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)