Over the Puddle

When I had first heard about the session at Asahikogen, it sounded vaguely familiar for some reason, though I couldn’t remember why. While we were en route, the scenery began to look more and more familiar until we arrived at the facility and then I knew why: I had been here before! At the time, I had no idea what the name of the facility was, and only a fuzzy idea of where Nagoya was.

We got in and got settled, and began the usual pre-camp routine of meetings and preparation. Now, I’m not a huge fan of meetings, and even less so of night meetings, and even more less so of many meetings at night, which is what had been a growing issue throughout the summer and finally beginning to irritate me badly. This camp, we learned that our AD would be leaving us early to return to America for a teaching job, and he thought it may be a good idea to create a number of different committees in the hope that by dedicating people to certain tasks they could make sure that things worked smoothly in his absence. It sounded like a good idea in theory, but I had reservations immediately, and this camp began to prove me right. More on that later.

This camp was also to be the largest group we would have the entire summer, which immediately caused problems, because other than myself no one had worked with large camps before or planned them. The planning process we had been using for the summer had to be scrapped, and we instead relied heavily on sample plans and activities in the handbook, which were originally modeled after the Nagasaki camps, and I added my own suggestions and comments on activities, how long they should be, and what needed to be taken care of.

At one point during our planning, we were planning out a block of time where we would have several different activities going on at the same time that campers could choose from. I suggested taking a hike, but everyone who had been to the facility before said there was no trail to take a hike on. Confused, I pointed out the trail that wound behind the facility and out for a good distance, which no one had apparently noticed. Now everyone else looked confused, thinking that I had never been to this facility before, until I mentioned I had been to the facility the previous year and knew what I was talking about.

Overall, this was my least favorite camp, even though I had been looking forward to the larger group, something I was very familiar with from the previous year. First of all, my room group and I did not really get along. They really took after the American hip-hop, gangster stereotypes, of which I am not a fan at all. About the only thing we had in common was the fact that several of them played Magic: The Gathering, a game I played several years back. We rarely talked, and any activity I did with them, such as icebreakers, always bordered on disaster. About the only thing I was thankful for was that they apparently really enjoyed sleeping, as they were often in bed and asleep before bedtime!

Another factor to my general dissatisfaction with this camp was the committees, where we had several instances of the committees breaking down. One such instance was setting up for a few events where I eventually got frustrated enough to just gave up and gave out orders on how to set things up, or as in the case of the campfire, took over everything and instructed the counselors on how to rotate the groups through S’more making, songs, and the skits we had planned.

Finally, the biggest factor was that by the end of the session it became very obvious that we needed a homestay and a time to get away from each other. Some time ago, we had created several smaller groups of counselors to function as mini-camps when we had several camps in different locations at the same time. This was good because each group learned how to work together, but also bad because the people in that group may get tired of seeing the same six people or so day after day, all day, with no chance to get away. There were a few nasty fractures beginning to open in our group, and I desperately waited for the end of this camp so that everyone could look forward to their various homestays and hopefully recuperate. The committees compounded this problem, because sometimes people who had very similar skills and made logical sense to have on the same committee began to resent the other person.

All was not lost however. The hike went well. The weather was beautiful, so Dawn, Paul, Darcy, Brad, and myself took six campers on the trail. We did not make it very far, but strolled lazily along the trail, everyone talking and having a good time. It was with regret we finally had to turn around and start back to the camp. I had hoped to make it as far as we had last time I was there because of the view at the end, but such was not to be.

The campfire, despite the rocky beginning, actually turned out pretty good. There was the usual rounds of singing and dancing, but we also continued a few traditions that began that year. One was the “Rain Song” that Kevin and I did. Not really a song at all, the “Rain Song” creates the sound of a gentle rain swelling to a downpour and finally to an all out thunderstorm, tapering off gradually back to a downpour and to a gentle rain, and then nothing, using no more than snapping fingers, slapping thighs, and stomping feet. With small groups, this works with mixed success, but with large groups, I always find it amusing to see the eyes of the students grow from boredom to wonder as the sounds take shape. We also continued our “Ghost Stories”, an idea Kong had come up with, about “A camp, not unlike this camp, where several campers had disappeared, never to be seen again. Everyone suspected one counselor, but he disappeared one night, never to be seen again…”, at which point I charged from the bushes and descended on an unsuspecting camper. I swear, she leaped straight up several feet, to good laughter by all, with no hard feelings.

One real highlight for me at this camp was my Skit group. The group was very friendly, and dedicated to making the skit work. I could understand their Japanese well enough as well to use it to my advantage, knowing when they were stumped but were hesitant to ask, or when they thought something wasn’t working but didn’t want to mention it. Overall, we enjoyed our time together, getting the work done, but having a good time at it.

All in all, this was a camp of opposites. Some things worked, others did not work at all. It was a time when we were all able to come back together as a group, but also at a time where everyone needed to get away from each other. We lost an AD, but gained another (me). We had gone too long without a true vacation, but had a long one starting at this camp’s end. When this camp ended, I took a deep sigh of relief.

I did not have a hostfamily waiting for me, unlike almost every other counselor. When I signed up, I had specifically asked for no homestays, knowing that I could get around Japan with little problem and had in fact planned to do some traveling. Over this last camp, I had managed to make reservations at J-Hoppers, a hostel in Kyoto near the station, and was a bit surprised when Andy asked if he could tag along. When we finally got back to Nagoya after this session, we immediately turned around and bought Nozomi Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto, and were on our way, arriving in Kyoto at night about 45 minutes later. After getting lost along the way and asking for directions from a friendly police officer who spoke no English, we made our way here, where we lucked out and were given lodging at an apartment near the hostel, as all the rooms were full at the hostel itself because of the impending Obon Matsuri.

We were lucky. This apartment has a TV, kitchen, washer, bedroom, and computer with internet access for no more than it would cost us individually to stay at the hostel. We have one roommate, Newt, who is a girl from Thailand studying abroad here in Japan, and are not far from the station, which means finding bus or subway transportation should be easy. I like Kyoto, and we have a little under a week to spend here before the next camp. I intend to make good use of our time here.

Asahikogen - Session 7 Photos

I’ve seen three Peace Parks in Japan now, though only two of them dedicated because of the Atomic Bombings. Nagoya apparently has its own Peace Park, though this park is a massive graveyard for the most part. I got a little turned around while walking to the Park, and made a wrong turn into a large largely vacant area that bordered the south side of the Park. It felt strange walking along the path, because there was no road, no modern houses, and no cars. What there was were gardens, a dirt trail, some very old houses, and wide areas of overgrown woods. It felt like I had stepped back into time about 200 years or so.

Once I did get to the Park itself, I nearly turned around, because I walked right into a funeral. I had no Park map, and assumed I had missed the Park again. I paused for a few moments, no one apparently objected to me standing off to the side, and watched. It felt wrong to take any pictures, so after a few moments I left and continued on.

Eventually, I did come to something that appeared more Park-like: a few trails winding through sakura, and another large trail going off to the west and circling a nearby pond. I walked both paths, and then headed further into the park, following a path that skirted the graveyard. It was a pleasant walk, the path was lined with trees, and there were joggers and couples going along the path.

Once I got to the north end of the park, I found a large observatory, which was on top of a water treatment plant. The building was pretty tall, about 30 stories or so, so I got a real good look out over the park, and was swept away by how expansive the graveyard was. I got glimpses as I had walked along the path, noting hills with gravestones covering them, and rows upon rows of graves. I also noticed a spherical monument near the observatory, and headed there next, which turned out to be a monument dedicated to people who had dedicated their bodies to science.

By this time it was starting to get late, so I started to head back to the hostel, taking a road running down the middle of the park. While on the way, I made a side-trip to find the Heiwado, which was marked on a map I had obtained. I got a little turned around again in the seas of gravestones, and walked by another ceremony on my way. This one appeared to be more celebratory, which I guessed had something to do with an anniversary of a death. I watched for a while, surprised at how many people were there, eating food, drinking, talking and seemingly having a good time. After watching for a while, I moved on.

A while later, I noticed a large white spire, which was not noted very clearly on the map. Puzzled, I stopped to look at it a while, and snap some pictures. Perhaps the neatest thing about this spire is the fact that built into the tip of the spire is a prism, which apparently shoots out rays of the colors of the rainbow on the autumnal and vernal equinoxes! I still don’t know what the purpose of the tower is, but I’d like to see it again on the equinox.

Eventually I found the Heiwado a bit past the spire. The name means “art of peace” I believe, and it was a beautifully decorated square monument, with various pictures of Budda, and others of mystical figures I don’t know the name of. I took lots of pictures, and then finally headed back to the hostel.

When I got back to the hostel, the other groups were just arriving. The meeting room was abuzz as all the counselors had gathered there, and were recounting their last few camps with friends they hadn’t seen in the better part of a week. After talking for a while, and finally getting everyone settled in their rooms, we decided to head out for dinner. I had suggested the Hard Rock Cafe sometime back, and Rachael and Darcy were eager to go there, Rachael apparently wanting to buy a shot glass as a souvenir for a family member, and I think Darcy wanted the same. When we did a little math on the time involved to get there, and the cost, and decided to go to the Outback in Sakae instead.

The Outback turned out to be a blast. We got a waitress who had impressive English skills, and a sense of humor to match. After the first rounds of drinks, she looked at the size of the glasses, and the size of us, and quickly decided to switch to the “American” sized glasses, which turned out to be about twice as big. I decided to have a little fun, and got a margarita. Everyone was so energetic from getting to see everyone again that we were typical Americans: loud and obnoxious. We knew it, and didn’t care, because we knew that camp was just the next day again.

We stayed at the Outback for probably about two hours, before we returned to the hostel. Unfortunately, by this time it had started to rain, heavily. No one had brought any sort of rain gear, so the guys took off running to get out of the rain while the girls dallied behind, which I thought was a funny reversal of the general norm. We rode the subway back to the hostel, and stayed up for a while talking, before we finally headed off to bed, getting ready for camp the next day.

Nagoya Free Day Photos

No, I’m not dead, just busy. We’re nearing the end of a several camp long stretch here, and as such, I haven’t had a lot of internet time. I have plenty of pictures and stories to post once I get back, but in the meantime it will have to suffice that camp has been going pretty well. We actually just got off of two really good camps at Suzuka, so the team I’m working with is in pretty high spirits.

Tonight the rest of the teams should arrive here in Nagoya. We’re being put up in a youth hostel, which sucks. The rooms are really tiny, and there is a 10pm curfew. We do head off to our last camp before the homestay tomorrow, so it won’t matter much anyway I suppose.

So, one more camp, at Asahi Kogen, and then 6 days off. It’s been a long time since our last homestay, but we’ve had a few days off here and there, mainly prep days or travel days, so a little work was involved as well. It’s hard to believe that we only have two camps left after this next one, with 10 days of homestay!

It does look like I will be going to Kyoto for my homestay, with a possible sidetrip to Nara and Hiroshima, for a couple of reasons, lack of time to investigate going anywhere else being the most prominent. First, I have to get my rail pass, which I will hopefully purchase today or tomorrow morning.

The second camp at Suzuka was a little shakier but also a success I think. I took an AD (American Director) role in this camp, which meant that I had to deal with the setup and cleanup of activities like Carnival and My Town, and just keep an eye on the ACs. It’s funny, when I was an AC, I thought I’d like to help with the setup and whatnot and let others be the AC, but now after having done both, I’d rather be an AC than an AD. It really does depend on the camp, because at Nagasaki, everyone pitched in to help with setup and cleanup, and the AD just managed the schedule and talked at the major meetings, and the JD (Takeo) introduced the activities and also acted as a JC where needed, while also talking to facility people. At this camp, it is the AD who does all the setup and whatnot by his lonesome, and the JC only translates and deals with facility people.

Also, there can be a tension between the AD and the JD. I’ve worked with Yoko now for several camps now, and I think we still haven’t found a good power balance. I’m trying to treat her as an equal, but it see-saws back and forth more often than not. She doesn’t translate very literally at all either when I say something, but takes a lot of liberties to cleanup and spice up what I say. She does it well, but at the same time, it’s not me, and sometimes I think it doesn’t really matter what I say. I’m not sure if she knows how much I can understand of her Japanese, and I wonder if other ADs have the same problem at different camps or not. But I digress.

The first day was games, games, and more games. We had Icebreakers, then Activity Stations, then Carnival. After dinner we had My Story, then a Dance Party.

The My Story was really tough because the English level of these kids was so low. Yoko had to translate a lot, and was busy going from group to group. There were a few questions that people skipped more often than not, because it just wasn’t worth the effort. Needless to say, everyone used both My Story sessions to the fullest trying to get the kids ready, and there was no way that they could memorize their My Story.

The Dance Party went well. Yoko was entertaining and leading a bunch of the girls with what looked like Tai-bo moves, and Dawn helped out there, while us guys entertained the boys primarily, and a few of the straggler girls. We had some prescribed dances, such as the Macarenca, YMCA, and the Locomotion which all the kids could do, and enjoyed. The Locomotion was also funny because Chris wrapped the circle closer and closer until everyone was more or less spinning in a tight circle. When the train finally broke, all the kids were super dizzy and falling over. Everyone laughed and had a good time however.

When the Dance Party was done the kids were tired, but in a good way. The fact that asked Yoko if they could do another Dance Party speaks pretty loudly in my book. In fact, we did do a little more dancing as well, during the Campfire, with the Hokey-Pokey and YMCA. We would have done the Macarena had Yoko not accidentally kicked the boombox and scratched the CD causing that track to skip.

Other activities that the kids did included the Skit, which worked out reasonably ok. Some of the counselors took the easy way out and made simple skits, one of which one first place just because the kids had memorized all their lines, even if the props were primitive and the story short. I think the group that did Momotaro was excellent, but they didn’t have their lines memorized, which is a shame.

I don’t know if it is just how the Nagasaki camp worked or not, but generally, when I had a group that finished early, I would just go outside, weather permitting, and do something, and felt no reservations about doing so. With this group of counselors however, they seemed to think that that was forbidden for some reason, and so we had kids running and playing in the room, which got really loud, and a bit dangerous. When I suggested that they move the kids outside, they all gave me the “I can do that?” look, and then did so.

Another thing I usually did is I took my group away from the main mass, and found a quiet spot somewhere that I generally used for all my activities. This group of ACs seem to think that they have to use the room, or at least the lobby, and rarely go outside for activities at all, which is another thing that puzzles me. If the room works for them, I suppose who am I to say otherwise?

Anyway, My Town was a lot better than most My Towns we’ve had just because we had more kids. I was happy when I got Akari and Yayoi to smile at the 1-Bounce, because they always seemed a little sad at camp. We blew through 155 raffle tickets, which is insane, and I think they all had fun. We had one girl, Akari, throw up afterwards, probably from too much candy, but she still wanted to do the Scavenger Hunt.

The Scavenger Hunt could have sucked, but I think turned out ok. It had rained the first day, and the morning of the second, which had me worried that we couldn’t do the Scavenger Hunt nor the campfire. As such, we had made up a secondary Scavenger Hunt for indoors, which sort of sucked. Luckily, it stopped raining and turned out to be a nice day, so we defaulted to the regular list. I had a bit of fun being the AC they had to find and answer my question. We also added on that they had to find a smores stick to use during the campfire that night.

Nights were a good bit of fun, because Paul and I figured out that the boys liked the Game Boy Advance a lot, and we each had one. They would sit and watch me play Mario Kart, and were happy when I let them try. I felt a bit guilty about letting them play games at a camp when they should be hanging out playing with counselors and so stopped giving them my GBA after a while, but Paul let them play his. So, when they weren’t playing the GBA, they were either throwing a ball around the room, playing with John, and just talking with each other. English conversation was difficult with them just because of their English level, so we didn’t press the issue. They were also great because they went to bed at lights out, and got up at a reasonable time.

Eigo-Kai went well timewise. Each student read their My Story, and sometimes had to have an AC help them. Akari broke from the pressure and started crying so didn’t do her My Story. Yayoi did her My Story but started crying during it. There’s no bigger downer than two cute, friendly kids crying during something that is somewhat of a competition but is supposed to be fun.

I think most of us were sad to see them go. I know that some people felt some relief at seeing them go, because some of the groups were tough to work with because of English comprehension and reluctance to use English. Still, they were all genuinely friendly kids and just wanted to have fun, and I know everyone had fun playing with them at least.

Once they were gone, we hung around the facility until about 3:30pm waiting for FedEx to come and get our supplies, and then took a cab, train, subway, and cab to get to our hostel, where we grabbed some dinner, and then headed to Karaoke before turning in for the night.

Suzuka - Session 6 Photos

I’ve been to a number of facilities now here in Japan, and of them all, the Suzuka one is perhaps one of the more oddly designed. Parts of the facility are unreachable unless you go outside via a covered walkway or cut across the inner courtyard. There are many twists and turns to get from point A to B, and you are sure to get lost at least a few times before becoming comfortable with the layout. Fortunately, maps are available at strategic locations.

The dorm portion of the facility comprises of several floors, with varying sizes of sleeping quarters. The sleeping areas we received are huge, with bunks plentiful enough to accommodate perhaps sixteen adults, and plenty of open room in the middle for many more to lay out futons. Air conditioning was also available from 5pm to 8:30am, which made the nights much more bearable. There is a large living area on the main level of the dorm portion as well, which has a TV, couches, and refrigerator. The baths were a little hard to locate at first, as they are tucked away in a somewhat illogical place behind the cafeteria. The washing machines, which we’ll need to use at some point considering how long we are here, are located outside of all places, behind one building.

I think I’ve become spoiled by many of these facilities, with self-service, larger portions, and seconds available. This one is no different, though the selection is smaller than other facilities. The cafeteria also opens onto the inner courtyard, should one choose to do so, and has glass on the outside wall. One poor person had a cockroach drop in, literally, on her lunch at one point. Such is the problem of living in a tropical climate.

We have one large room to use for this camp, which divides into two rooms with a divider. The grassy courtyard will be nice to play games on or throw a frisbee around in. I’m not sure why, but they consider the grassy area an “indoor shoes” area, which means that technically you could go run around in your socks and they wouldn’t mind.

I don’t think I will ever become completely comfortable with these small camps, partially because I am so much more comfortable in dealing with the larger number of campers and having a fairly set, structured schedule, and partially because it is now my responsibility to try and hack out a schedule every time because the age groups can vary radically in the same group, or because some activities will not work with so few campers. As always there are exceptions to the rule, and really if the worst thing about a camp is just getting the schedule laid out, then it’s minor thing.

This particular camp had seven campers and we had six counselors, including myself, so the elementary and junior high school students received a counselor for each student, which the three senior high school students had two counselors between them.

From the moment the students got off the bus, which was 30 minutes late because they originally went to the wrong facility, I knew that camp was going to be a fun one. They came off the bus excited, smiling, and laughing, something you don’t see too often, with not a trace of the usual anxiety new campers typically have. All the campers were female as well, and I’m sure they were happy to see at least two male counselors around their age.

Our activities went well. One minute drill, while boring, got pretty exciting the second day. Both Saaya and Tomoko were doing really well on their scores, and kept increasing every time. Tomoko, on her last attempt, managed to get nail all of them! Saaya didn’t get them all, but still got 27 of them! By the time we ended, they were so pumped that they kept asking me to let them try one more time.

I worked with Yuina, one of the elementary school students, for the My Story. Her English wasn’t nearly as good as the other girl’s, but with enough time and patience, we managed to get her story done, and practice. She needed a lot of help reading her story, and at Eigo-kai, I crouched next to her to help her as needed. She was actually pretty funny, because I could always tell when she got stumped because of the little sounds she would make. In fact, both of the little girls had a lot of sound effects they would make, even when doing something as mundane as walking, where they made a little “nyaa-nyaa” sound with each step.

The My Town and Carnival went as well as could be expected with only 7 campers and 6 counselors, and actually went longer than I had anticipated, most likely just because it was sort of a hang-out time. I helped Chris with the Balloon Pop instead of my usual 1-bounce game. I also ran and fetched my juggling balls later, which the kids liked. The Japanese adults apparently liked it as well, because as I walking down to buy something to drink at one point, I was juggling as I walked and I could hear the adults saying “Wow, he’s good. He’s juggling 3 balls isn’t he?!”

We had a few odd blocks with the elementary students, just because there was only two of them. We were supposed to have an activity station block, and also put in two Camp Song blocks. Apparently, the Activity Station didn’t go so well, and they got bored of the Camp Song blocks, so the blocks degenerated into random games, which is fine I suppose.

I think Group Discussion and the Campfire went very well. During each, we took the little kids aside and Ruth played some games with them so that the older students could ask whatever they wanted. They were really interested in fashion, which isn’t surprising, and drinking, smoking, and driving ages in America. The conversation was going so well that I let it run long into dinner, and even throughout dinner the conversation kept going. During the Campfire, the topics turned to sex primarily, with questions like what the usual age was for starting to have sex, pregnancy, etc.. While some may be a little squeamish at fielding questions like those, they are normal questions coming from teenagers.

The Camp Skit for me was stupidly simple. Mami and Yuuka agreed very quickly on doing the 3 Little Pigs, and from there, the script wrote itself. I chuckled at getting them to say “not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin”, but it worked out. By the end of our first skit session, we were basically done. When it came to the second skit practice, we ran through the script twice, read it once, and then went outside to play frisbee with John and his group who had also finished up their skit quickly.

After the first skit session, we took the students on a hike on a paved trail nearby. The hike got a whole lot more interesting when we came across a big playground area. Even though most of the campers were over 13, everyone had fun playing like little kids, with the myriad of see-saws, swings, jungle gyms, and slides. It is a good thing we know about the playground now, because our whole next camp is 4th to 6th graders, and I’m sure they will love it.

Before Eigo-kai, we added a new game to kill some time, AC Hunt. The idea being that the ACs would scatter all over the facility, and the kids had to find each AC and have them sign a sheet of paper. I hid by the baths, which was a good spot, and a bad one. It was super hot there because the cleaning ladies were cleaning the baths at that time. I listened to music, sweated, and waited. It actually probably took about 40 minutes for them to find all of us, so they had fun and it killed a lot of time, a double bonus.

Eigo-kai was short, with the elementary school students leading “Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”, and everyone else doing My Story, and two groups doing Skits. An Eigo-kai with that few people feels really different from a large one because it is so intimate. As a result, a lot of the pressure normally associated with Eigo-kai is gone, because it isn’t presenting to a group so much as just practicing in front of friends.

The Graduation Ceremony also went well. Mami started crying when she got her certificate, which is always a good sign. If at least one student starts crying, you’ve done a damn good job. Afterwards, when they got on the bus, I think everyone was genuinely sad to see them go. It sounds terrible to say it, but even though you wave to the kids when they leave, sometimes you are happy to be rid of them and are not necessarily saying goodbye. That was not the case this time.

Another sign that we did a good job came when the students asked Yoko for everyone’s addresses and email addresses. Mami even called the next day as well, and sent out and email to at least Paul and I, and most likely to everyone.

So, the first camp was a complete success. It helped that a majority of them were older, and that their English was pretty good so that we could have such a laid-back, open camp rather than the stiff, regulated ones you usually have with larger camps.

Suzuka - Session 5 Photos