Today we spent the day at Ryusenji temple, a temple with a 1500-year history. The temple also runs a kindergarten inside the grounds, and we spent the morning making origami with the children.

In the afternoon, we had two cultural experiences. First we did shakyo, a variant of Zen meditation based on copying Buddhist sutra. The idea is that by focusing only on writing, one can eliminate unnecessary thoughts. Also, it is common to offer the finished copy at the temple altar. Afterwards we got an introduction to the basics of karate and learned a simple form.

World Campus – Japan has been coming to this temple for a few years now, and the children were looking forward to seeing us. Personally, I always find interactions with children rewarding. If we can give them a good impression, they might want to go out into the world themselves when they get older. I think this is the best contribution we can give to the communities we visit.

Espen Nielsen, Norway

Today we were able to try our hand at many different activities, like Naginata, Wadaiko, and Shodo.

One of my most favorite moments of today was trying the Naginata, which is one of the old forms of Japanese martial arts, similar to Kendo. We used long sword-like sticks made of oak and bamboo to hit places like the head and shin. I had never tried martial arts in general, so this was a new and exciting experience for me.

It was fun seeing people give it their all when doing Naginata and playing the Wadaiko, our next activity. Everyone was having fun with smiles on their faces, and I especially learned a lot during the special Q&A session we had with the Naginata instructors.

We were able to watch a Wadaiko performance, which was very intriguing. They performed 3 festival songs, and even included 3 elementary school kids in their performance. The little kids were so talented and were able to keep up with the strong adults too!

Near the end of the day, the Shodo Club from Chuo Gakuin University came to perform for us! Using bright colors, they wrote the lyrics to one of the songs that they played during their performance on a large piece of calligraphy paper that almost filled half of the room.

Later, we were able to experience calligraphy ourselves with kanji and hiragana. The girl that was helping was so funny encouraging us every step of the way. (Shout out to the wonderful Misaki-chan)

Today was a wonderful, experience-filled day. It didn’t matter if they were good at it or not, everyone had a great time trying new things out of their comfort zone.

Allison Beebe, USA

During this day we visited Chuo Gaikin university. Much like visiting the previous university it is the highlight for many as it is an experience to meet Japanese people of our age, with respectable English. First and foremost was the usual introductions between everyone in which we displayed our knowledge in either Japanese or English. Next was a short peek into a room in which traditional tea ceremonies take place, fitted in a small room with beautiful traditional walls and floors, as well as a fresh flower display. Following this was an actual tea ceremony we had in which the students of a tea club showed us each meticulous step, from how to make the tea to how to hold the bowl. The tea itself was delicious green tea, but slightly strong for my taste. It was interesting to see as these students, who could sit in silence to make tea, could then be seen a minute later cracking jokes, truly an embodiment to the politeness and respect within the Japanese culture. We were then asked to make green tea ourselves, a task which I of course royally failed at, never being able to have the sweet release of having the correct number of bubbles in my bowl.

After the tea ceremony was a chance to familiarise ourselves with the students better, in doing this, we played certain games and activities all involving communication and teamwork. The first of these was an adaption of Chinese Whispers but instead of words, it was a drawing. Now, this either resulted in a boat being a boat at the start and end or a boat being a castle at the end depending on the drawing skills at each interval. This was a fun activity with no confusion as everyone understands the language of art! Next was teaching each other Cups to the timings of “When I’m Gone”, again very simple to understand and entertaining. Finally and most interestingly was the activity involving the group siding yes or no to a proposed question, the most fascinating of which often involved an interpretation of our respective cultures and seeing how others reacted to this. Such as “Your country is the best in the world” or “Would you want to live in Japan?” After this and some exchange of social medias, we later said goodbye to one another and departed, having met some more relatable, wonderful people.

However the day did not end here, this day also happened to be the Abiko Hanabi Fireworks Festival, which of course many people within and outside our group swarmed to, myself included. This jubilant display and hysteria was wonderful to see as people swanned around in their kimonos and such, looking in awe in the dark sky above them, illuminated by the colours which then bounced off the river near.

Joshua Corder, UK