Day of activity: July 23^rd 2014

It was already warm when I walked to murou shinkou center. After meeting up in the morning we went to an elderly home called murou-en and interacted with the elderly people. I talked with a man who was 90 years old, but it was quite hard to understand because my Japanese is not that good yet. But with the help of the staff of the facility, we talked about Japan, his and my country. He was really funny! We then played a chopstick game. We had to pick up rice grains, beans and other things with chopsticks and move them to our bowls. The man cheated to help us by moving the rice grains and other things to our bowl using his hands. Then it was time to say goodbye to them after they handed us origami umbrellas. We got a tour of the facility and all the elderly where happily smiling to us as we passed. We then said our last goodbyes and left the facility on the way to eat lunch. We ate Japanese curry and it was very delicious. It was then time for the last event of the day. We walked to Murou-temple and then had a guided tour through the temple. To reach the top of the temple we needed to climb a lot of stairs! Eventhough it was tiring and hot to reach the top it was definitely worth it, because the scenery you could see from the top and the temple on the top of the mountain were very beautiful. At 4pm it was time to return to murou shinkou center and end the day. We then all went back to our host families to eat and take a rest.

Iris Remans (The Netherlands)

Day of activity: July 22^nd 2014

Today started with a lecture about nara prefecture and Uda city by former school teacher Mr. Matsumoto. He taught us about the history of the region according to the kojiki, the oldest history book of Japan, compiled in the year 712. At the time, people did not have a concept of Hokkaidou, so nara was seen as the center of Japan. The first emperor made a pilgrimage to Nara to stop the fighting in the country.

Afterwards, we went to Kaedo no Sato, a garden and research facility with over 1200 species of maple in its garden. Its mission is to develop new species of maple which can withstand global warming. I had no idea the “maple” family had so many subspecies, with such a variety of leaf shapes and colors. The chief of the facility guided us around and explained the different species to us. We then received a lecture about leather imprinting. All in all it was a fun day and I learned a lot about maple trees.

Espen (Norway) & Amalie (Denmark)