Day of activity: July 29^th

Today we had the opportunity to share our cultural perspectives on philosophy, and debate the meanings of commonly used words such as justice, tolerance and morality, with several members of Tsukuba university in the Torride city community centre.

We were first made to feel comfortable and free to share our arguments in what they called a “philosophy cafe” style atmosphere; plenty of sweets, drinks, rice cakes and biscuits (just enough to feed us while we worked up a mental sweat). We were then asked to come up with a witty code name while the debate and conversations took place; something connected to our personality or preferences in some way (I went by Goldie, referring to my favourite Ancient Greek philosophical tool, the ‘golden mean’).

Although the proceedings were supposed to remain as objective and lighthearted as we could keep it, from the get-go I noticed people had serious, passionate feelings backing their views- which was a good thing! I was pleased to discover that everyone wanted to participate and think about the world around us in a more out-of-the-box, abstract way. Throughout the trip so far, being pragmatic and down to earth has been more useful to us. We are a busy band of travelling foreigners, with little time to sort through our many differences and varied world views, so being asked for a more challenging and metaphysical discussion today made me very happy, as a lover of philosophy and debate.

I noticed that the university students were quiet, but watchful and keen to absorb the points of view that were put out to the group; usually the sign of mature and unbiased philosophers! I would have loved to talk one-to-one with some of the students, to learn more about their experience studying philosophy in Japan, and ask their views of the differing attitudes and life values between young and old members of Japan, but in the heat of the discussion we ran out of time to do so.

This was my favourite group activity in Torride, as it was the best way to learn more about the other participants and their cultures- by seeing their degree of maturity once in a mentally challenging environment, and their variety of cultural twists on philosophical issues, which I had never been exposed to before! In all, a refreshing (if a little intense) experience for all who took part!

Isobel Tawn Crookston (England)

Day of activity: July 27^th 2015

Today we assembled at the city hall of Toride city where a big bus was waiting for us. When we, some hostfamilies and all World Campus Japan members were present, we started the drive towards a town with a sake factory and weaving company. It was fun riding the bus together, and we talked a lot. Once we arrived it was already pretty hot outside, but the sun was shining so it was bearable. It wasn’t the moist heat we sometimes have.

The first activity was cloth weaving or dyeing, and I was in the group that would dye- we were all looking foreward to it! Once we were all present, we were set around a table and could choose between orange and blue dye. I chose blue. We all got a scarf-like cloth and folded it in a triangle. We bound the pointy edges tight with a rubber band, and then we shook it in the dye. It was pretty intense muscle training. Can’t imagine someone dyeing a whole kimono by hand like that… After a lot of shaking and making funny remarks, we let the sensei wash our cloth and they all turned out beautifull! I was really happy to have had that experience. We could take our woven coasters and our scarfs back with us.

After that we stopped at the sake brewery. Inside it was reeealy hot! But we got a nice tour and it was amazing to be able to see where that delicious sake was made. The sensei that showed us around was really nice. He was, like many Japanese, really suprised to hear about how tall Dutch people are. After the tour we got to try some sake. We tasted one with alcohol and one without. The first two were really delicious and we toasted happily together. The third, we decided, was a bit wierd- but a nice experience. After the sake brewery we went home. We were pretty tired from the heat and all the nice things we had seen and done. It was a lovely day!

Anna Lansik, (Netherlands)