TUJ Culture Exchange Camp – Fall 2009
TUJ Culture Exchange Camp - Fall 2009
After leaving home at around 6:30 AM, I arrived at the meeting spot and met some other people who were attending the camp. We left the school around 8:30 AM.
We stopped at a resting spot about half way. At the resting spot, we bought some snacks and lunch. I ate dango.
After that we went back to the bus and then continued heading to the camping spot, which is deep in the mountains. The roads were curvy and up-hill. The weather was nice and not cold. Because the bus couldn’t get into the camp site, once we arrived to a certain point, we had to get off the bus and walk the rest of the way…
Once we arrived, we started making mochi, or Japanese pounded rice cakes. It took us a while to figure out how to make them, but everyoned enjyed it and had lots of fun together.
Mochi-tsuki - pounding rice cakes
We played lots of games together, mostly baseball, but also soccer, badminton and other sports. We played together until the staff came with other activities planned for us.
One of the activities was called “Who am I?” In it, we all had names of famous people and things placed on our backs, but we didn’t know what our own identity was. We had to communite with others and try to figure out our name without being told directly. I was Malcolm X, but since I don’t have any background in US history, I was one of the last 3 people to figure out who I was.
We all prepared dinner together in the evening – curry! I helped slice the onions (all of them) and some other vegetables.
Curry Rice - Standard fare for group camping in Japan
Dinner was followed by a bon fire, which everyone really enjoyed. We ate marshmallow with cookies and chocolate, followed by some ghost stories to test our courage.
We played all sorts of games – traditional Japanese, Thai, Chinese and other games and everyone really enjoyed it.
The next morning we had a simple breakfast – eggs, bread and yogurt.
The lesson of the day for me: At the camp site you need to pay 200 yen for the bath, but there is no one to collect your money – you pay in front of the bathing place. Even though whether you pay or not is up to you, the Japanese people trust that you will.
