熊本県荒尾市, 訪問地

Upside Down in Greenland

upside down Greenland

In World Campus – Japan is not all about host families, cultures and Japan, is also about how fun you can have with six hours at an amusement park. Believe me, it doesn’t matter where you come from, we are all the same when it comes to riding a roller coaster, everyone goes through the same process.

We had six hours to explore and enjoy Greenland, the park with most rides in Japan. First we thought six hours was too long, at the end we didn’t have enough time for all the rides. Great times!!! We went from water rides, to shooting balls to win prices. From kids rides to scary rides. From slow and simple rides to upside down rides, like you see in the picture above.

At the end, we were tired, happy and sun burned but had a great bonding time with the crew and got to know each other on a much personal level, for sure.

Now, the 5 steps to go on a ride… from the participants of World Campus – Japan!

1. Watch what you are about to get yourself into.
2. Get in line. – Which for Greenland…there were no people there cause it was Friday morning. ( Perrrrrfect)
3. Get on, wrap and secure yourself
4. Hands up!
5. SCREEEEEEEAM.

熊本県荒尾市, 訪問地, 地域学習

Great ending, new beginning.

Arigato Evento Arao

The families from the Arao area hosted all of us on World Campus Japan first session and the week was full of amazing activities… the host family day, visiting really beautiful gardens and temples and internal work for all of us World Campus Participants, but the best part of all it has to be our Arigato Event. Time for the families to get to know each other, for the participants to express their gratitude and for everyone to become a big BIG family. The World Campus Family.

We all worked really hard to pull the Arigato Event off, learning songs and dances and creating the environment for an amazing performance at the “Blanca Hotel”, right next to Greenland. (Amusement park we will talk about on the next post, you can’t miss it)

Arigato Event (Thank you event) is not only a performance or a time to get to know each other, is a time when the Japanese Culture and our very personal culture mix together like one, we all laughed together, sang together and played together.

It is the end of a city for us but the beginning of amazing relationships we will develop with time with the host families and community members we interacted with during our visit.

Thank you ARAO…
Next post: Greenland!

熊本県荒尾市, 訪問地, 地域学習

Ichi go ichi e

Protector of the South

Ichi go ichi e – (Once in a life time)… That’s what it was for us, the opportunity that we had during our host family day in Arao. After having a great Soba Noodles Lunch and walking through a great garden with a river, we went to our final stop of the day. A recently built temple where we not only took the most amazing pictures you could imagine, which we’ll share at the end of the week, but we also had a once in a life time opportunity.

Inside the temple you can find four statues of gods, like the one on the picture above. They protect the west, east, north and south. This particular one is the God that protects the South. The best part of the visit started when a man approached us, introducing himself as the artist that makes the statues. I have to say, it was already a pretty nice experience to be able to see the statues, even nicer to be able to meet the artist, I was already happy with the visit at that point, then the unexpected happened… He invited us into his art studio where we had the chance to see the statue of the God protector of the West, being made. We counted the pieces, about 100 of them, we smelled the paint and saw the colors being mixed, to create an amazing piece of art. No one has this kind of opportunity, ever. The artist never opens his studio to anyone besides his team, young interns from the local university.

Host family day: Great food, great site seeing, once in a life time opportunities… Ichi go ichi e

熊本県荒尾市, 訪問地, 参加生

First night down, many more to go!

Lu and Kyle

Lu and Kyle were part of a very excited group of people that had the opportunity to meet the night of June 5th at the Manda Mine Museum in Arao, Japan. Host families were nervous but excited to bring home a new daughter or son, and finally the work the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) has been doing for a long time, is paying off, as you can all see on the picture above.

Host families can be very diverse, sometimes we go from having just a single mom to having a young family with two babies and a pet. It makes us understand who they are and their very own family culture. Thanks for hosting us and making us feel part of the family.

Our first night was now done, many more are coming our way and the excitement keeps growing as the time passes by. We’ll keep sharing our experiences with all of you readers. Stay tuned!

熊本県荒尾市, 参加生

Summer 2010 staff members are ready, are you ready?

Staff Training in Arao

After hours and hours of traveling from our home countries and cities, we finally made it to Arao, Japan. Tired? Yes. Jet lagged? Yes, Excited? Yes.
We spent a good amount of time getting ready and prepping everything for your amazing tour. All we need now is for all of you participants to get here so we can let the adventure begin.
Get excited, get packed… We are waiting for you. Are you ready?

Yui, Jake, Bertha, Hiro, Hideto and Celi,
Your staff members.

Unique Access to Japan!

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