Date of Activity: June 19^th

Today was the last activity day of the first session, and we spent it at Miike elementary school in Omuta. After introducing ourselves to the students during the morning assembly, we were assigned to spend the day with one class. I joined a 6^th grade class together with Rod from Canada. At first the students were shy, but they quickly warmed up to us when they were allowed to ask us questions about anything (surprisingly many requested an imitation of Japanese comedians) followed by Rod’s Canada trivia. Afterwards we had music, during which we played Taiko – various kinds of Japanese drums. The loud drumming made it impossible for the students to tell us what and how to play. However, the children surrounded us and they taught us the rhythms by action rather than words. Also, they rotated helping us, and we got to interact with all the students in the class. Afterwards we had social studies. As the 6^th graders were currently learning about the Muromachi era, the teacher had decided to get into the feeling of that time through Sado – the art of Tea ceremony.

After eating lunch together, it was cleaning time. Because they finished the cleaning early, a group of boys asked if we wanted to play cards with them. Despite the fact that neither Rod nor I knew the rules, the kids, Rod and I had a lot of fun playing cards. And though we didn’t always understand each other, we all smiled and laughed together.

The last lesson of the day was calligraphy. I was surprised by the suddenly serene atmosphere as we all sat quietly and drew Japanese signs on silky paper. In the end I was truly amazed by the contrasts I had witnessed that day: The shy class that welcomed us during the morning, the children vigorously hammering on the drums and the concentration and respect they displayed while practicing the old Japanese arts of Sado and of calligraphy.

(Torunn Olsen, Norway)

Date of activity: June 18^th

Waking up in the morning I was wondering if going to a Japanese High School would be fun. Thinking back about my own days in high school I expected the students to either be too shy to speak to us or to not be interested in a group of foreigners like ourselves at all. I have stayed with some host families in Japan that included high schoolers and most of them tend to be shy or uninterested.

Arriving at the school we were welcomed by a tight looking welcoming committee. We were led to a room in which we were briefed about what classes we would join that day etc. Me and some other fellow WCI participants were led to the calligraphy classroom. This is where the madness begun. Upon entering the room, each of us was greeted by hysterical screams of teenage girls, as if they were proposed to by Justin Bieber. Given the fact that 80% of the students at ariake shinsei are girls, this day was bound to get more crazy. When the screaming went over into giggling, we sat down and got to try out Japanese calligraphy. We were asked to write/paint the kanji for flower (花), 3 strokes with the brush and a spoken sentence in Japanese was enough to get the girls praising and screaming again. Doing calligraphy was much fun and we were taught several ways to write/paint it. For example trying to let your writing/painting style be influenced by keeping a certain type of flower in mind.

Next up was handicraft class, after introducing ourselves and going through the same screaming ritual as before, we were invited to make silly sculptures out of clay on a potter’s wheel.

We all gave it a try, had a laugh and soon the class was over. On the way to the next class, one of the Dutch participants, Robin, was attacked by a group of girls who wanted to take pictures with him. After he fought his way back to freedom, we went on to our next class, which in my case was Japanese History. The teacher spoke some English and really did his best to tell us about the history of the famous coal mines of Omuta. We were then divided into groups and asked to talk about our culture with the students. My group ended up having a conversation about hobbies, foods, history, etc. which was good practice for my Japanese and their English. In short, an educative and fun hour.

After a fulfilling lunch with lots of interaction with the students all WCI participants gathered in a room where we started a discussion with some of the school’s teachers. We got to ask them questions about the school and they got to ask questions about the school systems in our different countries. This is where we were told that Ariake Shinsei gives students the opportunity to strive for whatever goal they have in life, as they are able to choose between 110 different subjects to study. I was really amazed by this and I think a concept like this would work quite well for some students in the Netherlands as well.

At the end of the day we were invited to visit the teppanbu, which is basically a baking club that makes Japanese pancakes. The pancakes they made were unique to Omuta though. I was rather surprised to see how they put layer after layer after layer of weird topping combinations on the pancakes, these included bacon, seaweed, mayonnaise, shaved fish flakes and more. It didn’t exactly seem tasty to me, but it was pretty good after all.

On this day a lot of my expectations and thoughts were proven wrong, which I consider a good thing since it means I learned something. This was a very educational, crazy and fun day that left quite an impression on me, I’m already hoping to come back to Japan next year and experience this day again!

Daniel van Delft – The Netherlands

Date of activity: June 17^th

Today was host-family day in Omuta. Host-family day is a day on which you enjoy your day with your host-family. Most host-families take you out to see famous or fun places in the area. but I stayed home. Although I stayed home, I think I had one of the most special experiences that day. I learned to perform the tea ceremony. The tea ceremony is a Japanese cultural activity in which you prepare green tea, macha, and present it to your guests. My host-grandmother, who also lives in the house, loaned me a kimono. She helped me to get all the parts of the kimono on the right place. I even wore an under-kimono (I am not sure how it is called) and tabi, which are white socks. My two host-sisters also wore kimono’s. One of my host-sisters, who is nine years old, was the host. She prepared the tea and presented it to us. After a while, they asked me to present the tea. This was a great opportunity. My little host-sister showed me how to do it. The tea ceremony follows a tight set of rules, even the way you hold everything and the place you put everything is decided. It was quite hard to perform the tea ceremony properly and neatly. And after a while my legs hurt from sitting on my knees. But it was very special to learn this piece of Japanese culture from my little host-sister. Especially, because the tea ceremony is not performed often by Japanese families, I am really grateful that my host-family let me experience this!

(Iris Spruit – the Netherlands)

Date of Activity: June 16^th

One of the images that pop up in people’s minds when they think about Japan is Sumo. Although I had my reservations about practicing a sport with half naked guys trying to throw each other outside of a ring, since World Campus Japan gave us the opportunity the other guys and I went for it.

After stripping to our underwear we luckily got to wear tights, after which we got dressed by some of the guys helping out. Whilst the fundoshi, a kind of loincloth was quite comfortable at the stomach, many of us had doubts if we would still be able to have kids after wearing it.

Sparring began with the kids versus the World Campus Japan guys. After pitting two and then three kids against our guys the kids decided to up the stakes and go with four and then five people against one to stand a chance, and actually win by rushing in and taking our guys out. When the kids were done we held a tournament with the six World Campus Japan guys and a surprise guest with the appearance of my host father. In the end Daniel emerged victorious after a vicious bull rush on my host father.

It really was a great experience to be able to practice sumo, not whilst wearing a sumo-suit but actually being in the proper get-up. Most important of course is that everyone had fun. The guys had fun playing and the girls, host families and kids from Kamiuchi elementary school had fun watching. To top it off, after the sumo was done we played some, almost customary, dodge ball with the kids after which we ate the curry rice the girls had made earlier. It was a wonderful start of our second day at Kamiuchi elementary school!

(Frank Floris – the Netherlands)