EDITORIAL

* This entry uses photos from various websites, which will be replaced with my own, if I can locate them…

For anyone looking to come to Japan to teach English, going on excursions and camping trips are quite common for schools to go on at least once or twice a year. In this post I will reminisce over two annual trips that we would embark on with elementary kids every year. After nearly seven years at the same school, I became a real pro at these events and now that I’m no longer in the teaching profession, I still look back at these times fondly. I believe our Summer Camp program was only available for grades 2-6 since 1st graders are a little too young to be separated from family for so long.

▶︎ Summer Camp: Okuetsu Kougen Seishounen Shizen no Ie

Our summer camp was a 4-day, 3-night excursion up to the mountains in Fukui Prefecture. Coming from Aichi, this was a considerable distance to go with a huge bus full of kids. Thankfully, the bus came equipped with a video system, so we could play a movie or two to entertain the kids. I specifically remember, even though we were an English school, we specifically let the kids watch the films in Japanese because we wanted them to understand what was going on, and the argument was that if they had to read subtitles, that would cause them to get carsick (and yes, kids still got sick anyway).

The accommodations were at a public prefectural building for specific group events like ours. Two teachers would pair up and take command of a group of 6-8 kids, and each group would be given a different color bandana, forming easy to manage teams. Everything would be done in these teams over the length of the camp, so everyone because pretty close to each other by the end. Since this was a publicly run facility, all the kids were responsible for their own room, including following the strict rules for checking out, but I’ll cover that a little later.

The main events of the summer camp were:

• Fish catching (by hand)
• Ice cream making
• Hiking
• Bonfire & S’mores / Candle Service
• Observatory viewing
• And many, many games…

▶︎ Fish Catching (by hand)

Okuetsu Kougen Seishounen Shizen no Ie | Facebook

This was one of the events that I always looked forward to and so did the kids. The facility has a small pond that they fill with fish specifically for kids to try and catch them with their bare hands. What’s really fun about this is when the fish are freshly dumped into the pond, they’re in good condition, so it’s really difficult for the children, or even adults, to catch, but once they’ve been dashing away from kids trying to catch them for so long, they start to get tired and that’s when they become a little easier to catch. Every child should able to catch their own fish, but in the event that they simply can’t seem to do it, the teachers can help them out.

Once the fish have been caught, a teacher would help cut and gut the fish, although I think everyone may have gutted their own fish; it’s hard to remember these days. Once that was done, another teacher would help skewer the fish on a small stick and slap some salt on it, then the children could grill their own fish over a fire. And yes, the fish were delicious!

▶︎ Ice Cream Making

This was also a major highlight of summer camp, but before we could reach the facility to do this, we had to walk down the mountain quite a ways. Since the path we had to take literally went right through the mountain forest, we had to be on high vigilance for wildlife. In all my times going on summer camp, we never encountered anything too dangerous, but we did see a large snake at least a couple times, and of course many different kinds of birds. Just as a precaution, everyone (or maybe just the teachers) carried a small bell that was said to ward off any bears in the woods.

Once we arrived at the facility, each team was given all the materials necessary to make their own ice cream, a process which is super easy to do, but I won’t bore people with how to do it here. This is just one of many pages online that you can find.

But once we finished eating our yummy ice cream, we’d have to trek all the way up the mountain again, which in late afternoon and after a yummy snack, was quite exhausting. I believe we had some rest/free time once we returned to the main building.

▶︎ Hiking

We would also have hiking excursions in groups through the mountains.

▶︎ Bonfire & S’mores

The above image is a sample of the bonfire events that Okuetsu hosts for groups to participate in. Since our group was mostly made up of children, only the international teachers were given torches to light the main bonfire, which was a major highlight for me (since I’m a pyro). Even though the bonfire would grow as tall as an average adult, I don’t recall ever being frightened of it getting out of hand. Eventually, we’d give each child a long stick and marshmallow to roast in the fire to make S’mores. Many kids got their marshmallows lit on fire and would have to blow them out. I especially remember their sticky hands and faces covered in marshmallow goo and chocolate.

▶︎ Observatory Viewing

Some of these events were a bi-annual thing, so I believe one or two events like this one would be swapped every other year. Again, this was always a fun one that I always looked forward to.

According to Fukui.com, “Rokuroshi Plateau is 400-700m above sea level. Mountains are typically not suitable for stargazing because there are many trees and few open areas, but plateaus have many open areas and are perfect for stargazing.”

I believe one year we were able to see a really nice view of Saturn.

▶︎ Many, many games…

This is a look at the multipurpose hall in which we played many, many games. This is where every team would assemble by lining up in a row. We spent a long time in this one hall, so I have many memories of it. One year, we got stuck here in a HUGE thunderstorm at night. and the flashes of lightning would light up the whole room, coming from the large windows on either side of the hall. Thunderstorms are relatively a rare occurrence in Japan, so for any storm to last a considerable amount of time, like this one did, is very unusual.

▶︎ Cafeteria Meals

The cafeteria meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner were always really nice and you always felt satisfied with the portions. Students could choose where to sit as long as they stayed with their team. This includes the teachers, of course.

▶︎ Morning Assembly & Radio Taiso

I believe our wake-up call was 6:00 am every day and we’d have to quickly get dressed and run outside for the morning assembly and radio taiso (stretching exercises). If you’re not familiar with what this is, here’s a video that shows what it’s like in a school setting.

▶︎ Cleaning the room before check out

This was always a huge ordeal to get the kids to clean their rooms properly and to have the facility staff approve each room. If anything was out of order or not done correctly according to the rules, the kids would have to start over. This is where the teachers really had to go from room to room and help everybody, or mostly just making sure that they were actually cleaning instead of having a pillow fight with friends or something.

Although this isn’t the best photo of the rooms, you can get an idea of how big they are. I believe one room holds up to 6 or 8 beds and has a small tatami area next to the large windows. I remember one night during free time, my students wanted me to tell them a story, so I performed a hole huge play on the fly. I still remember it vividly, so I think we were all having a lot of fun.

Now, just how strict are the rules, you may be thinking. As you can see, there are two pink blankets with a pillow on top. Notice how the blankets are folded in just the right way and placed on at the end of the bed so that you don’t see the open sides from the perspective of the room entrance. This is said to be more “beautiful” and inviting. This is why the kids sometimes need help to fold the blankets correctly. You can still see the top blanket on the left sort of sticking out still. That typically would have needed to be redone.

So, that’s about all for my reminiscing about Summer Camp.
Next time, I’ll discuss Halloween Camp, so stay tuned!

▶︎ Related Links

• Okuetsu Kougen Seishounen Shizen no Ie – Ono, Fukui Prefecture
• Okuetsu Kougen Seishounen Shizen no Ie – Facebook