションやトレーニングなんて面白くないように思われるかもしれませんが、これだけ国際的なグループがこの多様なプログラムを成功させるのには欠かすことはできません。第一セッションの参加者とスタッフはブラジル、アメリカ合衆国、インドネシア、ウズベキスタン、カナダ、韓国、ケニヤ、中国、デンマーク、日本、ノルウェー、フィンランド、そしてメキシコからやって来ているのですから。

基本的なガイドラインやルール等の発表以外にも、スタッフは参加者がワールドキャンパスでの日常の流れに速やかに適応するよう上手く援助してくれました。一日の始まりは参加者が日替わりで発表する「こんな時に日本にいるって分かる」です。しかしながら、その短い一時だけでは私が幾度も体験した不思議に食欲をそそる食事、温められたトイレの便座、眉毛の完璧に整った男性との出会い等はまとめられないと思います。もちろん「私のストーリー」無しでは一日が完成しません。無作為に選ばれたメンバーに自分のライフストーリーを十分程で語る機会が与えられます。

生涯で一番恥ずかしかった体験等、あらゆる話を聞き、語る事でお互いを少しずつ知り合い、友情を築き上げて行きます。

最初の一週間程は毎日一時間の日本語の授業を受けました。私達の素晴らしいヒロミ先生が辛抱強く基本的なサバイバル用日本語を教えてくれました。難しいと同時に楽しく、実用的でした。実際、日本人の誰もが外国人の私たちが日本語を一言でも口にすると仰天していました。

日本での滞在中は各地のホストファミリーにお世話になっています。彼らは食と住を提供してくれるだけではなく私達を家族の一員として迎えてくれます。そんなホスト、そして地域の人々への感謝の気持ちを表す為、私たちは歌や踊り満載の「ありがとうイベント」を開催します。このイベントは参加者達がそれぞれの文化の歌や踊り等様々な方法でお客様をもてなすカルチュアル・プレゼンテーションを含むいくつかの部分で成り立っています。リハーサルでお互いのパフォーマンスを幾度も見る事で、私達は更に仲良くなり、そして一つ一つの文化について学ぶ事が出来ましす。イベントでは、それに加え二つの英語の曲、そして日本の名曲のメドレーも歌います。

もちろん、イベントの概要を初めて説明された当初は皆少しは圧倒されました。にも関わらず、始めの二週間中の練習を終えての上田市で初めてイベントは成功し、お客樣方からも大変良い反響をいただきました。私のホストシスターのカズエちゃんは、私達のSMAPが一番面白かったとはしゃいでいました。デンマークからの参加者である友人のハ・リリーは「皆と一緒にいて、地元の皆様に披露するのはとても楽しかった」と、フィンランド人のペルトラ・イルッカは「素人にしては上出来だ」と言っていました。皆もそれに賛成するだろうと思います。

どんなオリエンテーションも簡単ではありませし大変な時もありますが、その価値は間違いなくあります 😉

（アメリカ出身、アルファノ・ジャッキー）

訪問地, 地域学習, 長野県上田市

上田市でのテーマ：食と社会

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七月一日は頭と体の両方にとって素晴らしい日となりました。午前中には試食用の新鮮なトマト、キュウリ、そしてサクランボを持ち得た地元の農家が上田市の「あさつゆ」という農産物直売加工センターについて話をしてくれました。野菜や果実の味は案外土の種類に左右されるようです。

彼は日本語で喋っていましたが、職業に対しての熱意は安易に感じ取ることができました。彼の使命は農家と消費者の両方に有機栽培された自然な農作物を実行可能なものにするということです。殺虫剤等の科学物に汚染されることなく育った作物の利点は否定できないものの、大抵は他の物に比べて値段が断然高くなってしまいます。出費を減らす為にと上田市にこんな直売センターが築かれたのです。毎日、二百軒以上の農家が採りたての産物を売ることが出来ます。大勢の売り手がいることで商品の値段も自然と下がります。競争は激しくても、更に多くの消費者がいるので農産も賢明な職となります。

実際の見学は更に味覚を堪能してくれました。鮮やかなエプロンと手ぬぐいを頭に巻き、World Campus Japanの参加者はおやきの作り方を習いました。あんこのと野沢菜との二種類を作りましたがどちらもたまらなくおいしいものとなりました。あさつゆの厨房では毎日おやきが蒸され、包装され、店頭に並べられます。このように、有機物だけではなく出来立てのパン、クッキー、そしておやき等も売られているのです。

信頼できる食糧無しでは社会は存在できません。しかし近年そんな食物が全く足りていないのです。意識的に体と地球に優しい食物を求める動きがあります。上田市ではそんな自然な食べ物への要望が農産物直売センターで満たされていることを学びました。

（アメリカ出身ユング・グァング）

千葉県我孫子市, 訪問地, 地域学習

Abiko City Theme – Environment

[inspic=362,right,gal,0]As you know, in every city on the World Campus — Japan tour, we have a city theme. The theme for Abiko city was the environment. This is an issue that I feel very strong about but the topic is also quite broad.

When thinking about the environment you can talk about nature itself, but also the animals in nature on a more local level. But the environment can also be discussed on a more global level too; which today more or less means the discussion about global warming and the future that lies ahead of us. A discussion involving the life we want to leave for future generations and the ethics and morals around it.

With all these levels in this theme in mind, Abiko City and World Campus — Japan chose to focus on a few of them.

It all started in Uda City, with the group watching the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”. A film portraying the problems of global warming and why global warming is an important issue. The creator of the film, Al Gore, discusses his personal story connected to the environment and global warming and why he became interested. The movie also shows important facts about global warming and proves that it is an important issue that should be dealt with. The movie has been criticised for better and for worse all over the world and there are some facts that are not scientifically proven. But the message is agreed upon in the scientific world and a discussion has started on higher levels, around the world.

Our stay in Abiko contained visiting a bird and water museum but we also explored nature around Teganuma lake. We even had a speaker at the community music event talk about global warming and the responsibilities of the richer countries in the world to take actions. An interesting point he made is the definition of a developed country. Is a developed country definition only based on economy or can the environment have a bigger say here? If we take the environment in consideration then very few countries are really developed.

By visiting the bird and water museum we had the opportunity to visit the nature around us and how human activity affects the environment we share and love.

Also in the water museum we learned how they cleaned the water from pollution as this lake that was the dirtiest in Japan for 27 years. Though they suddenly changed their mindset and began a cleaning process making the lake cleaner and more beautiful.

I also had the opportunity to present my passion to the group as a follow up on the movie we saw the week before. As a continuation on “An Inconvenient Truth” which portrays the problems more than the solutions, I therefore decided to make a PowerPoint on what you can actually do and the difference it makes.

I tried to focus on the solutions giving the most impact. Of course recycling, less waste and less consuming and energy use was at the top. But also things like eating less meat and changing your way of transportation makes a bigger impact using little tools.

The most important thing in my opinion is to see the connections for example that what you do has an influence on your surrounding. Chemicals as an example will never be reduced if we do not start to use less of them and reducing their quantity in the environment. But also informing others and creating awareness about the problem is 50 % of the job since alone we are limited but together we can change, as cliché it may sound it is still true.

But if you want to make changes then make changes you are comfortable with in order to make a long-time commitment and change.

A great week with many sources of information and activities, it was a wonderful conclusion on our amazing stay in Japan with a great foundation in becoming World Citizens.

(Jonathan Cygnaeus, Sweden)

訪問地, 地域学習, 奈良県宇陀市

Uda City Theme – World Religions

[inspic=364,right,gal,0]On March 24th, the World Campus International participants had a lecture about Buddhism by a monk (who was also my host mother) and then took part in a series of presentations and discussions organized by the participants.

In the lecture given by Ms. Okazaki, she explained to us her view of Buddhism. Quite a few of the participants from western cultures were surprised that Buddhism should be considered a religion because they had heard Buddhists say it’s more a way of life than an organized religion back at home.

We learned that there are a lot of different forms of Buddhism and the one she is practicing is called Nembutsu Buddism which is based on the teachings of High Monk Shinran (1173-1262).

Shinran spread the teaching of the Nembutsu. The preaching of the absolute power of the other, that one need only trust entirely in Amida Buddha. He focused on the forty-eight vows of Amida and if we have faith in Amida, we have already been saved.

Taking the Nembutsu as an invocation of gratitude to the Buddha, he categorically denied practices of one’s own power as superfluous. He preached absolute reliance on power of the other (= Amida), such that one is saved when one achieves correct faith.

Afterwards we had presentations and discussions on other World Religions. Groups of 4 to 5 World Campus — Japan participants presented a certain religion to the others so that everyone had a basic understanding of those religions in order for us to talk about them. Those religions were Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism as well as Buddhism.

Whenever possible in our discussions we did give people in our group who belonged to one of the discussed religions also a platform to explain their views of their own faith.

We also asked people about the stereotypes of different religions and discussed that some religions had bad media representation and can be misrepresented.

In this process we learned a lot about religions and how people from different ones can work together on a topic like religion with out having negative outcomes as seen so often in the world.
In the end we also gave people who are Atheist time to speak so they could share their views too.

After the discussions, everyone agreed that no one should have a bad view of someone because they have different faiths and that we should live together and respect other people’s values and belief systems.

It was a great day to be able to discuss a topic which is not easy in such a kind and friendly manner with people from all around the world including the local Japanese and we all learned much and did get a step closer to understanding global citizenship.

I wish that all religious leaders in the world could experience that what we did here in Uda City in Japan in our discussion about World Religions as it would really change their world as well.

(Daniel Gallion, Luxembourg )

訪問地, 地域学習, 大阪府吹田市

Suita City Theme – Globalization

[inspic=361,right,gal,0]The city theme for Suita was globalization and I found it to be particularly interesting because it connected with WCI’s main mission of creating global citizens. Suita city itself is very urban and the participants were excited to explore what the city had to offer.

Upon our arrival in Suita city, we were welcomed by the city mayor, Mr. Yoshio Sakaguchi. He brought warm regards on behalf of the citizens and welcomed us to the city during an exciting time of year as the World Expo memorial events were taking place during our visit.

Early in the week we were able to visit two companies. One group of participants visited an egg company while the other group visited a noodle company. Both groups had unique experiences interacting with the staff members in each company. This was an exciting opportunity for both participants and the company staff as we introduced our theme of globalization. We were able to exchange ideas with management and staff on various topics relating to globalization and its effects on businesses across the world, for example, economics and global warming.

We also had another unique opportunity to visit the Asahi beer company. We were able to tour the company observing that the company was very effective with waste management, recycling nearly 100% of all the products they use to manufacture their product. It was also a great opportunity for the participants to inquire as to how Asahi is currently handling the issue of globalization. This experience was meaningful because it was held after our internal group discussion about globalization where members shared their thoughts about developed countries opening up for developing countries in order to have a share in globalization.

Additionally we spent another day visiting two very different companies in the city; the Mitsubosh Diamond Company and Asahi Broadcasting Company. The diamond company expanded our view as we observed their practical approach to building networks across the globe. We had a lot of interaction with the employees there and that helped us to further understand how companies in Japan approached globalization. For added experience, participants were able to use public transportation for the first time on the tour as a means of understanding how transportation systems work compared to those in their home countries.

Our participants grew a lot from the interactions that they had with the companies as well as host families in our globalization-focused stay in Suita city, Osaka.

(Henry Musenze-Mukasa, Uganda)