A Couple of Fun Things!

A Beautiful Temple for a Short Meditation:

Once the group was back together again, we visited another temple and participated in traditional Meditation. Usually, this kind of meditation will last for 40 minutes at a time, but we just had a taste with about 10 minutes. The temple was open and you could feel the breeze, and the inside was remarkable.

Wadaiko Traditional Drumming:

This was so exciting and gave me goosebumps the whole time! This was definitely one of my favorite things to experience. We went to the local high school where a group of students had created a drumming club. It was hard to believe that they were only in high school because the amount of concentration, the quality of the performance, and the feeling it created was unbelievable. We watched a 10 minute performance and then we were invited up to try the drums for ourselves. Everyone seemed to be having a fantastic time and enjoyed the experience.

Sea Kayaking:
After a long morning of group working and building our presentations, we took the afternoon to enjoy a few hours of sea kayaking and swimming in the warm, lovely water! As we first started a paddle, I saw what I thought was a floating bag, but then soon realized was a HUGE jellyfish! Larger than the size of my head! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture, but I don’t need one to remember how excited I was! We explored around the shore, went in and out of the little waves, and then enjoyed swimming to and from the dock.

Meals Together: 

One of the best ways to experience a culture is through the food, and one of the best ways to get to know people, is through meals. We dined out together in both small and large groups, with a combination of new friends and old friends. I also enjoyed the classic dish okonomiyaki! This was delicious, and I could eat this so many more times! Around the table, we played word games, laughed together, and enjoyed a three hour long, traditional, slow meal – we didn’t need dinner that night!

Peace Winds:

We visited Peace winds after saying farewell to Osakikamijima. Peace Winds is a company with many goals and objectives, but they are an organization that cares about others, and reaches out to help those in need. They work in 28 different countries and help with Emergency and development assistance, community development and rural revitalization in Japan, and Capacity building. They also have rescued upwards of 900 dogs and take care of them there at their facility. We were given a tour and I’ll tell you, those must be some happy dogs! There are many large fields to run through, and even a pool just for them.

What Kind of Game is This??

After the official end of the program, a few friends and I explored around the city. I’m not quite sure what they do for fun in Japan, but I think I started to get an idea after seeing these. …?

We certainly had a lot of fun trying to figure these out!

Hat Dress Up!

So, we found a hat shop. We decided to dress up a little. 

Cultural Exchange:

For one evening, the 24 of us helped to put together a cultural evening for some of the young children on the island. This included songs and dances from our home countries, some special treats to give the kids a taste of New Mexico, and some arts and crafts to color in the different countries and what you find there.