7. Camp 1 facility-
Gotemba
This was one of the
main buildings that
we used at our first
camp. This building
also had wifi so we
would hang out here
when we had time.
(This is where we
saw Mt. Fuji
everyday – as you
can tell in the
reflection)
8. For the first week, I
shared this room with
10 other girl ACs
(American
Counselors). It was
definitely something
different. It’s so hot
and humid that our
blankets were always
damp. And you’re
probably wondering
why we didn’t turn on
the air conditioning.
Well, we tried many
times (pressed every
button we saw),but all
the buttons were in
Japanese.
9. Camp 2 facility–
This was a resort so
it was very nice – air
conditioning, nice
laundry facility, nice
bath house and
good food.
10. This is the room I
shared with three
other ACs.
11. Camp 3 facility, aka
Prison camp
because the facility
was that bad
One good thing
about this place,
they had wifi
12. This is the room I
had to shared
with 7 girl
campers. It was
dirty, moldy and
there was dust
coming out of the
air conditioner. A
lot of the students
and ACs got sick
after this camp.
13. Camp 4 facility –
This was another
nice hotel. The food
and the bath house
was amazing.
14. The room I shared
with 2 other ACs.
We were stuck
sleeping on futons
on the tatami
mats.
The last three
camps after this,
we slept on the
tatami mats.
15.
16.
17. Regular toilets.
These toilets have
all kinds of buttons
on the side – to
wash your bottom,
to control the water
pressure, to make a
flushing noise, etc.
18.
19. When you first enter, there is always an area where you can store you clothes.
20. And this is where you
shower with everyone else
(same sex), naked. --
Trust me, you get used to
it.
*Side note: At a couple of
the camps the schools
required us to shower with
our campers. In the U.S.
this wouldn’t fly by, but in
Japanese culture it’s
acceptable.
25. Japan has vending machines all over. I love how
they have all types of them: ice
cream, beer, cigarettes, fruits, etc.
26. Fast food: I tried McD’s there. I ordered the weirdest thing
they had on their menu, which was a fish fillet with shrimp.
Their portion size are a lot smaller than American’s.
I also had my first official bowl of Ramen. Definitely tastes
a lot better than the Ramen we have here.
27. This was my favorite thing to eat.
It was fast, reasonably priced and
delicious. It consists of rice on the
bottom with stir fried beef on top
and a spoonful of ginger. I returned
to this place three times.
Thisdishwas from thesame “fast food” place.
It had almost thesame ingredients, except for the
rawegg yolk and greenonions. However, iIt
didn’t tasteasgood.
28. Their bakery
shops are the
best! Their
sweets are
not as sweet
as ours, but
sweet
enough.
29. Left picture: I forget what it’s called, but my host mother cooked it. It was pretty
good.
Right picture: Nauto. Japanese love eating this for breakfast with their rice. It’s
basically beans that are boiled in rice stalk for a very long time. It has a strong
unpleasant smell and there are no words that can describe how it tastes --- lets just
say after the first bite I spit it out.
Traditional Japanese food
30. Depending on the facility, they either had
the food served already or there was buffet.
Sometimes the food/buffets weren’t really
made to our taste so a lot of us gave away
our food to the campers and other ACs that
could tolerate the food.
--They usually serve a lot of fish, rice ,
cabbage saladand miso soup. Most of the
time we didn’t even know what we were
eating.
Camp Food
Beforeeach meal with thecampers, we had to
say “Itadakimas”, which translates to “Thank
forthe food”. After each meal, we had tosay
“Gochisosamadeshita”, which translates to
“Thank forthe meal. Itwasdelicious.”
31. I wanted to lose weight on
this trip, but camps with
good food made up for the
camps with bad food.
And sometimes the food/buffet were
DELICIOUS -- with a lotof variety.
Can’tyou tell by how full my platesare?
32.
33. The team taking the
bus to town when we
had some spare time
after camp. Busing and
the subway are a lot
cheaper than taxi.
**In Japan, it’s very rude
to be loud on public
transportation. There’s
rarely conversations. In
fact, there were a couple
times that a Japanese
person complained
about us to the bus
driver for being too
loud.
34.
35.
36. 100 Yen store!
This was our favorite store to shop
at. It’s like the Dollar Tree, except
100 times better.
These are signs that there are
shops down a street in the cities.
37. From shopping and staying at the
hotels for camp, we learned that
Japanese clothing and shoes don’t
typically fit Americans. – Lets just
say some of the teammates that
wear medium in U.S. had to get XL-
XXL in Japan. XXL is the largest
size they have in most stores there.
Pictured is Connor and Scott
having issues with the slippers they
were provided by the hotel.
38. We visited a little shrine and onsen (public bath house where there is natural hot springs).
39. And this
Is where you’re supposed to take
water and drink it, if you want,
and to wash your hands and
face to cleanse yourself before
going to the shrine for prayer.
The littleshrine.
40. We saw it every single day at
our first camp.
Mt. Fuji
42. These pictures are random snaps of Tokyo when we were out and about. In the
middle picture, this is the water that surrounds the emperor’s palace.
Tokyo’s a huge city, a lot bigger than the big cities here in the U.S. I wish we
would have had more time to explore Tokyo.
43. This was taken in Shibuya. I was standing in front of the famous
intersection. (Below I have a picture I found off the internet of the
famous intersection to give you a better idea of how big and busy it is)
Shibuya is a center for youth fashion and culture. It’s one of the
districts known for shopping, dining and nightclubs.
-
44. We visited the
temple in
Asakusa. There
were a lot of
shops, food
vendors and
people.
46. First picture is the
view from my room
balcony at the creepy
hotel we stayed at for
one night.
Second picture – I
was out and about
exploring around the
building with my
teammates. I
decided to take a
picture with the rice
fields.
47. We were always traveling through the mountains to get to our next camp so the views were amazing
from the bus.
51. The Sky Tree
We went all the way
up to the highest
point, which is 451.2
meters, and we
stayed up there ‘til
the sun set.
52.
53. My host family lives
in Chiba, which is
about an hour away
from the main
Tokyo area. Their
house was a lot
bigger than I
expected. It has 2
full bathrooms, 2
bedrooms upstairs,
an upstairs balcony
that they use to dry
their clothes, a more
“modern” living area
and a more
“traditional” area,
where there is
tatami mat and
where my host
grandparents slept.
54. Jacqui (teammate) and I occupied our host
sisters’ room while we stayed with them for
4 days and three nights.
Where I slept
55. One of my host family’s pets,
Japanese rhinoceros beetle. (Ryo,
my host sister, is holding one)
They have 22 of them.
Thiswasoneof the first things my
hostfamily took us todo afterwe
dropped off our luggageat their home.
Thesephoto boothsarevery popular in
Japan.
56. My host mother spent majority of the time with us since my host father had to work. --Thank
goodness she spoke good English. She was very spunky, kind, open, and thoughtful. She took
us to her father’s garden, the Tokyo Tower, the SkyTree( that has a 6 floor mall next to it), Tokyo
Sea LifePark, Japanese BBQ, etc. There was never a dull moment.
57. Overall, I had a wonderful stay with them. They
showed my teammate and I a lot of hospitality.
They always made sure we were comfortable and
well-fed.
I’ll never forget all the nights we spent sitting
around the dinning table and talking for hours after
dinner. My host grandma was adorable. She didn’t
speak any English, but she tried very hard to
communicate with us. A lot of times we would end
up talking with our bodies and acting things out to
one another. Sometimes I felt like we were playing
guestures.
58.
59. My team had 7 camps
altogether. Every
morning at every
camp we had morning
assembly at 7 am. We
always started off with
radio taiso
(http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=d9yw2
WVzLWM), which is
stretching with music.
I got pretty good at it
by the time we got to
the 4th camp.
60. We had them on every prep day,
before the campers came, and
every day after the campers went to
sleep.
Team
Meetings:
61. A couple examples:
-One minute drill: each
camper got timed for one
minute to see how many
phrases they can say in
English
-My story: each camper had
to come up with a story. It
could be about themselves.
However, we encouraged
them to be more creative and
pretend they we an object.
Then on the 3rd day, they had
semi-finals and they had to
perform it in front of their
peers. It was judged on the
campers’ enthusiasm,
projection and gestures.
-Camp skit: each group of
campers came up with a skit
and English and performed it
in front of their peers.
Small group
activities(dependedon
whattheschoolwanted)
62. Large group
activities(depended on what
the schools wanted and what age
the campers were)
A couple examples:
-Camp fire: sing songs and each
camper got to make a s’more
(this was done at every camp)
-American Carnival: ACs were
in charge of booths. The
campers would come around
play games – pin the tail on the
donkey, musical chairs, etc
-Dance party: this is where I
burned a lot of my calories by
dancing and teaching the kids
dances – cha cha
cha, limbo, Macarena
-Cool Japan: the campers had
booths and the ACs got to go
around and play games or learn
about Japanese culture. For
example, at one of the camps
they had a calligraphy booth
Can you tell which one is mine?
63. My teammates and I got to play a lot of games and sing a lot of songs with the campers. It was our job
to keep them occupied and entertained when there were breaks between each group activity.
64. Team 5 and Team 4
We shared 2 huge camps together in the beginning. Each camp consisted of 300+ campers.
65. Out of the 7 camps we had, 2
of my Camp Skit groups
placed in the top – 1st place
and 3rd place
66. We only had Japanese BBQ at our very last
camp because it was a 4 day camp. It was
AMAZING!! That was the most meat I ate in
Japan, besides fish. Their meat dipping sauce
was very good too.
Japanese BBQ
67. A story I’d like to share:
One of the ACs got
glass stuck in the
bottom of her foot
from one of the camp
facilities. So, we
decided do a little
procedure. We didn’t
have much so we
gathered what we had
packed with us: alcohol
wipes to sterilize the
equipment and foot, a
cell phone for lighting,
an AC to hold down
the other AC’s leg,
tweezers to pull out the
glass and a nail clipper
to clip away the skin. It
was a success!
68.
69. A couple of the hand made gifts the campers gave me.
Side note: A lot of the campers can’t pronounce the “L”. So all of the ACs that had
“L” in their name were pronounced as “R” sounds. My name became “Sherry” – as
you can see on the crane the camper had it spelled “Cherry”, Hailey became
“Harry”, Laurie became “Rory”, and Rachel became “Racher”.
