Tag Archives: culture

City Life, City Theme Activities, Tama City

Spreading Our World Campus

Daniel studying an edo period book on horticulture in Keisen university
Daniel studying an edo period book on horticulture in Keisen university

I woke up at about 7:30 this morning to eat a bowl of oatmeal with yogurt and grapes with my host mother, Tomi, and brother, Hotaru (A meal pretty typical for me in America). However, it would differ when I left with my mother to the Keisen University in rainy weather due to a typhoon approaching.

We were told the day prior that this was an all-female Christian university where we would get to meet with the students, learn some history about their school, and discuss world topics. I have to admit, it was actually pretty fun! We had around six or seven students from the university who joined us during the day there and show us around.

We first went to the chapel and learn the history of the school along with a beautiful piece played by an organ player at the school (I still can’t believe she said she spends up to eight hours practicing before a performance!) Afterwards, we went to the university’s library where they had a dedicated memorial to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They kept many books and articles showcasing the first-hand experience the victims had.

Even by the time it was 11:00, the rain was still trickling outside. That didn’t stop us from being shown the herb garden the university tends to. They even made herbal water from the garden for us to drink while we discussed world affairs with the students. Even though all of us in World Campus Japan comes from different countries, us and the students all had meaningful discussions on our views of immigration, global warming, taxes, and what it means to have world peace.

I believe we ate lunch at around 12:00 in the university’s cafeteria with the other students. I just ordered a bowl of miso soup. After getting to talk to the students a bit more, we headed to the Nagayama Community Center where we would be showing Tama what it means to be a part of World Campus Japan.

For about two and a half hours, World Campus members from their respective countries made a presentation from the day before showing the great things from their countries that they wanted others to know about. Locals from Tama were invited to come to the center to view our presentations and learn more about all of our countries. With my partner, Sydney, we wanted to show how large the United States truly is and how diverse the culture is when it comes to its food, climate, and sports. We were also chosen as one of the four countries to do a dance for the locals (The others being Finland, Netherlands, and Norway). This turned out to be a cultural lesson for me too as we decided to do the chicken dance which I haven’t done in years! Thankfully, the dance is fairly simple.

Unfortunately, Sydney had become ill over the past few days and had to rest today. In other words, I and two of the Japanese students got on stage in the spotlight and taught an audience of about 100 adults and children how to shake their feathers and dance like a chicken (It looks better in person, I promise).

Although the event was long, I got to talk with so many locals and learn more about their life and their experience with America. Even better, I felt good being able to share my culture with so many locals. I can just feel that all of us today made an impact on the community with the event.

Once we wrapped up our end-of-the-day discussion at 17:00, my mother and brother came to pick me up. I got to meet some of my brother’s friends (Who all happen to be 7 years old) and we went back to our apartment. We ate a kind of curry with mushrooms and rice, beef, grapes, and corn. My brother was dying to play the Wii with me after I promised to play earlier. If there’s one thing my brother has taught me, it’s that I should really try to get better at skiing in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. I still have no clue how he had more than double my score.

We finished the night with my dad getting home and joining in on the game. I’m going to bed earlier since tomorrow is the Arigato Event and I want to have enough energy to dance for my host family. I had never done a presentation like the one today before, but I have to say that I’m glad I did. Maybe we even encouraged people to apply for World Campus to Norway and Finland!

Daniel Busch (The United States of America)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Kumamoto City

Arigato Event 2: The Technical Guy

Today was the last organized activity day of the visit to Kumamoto city. We spent the entire day at the Prefectural University of Kumamoto, where at first we were given a presentation regarding the general demeanor of the Japanese people. I found this very interesting, as it went in depth on how the average Japanese person thinks, and how past events helped shape their current behavior.

The rest of the day was pretty much dedicated to rehearsing and doing the Arigato Event. As the staff member on tour responsible for the technical aspects, my job was at this point just to run the correct music at the correct time, and ensure that all the pieces went in order and that the volume for the different pieces was correct. However, during this particular event, I was also given the extra task of timing how long we took on each individual part of the event. This was a little bit of a challenge, just due to remembering to write down the time every time it was necessary. However, I believe that the event was held very successfully, and it seemed like the audience was entertained throughout our little show.

I was also charged with making the slideshow for this event, and although I didn’t get any feedback as of writing this, I think it went well considering I only had three days’ worth of pictures and videos to choose from. The day in general felt really good, and I’m pumped for continuing with the program!

Simen Solumn (Norway)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Kumamoto City

Today we went to a university

Charlotte with origami roses in Prefectural University of Kumamoto
Charlotte with origami roses in Prefectural University of Kumamoto

First, we tried to break the Ice by having a little chat so we lined up in two rows, World Campus members in one line and high school students in the other. After one minute of talking, we changed our partners.

Later we had lunch together. Sadly, some of the students were very shy so I didn’t have a very deep conversation, but I think everyone gave their best. After lunch, we tried to make friends with an origami master by bribing him with licorice. Unfortunately, the taste of salty sweets seems to be new for Japanese. The origami master then showed us how to fold a rose.

We probably could have folded paper for the rest of the day because that was so much fun.
Last thing at this day was a lecture about nonverbal communication and its differences in different cultures. For example, counting with fingers and gestures like “come here”. The differences between cultures and gestures was interesting.

Michael Buehlmann (Switzerland)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Kumamoto City

Jikei Hospital baby hatch visit 2017

Group picture in Jikei hospital
Group picture in Jikei hospital

So today we visited the Jikei hospital in Kumamoto, where the only baby hatch in Japan is installed. A baby hatch is a small door in the hospital wall where parents who are unable to take care of their baby may anonymously leave their baby. Japan is still a country in which honor and family names matter a lot so sadly throughout history a lot of unwanted babies have been left in the wilderness. However, since Dr. Hasuda installed the hatch ten years ago hundreds of babies have been saved.

Our day started by watching a report from NKH World in the morning at the YMCA, our base of operation in Kumamoto. Even though the English dubbing of the Japanese was at some points quite questionable, everyone seemed intrigued. After the video followed a discussion. Some differing voices was raised, as of how about the children’s right to know their biological heritage, how is it even is possible to reconnect with the parent with the child and whether that would impact the anonymity of the parent. However, between talks about electrical gizmos and having the hospital acting as an information bank, we all seemed to agree that however sad it is that the need for the hatch exists, it is better that the hatch is there than not having it at all.

Later that day when we finally got to meet the doctor himself and saw the hatch, it all became very real and I started to think about all the lives saved by the door. Sadly though, it is the only hatch available in Japan so a lot of already exhausted people are forced to travel from as long away as Hokkaido to Kumamoto or choose a more tragic alternative. The reason we were given for the concept not spreading wider in Japan is that among other things, people in powerful positions believe that it would cause an increased number of abandoned children. But to me they seem quite misinformed since the statistics seems to suggest that there is no such correlation. And this is a topic where human life is at stake.

However, unrelated to the hospital visit, when we returned to the YMCA – where we started the day – we played both Ninja and Footzies. Ninja is a classic among WCI members but if you have not heard about Footzies or the foot game, just imagine an angry invisible cat with laser shooting eyes that just can’t avoid jumping between peoples feet. I think that would give you a clear picture of how it is played.

Daniel Solvold (Sweden)