Summer Camp

The English school we work for (MES) offers a 2 night/3 day summer camp for our students ages 9-13. Each "foreign teacher" (that's us) had a group of 9- 10 kids that we were in charge of.
This is where the camp was held, which is set up specifically for group camps. Inside the building was a huge cafeteria, a ton of bedrooms with bunk beds, an auditorium, an onsen (public bath), and a craft room.

We had activities planned for almost every minute of the day...so we definitely got our exercise. We started the first day with a picnic outside. We both had all girl teams; Melissa's team was the pink team and Frank's was the purple team.

We then went hiking up a mountain for an hour to a river where we all went swimming. We think the kids enjoyed the hike, but then again, it's hard for us to tell if they are complaining or not due to the language barrier. It's actually a lot better this way! By the time we made it to the river, we were all really hot and sweaty.

Once we got to the river, we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, rafting, and catching fish with nets. This was our favorite part of summer camp.

After going back to the campsite, we all bathed and then ate dinner at the cafeteria. Each time we ate, 3 kids were assigned from each group to help serve the meal and clean up. Everyone had to wait until the entire group of 85 kids were seated before eating.

The next day we spent making props and practicing skits that each team had to present on the last day for the parents. Each foreign teacher had to write the skit and prepare the materials for their team. The kids were in charge of making their costumes and memorizing their lines in English.

That evening the kids cooked soba noodles and hamburgers on a grill for dinner, we had a campfire, did a dance, and then ended the night with a ghost walk through the woods. The ghost walk was pretty funny. Each foreign teacher wore a scary mask and hid in the woods until a group of kids walked by and we could jump out and scare them. Some kids ran away laughing, others crying.

On the last day, the parents came at 1:00 to watch the skits and take the kids home. The skits turned out really cute.

Here is a video of the ending of Frank's team's skit. In this skit, the kids find a big pot and keep adding different vegetables to it thinking it's soup. At the end, Frank comes on stage and says that the pot is his washing machine.

In Melissa's skit, the girls are shopping and find 3 mannequins with no clothes on. They each come on stage and dress the mannequins. At the end, they begin dancing around the stage and then accidentally fall down. One girl pops a balloon and one of the mannequins (Melisssa) comes to life and the kids are all shocked.

After summer camp was over, we went home exhausted. Melissa went to sleep at 7:30pm and slept for 11.5 hours! This was definitely one of the best experiences we have had working with the kids though. We were able to bond with them and get to know them on a completely different level. We're really going to miss them when we move back home.

Gifu Fireworks Festival

The past 2 weekends we have gone to the Gifu Fireworks Festival held by the river only a couple of minutes from our apartment. We had a BBQ with the people we work with and all wore summer kimonos called yukatas. The fireworks show lasted for 2 hours and was amazing...by far the best we've ever seen. The streets were packed with people watching the fireworks and eating from the street vendors. Here are some pictures of us at the festival.

Frank Climbs Mt. Hakusan

While Melissa went to the Shirotori Dance Festival with the girls, Frank went hiking and camping at Mt. Hakusan with Steve, Matt, and Chelsea. Hakusan is one of the three most spiritual mountains in Japan, along with Mt. Fuji and Mt. Tate, and is 8,865 ft. (2702 m) tall. A Buddhist priest opened Mt. Hakusan in 717, so it is known as a religious mountain that has a small secluded shrine on the top. Mt. Hakusan is a volcanic mountain that erupted many times about 100 million years ago but is now dormant.

We began at the base around 1:30pm and climbed about 5 and 1/2 hours until we reached the summit. The scenery was beautiful on the mountain. There were many trees, exotic flowers, rivers, and lakes on 2 sides of the mountain. The views were much better than Mt. Fuji (which we climbed the weekend before), which was mainly volcanic rocks and sand.

I didn't get altitude sickness as I did on Mt. Fuji, but the climb was almost as difficult. Our packs were much heavier than on Fuji because of all the camping equipment we were carrying...we had our sleeping bags and mats, tents, stoves, food for a few meals, and water along with a change of clothes, jackets, fleeces, and rain gear.

We reached the summit around 6:00pm and enjoyed looking around the shrine and posing for pictures. Unfortunately it was very cloudy so there wasn't a great view. After looking around a while, we started our descent down the other side of the mountain. After we found a level area (about a 20 min. hike from the summit) we set up our tents and cooked dinner (finishing as it got dark). It was really cold with snow and ice still on the ground. It started to rain soon after, so we all hung out in Matt and Chelsea's tent for a while, then headed to bed early since we were so tired and wanted to see the sun rise in the morning at 4:30.



At 3:45am, we woke up to watch the sun rise, but it was still really cloudy so we didn't see much. Around 4:30am, as we were packing up, we were passed by a long line of Japanese people hiking to the summit. One woman approached us and told us we were not allowed to camp on the mountain, so we had to hurry up and leave.

The way down was much easier. We circled around the side of the mountain to hit 3 other smaller peaks than got back on the main trail to head back down. It took us a little over 3 hours and the views were amazing. We all went to an onsen (public bath) after we reached the bottom and then headed back to Gifu.

We had a great time and I am looking forward to the next time we go camping and bringing Melissa. The only equipment we still need is a tent (Steve and I shared his for this trip). Hiking tents are much smaller and lighter than normal tents...Steve's weighed about 2kg (a little over 4lbs) which even included the poles and rain fly. So it looks like we'll be spending more money....I hope we can do some hiking back home in the States.