Monthly Archives: July 2013

Arao City, City Life, City Theme Activities

Midorigaoka elementary school

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Midorigaoka elementary school


Today we went to Midorigaoka elementary school. It was a lot of fun! Our group of nineteen was split up into three smaller groups, that each had a class of their own. Each class had some special activities planned for us.

We started the day with the younger kids. We sang a lot of songs together and played some games like ‘London Bridge is falling down’. We even wrote wishes for the Tanabata Matsuri with the children, and had a calligraphy lesson. Around and after lunch we joined the older children with their English lessons. Because English is really hard for Japanese to learn, it was completely different from our English lessons in The Netherlands. It was really interesting to see the difference. After lunch we gave a short thank-you event for the children. We introduced our countries to them by playing a maru/batsu game (yes or no game). I think they really enjoyed it, since they almost shouted every answer at us, and were really excited when they answered our questions right. Although it was a bit too hot to jump and dance around, it was a lot of fun to see the children participating with us. It’s funny to see how music can actually lower the wall that exists between people of different countries and cultures.

Midorigaoka elementary school


What I liked the most about today was how the children interacted with us, a bunch of complete strangers. Although some of them were shy in the beginning, they became really excited and energetic when they spoke privately with us. During lunchtime, we each ate in a different class. The children in my class had prepared a special chair for me and were so excited to see me. They kept asking questions about my favorite food, music, insects, etc. The language or culture barrier was totally not a problem during this time. They were generally happy to see me and wanted to play with me. It really touched my heart, they were all so sweet. I would like to return next year and play with them again!

Lisanne (The Netherlands)

Arao City, City Life, Host Families

Meeting the host families


The first day of World Campus Japan! Yesterday on the plane the Japanese people spoke to me a lot, super nice. Everyone helped me find the right bus at the airport and everything. I met the other members today; they all look like awesome people to me. When we met our host families, the first thing my host mom said to me that I should call here Okaasan (mother in Japanese). Yuka, my host sister of 23 years old, was there as well. Otoosan (father) is somewhere in his seventies, really old, and really funny. When I told them I loved edamame, they immediately bought me heaps of it. We went to the gym, where we met a lot of cute grandma’s. Everyone kept telling me that my Japanese was very good and that I was cute. One of the old ladies even hugged me. Next to all this, they gave me a lot of sweets and food.

Tonight I ate so much delicious food, and I even managed to eat with chopsticks. Apparently there are three families living in my house. I was shocked when I first heard it, but I am really happy to get to know a lot of new people. Something that pleases me a lot is the fact that I can get by very well with my level of Japanese. It actually surprised me a bit. Sometimes we use some English words, and if necessary, we have a dictionary.

Tomorrow is the first activity day, and I am looking really forward to. But now I am really tired from all the travelling!

Jessica (Belgium)

City Life, City Theme Activities, Omura City

A visit at the Shorinji Kenpo Dojo

Today we visited the Shorinji Kenpo (a fairly young form of martial arts) Dojo. We were firstly given a presentation explaining all about it, from its founder to its philosophy. The basic thought behind Shorinji Kenpo is that to be better and more able person we need to have power and love. Without power we are incapable to help others, and without love we only hurt people. That’s why this art focuses on balancing self-respect and respect towards others. This means that during training you must not only train your technique on others, but let others train their techniques on you. And boy did that hurt!

The first technique we learned was something that made me feel like I was in Street Fighter (punch, punch, kick!) a basic offensive move basically (No Hadoukens, unfortunately)

The rest of the techniques we learned during our training were defensive, mainly meaning twisting wrists, breaking free from grasps and throwing our attackers into the ground. They taught us that we all have weak points in our body and that we should focus on using these to disable our attacker. My training partner Miyamoto, being only 10, was able to use them and actually hurt me with them. I on the other hand took some more time, which meant he had to lie on the ground and wait for hours whilst I tried to twist his hand in a position that actually hurt. All in all it was an amazing experience; we got to see a little girl of five spar with her father, got to learn some techniques, and got to apply them! I think that a couple of us in the group might be thinking of doing Shorinji Kenpo in the near future. Not only is it fun, but the philosophy behind it is something that should be looked up upon.

Álvaro Martin-Mazorra (Spain)

City Life, Host Families, Omura City

Visit of a Sushi Restaurant

sushi restaurant


On Monday night my host family took me to a conveyer belt sushi restaurant along with my host mother’s parents. It was a very interesting experience! We all had hot tea to drink. There were cups and teabags at the table, and we got hot water by pressing our cups against a spout at the edge of the table, just below the conveyer belt. To get out sushi we just grabbed the plates of sushi from the conveyer belt as it went by. We also ordered some specific pieces from the chefs in the middle. The chefs were in the middle of the conveyer belt loop, making the sushi. When they made some sushi, they just put it on the conveyer belt.

sushi restaurant


The sushi itself was delicious! My favorite was the cooked salmon. The shrimp was also very good. I ate a lot of things I’d never had before. My host family didn’t know the English names for them, so they showed me pictures of the animals on their phone. I had squid, eel, sea urchin, and many other things. I even had something with large fish eggs in it, the size of loquat seeds, that looked just like the eggs from Finding Nemo. Overall, it was a very new, exciting and delicious diner.

sushi restaurant


Benjamin Straub (USA)

City Life, Omuta City

Takuma Junior high School

Takuma Junior high School

Today, WCI made a visit to the Takuma Junior High School in Omuta. It was the first time for WCI to visit this school. The principle was really looking forward to our visit and had a clear vision in mind: to expand the childrens horizon.

It was a great and fun day we attended diffrent classes during the day. For example we had English class, music lessons, swimming class, Japanese and many more subjects.

The junior high school students are actually really cute. They are really curious but they are a bit scared to make a conversation, so they were relieved when they found out that I can speak Japanese.

Even though some lessons were hard to keep up with it was a nice experience for both WCI as for the Takuma Junior high school kids. `

Ellery (The Netherlands)