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New life
Hey! The next morning, on 25th, when I woke up, my fever disappeared magically without any cure of medicine. Bravo! Home sweet home!
After 25th September, Socheat, Yuth, and Hongchu started new life at high school, while Bellin, Virya, Sereyroth, Sovann, Sunmeng, Raden, Sopheak, Muykea, Virak, Nearyroth and I started new life at university. Everyone has his or her new own way, but we never forget we used to be together once.
Thank you JENESYS! Thank you Japan and the Japanese! Thank you all related sectors and bodies. Thank you all coordinators and persons in charge! Thank you all my friends! You gave me the best memory and experience I will never forget.
When reading, please click the underlined words to see related pictures. Thank you for reading!
All participants
Monday, July 19, 2010
24th September
Goodbye Japan!
This morning, we had to get up at 5:15am because we had to get on the plane to home. Damn, I didn’t feel well. I got fever again as the first day I arrived in Japan. Maybe I got the heat from the noodle last night. I shouldn’t have eaten that. It’s not time for regret. I must do something to lower my body temperature. Putting cold towel over my forehead was the solution I did every night, so I must try to do that continuously.
We went to have body temperature checked as every morning, and I got 37.9oC, almost breaking the record. I wouldn’t have returned home if it had reached 38oC. Sister Danich, Yuki, and Yamada were worrying for me. All I had to do was keeping cold tissue over my forehead, neck, and arms.
Under the 9 days of burden, I felt nothing but tired and sleepy. Sunmeng held my baggage for me at the airport. Thank you! We checked in and waited in front of the gate for 1 hour. We bought some water and snack with our coins. They would be no use when we returned to Cambodia. At 10:50, we departed. Goodbye Japan. See you again!
Waiting at Bangkok Airport again
On the plane, I tried to sleep as much as I could. Now, I got used to sleeping on the plane. It’s not as terrible as the first time on the plane to Japan. We arrived in Bangkok at 15:25, but we had to wait till 18:10 for departure. Oh! Waiting at Bangkok airport again! I couldn’t forget the first time we waited at Bangkok Airport till midnight. The sky got darker and darker, while our anxiety for home got stronger and stronger.
Cambodia Phnom Penh International Airport
Thank goodness! It’s 18:10. Getting on the plane and taking off was no longer anything interesting for us. All we were hungry for was the reunion with family immediately. Home home home! After one-hour flight, Cambodia Phnom Penh International Airport, we saw you again! We missed you so much! We didn’t want to waste even 1 second to meet our family. We rushed to check out. Bellin and Virya seemed to be missing their family more than anyone. I had no one to see me off and now I had no one to pick me up at the airport, but it’s not important. Now we came out of the airport. Some of our friends had already gone. I only saw Bellin and Sunmeng with their family. I got on the bus with Mr. Ros Keing, Sovann, Sopheak, Sereyroth and a few university students back to Sunway Hotel. It’s over 8:00pm when we arrived at Sunway Hotel. I saw my father and brother waiting for me out side. It’s time to say bye bye to Sovann, Sopheak, and Sereyroth. Eventually, home I returned!
That’s all for my JENESYS in September 2009.
This morning, we had to get up at 5:15am because we had to get on the plane to home. Damn, I didn’t feel well. I got fever again as the first day I arrived in Japan. Maybe I got the heat from the noodle last night. I shouldn’t have eaten that. It’s not time for regret. I must do something to lower my body temperature. Putting cold towel over my forehead was the solution I did every night, so I must try to do that continuously.
We went to have body temperature checked as every morning, and I got 37.9oC, almost breaking the record. I wouldn’t have returned home if it had reached 38oC. Sister Danich, Yuki, and Yamada were worrying for me. All I had to do was keeping cold tissue over my forehead, neck, and arms.
Under the 9 days of burden, I felt nothing but tired and sleepy. Sunmeng held my baggage for me at the airport. Thank you! We checked in and waited in front of the gate for 1 hour. We bought some water and snack with our coins. They would be no use when we returned to Cambodia. At 10:50, we departed. Goodbye Japan. See you again!
Waiting at Bangkok Airport again
On the plane, I tried to sleep as much as I could. Now, I got used to sleeping on the plane. It’s not as terrible as the first time on the plane to Japan. We arrived in Bangkok at 15:25, but we had to wait till 18:10 for departure. Oh! Waiting at Bangkok airport again! I couldn’t forget the first time we waited at Bangkok Airport till midnight. The sky got darker and darker, while our anxiety for home got stronger and stronger.
Cambodia Phnom Penh International Airport
Thank goodness! It’s 18:10. Getting on the plane and taking off was no longer anything interesting for us. All we were hungry for was the reunion with family immediately. Home home home! After one-hour flight, Cambodia Phnom Penh International Airport, we saw you again! We missed you so much! We didn’t want to waste even 1 second to meet our family. We rushed to check out. Bellin and Virya seemed to be missing their family more than anyone. I had no one to see me off and now I had no one to pick me up at the airport, but it’s not important. Now we came out of the airport. Some of our friends had already gone. I only saw Bellin and Sunmeng with their family. I got on the bus with Mr. Ros Keing, Sovann, Sopheak, Sereyroth and a few university students back to Sunway Hotel. It’s over 8:00pm when we arrived at Sunway Hotel. I saw my father and brother waiting for me out side. It’s time to say bye bye to Sovann, Sopheak, and Sereyroth. Eventually, home I returned!
That’s all for my JENESYS in September 2009.
23rd September
TEPIA
This morning, we were going to spend about 1 hour and a half at TEPIA, Advanced Technology Exhibition Hall.
After entering the hall, we waited at the lobby for a few minutes. There was placed a super small lithium-ion battery-powered electric vehicle, non-polluting and energy-saving. The assistant at TEPIA took a picture of our group together. There were 2 lovely guides. Then we were divided into 2 groups, like the group of workshop in Akita, to follow our guide. My group had sister Danich as the translator. Following is the description of what I have seen:
Earthquake-proof structure
First, we found out about the earthquake-proof structure. Our guide explained to us that most buildings in Japan were built with special earthquake-proof features, one of which was the adjustable frame. Personally, I would like to explain that when the ground shocks, the frame of the building also shock with the ground, but the building itself doesn’t shock as strongly as the frame. Another one was anti-elasticity rubber. The guide showed us a little experiment. She held 2 little balls in her hands. One ball was made of ordinary rubber, and the other was made of anti-elasticity rubber. She dropped 2 balls freely at the same time to the floor. Consequently, the ordinary rubber ball jumped higher that the anti-elasticity rubber ball. It meant the anti-elasticity rubber received the force of reaction from the floor less than the ordinary one, by the method of physics. Therefore, it could reduce the force created by earthquake.
Gesture Remote Control TV
Second, we experienced the Gesture Remote Control TV. Maybe this was the latest technology which hadn’t been released widely outside yet. The guide stood 3 meters far from the wide screen of the TV and pushed her palm straightly toward the screen as sending the command. When the TV received the signal from her palm, it reacted and changed to channel scrolling mode. The guide moved he palm round and round, and channels were scrolled round and round following the movement of the palm. The guide pushed her palm again toward the screen and the channel was selected. There were other functions with using the palm like adjusting the volume and the light. It seemed like a magic which everyone could do.
Pop-up books
Third, we enjoyed the electronic Pop-up books at the space behind the Gesture Remote Control TV. The tools were quite simple: a book, a monitor and a webcam. The book had several pages of pictures, and every page contains a small black square mark, working as barcode. When the webcam received the picture of the book and the information from the square mark, the monitor displayed not only the original picture but also 3D effect ascending from the book. We only saw the picture of fish in the book, but we cold se fish swimming in the monitor.
Hydrotect tile
Forth, we learned about “Hydrotect Color Paint and Hydrotect Tile”, which was a special material automatically and naturally cleaned by sun rays. With this material, a building always looks new without any stain. Our guide also made a little experiment. She stained 2 pieces of tile, one was the simple tile and the other was the Hydrotect tile. Then, she put the artificial sun rays emitted by a device over those 2 pieces of tile. As a result, the stain on the Hydrotect tile miraculously disappeared, while the other was not changed.
PaPeRo and Smile Evaluation
Fifth, we communicated with PaPeRo, a talking robot. It could only understand a few Japanese words. Then, we witness the Simile Evaluation Technology. Standing in front of a big screen, we saw our face being detected and our smile being evaluated. It depended on eyes and mouth to evaluate the percentage of our smile. If we were wearing a doctor mask, the value would be 0%.
There were other leading technology items I did not mention above such as Ultra-Thin LCD-TV and Care Robot Yurina.
After the end of guiding, we had about 10 minutes free for self-seeing and self-experience inside the hall. I tried the Gesture Remote Control TV, so cool! Then I spent all the time at robot play ground. Electrical dog, cat, dinosaur, cars, and Wall-e were all controlled by wireless joystick, which we could play freely.
When we finished our visit at TEPIA, we got the group photo taken earlier, but it was not very clear. The Hokkaido group arrived at TEPIA after us, and we traveled on bus to see the Royal Palace from outside.
Outside the Royal Palace
The bus stopped far from the Palace, so we had to take a long walk. The view along the side walk was pretty good. Green trees were everywhere. We saw the statue of Ancient Japanese Emperor riding on his horse. The path to the Palace was paved with little rocks. The sky looked wide and clear. The Royal Palace seemed to be hidden by trees and separated by a stream. From the stream, it was the nearest place where could see the Palace. We took photos as much as we could because it was the last destination we had to visit in Japan.
Funny Chanko
Today the lunch was all the same for 3 groups. We had lunch at the same restaurant, specially serving food for Sumu athletes. The food was called Chanko, a big pot of soup of noodle, mushroom and other vegetable. Personally, I thought it was simple. What made this meal interesting was the funny speech from Sopheak about the soup. He said the soup water in the pot were about to run out, but it seemed to be increased again after we talked. Sopheak had another funny story about sister Yamada and Mr. Ros Keng, which made Sunmeng and I bursted out laughing! I couldn’t stop with that.
Last shopping in Tokyo
We returned to hotel. In fact, next, we were planned to visit Harajuku, a popular area for youth, but the plan was changed due to too much crowd as today was a special day. Therefore, we could only go to a 100 yen shop nearby as substitution. It was the last place we could spend our money. I couldn’t find anything interesting to buy because I had seen similar items at 100 yen shop in Noshiro. However, I would like to say the shop was much bigger than the two I had entered in Noshiro. I bought about 20 items, so I had much money left, especially coins.
Farewell Party in Tokyo
It’s nearly over! This evening, the farewell party started at 5:00pm. It’s similar to the farewell party in Akita, but we didn’t have our host families this time. Two tables sere for each group. Each group was having cultural performance. We were not worried at all because of our experience once in Akita. We could see the performance of the 2 university groups were not well prepared, while ours was perfect. Each of us obtained a certificate of JENESYS and a big group photo. My group’s photo was the photo at Mt. Kanpu. Finally, 55 participants had the last picture taken together.
Noodle Party
We finished all the missions. Tonight, we held a “noodle party” for celebration. 14 of us and sister Danich gathered in a room and ate the noodle we had brought from Cambodia. I ate a cup of my noodle. Then we played a game, called question of heart. We had a lot of fun that night, really. At 11:00pm, we went back to our room respectively, packed our luggage, and slept.
This morning, we were going to spend about 1 hour and a half at TEPIA, Advanced Technology Exhibition Hall.
After entering the hall, we waited at the lobby for a few minutes. There was placed a super small lithium-ion battery-powered electric vehicle, non-polluting and energy-saving. The assistant at TEPIA took a picture of our group together. There were 2 lovely guides. Then we were divided into 2 groups, like the group of workshop in Akita, to follow our guide. My group had sister Danich as the translator. Following is the description of what I have seen:
Earthquake-proof structure
First, we found out about the earthquake-proof structure. Our guide explained to us that most buildings in Japan were built with special earthquake-proof features, one of which was the adjustable frame. Personally, I would like to explain that when the ground shocks, the frame of the building also shock with the ground, but the building itself doesn’t shock as strongly as the frame. Another one was anti-elasticity rubber. The guide showed us a little experiment. She held 2 little balls in her hands. One ball was made of ordinary rubber, and the other was made of anti-elasticity rubber. She dropped 2 balls freely at the same time to the floor. Consequently, the ordinary rubber ball jumped higher that the anti-elasticity rubber ball. It meant the anti-elasticity rubber received the force of reaction from the floor less than the ordinary one, by the method of physics. Therefore, it could reduce the force created by earthquake.
Gesture Remote Control TV
Second, we experienced the Gesture Remote Control TV. Maybe this was the latest technology which hadn’t been released widely outside yet. The guide stood 3 meters far from the wide screen of the TV and pushed her palm straightly toward the screen as sending the command. When the TV received the signal from her palm, it reacted and changed to channel scrolling mode. The guide moved he palm round and round, and channels were scrolled round and round following the movement of the palm. The guide pushed her palm again toward the screen and the channel was selected. There were other functions with using the palm like adjusting the volume and the light. It seemed like a magic which everyone could do.
Pop-up booksThird, we enjoyed the electronic Pop-up books at the space behind the Gesture Remote Control TV. The tools were quite simple: a book, a monitor and a webcam. The book had several pages of pictures, and every page contains a small black square mark, working as barcode. When the webcam received the picture of the book and the information from the square mark, the monitor displayed not only the original picture but also 3D effect ascending from the book. We only saw the picture of fish in the book, but we cold se fish swimming in the monitor.
Hydrotect tile
Forth, we learned about “Hydrotect Color Paint and Hydrotect Tile”, which was a special material automatically and naturally cleaned by sun rays. With this material, a building always looks new without any stain. Our guide also made a little experiment. She stained 2 pieces of tile, one was the simple tile and the other was the Hydrotect tile. Then, she put the artificial sun rays emitted by a device over those 2 pieces of tile. As a result, the stain on the Hydrotect tile miraculously disappeared, while the other was not changed.
PaPeRo and Smile Evaluation
Fifth, we communicated with PaPeRo, a talking robot. It could only understand a few Japanese words. Then, we witness the Simile Evaluation Technology. Standing in front of a big screen, we saw our face being detected and our smile being evaluated. It depended on eyes and mouth to evaluate the percentage of our smile. If we were wearing a doctor mask, the value would be 0%.
There were other leading technology items I did not mention above such as Ultra-Thin LCD-TV and Care Robot Yurina.
After the end of guiding, we had about 10 minutes free for self-seeing and self-experience inside the hall. I tried the Gesture Remote Control TV, so cool! Then I spent all the time at robot play ground. Electrical dog, cat, dinosaur, cars, and Wall-e were all controlled by wireless joystick, which we could play freely.
When we finished our visit at TEPIA, we got the group photo taken earlier, but it was not very clear. The Hokkaido group arrived at TEPIA after us, and we traveled on bus to see the Royal Palace from outside.
Outside the Royal Palace
The bus stopped far from the Palace, so we had to take a long walk. The view along the side walk was pretty good. Green trees were everywhere. We saw the statue of Ancient Japanese Emperor riding on his horse. The path to the Palace was paved with little rocks. The sky looked wide and clear. The Royal Palace seemed to be hidden by trees and separated by a stream. From the stream, it was the nearest place where could see the Palace. We took photos as much as we could because it was the last destination we had to visit in Japan.
Funny Chanko
Today the lunch was all the same for 3 groups. We had lunch at the same restaurant, specially serving food for Sumu athletes. The food was called Chanko, a big pot of soup of noodle, mushroom and other vegetable. Personally, I thought it was simple. What made this meal interesting was the funny speech from Sopheak about the soup. He said the soup water in the pot were about to run out, but it seemed to be increased again after we talked. Sopheak had another funny story about sister Yamada and Mr. Ros Keng, which made Sunmeng and I bursted out laughing! I couldn’t stop with that.
Last shopping in Tokyo
We returned to hotel. In fact, next, we were planned to visit Harajuku, a popular area for youth, but the plan was changed due to too much crowd as today was a special day. Therefore, we could only go to a 100 yen shop nearby as substitution. It was the last place we could spend our money. I couldn’t find anything interesting to buy because I had seen similar items at 100 yen shop in Noshiro. However, I would like to say the shop was much bigger than the two I had entered in Noshiro. I bought about 20 items, so I had much money left, especially coins.
Farewell Party in Tokyo
It’s nearly over! This evening, the farewell party started at 5:00pm. It’s similar to the farewell party in Akita, but we didn’t have our host families this time. Two tables sere for each group. Each group was having cultural performance. We were not worried at all because of our experience once in Akita. We could see the performance of the 2 university groups were not well prepared, while ours was perfect. Each of us obtained a certificate of JENESYS and a big group photo. My group’s photo was the photo at Mt. Kanpu. Finally, 55 participants had the last picture taken together.
Noodle Party
We finished all the missions. Tonight, we held a “noodle party” for celebration. 14 of us and sister Danich gathered in a room and ate the noodle we had brought from Cambodia. I ate a cup of my noodle. Then we played a game, called question of heart. We had a lot of fun that night, really. At 11:00pm, we went back to our room respectively, packed our luggage, and slept.
Friday, July 16, 2010
22nd September
Workshop
This whole morning, we were going to have the workshop. 14 participants were divided into 2 groups of 7 people. Sunmeng and Bellin were group leader respectively. I was in Bellin’s group and took the role as note-taker. First, we started with giving some ideas and perspective for what we had seen in Akita and Japan. Then, we sorted those ideas into 4 different categories: education, culture, people, and environment. After a long time of organization, we compared our outline with Sunmeng group’s and started a little debate. Frankly, until now I still don’t know what the purpose of our workshop was, but from this workshop, all positive points of Japan engraved deeply on my mind.
At the end of the workshop, Mr. Hideaki, our coordinator, handed us a package of present for our visit to Akita. Inside the package, there was a sheet of newspaper with the news of our courtesy meeting with Nakano, deputy governor of Akita prefecture, a photo of farewell party, a photo at Mt. Kanpu, an album of photos of our group in Akita, a CD of photos, a DVD of AkiSho, and @ peace dolls from Chidas, my host family. We went back to our room and packed our baggage. Then we walked to a restaurant nearby to have our last meal in Akita. The food I remembered was a big dish of spaghetti.
Farewell Akita
We left Akita View Hotel and arrived at the Akita Airport at 2:00pm. Some host families came to see their son and daughter off. They burst into tear. The scene was touching. Bellin represented us to thank Mr. Hideaki for the stay in Akita. Then, we waved our hand goodbye and got on the plane. This time I sat at window seat and I could see the view outside very well from taking off at Akita Airport to landing at Tokyo Haneda Airport.
Tokyo Tower
We didn’t go to Asakusa Hotel yet because we had to see thje Tokyo Tower, but only from distance. Today I hadn’t taken any good photos yet, so I took as much as I could this evening. From a park nearby, Tokyo Tower appeared perfectly under our eyesight. It’s about 5pm, the time for walking in garden. We could see Japanese people relaxing and enjoying the evening breeze. Some kids were playing baseball. It’s also a flower garden, as beautiful as the one in Noshiro. Time’s up. We got on the bus and headed to Asakusa Hotel, where we had left for 5 days.
Return to Asakusa View Hotel
When reaching in front of the hotel, we were given a new room key and warned to wear mask on our face again. I totally forgot about H1N1 in Tokyo as it was not serious at all in Akita. We met the 2nd and 3rd group university students, who had just arrived from Hokkaido and Aichi, again at the hotel and one of them told us that there were 8 Vietnamese participants of another JENESYS group infected by H1N1. That sounded very scary.
This evening we had dinner at an Asian restaurant, actually Vietnamese. The decoration inside was Asian style, and we could see some Cambodian elements on the wall. The taste of food was rather different from what we had eaten these days. Still, it was not the same as the tasted of home. After dinner, we didn’t have chance to go shopping because there were a lot of activities tomorrow and we had to take a good rest. Anyway, our group had to prepare a speech for Virya to state at the farewell party tomorrow night. Therefore, Bellin, Virya, Sunmeng and I discussed together the outline of the speech. While discussing, I closed my eyes for several times. When we finished, I went to bed without having a bath or changing my clothes. That night, I slept like a dead.
This whole morning, we were going to have the workshop. 14 participants were divided into 2 groups of 7 people. Sunmeng and Bellin were group leader respectively. I was in Bellin’s group and took the role as note-taker. First, we started with giving some ideas and perspective for what we had seen in Akita and Japan. Then, we sorted those ideas into 4 different categories: education, culture, people, and environment. After a long time of organization, we compared our outline with Sunmeng group’s and started a little debate. Frankly, until now I still don’t know what the purpose of our workshop was, but from this workshop, all positive points of Japan engraved deeply on my mind.
At the end of the workshop, Mr. Hideaki, our coordinator, handed us a package of present for our visit to Akita. Inside the package, there was a sheet of newspaper with the news of our courtesy meeting with Nakano, deputy governor of Akita prefecture, a photo of farewell party, a photo at Mt. Kanpu, an album of photos of our group in Akita, a CD of photos, a DVD of AkiSho, and @ peace dolls from Chidas, my host family. We went back to our room and packed our baggage. Then we walked to a restaurant nearby to have our last meal in Akita. The food I remembered was a big dish of spaghetti.
Farewell Akita
We left Akita View Hotel and arrived at the Akita Airport at 2:00pm. Some host families came to see their son and daughter off. They burst into tear. The scene was touching. Bellin represented us to thank Mr. Hideaki for the stay in Akita. Then, we waved our hand goodbye and got on the plane. This time I sat at window seat and I could see the view outside very well from taking off at Akita Airport to landing at Tokyo Haneda Airport.
Tokyo Tower
We didn’t go to Asakusa Hotel yet because we had to see thje Tokyo Tower, but only from distance. Today I hadn’t taken any good photos yet, so I took as much as I could this evening. From a park nearby, Tokyo Tower appeared perfectly under our eyesight. It’s about 5pm, the time for walking in garden. We could see Japanese people relaxing and enjoying the evening breeze. Some kids were playing baseball. It’s also a flower garden, as beautiful as the one in Noshiro. Time’s up. We got on the bus and headed to Asakusa Hotel, where we had left for 5 days.
Return to Asakusa View Hotel
When reaching in front of the hotel, we were given a new room key and warned to wear mask on our face again. I totally forgot about H1N1 in Tokyo as it was not serious at all in Akita. We met the 2nd and 3rd group university students, who had just arrived from Hokkaido and Aichi, again at the hotel and one of them told us that there were 8 Vietnamese participants of another JENESYS group infected by H1N1. That sounded very scary.
This evening we had dinner at an Asian restaurant, actually Vietnamese. The decoration inside was Asian style, and we could see some Cambodian elements on the wall. The taste of food was rather different from what we had eaten these days. Still, it was not the same as the tasted of home. After dinner, we didn’t have chance to go shopping because there were a lot of activities tomorrow and we had to take a good rest. Anyway, our group had to prepare a speech for Virya to state at the farewell party tomorrow night. Therefore, Bellin, Virya, Sunmeng and I discussed together the outline of the speech. While discussing, I closed my eyes for several times. When we finished, I went to bed without having a bath or changing my clothes. That night, I slept like a dead.
Monday, July 5, 2010
21st September
Visit to OGA with university students
Today we were going to visit several places in OGA, a peninsula between Akita city and Noshiro. We didn’t know how Japanese university students were until we were about to get on the bus after breakfast. There were 21 of them, 4 handsome guys and 17 beautiful girls in casual clothes. Our task today was experience exchange with all of them. Unfortunately, Sreyroth could not go with us today due to her health problem.
Just after getting on the bus and sitting down, my eyelids were dropping down, so were all the participants. Our guide, Higoji, stood at the front seat and introduced our destinations. First of all, we were visiting Tempu Maru, a huge electricity-generating fan. There were 11 fans in Japan, and 3 of them are in Akita. Every Tempu Maru costs 2 million US dollars and produces 1500kW of electricity. It is 100 meters tall measured from the bottom to the tip of the fan leaves. All expenses are paid by Akita civilians 50% and the government 50%. Unfortunately, I really wanted to keep listening, but my eyes didn’t allow me to continue.
Tempu Maru
Here we arrived at Tempu Maru. The fan looked simple when we stopped and saw it from distance, but it looked completely huge when we stand under its 3 leaves. There has to be more than 20 people to surround its grand post. The fan spinned slowly due to light wind. All participants and university students had a commemorative picture taken. We were told to walk with Japanese students and have conversation with them. I made friend with a female student whose name is Nozomi. Her English was good and she was friendly to talk with me. However, we did not talk much because we had to move on to another destination.
Mount. Kanpu
On the way, there were two large statues of Namahage, the symbolic landmark of OGA. The second place we were visiting was Mt. Kanpu. Our bus was driven to the top of the mountain, which was 355 meters height. When we got off the bus, the first impression was chilling wind blowing at the top of the mountain. It was the coldest temperature we experienced in Japan, which was maybe 18oC, I thought. The best view was the curved sea line, which we could see it entirely from the mountain. Therefore, all participants, including university students and coordinators had another commemorative picture taken, but we had to take off our jacket in order to have the same JICE T-shirts for 14 participants in the picture. It was hard to with stand the cold wind and sit steadily smiling to camera. When it was finished, we quickly put on our jackets and walked down. We thought we might have gone to another part of the mountain for some more pictures, but we saw our bus waiting for us down there. That was all for Mt. Kanpu and we continued to Namahage museum.
Along the way down, we saw many dead-volcanic mountains lying on a very large area. Talking about Namahage, it was our main topic today. Namahage is a unique Japanese new year tradition, in which some people wear wooden masks of ‘giant’ and go to people houses to find and scare lazy children to make them promise to be hard-working. Although their faces are ugly and scary, they represent for goodness and kind. For more detail, we would find out at Namahage museum.
Namahage Museum
Inside the museum, a lot of Namahage related items were everywhere: paintings on walls, masks on tables, statues of Namahage, etc. We walked to a hall and sit watching the video of Namahage with other Japanese visitors, like inside a cinema.
The story was about the activities of namahage giants inside people house at the night before new year. In fact, Namahage giants had to have allowance from the host family before entering their house. Their task was to help the host family educate their lazy children or kids who always cry. Before entering their house, Namahage giant would scream fiercely and step their feet strongly so as to scare the children, so the children tried to hide from them. However, Namahage giant could seek them and hold them to see their parents. Those children inside the video screamed and cried, while we felt funny of those children who didn’t realize what the Namahage giants were, but it was good for them because they would be hard-working and be a good child due to the fear of Namahage giants. Continuing from the video, the namahage giants sat down with the host family and had some conversation. the children were calmed down and served some wine to Namahage giants. They still remained the fear of Namahage, but they were braved to make a commitment with Namahage that they would be good children.
When the video finished, we moved to another museum nearby, Sinsan Museum. There, we experienced the real performance of Namahage. We sat with other Japanese ordinary people in a Japanese traditional house, which was divided into 2 room, a room for audiences and the other for performance. It was a bit crowded with over 50 people inside a small room, but we were still happy to see the performance, which we had never seen even on TV.
At the performance room, there was a female introducer telling some stories of Namahage in Japanese which we didn’t understand at all. Other 4 performers played the roles of family hosts and the messenger of Namahage. After they talked for a while, the door shook terribly. All of suddence, two Namahages pushed to open the door with heavy footsteps and evil yelling. All audiences including us sere surprised with their sudden entrance, especially a young kid was scared to burst out crying. The two Namahages were seeking for young kids, while I was holding my camera and recording their action. They stopped for a while and started conversation with the host family as we had just seen on video. When they left, they just acted like when they arrived, screaming and frightening the audience aggressively. What a great cultural experience which we could closely and actually witness all the spectacle of performance.
GAO, Globe Aqua Ocean
The next target we were heading for is GAO (Globe Aqua Ocean), the chamber of sea lives in OGA. Its name “GAO” is similar to OGA and its logo color, green, light blue and dark blue, represent respectively the globe, water and ocean. It is famous of its polar bear and penguins.
Now it was 10:00 and we had to leave at 11:00, so we had got only 1 hour for looking around. Nozomi and Mizuho kindly guided me to see around and I asked them to take pictures for me. All the sea lives that I saw will be described as follow.
Before entering the GAO building, there is a small pool with a seal swimming around inside. Getting through the gate, there is a fake polar standing in a friendly way as the symbol of GAO and for the purpose of photographing. The gate was getting darker and darker when we went inside, but immediately the fascinating view and the ocean-blue light appearing on my right-hand side. It was an enormous and the biggest “fish pool” I had ever seen, Thousands of fish were swimming complicatedly in different directions. Varieties of fish, including turtle, were swimming peacefully without caring with tourists. Their every movement created uncountable naturally colorful images which I wanted to capture in every second.
Time was limited, so I couldn’t stay in a place too long. I could still see the huge “fish pool” in another direction when I got to another floor. It was still so attractive that I couldn’t stop taking its pictures. There are more splendid and rare sea lives exhibited in medium glass containers. Sword fish, huge crab, giant octopus, and ‘dragon’ fish are uniquely separated. Colorful coral under lighting effect became more beautiful. Difference size of glass containers described difference type of aquatic lives. Special spices turtles, snake, lizard, were placed under artificial light. Reaching another section, it is the focus of GAO, polar bear. It lazily stayed in a special large area imitating the polar environment and temperature. It may be the only creature which receives the biggest priority of not being interrupted by others and living in such a large area but might also be the loneliest. Leaving the ‘north pole’, I went to the ‘south pole’ to see penguins. They were more active. Some of them were having fun with swimming, while some of them were standing in a handsome way. At another place several types of jelly fish were floating with slow motion. The last place Nozomi guided me to see was the shallow pool of star fish and sea cucumber. There, tourists were allowed to touch those creatures directly with their hands. They did not have much activities when I touched them.
When I finished my seeing, it was nearly 12 o’clock. We still had some time for taking photographs. Another commemorative group photo was taken. Raden gave the speech of appreciation to the chief of GAO, and it’s time for lunch.
Lunch in OGA
We traveled to a famous Japanese restaurant where the lunch had already been prepared for us. In a big room, around 15 tables were arranged in 2 rows face to face. One table was for 3 persons and everyone got a set of meal. Sushi, raw shrimp, salty fish, pickle flowers, tofu soup were our lunch today. Nozomi and I sit and had lunch together. We talked about food in Japan and Cambodia and a lot of things related to everyday life. She also told me how to eat Japanese food in order to feel its delicious taste. Obviously, this was the first time I could feel Sushi was delicious, which was contrary to the taste I tried before. I’d like to say this is the most delicious meal I had in Japan. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to relax and enjoy with our meal because we had to hurry to our next destination.
Fossil exploration
Where? I almost forgot because we had been to 3 places in the morning. It’s time for fossil exploration! What was our mission? We were still in doubts until we arrived at the fossil site. This site was covered by the sea millions years ago. Millions years later when the sea retreated, the dead bodies of shellfish were left on the bay and became fossils as we see nowadays. Our mission was to discover the shell which was large and still remained in its original shape. We were provided with a pair of gloves, a screwdriver and a plastic bag. We had 30 minutes to search around the sand hill of fossils. I didn’t discover any remarkable shell fossil. Maybe the remarkable ones were buried deep inside the sand. We got nothing but sand inside our shoes. It’s the first time we made ourselves dirty in Japan.
Now it was 3:30pm. We had to return to Akita View Hotel and prepare ourselves for the farewell party this evening at 6:30pm. We were totally worn out. We slept on the bus along the way we came back. It seemed to take a long time to return.
Farewell party
I really wanted to lie on my bed when I entered my room, but time didn’t allow me to do so. I had to have a bath, put on my traditional costume, and review the moves of dance for the performance tonight. It was so exciting and nostalgic because tonight was the last night we stayed in Akita. I hoped we could have good memory for our host families, university friends and all coordinators in Akita.
We entered the banquet room before the female participants because they had to take longer time for make-up. Our guests had not arrived yet. We saw the stage for our performance and the tables for our guests, and we could imagine how the banquet was going to be. At the back of the room, chairs were arranged for taking a big commemorative picture. When our host families, university students and our coordinators were all present, the picture was taken. Then, we took a seat around the table, which was set for 2 families. Yoshi, Masako, Takayama, Sunmeng and I sat together with the host family of Sopheak and Virak. The dishes were served one by one as the wedding banquet. During the meal, the most surprising event was that the news of our visit to Akita Shogyo had been recorded and it was played back on LCD slide show in front of everyone. Our teaching appeared to be very funny. This DVD would be included in our gift for staying in Akita was big delight for us.
After that, it’s time for our culture show. We walked on to the stage pair by pair, stood at our position respectively, Som Peah, the music started, and we began to dance. We were satisfied with our performance because we didn’t make any mistake. It was even better than we thought. Our performance lasted for about 4 minutes. Then, all the guests were asked to dance with us along with Cambodian traditional musics, Saravann and Lamleav. Yoshi, Masako and Takayama followed my movements of hands while I wast instructing them in dancing. The atmosphere was relaxing and enjoyable. When the music stopped, it’s time to say goodbye to our host families. Sunmeng and I went along with Yoshi, Masako and Takayama from the banquet room through the lift to down stair. That’s all for the farewell party, but our mission didn’t end yet. We had to review the activities we had done in Akita for the workshop tomorrow. What a drag…
Today we were going to visit several places in OGA, a peninsula between Akita city and Noshiro. We didn’t know how Japanese university students were until we were about to get on the bus after breakfast. There were 21 of them, 4 handsome guys and 17 beautiful girls in casual clothes. Our task today was experience exchange with all of them. Unfortunately, Sreyroth could not go with us today due to her health problem.
Just after getting on the bus and sitting down, my eyelids were dropping down, so were all the participants. Our guide, Higoji, stood at the front seat and introduced our destinations. First of all, we were visiting Tempu Maru, a huge electricity-generating fan. There were 11 fans in Japan, and 3 of them are in Akita. Every Tempu Maru costs 2 million US dollars and produces 1500kW of electricity. It is 100 meters tall measured from the bottom to the tip of the fan leaves. All expenses are paid by Akita civilians 50% and the government 50%. Unfortunately, I really wanted to keep listening, but my eyes didn’t allow me to continue.
Tempu Maru
Here we arrived at Tempu Maru. The fan looked simple when we stopped and saw it from distance, but it looked completely huge when we stand under its 3 leaves. There has to be more than 20 people to surround its grand post. The fan spinned slowly due to light wind. All participants and university students had a commemorative picture taken. We were told to walk with Japanese students and have conversation with them. I made friend with a female student whose name is Nozomi. Her English was good and she was friendly to talk with me. However, we did not talk much because we had to move on to another destination.
Mount. Kanpu
On the way, there were two large statues of Namahage, the symbolic landmark of OGA. The second place we were visiting was Mt. Kanpu. Our bus was driven to the top of the mountain, which was 355 meters height. When we got off the bus, the first impression was chilling wind blowing at the top of the mountain. It was the coldest temperature we experienced in Japan, which was maybe 18oC, I thought. The best view was the curved sea line, which we could see it entirely from the mountain. Therefore, all participants, including university students and coordinators had another commemorative picture taken, but we had to take off our jacket in order to have the same JICE T-shirts for 14 participants in the picture. It was hard to with stand the cold wind and sit steadily smiling to camera. When it was finished, we quickly put on our jackets and walked down. We thought we might have gone to another part of the mountain for some more pictures, but we saw our bus waiting for us down there. That was all for Mt. Kanpu and we continued to Namahage museum.
Along the way down, we saw many dead-volcanic mountains lying on a very large area. Talking about Namahage, it was our main topic today. Namahage is a unique Japanese new year tradition, in which some people wear wooden masks of ‘giant’ and go to people houses to find and scare lazy children to make them promise to be hard-working. Although their faces are ugly and scary, they represent for goodness and kind. For more detail, we would find out at Namahage museum.
Namahage Museum
Inside the museum, a lot of Namahage related items were everywhere: paintings on walls, masks on tables, statues of Namahage, etc. We walked to a hall and sit watching the video of Namahage with other Japanese visitors, like inside a cinema.
The story was about the activities of namahage giants inside people house at the night before new year. In fact, Namahage giants had to have allowance from the host family before entering their house. Their task was to help the host family educate their lazy children or kids who always cry. Before entering their house, Namahage giant would scream fiercely and step their feet strongly so as to scare the children, so the children tried to hide from them. However, Namahage giant could seek them and hold them to see their parents. Those children inside the video screamed and cried, while we felt funny of those children who didn’t realize what the Namahage giants were, but it was good for them because they would be hard-working and be a good child due to the fear of Namahage giants. Continuing from the video, the namahage giants sat down with the host family and had some conversation. the children were calmed down and served some wine to Namahage giants. They still remained the fear of Namahage, but they were braved to make a commitment with Namahage that they would be good children.
When the video finished, we moved to another museum nearby, Sinsan Museum. There, we experienced the real performance of Namahage. We sat with other Japanese ordinary people in a Japanese traditional house, which was divided into 2 room, a room for audiences and the other for performance. It was a bit crowded with over 50 people inside a small room, but we were still happy to see the performance, which we had never seen even on TV.
At the performance room, there was a female introducer telling some stories of Namahage in Japanese which we didn’t understand at all. Other 4 performers played the roles of family hosts and the messenger of Namahage. After they talked for a while, the door shook terribly. All of suddence, two Namahages pushed to open the door with heavy footsteps and evil yelling. All audiences including us sere surprised with their sudden entrance, especially a young kid was scared to burst out crying. The two Namahages were seeking for young kids, while I was holding my camera and recording their action. They stopped for a while and started conversation with the host family as we had just seen on video. When they left, they just acted like when they arrived, screaming and frightening the audience aggressively. What a great cultural experience which we could closely and actually witness all the spectacle of performance.
GAO, Globe Aqua Ocean
The next target we were heading for is GAO (Globe Aqua Ocean), the chamber of sea lives in OGA. Its name “GAO” is similar to OGA and its logo color, green, light blue and dark blue, represent respectively the globe, water and ocean. It is famous of its polar bear and penguins.
Now it was 10:00 and we had to leave at 11:00, so we had got only 1 hour for looking around. Nozomi and Mizuho kindly guided me to see around and I asked them to take pictures for me. All the sea lives that I saw will be described as follow.
Before entering the GAO building, there is a small pool with a seal swimming around inside. Getting through the gate, there is a fake polar standing in a friendly way as the symbol of GAO and for the purpose of photographing. The gate was getting darker and darker when we went inside, but immediately the fascinating view and the ocean-blue light appearing on my right-hand side. It was an enormous and the biggest “fish pool” I had ever seen, Thousands of fish were swimming complicatedly in different directions. Varieties of fish, including turtle, were swimming peacefully without caring with tourists. Their every movement created uncountable naturally colorful images which I wanted to capture in every second.
Time was limited, so I couldn’t stay in a place too long. I could still see the huge “fish pool” in another direction when I got to another floor. It was still so attractive that I couldn’t stop taking its pictures. There are more splendid and rare sea lives exhibited in medium glass containers. Sword fish, huge crab, giant octopus, and ‘dragon’ fish are uniquely separated. Colorful coral under lighting effect became more beautiful. Difference size of glass containers described difference type of aquatic lives. Special spices turtles, snake, lizard, were placed under artificial light. Reaching another section, it is the focus of GAO, polar bear. It lazily stayed in a special large area imitating the polar environment and temperature. It may be the only creature which receives the biggest priority of not being interrupted by others and living in such a large area but might also be the loneliest. Leaving the ‘north pole’, I went to the ‘south pole’ to see penguins. They were more active. Some of them were having fun with swimming, while some of them were standing in a handsome way. At another place several types of jelly fish were floating with slow motion. The last place Nozomi guided me to see was the shallow pool of star fish and sea cucumber. There, tourists were allowed to touch those creatures directly with their hands. They did not have much activities when I touched them.
When I finished my seeing, it was nearly 12 o’clock. We still had some time for taking photographs. Another commemorative group photo was taken. Raden gave the speech of appreciation to the chief of GAO, and it’s time for lunch.
Lunch in OGA
We traveled to a famous Japanese restaurant where the lunch had already been prepared for us. In a big room, around 15 tables were arranged in 2 rows face to face. One table was for 3 persons and everyone got a set of meal. Sushi, raw shrimp, salty fish, pickle flowers, tofu soup were our lunch today. Nozomi and I sit and had lunch together. We talked about food in Japan and Cambodia and a lot of things related to everyday life. She also told me how to eat Japanese food in order to feel its delicious taste. Obviously, this was the first time I could feel Sushi was delicious, which was contrary to the taste I tried before. I’d like to say this is the most delicious meal I had in Japan. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to relax and enjoy with our meal because we had to hurry to our next destination.
Fossil exploration
Where? I almost forgot because we had been to 3 places in the morning. It’s time for fossil exploration! What was our mission? We were still in doubts until we arrived at the fossil site. This site was covered by the sea millions years ago. Millions years later when the sea retreated, the dead bodies of shellfish were left on the bay and became fossils as we see nowadays. Our mission was to discover the shell which was large and still remained in its original shape. We were provided with a pair of gloves, a screwdriver and a plastic bag. We had 30 minutes to search around the sand hill of fossils. I didn’t discover any remarkable shell fossil. Maybe the remarkable ones were buried deep inside the sand. We got nothing but sand inside our shoes. It’s the first time we made ourselves dirty in Japan.
Now it was 3:30pm. We had to return to Akita View Hotel and prepare ourselves for the farewell party this evening at 6:30pm. We were totally worn out. We slept on the bus along the way we came back. It seemed to take a long time to return.
Farewell party
I really wanted to lie on my bed when I entered my room, but time didn’t allow me to do so. I had to have a bath, put on my traditional costume, and review the moves of dance for the performance tonight. It was so exciting and nostalgic because tonight was the last night we stayed in Akita. I hoped we could have good memory for our host families, university friends and all coordinators in Akita.
We entered the banquet room before the female participants because they had to take longer time for make-up. Our guests had not arrived yet. We saw the stage for our performance and the tables for our guests, and we could imagine how the banquet was going to be. At the back of the room, chairs were arranged for taking a big commemorative picture. When our host families, university students and our coordinators were all present, the picture was taken. Then, we took a seat around the table, which was set for 2 families. Yoshi, Masako, Takayama, Sunmeng and I sat together with the host family of Sopheak and Virak. The dishes were served one by one as the wedding banquet. During the meal, the most surprising event was that the news of our visit to Akita Shogyo had been recorded and it was played back on LCD slide show in front of everyone. Our teaching appeared to be very funny. This DVD would be included in our gift for staying in Akita was big delight for us.
After that, it’s time for our culture show. We walked on to the stage pair by pair, stood at our position respectively, Som Peah, the music started, and we began to dance. We were satisfied with our performance because we didn’t make any mistake. It was even better than we thought. Our performance lasted for about 4 minutes. Then, all the guests were asked to dance with us along with Cambodian traditional musics, Saravann and Lamleav. Yoshi, Masako and Takayama followed my movements of hands while I wast instructing them in dancing. The atmosphere was relaxing and enjoyable. When the music stopped, it’s time to say goodbye to our host families. Sunmeng and I went along with Yoshi, Masako and Takayama from the banquet room through the lift to down stair. That’s all for the farewell party, but our mission didn’t end yet. We had to review the activities we had done in Akita for the workshop tomorrow. What a drag…
20th September
Second day in Noshiro
I woke up at 7:00, the latest time I woke up in Japan. Although it had been a nice sleep last night, I still felt sleepy indeed. This morning breakfast was rice, beef, dumpling, tofu soap, and Nato. What is Nato? It is kind of sticky bland yellow bean, and its taste was not acceptable for me, neither was Sunmeng. We were really sorry for leaving it over, and Yoshi and Masako didn’t mind because they knew this taste was only suitable for the Japanese.
After breakfast, we went to Noshiro Park by car for a walk. The park was really natural with high trees and green plants. The paths were smoothly paved to be convenient for cycling and jogging. Although today was Sunday, we could hardly saw anyone walking around. Along the paths we saw Sakura trees with green leaves, map of the park, a small pond, wooden bridge, wooden house for relax, balance wood, and other wooden facilities of play ground. It would be great to have fun with nature if we could come here every morning to inhale fresh air and do body exercise.
We left the park and went to an electronic shop. Only Masako accompanied us, Yoshi drove his car to other place. Varieties of products were placed on shelves. I had never seen some of these products. They looked exquisite and trendy. Just forget about the price. Everything was good to observe only, but we could afford to buy. Have you ever seen an about 60x40cm2-screen LCD monitor? Here you can see. Masako took us to an electronic massage chairs area. There, we could try the chair for free. Sunmeng and I sat respectively on 2 chairs for around 10 minutes. Frankly, it was not really comfortable, as the massage machine hit my shoulder and back with too much force.
After electronic shop, we went to another 100 yens shop. I bought a little souvenir but spent a long time for looking around. Then we went to a DVD rental shop. On the shelves, there were many movie DVDs, from Hollywood, China, Korea, Japanese animations, cartoons and games. I could see the actors and characters I was familiar with on the DVD packages. Masako called Yoshi to pick us up here and go home.
Souvenir Exchange
This afternoon, we ate Ramen, Japanese noodle. There was no much difference with the noodle between Japanese Ramen and Cambodian instance noodle, but the flavor was not the same. Sunmeng and I added some Tabasco to our Ramen because it was not spicy. Masako was surprised because she doesn’t like spicy. We talked about a lot of differences between Cambodia and Japan, and it was the last meal we had together. After lunch, I took out some souvenirs, which sere 2 T-shirts, 2 Kromas, 3 key chains, and 7 postcards to offer to Yoshi and Masako as the memory of your homestay together. They also offered me a photo frame, a postcard of peace and 2 Japanese peace dolls made by them. We exchanged the souvenir and asked Sunmeng to take picture for us, and Sunmeng had his souvenirs as well. At 1:00, we arranged our luggage, put it in the car, and started our journey back to Akita city.
The end of homestay
Along the way, we couldn’t help with our sleepiness. We sat and slept in the car for 2 hours until we arrived in Akita city. I wondered whether the other participants had already returned or not yet. How were their homestays? I thought the later we returned, the happier we had been. Now it was 3:300 and we were planned to return at 4:00. I started to worry that we were too early to get back. When we nearly reached the Akita view hotel, Yoshi turned to Akita Central Park to meet his friend there. We pause for a moment, and a man in long-sleeves T-shirt and jeans like a traveler with a large baggage on his back walked toward our car. He was Yoshi’s friend, Takayama. He is a traveler and has been to many countries in Asia. Five of us sat under a cottage and had some conversation. The cold gentle breath passed through my body, and the warm ray of sunset shined on my face. What a comfortable central park of Akita city for relaxing after a whole day of rush. We spent one hour for conversation and we had to go back to hotel. Takayama came with us. When we arrived at the hotel, it was time to say ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ to Yoshi, Masako, and Takayama, but we still had a farewell party together tomorrow night. The homestay of mine ended.
Most of participants had already returned and gone shopping. I thought we could go again after dinner tonight, but we were told to rest as much as possible in order to handle with tomorrow journey to OGA with Japanese university students. Especially Sereyroth had problem with her health again after homestay, and she had to choose between journey to OGA and farewell party. We were very sorry for her that she couldn’t join with us tomorrow. Additionally, for the farewell party, we had to prepare our traditional clothes, traditional dance, and speeches sated by Yuth representing for us. We had some rehearsal in Bellin and Virya’s room and every movement of the dance was refined. Another problem was that Sovann had no his traditional costume, which we couldn’t the solution until tomorrow.
I woke up at 7:00, the latest time I woke up in Japan. Although it had been a nice sleep last night, I still felt sleepy indeed. This morning breakfast was rice, beef, dumpling, tofu soap, and Nato. What is Nato? It is kind of sticky bland yellow bean, and its taste was not acceptable for me, neither was Sunmeng. We were really sorry for leaving it over, and Yoshi and Masako didn’t mind because they knew this taste was only suitable for the Japanese.
After breakfast, we went to Noshiro Park by car for a walk. The park was really natural with high trees and green plants. The paths were smoothly paved to be convenient for cycling and jogging. Although today was Sunday, we could hardly saw anyone walking around. Along the paths we saw Sakura trees with green leaves, map of the park, a small pond, wooden bridge, wooden house for relax, balance wood, and other wooden facilities of play ground. It would be great to have fun with nature if we could come here every morning to inhale fresh air and do body exercise.
We left the park and went to an electronic shop. Only Masako accompanied us, Yoshi drove his car to other place. Varieties of products were placed on shelves. I had never seen some of these products. They looked exquisite and trendy. Just forget about the price. Everything was good to observe only, but we could afford to buy. Have you ever seen an about 60x40cm2-screen LCD monitor? Here you can see. Masako took us to an electronic massage chairs area. There, we could try the chair for free. Sunmeng and I sat respectively on 2 chairs for around 10 minutes. Frankly, it was not really comfortable, as the massage machine hit my shoulder and back with too much force.
After electronic shop, we went to another 100 yens shop. I bought a little souvenir but spent a long time for looking around. Then we went to a DVD rental shop. On the shelves, there were many movie DVDs, from Hollywood, China, Korea, Japanese animations, cartoons and games. I could see the actors and characters I was familiar with on the DVD packages. Masako called Yoshi to pick us up here and go home.
Souvenir Exchange
This afternoon, we ate Ramen, Japanese noodle. There was no much difference with the noodle between Japanese Ramen and Cambodian instance noodle, but the flavor was not the same. Sunmeng and I added some Tabasco to our Ramen because it was not spicy. Masako was surprised because she doesn’t like spicy. We talked about a lot of differences between Cambodia and Japan, and it was the last meal we had together. After lunch, I took out some souvenirs, which sere 2 T-shirts, 2 Kromas, 3 key chains, and 7 postcards to offer to Yoshi and Masako as the memory of your homestay together. They also offered me a photo frame, a postcard of peace and 2 Japanese peace dolls made by them. We exchanged the souvenir and asked Sunmeng to take picture for us, and Sunmeng had his souvenirs as well. At 1:00, we arranged our luggage, put it in the car, and started our journey back to Akita city.
The end of homestay
Along the way, we couldn’t help with our sleepiness. We sat and slept in the car for 2 hours until we arrived in Akita city. I wondered whether the other participants had already returned or not yet. How were their homestays? I thought the later we returned, the happier we had been. Now it was 3:300 and we were planned to return at 4:00. I started to worry that we were too early to get back. When we nearly reached the Akita view hotel, Yoshi turned to Akita Central Park to meet his friend there. We pause for a moment, and a man in long-sleeves T-shirt and jeans like a traveler with a large baggage on his back walked toward our car. He was Yoshi’s friend, Takayama. He is a traveler and has been to many countries in Asia. Five of us sat under a cottage and had some conversation. The cold gentle breath passed through my body, and the warm ray of sunset shined on my face. What a comfortable central park of Akita city for relaxing after a whole day of rush. We spent one hour for conversation and we had to go back to hotel. Takayama came with us. When we arrived at the hotel, it was time to say ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ to Yoshi, Masako, and Takayama, but we still had a farewell party together tomorrow night. The homestay of mine ended.
Most of participants had already returned and gone shopping. I thought we could go again after dinner tonight, but we were told to rest as much as possible in order to handle with tomorrow journey to OGA with Japanese university students. Especially Sereyroth had problem with her health again after homestay, and she had to choose between journey to OGA and farewell party. We were very sorry for her that she couldn’t join with us tomorrow. Additionally, for the farewell party, we had to prepare our traditional clothes, traditional dance, and speeches sated by Yuth representing for us. We had some rehearsal in Bellin and Virya’s room and every movement of the dance was refined. Another problem was that Sovann had no his traditional costume, which we couldn’t the solution until tomorrow.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
19th September
Greeting with host families of Homestay
The most critical and special activity of JENESYS program was home-stay, which we had it for two days and a night. It was shorter than what I had though. Last night, we had arranged our important stuff we would use at home-stay, while the other things would be kept at the hotel. However, I took all my stuff with me because I didn’t want to forget anything. Similar to yesterday, anxiety and worry still stayed in our mind for whole morning until ten o’clock. ‘How old are the host families? How many family members do they have? Who will go alone?’ We didn’t know until the last minute they came into the meeting room.
We saw a pair of young couple, granny and grandpa, a young lady with her mother, 30, 40, 50 years old of couples coming and sitting at a row of chairs in front of us. Then, we were delivered a piece of paper for each about the information of our host family which we would stay with, and host families received a piece of paper about the information of the participants who would stay with them. We were discussing who was lucky and who was luckier. Sovann and Bellin went alone with their host families, while the others went in pairs. After a while, we were called pair by pair to meet face to face to our host families respectively. After a short conversation and a taking of photograph, we left each other and the home stay began.
My homestay begins!
Again, Sunmeng and I together had the homestay with Mr. and Ms Chida, who are elder sister and younger brother, 36 and 35 years old. We called their name, Yoshi and Masako. Their house is in Noshiro, on the North of Akita city, so we had to take a very long car rip to their house. However, we stopped at many places before reaching their house.
First of all, we went to Selion tower. It was the highest tower which we can see the whole view of Akita city at the top floor, 100 meters height. The lift we took was transparent so that we could see all the impressive view from the ground to the top. The ground was further and further, and the cares outside were smaller and smaller. Wow, here was the 100 meters height, I had never felt this height before, and the east, south, west, and north views of Akita city were under my eyesight. We just walked around, took some pictures, and then went down through the same lift back to the ground. The weather was sunny but cold in the open air, but when we got into the glass house near the tower, we felt very warm. It was a really good place for relaxing with sound of nature, scene of flowers, and fresh air of trees. We did not stay there long because there were still several places we must go.
We left Selion sea port and went to play golf. How many people in Cambodia used to play golf? I have not even seen the golf course with my own eyes before. How lucky was I to experience this sport in Japan! Yoshi and Masako took Sunmeng and I to a golf club, and they picked 4 clubs and a bucket of 50 balls. At the golf-practice plat form, Yoshi poured some balls to the auto-loading machine and showed us how to stand and hit. I thought it must be easy and boring wit just hitting again and again. When it was my turn, I was surprised by holding the golf club, which was heavy and difficult to aim the target. I missed several times and most balls did not go far. As I used so much strength to swing, the club flew of my hand, so embarrassed was, but luckily, the club did not harm anyone. I had never imagined swinging the club was so tiring. 50 balls were enough for us and we headed to another place.
The third place we visited was the Akita most beautiful flower garden. Outside, we could see violet Lavender and other red orange and yellow flowers planted in rows. At the back, there was a pond surrounded by different colors of splendid flowers accompanied with green trees, creating a wonderful scene of super-natural Akita. There was a glass house as well consisting variety of kinds of flowers inside. Now, it was lunch time. We sat at a wooden table and bench and had a triangle-shaped rice ball and a box of cool coffee. It was another special taste I tried in Japan. After lunch, we went to a shop which sells the products of flowers and fruits of the glass house nearby. Cakes, sweets, apples, pears, etc were free for a try. There were a lot of kinds of flower seed for sale. I noticed that some flowers were eatable and some were for decoration. It was so interesting that Japanese people concentrate on environment and nature so much. It was 1:30, and we continued to our home.
On the way, the beautiful landscape of golden rice field, blue sky, white cloud, and mountain made me want to take picture of it. Now, we were in Noshiro. It was colder than Akita city. Most house were built separately and two floors only. The space of public building was under and the traffic was better. We stopped at a supermarket to buy food for tonight and tomorrow. Masako, Sunmeng and I went into the supermarket, and Yoshi waited in the car. We wandered around inside, but could not decide to buy anything. Finally, we bought spaghetti, beef, tomato sauce, crab flesh, dried beef, coca cola, and mini bottle of Tabasco. After about half an hour of shopping, we went on our journey to home.
My host family's home
Around 3 o’clock, we arrived home. I was still wondering how Japanese house was inside. There were 2 floors only. Dining room, kitchen, bathroom toile are at ground floor, while the living room is at the first floor. Yoshi led us to the living room where we had to sleep tonight. The living room is roomy with tatami floor. There are photographs of Masako and Yoshi’s parents, who had passed away, and a table of sacred things and worship. After a while, Masako brought up 4 cups of tea, and 4 of us sat together and had some conversation. I took out the Cambodia documents we learnt at CJCC to show and explain to them about Cambodian food, fruits, festival, Angkor Wat, and other tradition, ceremony, and culture. They also asked Sunmeng and me something related to our life in Cambodia. The conversation of exchange lasted for an hour.
Then, Yoshi and Masako took us to visit Japanese Buddhist pagoda and Shintoist shrine. First, we went to ‘West Light Pagoda’. Obviously, the eastern-style pagoda is different from our Cambodian-style pagoda. The West Light pagoda is built of wood and was very quiet in the evening. Yoshi showed us by himself how to pray to the Buddha in Japan, and we told him about the Cambodian. Then, we sat down in a room, had some sweet and tea, and had conversation again. After that, Yoshi and Masako took us to meet their uncle and grandma. We did not stay long, just a brief greeting and introduction.
Then, we continued to a Shintoist shrine, ‘Eight Flags Shrine’. I could see the torri gate and red lantern hanging at two sides of the gate. In the main sacred hall, a ceremony was being celebrated. A woman in white dress was performing a series of movement for wishing by shaking a dagger attached with bells along with desolate music. As a foreigner, I did not understand the real meaning of this performance, but I admired Japanese tradition which could be maintained till nowadays and interest so many people to come and see it. The nature around the shrine was great with statues, pond, ancient structure, and sound of crows.
The evening in Noshiro
The sky became dark, and we went home to have dinner. Our dinner was fish. I didn’t know how it was made, but the taste was like Cambodian. We hadn’t had such taste of home for a week. After dinner, Yoshi and Masako took us to Noshiro game center. Yoshi drove smoothly through a spiral road to the parking lot at third floor. The road was narrow and dark, but his driving skill was so good that he could drive without any worry, while I was a bit scared of that. The center wasn’t very big. That’s why we couldn’t find any games we really wanted to play. Sumeng and I only played car racing and table hockey, and we went down stair to 100 yens shop. It was the first time for me to come to 100 yens shop. I was surprised by everything costing 100 yens (=1$ approximately). However, some items were more than 100 yens, which we must be careful with the price labels. I was holding a basket and walked from row to row to find souvenirs for teachers and friends. It was hard to decide what the best things to give them were, and it would be difficult to bring those things back to Cambodia if I bought too much. After a long choice, I bought 15 items and Sunmeng bought a few things. Then, we went to another floor to see some fruits. Wow! Finally, I understood why it was said that Japanese apples were the best. Not only apples but also pears bananas, grapes, etc. were all 2 or 3 times larger than those we used to eat in Cambodia, as well as the price was 3 or 4 times more expensive. We picked a box of giant grape because we wondered how tasty it was.
When we got home, we gathered in the dining room, ate the crab flesh, dried beef and giant grape, drank coca cola, and talked about Cambodia. At that time, our coordinator, Borng Danich, called to Yoshi home telephone, and he called Sunmeng and me to answer it. She asked how we had been, and we told her that everything was alright and the food was delicious. Then, we continued talking with Masako and Yoshi until 11:00, and we went outside to play mini firework. It was extremely quiet and chilling in the midnight. I thought it must have been under 20 0C. Each of us held a stick of firework in hand and swung around. Yoshi said it would be happier to play with many people in Summer time. The happy time always lasted for short.
We returned home. Yoshi went to rest, and Masako still talked with us until 12:30. It was time to say ‘oyasuminasai’. We slept in futon, with thick blanket which kept us very warm.
The most critical and special activity of JENESYS program was home-stay, which we had it for two days and a night. It was shorter than what I had though. Last night, we had arranged our important stuff we would use at home-stay, while the other things would be kept at the hotel. However, I took all my stuff with me because I didn’t want to forget anything. Similar to yesterday, anxiety and worry still stayed in our mind for whole morning until ten o’clock. ‘How old are the host families? How many family members do they have? Who will go alone?’ We didn’t know until the last minute they came into the meeting room.
We saw a pair of young couple, granny and grandpa, a young lady with her mother, 30, 40, 50 years old of couples coming and sitting at a row of chairs in front of us. Then, we were delivered a piece of paper for each about the information of our host family which we would stay with, and host families received a piece of paper about the information of the participants who would stay with them. We were discussing who was lucky and who was luckier. Sovann and Bellin went alone with their host families, while the others went in pairs. After a while, we were called pair by pair to meet face to face to our host families respectively. After a short conversation and a taking of photograph, we left each other and the home stay began.
My homestay begins!
Again, Sunmeng and I together had the homestay with Mr. and Ms Chida, who are elder sister and younger brother, 36 and 35 years old. We called their name, Yoshi and Masako. Their house is in Noshiro, on the North of Akita city, so we had to take a very long car rip to their house. However, we stopped at many places before reaching their house.
First of all, we went to Selion tower. It was the highest tower which we can see the whole view of Akita city at the top floor, 100 meters height. The lift we took was transparent so that we could see all the impressive view from the ground to the top. The ground was further and further, and the cares outside were smaller and smaller. Wow, here was the 100 meters height, I had never felt this height before, and the east, south, west, and north views of Akita city were under my eyesight. We just walked around, took some pictures, and then went down through the same lift back to the ground. The weather was sunny but cold in the open air, but when we got into the glass house near the tower, we felt very warm. It was a really good place for relaxing with sound of nature, scene of flowers, and fresh air of trees. We did not stay there long because there were still several places we must go.
We left Selion sea port and went to play golf. How many people in Cambodia used to play golf? I have not even seen the golf course with my own eyes before. How lucky was I to experience this sport in Japan! Yoshi and Masako took Sunmeng and I to a golf club, and they picked 4 clubs and a bucket of 50 balls. At the golf-practice plat form, Yoshi poured some balls to the auto-loading machine and showed us how to stand and hit. I thought it must be easy and boring wit just hitting again and again. When it was my turn, I was surprised by holding the golf club, which was heavy and difficult to aim the target. I missed several times and most balls did not go far. As I used so much strength to swing, the club flew of my hand, so embarrassed was, but luckily, the club did not harm anyone. I had never imagined swinging the club was so tiring. 50 balls were enough for us and we headed to another place.
The third place we visited was the Akita most beautiful flower garden. Outside, we could see violet Lavender and other red orange and yellow flowers planted in rows. At the back, there was a pond surrounded by different colors of splendid flowers accompanied with green trees, creating a wonderful scene of super-natural Akita. There was a glass house as well consisting variety of kinds of flowers inside. Now, it was lunch time. We sat at a wooden table and bench and had a triangle-shaped rice ball and a box of cool coffee. It was another special taste I tried in Japan. After lunch, we went to a shop which sells the products of flowers and fruits of the glass house nearby. Cakes, sweets, apples, pears, etc were free for a try. There were a lot of kinds of flower seed for sale. I noticed that some flowers were eatable and some were for decoration. It was so interesting that Japanese people concentrate on environment and nature so much. It was 1:30, and we continued to our home.
On the way, the beautiful landscape of golden rice field, blue sky, white cloud, and mountain made me want to take picture of it. Now, we were in Noshiro. It was colder than Akita city. Most house were built separately and two floors only. The space of public building was under and the traffic was better. We stopped at a supermarket to buy food for tonight and tomorrow. Masako, Sunmeng and I went into the supermarket, and Yoshi waited in the car. We wandered around inside, but could not decide to buy anything. Finally, we bought spaghetti, beef, tomato sauce, crab flesh, dried beef, coca cola, and mini bottle of Tabasco. After about half an hour of shopping, we went on our journey to home.
My host family's home
Around 3 o’clock, we arrived home. I was still wondering how Japanese house was inside. There were 2 floors only. Dining room, kitchen, bathroom toile are at ground floor, while the living room is at the first floor. Yoshi led us to the living room where we had to sleep tonight. The living room is roomy with tatami floor. There are photographs of Masako and Yoshi’s parents, who had passed away, and a table of sacred things and worship. After a while, Masako brought up 4 cups of tea, and 4 of us sat together and had some conversation. I took out the Cambodia documents we learnt at CJCC to show and explain to them about Cambodian food, fruits, festival, Angkor Wat, and other tradition, ceremony, and culture. They also asked Sunmeng and me something related to our life in Cambodia. The conversation of exchange lasted for an hour.
Then, Yoshi and Masako took us to visit Japanese Buddhist pagoda and Shintoist shrine. First, we went to ‘West Light Pagoda’. Obviously, the eastern-style pagoda is different from our Cambodian-style pagoda. The West Light pagoda is built of wood and was very quiet in the evening. Yoshi showed us by himself how to pray to the Buddha in Japan, and we told him about the Cambodian. Then, we sat down in a room, had some sweet and tea, and had conversation again. After that, Yoshi and Masako took us to meet their uncle and grandma. We did not stay long, just a brief greeting and introduction.
Then, we continued to a Shintoist shrine, ‘Eight Flags Shrine’. I could see the torri gate and red lantern hanging at two sides of the gate. In the main sacred hall, a ceremony was being celebrated. A woman in white dress was performing a series of movement for wishing by shaking a dagger attached with bells along with desolate music. As a foreigner, I did not understand the real meaning of this performance, but I admired Japanese tradition which could be maintained till nowadays and interest so many people to come and see it. The nature around the shrine was great with statues, pond, ancient structure, and sound of crows.
The evening in Noshiro
The sky became dark, and we went home to have dinner. Our dinner was fish. I didn’t know how it was made, but the taste was like Cambodian. We hadn’t had such taste of home for a week. After dinner, Yoshi and Masako took us to Noshiro game center. Yoshi drove smoothly through a spiral road to the parking lot at third floor. The road was narrow and dark, but his driving skill was so good that he could drive without any worry, while I was a bit scared of that. The center wasn’t very big. That’s why we couldn’t find any games we really wanted to play. Sumeng and I only played car racing and table hockey, and we went down stair to 100 yens shop. It was the first time for me to come to 100 yens shop. I was surprised by everything costing 100 yens (=1$ approximately). However, some items were more than 100 yens, which we must be careful with the price labels. I was holding a basket and walked from row to row to find souvenirs for teachers and friends. It was hard to decide what the best things to give them were, and it would be difficult to bring those things back to Cambodia if I bought too much. After a long choice, I bought 15 items and Sunmeng bought a few things. Then, we went to another floor to see some fruits. Wow! Finally, I understood why it was said that Japanese apples were the best. Not only apples but also pears bananas, grapes, etc. were all 2 or 3 times larger than those we used to eat in Cambodia, as well as the price was 3 or 4 times more expensive. We picked a box of giant grape because we wondered how tasty it was.
When we got home, we gathered in the dining room, ate the crab flesh, dried beef and giant grape, drank coca cola, and talked about Cambodia. At that time, our coordinator, Borng Danich, called to Yoshi home telephone, and he called Sunmeng and me to answer it. She asked how we had been, and we told her that everything was alright and the food was delicious. Then, we continued talking with Masako and Yoshi until 11:00, and we went outside to play mini firework. It was extremely quiet and chilling in the midnight. I thought it must have been under 20 0C. Each of us held a stick of firework in hand and swung around. Yoshi said it would be happier to play with many people in Summer time. The happy time always lasted for short.
We returned home. Yoshi went to rest, and Masako still talked with us until 12:30. It was time to say ‘oyasuminasai’. We slept in futon, with thick blanket which kept us very warm.
18th September
Mission at Akita Shogyo
After a nice sleep of the first night in Akita, our today obligation is at Akita Shogyo, a commercial high school. For the whole day, we were told to do three things: 20 minute of self and Cambodia introduction, participation in the classroom for six hours with Japanese students, and observation of after-school clubs. But what exactly would we do? How were the students in Akita Shogyo? Would we have any problems with communication? These were our doubts and concerns from the night before till the next morning.
Arrival
We looked through the window to the road and waited restlessly on the bus for seeing the high school students we were going to meet. When we nearly reached there, we was some of them walking and riding bicycle industriously to go up the slope to the school. When we got out off the bus, the students around the building were glancing at us. It was the first time we were stared by so many people smiling at and talking something about us. We felt we were like superstars, honorable delegations, or aliens from other planet! Our coordinators led us to waiting room, and more and more students looked at us along the way. Ten minutes later, we went to meeting room to meet the school headmaster and class monitors.
We were called one by one to enter the room and take a seat with the monitor of the class which every of us had to participate in today. One class was for one participant, but except two classes for a pair of participants. Almost the class monitors were male. After taking a sit, we started to have some conversation with our class monitors. Their English was not as good as we had though. Still, we tried to use simple words and slow speed to communicate. After the speech of the headmaster, Kumagai Takamasa, we went to classroom with our class monitors respectively.
My self-presentation at AkiSho
My class monitor took me to his class, 2C (11th grade in Cambodia). Interestingly, along the corridor, he said ‘osh’ loudly to teachers and elder students we met, which surprised me and made me wonder what was happening. Soon, I noticed that it was the moral behavior for Japanese students when meeting their elder schoolmates and teachers.
We reached the 2C classroom door, and screaming and cheering came toward me. What my class would be, I thought. Inside the class, my class monitor became more outgoing and amusing. The class was going a bit out of order, but luckily there was class supervising teacher to calm down the class. Then I started to make the presentation with self-introduction in Japanese which I had learned at CJCC on 14th. After that, I asked a question to the class, ‘Do you know anything related to Cambodia?’ but there was no reply at all. I explained that if talking about Japan, you would think of Mt. Fuji, Tokyo, etc, and what about Cambodia? Thankfully, a student at the front desk replied ‘Angkor Wat’. Oh my goodness, it took so much of explanation for just a question and contrasted to what I had planned last night that I had to speak fluently and bring up the topics of Cambodia to the class as much as I could. But now what I had to do was slowing down and making sure that they could understand every word I spoke.
I took out a picture of Cambodian map and postcard of Angkor Wat, Independence Monument and showed it to the class. The following was the summarization of my explanation/presentation:
The territory of Cambodia is like a rabbit, while the territory of Japan is like a bow. There are 24 provinces and cities, and Angkor Wat is located in Siem Reap province. Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia. Independence Monument is symbol of Cambodian victory over the French colony since 1863 to 1953. Wat Phnom is located at the centre of Phnom Penh. Royal Palace is where the king lives.
The second part of my presentation was Khmer salutation, Som Peah. I showed them how to put their hands and what kind of people is appropriate to different level of Som Peah. I was glad to see all the classmates follow the movement of my Som Peah. In the end, I was not sure, among 42 students how many of them could understand how much of my presentation, but I was sure they must have had some impression of Cambodia. Because I spend over 20 minutes, there was no more time for question and answer. My first obligation was completed, here came the second.
My study day at AkiSho
I took a seat next to my class monitor at the last row. The first class was history class starting at 9:30. The history teacher didn’t ask me anything. He just continued giving lecture and asked very few questions to the class. I didn’t understand what he spoke but I knew he was teaching about European and Japanese history because I heard he talked about Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet and I could read the Ganji (Chinese letter) he wrote on the blackboard. At the same time, I chatted with my class monitor to know something more about him and the school. His name is Nobu, he is a soccer player in soccer club.
The bell rang and it’s time to have a break. All the students stood up and said some words like goodbye to teacher, which was different from Cambodian class. Then, all the students continuously left the classroom. I thought they were just going outside and would return, but Nobu told me we had to go to another room to study mathematics. That was strange for me because there is no class-changing like this in Cambodia.
Therefore, Nobu led me to another classroom, but I noticed there were fewer students than last session. This class was taught by Mr. Kuyashi, the class supervising teacher. I felt the students liked him because they sometimes made fun with him. Nobu wrote some phrases for me to read loudly to the teacher, so did I. all the students burst out laughing, so did the teacher himself. The phrase I remembered was ‘Katti katti yazo’, and I just knew that it might be the slogan related to strength of Akisho, but at that time I didn’t understand what it meant. The mathematics was about basic probability I had ever learned. Teacher Kuyashi was concerned I couldn’t understand the exercises written in Japanese, so he tried to explain and translate them to me although he was not really good at English.
After mathematics, it was sociology. We went back to 2C class. First, the teacher called me to come to front and asked me my name in English, so I told him my name is Taing Meng. Then he asked me how to say that in Khmer and told the class to repeat what I spoke. Obviously it’s very hard for them to repeat in Khmer. After that, he went on teaching and I felt very sleepy with just sitting and listening. In addition to the fatigue of last four days, I almost closed my eyes and fell asleep.
Lunch break
Eventually, the bell rang, and it’s time to have lunch. My class monitor and I went to the meeting room, while other students brought their lunch box and had lunch at the classroom. All the participants came back to the meeting room and had lunch together with their class monitors, and there were some teachers joining as well. We received a big lunch box for each and the food was very delicious. I could say that it was the most ‘oishi’ lunch I had ever tried since I arrived in Japan. Regrettably, we had to eat very quickly and I hadn’t finished yet. We only had 40 minutes of lunch time, and then the fourth class started.
Afternoon classes
My class was mathematics class again with the same teacher but another lesson, the second degree equation. It was easier than this morning, so the teacher didn’t translate it.
The fifth class was English, and we need to change our classroom again. My English teacher’s name is Kumagai, and he is old. He didn’t teach his lesson since he could speak English. He asked me something related to my study in Cambodia and my impression of Akita, and he translated my words to tell the class. Then, he let students ask me what they were in doubt. ‘Do you have a girlfriend? Who is the cutest in the class? Why can you speak English so fluently?’ For the last question, I replied that, in Cambodia, students studied for half day only, so they had plenty of time to learn other languages. Nobu told teacher Kumagai that I could understand Ganji, so he asked me to come to the blackboard and write the Chinese letter which the students asked the words in English. First, they asked me the word ‘monkey’, but I wrote the wrong word. In fact, it was not my mistake but the difference between Japanese and Chinese. The second word was ‘bear’, my letter was correct, so the teacher and students applauded. Another word ‘valley’ was correct again. Finally, teacher Kumagai told me that ‘bear valley’ was the translation of his name.
The last class was sport. We went back to 2C class and changed our clothes there, while female students went to another room. Coincidently, Sun Meng at 2D class had to play sport as well. We gathered at basket ball hall and listened to the couch for a short moment. After that, we could play any sport freely. Nobu and his two friends played badminton, so did I and Sun Meng. I was not as good as them, but I got a lot of fun and excitement.
The end of my second obligation was about to come. We went back to 2C class and changed back to our uniform. At that time, I gave a Kroma to Nobu as the souvenir, and another one to Koji, who gave the cloth of Kanto Matsui image. Unfortunately, the key chains and postcards were not enough to deliver to everyone. In the end, I requested teacher Kuyashi to take a picture of the whole class with me. He told his students like that and they rapidly pushed all the tables and chairs to the back. Thankfully, I got the greatest picture with classmates together and that was the most meaningful picture I had ever taken in Japan.
Nobu and I went to the meeting room, and he handed the school souvenir to me. It was the red towel of Akita Shogyo with its logo on it. It was time to say goodbye to Nobu, my class monitor at 2C.
Visiting AkiSho after-school clubs
Other participants had already returned and were discussing what had happened at their class. A lot of things we experienced today were similar, but some were better and some were worse. Sovann received several love letters from his classmate. Socheat made a very good friend and cried together. Six classes of Sunmeng were almost boring. Most of us didn’t take any photos. Thus, we went out and took a picture with Japanese students together.
Here came our third obligation. Primarily, we went to tea-making club. The instructor was an old granny. There were three female students preparing the tea. We went into the tatami room and sat into three groups with bending the legs. Making Japanese tea needs careful study and every movement must be slowly and accurately performed. First, we were given two pieces of special sugar candy, very sweet, to eat. Then respectively three female students made a cup of tea and handed carefully and orderly to everyone. She kneeled with holding the tea cup in her hands, put it down in front of the person she would serve, bowed with two hands touching the floor, held the teacup with her right palm, put it on her left palm, used her right hand to spin it two times in counter clockwise, and put it down. Then the drinker had to do similarly in holding the teacup up and inversely in spinning and drink. The bitterness of tea and the sweetness of candy were mixed together around the tongue, producing a kind of wonderful taste we and never had. After drinking, we had to do the movement which the female student did to us when offering the tea, and she had to do what we did when receiving the tea. It sounded very complicated but actually it was not difficult when you did it. In my opinion, tea-making is a kind of Japanese unique tradition for showing the beauty and meditation.
The second place we visited was Kendo club. Kendo is a kind of Japanese martial sport and similar to fencing of Europe. Students inside the Kendo Hall were wearing a set of armour and holding a Kendo stick. They practiced in pairs. First, they did the preparation in a distance. Then, they run toward each other with screaming and tried to hit the target on the opponent’s head and body where were protected by armour. There was only one shot, and they practiced like that again and again. The voice of their screaming and the sound of sticks hitting armour were the most impressive inside the hall.
The third club was Judo club. The way of practice was similar to Kendo, and the most fantastic sound was when a person threw his opponent’s back entirely touching to floor.
The last place we visited was baseball field. The baseball team of Akisho has ever won the national champion. We were not allowed to stand inside the field, because the baseballs were flying and dangerous. We just stood outside the field net and watched their practice. I wished I could have thrown the ball, worn the glove, or swing the bat. We could hear the sound of the ball thrown into the glove, so real!
It’s the end of the day in Akisho. Neary Roth gave the speech of appreciation to the school headmaster. After dinner, we went to a shopping center to play games.
After a nice sleep of the first night in Akita, our today obligation is at Akita Shogyo, a commercial high school. For the whole day, we were told to do three things: 20 minute of self and Cambodia introduction, participation in the classroom for six hours with Japanese students, and observation of after-school clubs. But what exactly would we do? How were the students in Akita Shogyo? Would we have any problems with communication? These were our doubts and concerns from the night before till the next morning.
Arrival
We looked through the window to the road and waited restlessly on the bus for seeing the high school students we were going to meet. When we nearly reached there, we was some of them walking and riding bicycle industriously to go up the slope to the school. When we got out off the bus, the students around the building were glancing at us. It was the first time we were stared by so many people smiling at and talking something about us. We felt we were like superstars, honorable delegations, or aliens from other planet! Our coordinators led us to waiting room, and more and more students looked at us along the way. Ten minutes later, we went to meeting room to meet the school headmaster and class monitors.
We were called one by one to enter the room and take a seat with the monitor of the class which every of us had to participate in today. One class was for one participant, but except two classes for a pair of participants. Almost the class monitors were male. After taking a sit, we started to have some conversation with our class monitors. Their English was not as good as we had though. Still, we tried to use simple words and slow speed to communicate. After the speech of the headmaster, Kumagai Takamasa, we went to classroom with our class monitors respectively.
My self-presentation at AkiSho
My class monitor took me to his class, 2C (11th grade in Cambodia). Interestingly, along the corridor, he said ‘osh’ loudly to teachers and elder students we met, which surprised me and made me wonder what was happening. Soon, I noticed that it was the moral behavior for Japanese students when meeting their elder schoolmates and teachers.
We reached the 2C classroom door, and screaming and cheering came toward me. What my class would be, I thought. Inside the class, my class monitor became more outgoing and amusing. The class was going a bit out of order, but luckily there was class supervising teacher to calm down the class. Then I started to make the presentation with self-introduction in Japanese which I had learned at CJCC on 14th. After that, I asked a question to the class, ‘Do you know anything related to Cambodia?’ but there was no reply at all. I explained that if talking about Japan, you would think of Mt. Fuji, Tokyo, etc, and what about Cambodia? Thankfully, a student at the front desk replied ‘Angkor Wat’. Oh my goodness, it took so much of explanation for just a question and contrasted to what I had planned last night that I had to speak fluently and bring up the topics of Cambodia to the class as much as I could. But now what I had to do was slowing down and making sure that they could understand every word I spoke.
I took out a picture of Cambodian map and postcard of Angkor Wat, Independence Monument and showed it to the class. The following was the summarization of my explanation/presentation:
The territory of Cambodia is like a rabbit, while the territory of Japan is like a bow. There are 24 provinces and cities, and Angkor Wat is located in Siem Reap province. Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia. Independence Monument is symbol of Cambodian victory over the French colony since 1863 to 1953. Wat Phnom is located at the centre of Phnom Penh. Royal Palace is where the king lives.
The second part of my presentation was Khmer salutation, Som Peah. I showed them how to put their hands and what kind of people is appropriate to different level of Som Peah. I was glad to see all the classmates follow the movement of my Som Peah. In the end, I was not sure, among 42 students how many of them could understand how much of my presentation, but I was sure they must have had some impression of Cambodia. Because I spend over 20 minutes, there was no more time for question and answer. My first obligation was completed, here came the second.
My study day at AkiSho
I took a seat next to my class monitor at the last row. The first class was history class starting at 9:30. The history teacher didn’t ask me anything. He just continued giving lecture and asked very few questions to the class. I didn’t understand what he spoke but I knew he was teaching about European and Japanese history because I heard he talked about Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet and I could read the Ganji (Chinese letter) he wrote on the blackboard. At the same time, I chatted with my class monitor to know something more about him and the school. His name is Nobu, he is a soccer player in soccer club.
The bell rang and it’s time to have a break. All the students stood up and said some words like goodbye to teacher, which was different from Cambodian class. Then, all the students continuously left the classroom. I thought they were just going outside and would return, but Nobu told me we had to go to another room to study mathematics. That was strange for me because there is no class-changing like this in Cambodia.
Therefore, Nobu led me to another classroom, but I noticed there were fewer students than last session. This class was taught by Mr. Kuyashi, the class supervising teacher. I felt the students liked him because they sometimes made fun with him. Nobu wrote some phrases for me to read loudly to the teacher, so did I. all the students burst out laughing, so did the teacher himself. The phrase I remembered was ‘Katti katti yazo’, and I just knew that it might be the slogan related to strength of Akisho, but at that time I didn’t understand what it meant. The mathematics was about basic probability I had ever learned. Teacher Kuyashi was concerned I couldn’t understand the exercises written in Japanese, so he tried to explain and translate them to me although he was not really good at English.
After mathematics, it was sociology. We went back to 2C class. First, the teacher called me to come to front and asked me my name in English, so I told him my name is Taing Meng. Then he asked me how to say that in Khmer and told the class to repeat what I spoke. Obviously it’s very hard for them to repeat in Khmer. After that, he went on teaching and I felt very sleepy with just sitting and listening. In addition to the fatigue of last four days, I almost closed my eyes and fell asleep.
Lunch break
Eventually, the bell rang, and it’s time to have lunch. My class monitor and I went to the meeting room, while other students brought their lunch box and had lunch at the classroom. All the participants came back to the meeting room and had lunch together with their class monitors, and there were some teachers joining as well. We received a big lunch box for each and the food was very delicious. I could say that it was the most ‘oishi’ lunch I had ever tried since I arrived in Japan. Regrettably, we had to eat very quickly and I hadn’t finished yet. We only had 40 minutes of lunch time, and then the fourth class started.
Afternoon classes
My class was mathematics class again with the same teacher but another lesson, the second degree equation. It was easier than this morning, so the teacher didn’t translate it.
The fifth class was English, and we need to change our classroom again. My English teacher’s name is Kumagai, and he is old. He didn’t teach his lesson since he could speak English. He asked me something related to my study in Cambodia and my impression of Akita, and he translated my words to tell the class. Then, he let students ask me what they were in doubt. ‘Do you have a girlfriend? Who is the cutest in the class? Why can you speak English so fluently?’ For the last question, I replied that, in Cambodia, students studied for half day only, so they had plenty of time to learn other languages. Nobu told teacher Kumagai that I could understand Ganji, so he asked me to come to the blackboard and write the Chinese letter which the students asked the words in English. First, they asked me the word ‘monkey’, but I wrote the wrong word. In fact, it was not my mistake but the difference between Japanese and Chinese. The second word was ‘bear’, my letter was correct, so the teacher and students applauded. Another word ‘valley’ was correct again. Finally, teacher Kumagai told me that ‘bear valley’ was the translation of his name.
The last class was sport. We went back to 2C class and changed our clothes there, while female students went to another room. Coincidently, Sun Meng at 2D class had to play sport as well. We gathered at basket ball hall and listened to the couch for a short moment. After that, we could play any sport freely. Nobu and his two friends played badminton, so did I and Sun Meng. I was not as good as them, but I got a lot of fun and excitement.
The end of my second obligation was about to come. We went back to 2C class and changed back to our uniform. At that time, I gave a Kroma to Nobu as the souvenir, and another one to Koji, who gave the cloth of Kanto Matsui image. Unfortunately, the key chains and postcards were not enough to deliver to everyone. In the end, I requested teacher Kuyashi to take a picture of the whole class with me. He told his students like that and they rapidly pushed all the tables and chairs to the back. Thankfully, I got the greatest picture with classmates together and that was the most meaningful picture I had ever taken in Japan.
Nobu and I went to the meeting room, and he handed the school souvenir to me. It was the red towel of Akita Shogyo with its logo on it. It was time to say goodbye to Nobu, my class monitor at 2C.
Visiting AkiSho after-school clubs
Other participants had already returned and were discussing what had happened at their class. A lot of things we experienced today were similar, but some were better and some were worse. Sovann received several love letters from his classmate. Socheat made a very good friend and cried together. Six classes of Sunmeng were almost boring. Most of us didn’t take any photos. Thus, we went out and took a picture with Japanese students together.
Here came our third obligation. Primarily, we went to tea-making club. The instructor was an old granny. There were three female students preparing the tea. We went into the tatami room and sat into three groups with bending the legs. Making Japanese tea needs careful study and every movement must be slowly and accurately performed. First, we were given two pieces of special sugar candy, very sweet, to eat. Then respectively three female students made a cup of tea and handed carefully and orderly to everyone. She kneeled with holding the tea cup in her hands, put it down in front of the person she would serve, bowed with two hands touching the floor, held the teacup with her right palm, put it on her left palm, used her right hand to spin it two times in counter clockwise, and put it down. Then the drinker had to do similarly in holding the teacup up and inversely in spinning and drink. The bitterness of tea and the sweetness of candy were mixed together around the tongue, producing a kind of wonderful taste we and never had. After drinking, we had to do the movement which the female student did to us when offering the tea, and she had to do what we did when receiving the tea. It sounded very complicated but actually it was not difficult when you did it. In my opinion, tea-making is a kind of Japanese unique tradition for showing the beauty and meditation.
The second place we visited was Kendo club. Kendo is a kind of Japanese martial sport and similar to fencing of Europe. Students inside the Kendo Hall were wearing a set of armour and holding a Kendo stick. They practiced in pairs. First, they did the preparation in a distance. Then, they run toward each other with screaming and tried to hit the target on the opponent’s head and body where were protected by armour. There was only one shot, and they practiced like that again and again. The voice of their screaming and the sound of sticks hitting armour were the most impressive inside the hall.
The third club was Judo club. The way of practice was similar to Kendo, and the most fantastic sound was when a person threw his opponent’s back entirely touching to floor.
The last place we visited was baseball field. The baseball team of Akisho has ever won the national champion. We were not allowed to stand inside the field, because the baseballs were flying and dangerous. We just stood outside the field net and watched their practice. I wished I could have thrown the ball, worn the glove, or swing the bat. We could hear the sound of the ball thrown into the glove, so real!
It’s the end of the day in Akisho. Neary Roth gave the speech of appreciation to the school headmaster. After dinner, we went to a shopping center to play games.
17th September
Shinkansen from Tokyo to Akita
Today we had to take four hours of Shinkansen to Akita city in Akita. We arrived at Tokyo train station at 8:10 and waited at platform. Wow! We were able to see bullet trains running so fast at such close distance about one meter. The Shinkansen was so cool that we quickly took several pictures of it when it stopped at the platform. I noticed that during 40 minutes of waiting, there were approximately five Shinkansen passing the platform, proving that Shinkansens take an important role in public transportation for passengers in Japan.
We got on the bullet train, and it was exactly the same as a bus inside. It was quiet, steady, smooth, comfortable, no quick break, no quick turn, no bump, which was a good kind of transportation for travelling and relaxing. Although the view outside the window was beautiful in such a fast motion, we couldn’t help with our sleepiness because we hadn’t had nice sleep for four nights. We received a Japanese lunch box for each at 11:00 and arrived in Akita at 1:00.
At Akita train station, we were welcomed by Mr. Sato Hideaki, our supervisor in Akita, other two coordinators, a cameraman, and Borng Ith Visal, Cambodian scholarship student in Japan. Without a break, we paid a visit to Akita Recycle Plaza promptly.
Recycle Plaza (A-TEC), first destination in Akita
Our instructor at Recycle Plaza was Ms. Kawaguji. The Recycle Plaza can also be called Garbage melting and transformation center or Akita Total Environment center (A-TEC). It was established in 2002 mainly to collect all garbage in Akita and melt it in 1700-1800℃ in order to reduce its volume to minimum. In comparison with combustion, high temperature melting is ten times more effective in garbage volume reduction. There is modern technique in toxin gas emission treatment while melting, which ensures nearly-zero pollution to atmosphere. The waste produced by melting garbage becomes slag and metal which can be used in building construction, road paving, and metal-making. The ultimate useless waste is kept in a highly safe place.
The second purpose of the plaza is electricity generation from hot vapor. During the melting, hot vapor are produced and transferred to generator so that it can produce maximum 8.5 MW of electricity.
The third purpose is transformation. PET (Plastic bottles) can be shattered and transformed to cotton-like material. After some additional processes, it can be made to be clothes, uniform, tie, etc. Moreover, aluminum and iron cans are compressed into a rectangle box-shape for convenient transportation and transformed to various metal products.
The fourth purpose is recycling. Wine, beer, coke glass bottles which are still in good condition can be sterilized and reused for more than ten times. Newspaper and used paper can be recycled in order to reduce natural resource consumption.
First of all, Ms. Kawaguji illustrated some information and animated video clip related to A-TEC by slideshow to us inside guest meeting room. Then she led us to look around some of the sections and explained the functions of all machines we saw.
First, we went to see the platforms where garbage trucks dropped their garbage. There were 9 platforms, and the 9th we the biggest with large gate. It was said that there was 400 tons of garbage in average to drop at these platforms.
Second, we moved to see the deep storage pool of garbage behind the platform gates from the top. Inside, there was a huge five-finger iron had moving by human control or sometimes automatically to grab garbage to drop into the melting area. Every of its grab is 3 tons of garbage and its 24 hours without stopping. It grabbed, dropped, and grabbed again so as to diffuse the garbage before dropping into the melting area for entire melting purpose. Paper, glass bottles, iron cans, aluminum cans, PET, and other combustible garbage were inside the deep pool.
Third, we turned right to see the central control room. There were three controllers in the room monitoring the moisture of garbage, the five-finger iron hand, the process of all machines, and visitors.
Fourth, we saw the electric generator by hot vapor produced by melting garbage, which in maximum provided 8,500 KW of electricity for the whole plaza utilization and outside. There, another instructor explained and showed that the materials received from melting garbage was ‘metal’ for lead making and ‘slag’ for road paving.
Fifth, we continued to see the deep storage pool of garbage behind the 9th platform, where the large garbage like furniture was dumped just a grab by the five-finger. Those furniture was mattress, log, armchair, TV, etc., and we witnessed a 14-inch TV was smashed into pieces in only a few seconds.
Sixth, the Metal Plaza had been built since September 2006 and not been finished yet, so we didn’t see it.
Seventh, we went to exhibition area of transformation PET (Plastic bottle) was broken into small pieces, transformed to cotton-like materials, made into thread and fabric, and finally becomes uniform, tie, wrapping cloth, etc., while some PET was transformed into PET stone for making bowls, souvenir, and construction. Aluminum cans were compressed to 80×50×26 box shape weighting 36kg and iron cans weighting 90kg for convenient transportation. Those cans are melted and made to other metal product, and they can be recycled 97℃.
Eighth, we went to wine and beer bottle area and saw the process of good condition bottles selection by the staff. If the bottle is still in good condition, they pick it up and sterilize and use it again. If the bottle is cracked or broken, they throw it away and use it for road paving or brick making.Those were all for Ms. Kawaguji instruction to what we saw, and the bottles are divided into three groups according to their colours—transparent, green, and mixed, and they can be recycled more than ten times.
Then it was question and answer time at a classroom. Four of us asked Ms. Kawaguji a question for each, and her reply was following. It takes four hours for garbage melting, and six hours for transformation to metal and slag. The quality of recycled product is according to the type of garbage. The Recycle Plaza belongs to government, but machines were bought from private companies. People don’t need to pay for this service. Recycling is better than production with original material. At the end, we received a paper bag with four mini-bags of tissue and leaflet of A-TEC inside. After that, we went to Akita View Hotel.
Courtesy meeting with deputy governor of Akita prefecture, Nakano
In the evening, we had another crucial meeting with deputy governor of Akita prefecture, Nakano. I had to be the representative and gave the speech of impression in Akita. The script had been prepared by Sovann, but it was changed by Bellin and Virya for summarization. I had no time for practice of reading several times. Fortunately, I could look at the script while speaking. I read it only once in my heart and read it out in front of Nakano. I had a little error, and I knew myself it was not good but acceptable. At the end, we received a piece of souvenir for each. It was Cherry-Bark Craftwork, a little round wooden container.
Welcome party at the first night in Akita
For the first evening in Akita, the welcome party was celebrated. We had buffet dinner in a restaurant where we can see the night view of Akita city form a high point. The supervisor, coordinators, a few Japanese university students, and our delegations raised glass and Kan Bei (cheered up). After dinner, we received the third souvenir of today, a LED manual generating flashlight. The flashlight doesn’t need any batteries or charging. It is generated by squeezing its handle continuously. One minute of squeezing supplies for 8 minute of using. Although the electricity of Japan never stops, this useful flashlight is still creatively invented.
Today we had to take four hours of Shinkansen to Akita city in Akita. We arrived at Tokyo train station at 8:10 and waited at platform. Wow! We were able to see bullet trains running so fast at such close distance about one meter. The Shinkansen was so cool that we quickly took several pictures of it when it stopped at the platform. I noticed that during 40 minutes of waiting, there were approximately five Shinkansen passing the platform, proving that Shinkansens take an important role in public transportation for passengers in Japan.
We got on the bullet train, and it was exactly the same as a bus inside. It was quiet, steady, smooth, comfortable, no quick break, no quick turn, no bump, which was a good kind of transportation for travelling and relaxing. Although the view outside the window was beautiful in such a fast motion, we couldn’t help with our sleepiness because we hadn’t had nice sleep for four nights. We received a Japanese lunch box for each at 11:00 and arrived in Akita at 1:00.
At Akita train station, we were welcomed by Mr. Sato Hideaki, our supervisor in Akita, other two coordinators, a cameraman, and Borng Ith Visal, Cambodian scholarship student in Japan. Without a break, we paid a visit to Akita Recycle Plaza promptly.
Recycle Plaza (A-TEC), first destination in Akita
Our instructor at Recycle Plaza was Ms. Kawaguji. The Recycle Plaza can also be called Garbage melting and transformation center or Akita Total Environment center (A-TEC). It was established in 2002 mainly to collect all garbage in Akita and melt it in 1700-1800℃ in order to reduce its volume to minimum. In comparison with combustion, high temperature melting is ten times more effective in garbage volume reduction. There is modern technique in toxin gas emission treatment while melting, which ensures nearly-zero pollution to atmosphere. The waste produced by melting garbage becomes slag and metal which can be used in building construction, road paving, and metal-making. The ultimate useless waste is kept in a highly safe place.
The second purpose of the plaza is electricity generation from hot vapor. During the melting, hot vapor are produced and transferred to generator so that it can produce maximum 8.5 MW of electricity.
The third purpose is transformation. PET (Plastic bottles) can be shattered and transformed to cotton-like material. After some additional processes, it can be made to be clothes, uniform, tie, etc. Moreover, aluminum and iron cans are compressed into a rectangle box-shape for convenient transportation and transformed to various metal products.
The fourth purpose is recycling. Wine, beer, coke glass bottles which are still in good condition can be sterilized and reused for more than ten times. Newspaper and used paper can be recycled in order to reduce natural resource consumption.
First of all, Ms. Kawaguji illustrated some information and animated video clip related to A-TEC by slideshow to us inside guest meeting room. Then she led us to look around some of the sections and explained the functions of all machines we saw.
First, we went to see the platforms where garbage trucks dropped their garbage. There were 9 platforms, and the 9th we the biggest with large gate. It was said that there was 400 tons of garbage in average to drop at these platforms.
Second, we moved to see the deep storage pool of garbage behind the platform gates from the top. Inside, there was a huge five-finger iron had moving by human control or sometimes automatically to grab garbage to drop into the melting area. Every of its grab is 3 tons of garbage and its 24 hours without stopping. It grabbed, dropped, and grabbed again so as to diffuse the garbage before dropping into the melting area for entire melting purpose. Paper, glass bottles, iron cans, aluminum cans, PET, and other combustible garbage were inside the deep pool.
Third, we turned right to see the central control room. There were three controllers in the room monitoring the moisture of garbage, the five-finger iron hand, the process of all machines, and visitors.
Fourth, we saw the electric generator by hot vapor produced by melting garbage, which in maximum provided 8,500 KW of electricity for the whole plaza utilization and outside. There, another instructor explained and showed that the materials received from melting garbage was ‘metal’ for lead making and ‘slag’ for road paving.
Fifth, we continued to see the deep storage pool of garbage behind the 9th platform, where the large garbage like furniture was dumped just a grab by the five-finger. Those furniture was mattress, log, armchair, TV, etc., and we witnessed a 14-inch TV was smashed into pieces in only a few seconds.
Sixth, the Metal Plaza had been built since September 2006 and not been finished yet, so we didn’t see it.
Seventh, we went to exhibition area of transformation PET (Plastic bottle) was broken into small pieces, transformed to cotton-like materials, made into thread and fabric, and finally becomes uniform, tie, wrapping cloth, etc., while some PET was transformed into PET stone for making bowls, souvenir, and construction. Aluminum cans were compressed to 80×50×26 box shape weighting 36kg and iron cans weighting 90kg for convenient transportation. Those cans are melted and made to other metal product, and they can be recycled 97℃.
Eighth, we went to wine and beer bottle area and saw the process of good condition bottles selection by the staff. If the bottle is still in good condition, they pick it up and sterilize and use it again. If the bottle is cracked or broken, they throw it away and use it for road paving or brick making.Those were all for Ms. Kawaguji instruction to what we saw, and the bottles are divided into three groups according to their colours—transparent, green, and mixed, and they can be recycled more than ten times.
Then it was question and answer time at a classroom. Four of us asked Ms. Kawaguji a question for each, and her reply was following. It takes four hours for garbage melting, and six hours for transformation to metal and slag. The quality of recycled product is according to the type of garbage. The Recycle Plaza belongs to government, but machines were bought from private companies. People don’t need to pay for this service. Recycling is better than production with original material. At the end, we received a paper bag with four mini-bags of tissue and leaflet of A-TEC inside. After that, we went to Akita View Hotel.
Courtesy meeting with deputy governor of Akita prefecture, Nakano
In the evening, we had another crucial meeting with deputy governor of Akita prefecture, Nakano. I had to be the representative and gave the speech of impression in Akita. The script had been prepared by Sovann, but it was changed by Bellin and Virya for summarization. I had no time for practice of reading several times. Fortunately, I could look at the script while speaking. I read it only once in my heart and read it out in front of Nakano. I had a little error, and I knew myself it was not good but acceptable. At the end, we received a piece of souvenir for each. It was Cherry-Bark Craftwork, a little round wooden container.
Welcome party at the first night in Akita
For the first evening in Akita, the welcome party was celebrated. We had buffet dinner in a restaurant where we can see the night view of Akita city form a high point. The supervisor, coordinators, a few Japanese university students, and our delegations raised glass and Kan Bei (cheered up). After dinner, we received the third souvenir of today, a LED manual generating flashlight. The flashlight doesn’t need any batteries or charging. It is generated by squeezing its handle continuously. One minute of squeezing supplies for 8 minute of using. Although the electricity of Japan never stops, this useful flashlight is still creatively invented.
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