Session 5 - Suzuka
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.