Today started out pretty grand as we practiced for the Arigato Event (always fun to sing and dance) and some of the university students joined in which made it more fun. I ate Italian which was super delicious! We also got to do country presentations. I learned a lot about the other countries, like how Finland and Norway have the chance to see the Northern Lights, Greece breaks ceramic pots on a certain holiday and Chine has sweets that I have to try!
There’s a lot more, but what I would really like to mention is the performance we got to watch. Elementary School children sang for us, which was both touching and amazing – no joke, these kids won a championship. I should mention that the Mayor also came and spoke a few words to us. It was really fun and I would say more, but I feel as though this is something that everyone should experience for themselves and I don’t want to spoil too much.
We met up with the students at 10:00 am. They were more than we expected. At first we took the train to a temple, but because a delay earlier, we had to cancel this and move on to Kamakura. A little sad, because the temple looked really beautiful.
We continued our long train ride to the Buddha statue. The actual train ride was very nice, since it was very relaxed and we had time to just sit down and talk with the other students and to get to know them better. After visiting the Buddha statue we had some delicious ice cream, but then we had to head back already because the day was nearing its end.
On the way back we watched the sea as it passed by the windows of the train. It was more beautiful than we had imagined and was a good end to the day.
World Campus – Japan participants learns how to make various cute japanese food, like owl sushi. After that each participant gets to try various japanese dances and sports.
Stella talks about her experience with making food and learning Kendo.
Japanese calligraphy mastery as presented by WCJ members
Today started at Keisen University in Tama, which is a women’s only University. The university was surrounded by green scenery, and a big tower in the middle had bells that were ringing and a cross over the bells. We had an introduction and got to meet some of the student in small groups. We then went to the university’s chapel, where we heard a song from Bach being played on the organ, and got to know a little about the university’s history as well. We then got a small tour around outside of the university in groups. Everything was so pretty! We gathered together and collected herbs to make tea. My group got some different lemon herbs. Our tea didn’t taste of that much, but it was still fun, and we got to know the Japanese students in our group better. We were supposed to go dance in a gymnasium after that, but didn’t have time, so we quickly put on some music, and danced Soran Bushi where we were standing. It was a little chaotic and crowded, but very fun! I love dancing kind of silly dances. We then went to the cafeteria to eat the bento our host families had made. I found out they were selling matcha ice cream there, so of course I had to buy some.
After the University we went to Tsurumaki elementary school. We played a lot of fun children’s games, trivia, calligraphy and they also sang for us. It was a very fun experience, though it was very hot and humid in the gymnasium, with so many people running around.
We ended the day with a short meeting as usually, and we also shortly practiced our country presentation for Wednesday, and talked about our plans for our personal day tomorrow. I’m going to Yokohama with a group.
All in all it has been a very busy, but fun day, where I got to talk to a lot of different people. I ended the day with a relaxing evening with my host family, eating delicious food, and of course more matcha ice cream for dessert!
This was the day of our first Arigato Event for this session and for most of the participants. Although we trained really hard at the beginning of the week, it was still quite hard during the rehearsals.
But before that we started with Hiro explaining us the theories of traveling to other countries and the culture shock and adaptations. I found this to be very interesting.
After that we first walked through the program of the Arigato Event. What would happen, where do I stand, how much noise I’m supposed to make, etc. Also, after lunch we spent a lot of time rehearsing this together with our performances. Near the end of the rehearsals everyone spent some time on practicing their weak points or helping others with theirs.
Our performances as a group consisted of 2 songs, one of which we sang multi-lingually, a trivia and a word quiz – in which every country had two questions on both subjects and the audience has to guess, or know, the right answer – and a dance medley consisting of four shortened versions of famous Japanese songs, one of them being girls only and the other one a boys only dance. Other than that, some people also did something extra, like a cultural performance.
Before the official Arigato Event started we demonstrated what we learned on Tuesday with the Japanese cultural experience activity. The audience really seemed to enjoy it and the Arigato Event as well, even though it continued ‘till past 8 o’clock. Their enjoyment made me really happy and made all the hard work of last week really feel like it was worth the effort.
Bonus Story: After lunch we had free time. Previously we were told to not leave the building or the area, at least during small breaks, by one of the counselors. During the break when I was with a few other people on the parking lot catching ‘em all we saw that counselor and some others go to the konbini. We decided to follow and buy some ice cream, but when we came back, right on time, it turned out we were not actually supposed to do that. But considering it was a misunderstanding and everyone was back on time, it turned out okay and no permanent harm was done. You shouldn’t follow our example though.
Sabine Boom, The Netherlands
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