My Adventures in Japan: Summer Camp in Hokkaido.

Last week on 21st July i left Nagasaki at 6 am to travel to Rusutsu Resort, Hokkaido for summer camp. This is the second year this summer camp has been organised by the Japanese Red Cross through money donated and raised by countries oversees, all for the children affected by the 2011 earthquake. As of March 2013, 15,882 people have been confirmed dead and there are still over 2,000 people missing. Not only did people lose their loved ones, they lost their homes and their way of life. The Red Cross began to set up over 50,000 prefabricated houses in April of this year in Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi and a few other prefectures most affected by the earthquake. Hospitals, medical centers, day centers and homes for the elderly and schools have also been built or are currently being built. Along with this, equipment for schools and homes have also been distributed throughout the affected prefectures. One major event organised by the Japanese Red Cross is of course, summer camp. Last year was the first year it ran and it was for the children of Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi to release stress and play in a carefree environment. Many children have lost family, homes and had to move school and it has been a very stressful experience for them. Due to radiation worries in areas of these prefectures, many children are unable to play outside for a long period of time and the summer camp gives them the chance to spend a lot of time outdoors. Over 4 weeks, 9 camp sessions will be held each being 3 nights and 4 days long. For each camp there was around 240 children and in between 70 and 80 volunteers. The children who attended camp were all around ages 10-14 from primary school and junior high school.

The journey to camp was long, we had to take the one hour bus to Nagasaki airport, then an hour and a half flight to Tokyo, another hour and a half flight from Tokyo to Sapporo airport and then a bus journey to Rusutsu Resort which was anotherrrr hour and a half. It was tiring!!! By the time we arrived at the resort it wasn't like we were in Japan anymore, the scenery was more like Europe! It was very lovely and also not as hot as Nagasaki which was refreshing!

The resort was a huge hotel with an amusement park, loads of shops and restaurants along with beautiful views. On arrival we were given the keys to our room, which was lovely!! I was very surprised as i though maybe we would be staying in the outside cabins but we were staying in the hotel rooms. The first day was a training day before the kids arrived, here we were able to meet all the other volunteers in our groups. Lucy and I were also given translators as the children do not speak English and we aren't fluent in Japanese. My translator was Akane Kaida, a lovely girl from Tokyo and luckily we got along really well.

Everyone in my group was very lovely and a couple could even speak English which was great news for me! Those who couldn't were still eager to speak to me and ask questions which was good as it gave me the chance to practice and also learn a little more Japanese. That night we ate dinner at a buffet restaurant which had the Hokkaido specialty- crab, which i did not try!! I stuck to more familiar things such as chicken, curry rice and salad and of course ice cream!

As we were child free the first night we were allowed to venture outside to watch the nightly firework display which was lovely and afterwards headed for bed after a very long, tiring day.

The next day began at 7am, for a very strange Japanese style breakfast buffet involving fish, rice, chips, it was way to much for me so i stuck to cocopops and bread! The children arrived late afternoon where we greeted them from their buses, they were all very shy and scared looking to begin with. Afterwards they were sorted into their groups and we met our designated group for the first time which consisted of 6 girls and 5 boys. All were 10 and 11 with one 13 year old. They were utterly terrified of me to begin with and were scared to speak but eventually began to ask me questions.

The second day began at 7am again this time instead of going straight to breakfast we headed outside to the field where all 240 children and all volunteers met for some morning exercise! In Japan it is common in schools and many work companies for the employees to take part in morning guided radio exercise. For a foreigner to look on, it must be a bizzare thing to see over 300 people in a field at 7am in the morning swinging their arms about to some radio tape but it is a good way to start the day i suppose! Afterwards we headed for another bizzare Japanese breakfast which much of the same things accompanied by chicken nuggets and other things you would normally eat for dinner.

After breakfast my group split into two teams for the orientating challenge. We were given our map and at each checkpoint there were flags with the countries name written below, the kids had to fill out their sheets with every country they manage to find. It was such hard work, the sun was out and we were trekking up a huge mountain/hill searching for the checkpoints. In the end i think my team managed to find 4, maybe 5 but we all had fun and were rewarded with some beautiful views.

Akane and i whilst orienteering, rocking our outfits!!

After lunch we headed to a support programme which taught he kids how to use wheelchairs, how to carry someone using a blanket and how to wrap someone up using a blanket. Skills they could use if they were ever caught in any emergency situation. There was one boy in my group who was very excitable and insisted on shouting miso soup at me all the time so in the end i started saying pizza to him thinking maybe he would stop because it was strange but it just encouraged him more! Before dinner we had some free time for the children to play and for us to interact with them some more. They taught me how to play some Japanese card games and in return i taught them snap and a few others which they loved. That day i was wearing my hair in a fishtail pleat and i had all the girls coming up to me asking me to pleat their hair the same way and they called it 'chloe style'. That night we had dinner outside and it was a curry buffet, my favourite! There were 3 different types of curry, white curry, keema curry and medium, they were all lovely. My addiction to curry rice is only getting worse!

The next day began with the morning exercise before breakfast and then we headed for the 'mind broadening programme which was environmental issues. The children learned of the importance of separating rubbish, endangered species and how to save energy throughout your home. Akane and i were both super tired and as were were sitting at the back of the room watching we managed to doze off, but not without some of the kids noticing and laughing at us! In the afternoon we accompanied the chilren to optional activities, the one i went to with the kids was rock climbing. They all seemed to enjoy it alot but i was just soo tired and managed to fall asleep yet again, oops. Later in the afternoon we played more card games and also had many 'thumb wars' which the children absolutely love along with rock paper scissors. However in Japan it is called Janken and starts with both competitors saying' saisho wa gu, janken pon and then throwing either rock, paper or scissors and if they draw both will then say ' aiko de sho' ( which means its a draw) and then they throw again. This is the ultimate desicion maker amongst kids in Japan. If there is a dispute over who is going to use the pencil box next or who won the race , rock paper scissors decides it and thats the end of it.

That night we headed to the bbq house where everyone was sat around long benches and we cooked our own meat and vegetables over the hot plate in the middle. I was slightly worried about just allowing the children to do this but then i remembered i was in Japan and not the UK, the kids here are used to this kind of cooking. Infact they were alot better at cooking it than me, i kept burning things so i watched and let them cook it and they done a grand job! During dinner i was sat with two of the younger girls in my group, who were both quite shy but very giggly once you got speaking to them. I was teaching the English words and in return they would say the Japanese word. It lasted all night and eventually words were going in one ear and out the other, for all of us. It was too much information for us too take but one word i remember is Kanransha' which means ferris wheel. Pretty useless information but i learned something!!

That night we had a leaving ceremony for the children and afterwards the presented us with individual books they had secretly made between them. Each child had written a page with a message to us and it was so lovely, infact quite a lot of the girl volunteers were crying when they recieved it! I had Akane translate the messages in my book for me and some of them were:

' I cant speak English so i didnt know how to speak with you but staff helped me. It was good, im so happy because you remember my name. I hope you will do well in your life'

'First time i didnt know how to speak to you but now im getting to. I live in Fukushima, one beautiful lake is close to my home town so if you want please come to see the sunet in the lake Konancho of Fukushima.'

some of the messages from the kids

That night after the children had gone to bed we stayed up to make them a similar thing, with messages from us and we handed them out at breakfast the next day before they were due to leave. Before leaving all the kids were having their hats signed by each other and we were also signing the kids in our groups hats as well as them singing ours. Then random kids from other groups were coming and asking me to sign their hat too which was cute. Afterwards we waved them off on their buses and it was very sad to see them all go, they were all so lovely, fun and happy. I had such an amazing time at camp and i am so grateful to have been given this opportunity by the Japanese Red Cross.