My Experience on Akagi Tsudoi

Yo yo, how are you guys doing with your summer holiday? Mine was marvelous in the August part (in fact I still have one month left of my summer holiday). Nope, It's not about me traveling around Japan. I'm gonna tell my story what I've been through from 18th of August to 23rd of August. So, the story began when I had no idea what I was gonna do to spend my summer holiday. I was thinking about having a productive and positive holiday. It can be volunteering, doing part-time, studying, or anything. But, who the fuck is gonna study during the summer holiday? Meh. And I remembered that last year there was something called Ashinaga summer camp volunteering in which I was about to apply last year but felt reluctant after seeing the prerequisites on the website. One of them says you have to be able to speak daily conversational Japanese. I was barely able to understand when a Japanese is talking to me, let alone to speak decent Japanese. So, it turned me down. But after getting my N3 level last December, I feel like 'Hey, why shouldn't you give a try? If you are not accepted, you have nothing to lose'. Then I consulted a bit with my friend, his name was Omar, and He already joined as a volunteer for several camps. He said that most of the international volunteers He met couldn't even speak beginner level of Japanese. To hear that, I was like 'It was just me being a coward I guess' haha. 

So, l guess I should explain briefly what Ashinaga is. From what I know, Ashinaga is a non-profit charity organization that takes care of orphaned students. So they give scholarships for them to pursue their education and higher education. They even provide a chance for the students to study abroad if they are willing to. The form of scholarship that we are talking about is in the form of a soft loan with no interest. The students have to pay it within 20 years (but it's not that strict). What interesting from Ashinaga is, they are not just a walking ATM. Because not all problems can be solved only by money, am I right? They act like a family for the students, and they give moral support as well aside from financial aid. The purpose of this summer camp (they call it tsudoi ーつどい which literally means gathering in English) is to give a chance for the students to build a strong relationship with other students with the same background and to provide exposure to the world outside Japan with the presence of international volunteers. Based on their story that I heard, the loss of parents for young children may have traumatized some of them, to the extent that they have a difficulty to interact with people. Financial struggles also exacerbate their mental condition. Some of them even thought of giving up on their dream. And by meeting with people from the same background, and listening to the stories of others, the students can hopefully cheer each other and replenish their motivation to chase their dream. 

So yeah get back to the topic, this story should center around my experience joining tsudoi. It started from Saturday, 18th of August, I was worried at first. I mean, I was not sure if I would be able to communicate with the students. I mean, JLPT means nothing when it comes to speaking because the test doesn't include speaking test. And I rarely talked to Japanese, most of my friends are international students. But hey, I met Louise from France and Yasmin from Morocco who couldn't speak Japanese (peace :D). And they had already joined tsudoi before, so I guessed it's gonna be fine haha. The international team consisted of interns and volunteers. Most of them were interns while the volunteers were just Alwan and me. After we arrived at the place, it was basically a public facility where you can rent it, pretty much like a dormitory for athletes, we were welcomed by the leaders. What shocked me about this facility is, there isn't even a single private shower. There is only a public bath. Because the schedule was so tight, we only got the chance to take a bath in the evening. I've never been in a public bath before. So, when I went to the locker room to put my stuff with the others, they casually took off their clothes while having a chat. I was shocked. They were all naked. My jaw literally dropped. I ended up not taking a bath on the first day. On for the next days, I took a bath when everyone was not around XD. Back to the topic. So, the leaders are also Ashinaga scholarship recipients who had already joined tsudoi several times. And they are college students, the same with me, so I guess we could get along easier :/. Their job is to be the leaders and mentors for the high school students later. The first two days were leaders training; the leaders were divided into several groups with one or two international team members. International team members should tag along with their respective group aside from leaders meeting. When the leaders had their meeting, we also had our meeting. Mainly to prepare for what we were going to do on International Team Time on Wednesday. I was placed in group 4, where I met Yami san, Kensuke san, Mi san, Mitsuki san, Cikako san, Maikuru san and Marina san as the leaders. When I introduced my self in Japanese, everyone was like "Nihongo ga joozu desune" which means they praised my Japanese. C'mon, it is just an introduction where you have done it over and over to the point that you remember every single word you have to say XD. Aside from introducing myself, my Japanese is 'bara-bara' (not fluent). I thank you all for patiently listening to my broken Japanese XD. Whenever I didn't understand a word, I would check a dictionary, so the conversation was paused a bit LOL. When had group time, we would play various silly games. I shit you not, it was totally silly that you would never do that outside this camp. At least for me. There was one game that I couldn't stop laughing on. It was called aishiteru game. So basically you have to say aishiteru (in English it means I love you) to someone, while for the person who receives the aishiteru word is not allowed to laugh. In order to make your opponent laugh, you have to put your best honest expression as if you actually love her LoL. From my experience, the girls couldn't help to laugh if you stare directly into their eyes while you say the aishiteru word XD. Kensuke was good at it, I wonder if He is a playboy. The expression that He made when He said aishiteru is so ingrained in my brain that I can laugh anytime just by recalling it. Silly but hilarious. But with these stupid small games, we gradually became more open toward each other. I felt wonderful. This was my first time to burst laughter with Japanese people. Rather than training, I felt like we were having fun around eh? 

When the high school students came, we were split into two groups, leaving me in group 6 with Yami san, Kensuke san, Mi san, and Chikako san. After the opening ceremony, as usual, we must introduce ourselves once again in front of everyone in the group. In group six, there were, Monta san, Sumacchi san, sisho san, saito san, yuipi chan, haruka chan, ai chan and erika chan. Unexpectedly, they are all talkative which made me feel comfortable as soon as I met them. They talked a lot to me, and it was my first time that a Japanese proactively approached me as a foreigner to chat in Japanese. We spent time together on almost every occasion, from playing games, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and cooking together and so on. Aside from that, we had a progressive discussion starting with small talks. They asked me about my impression of Japan, future dreams, even the future of AI. What a productive summer holidays. I also told them a bit about where I come from, Indonesia. Most of them didn't really know about Indonesia, so I got to tell them a bit. Of course, with broken Japanese. 

Three days passed so quickly that I didn't even realize. On the first day, I thought, 'Oh, this is gonna be a long three days.' But it turned out to be so fast because I was so invested in it. On the third day, it was the peak of the event. There was one session called 'My life story' where everyone sat around in a classroom and talked about what their life story. You were allowed to tell pretty much anything. The reason why this session was put on the third day was with the hope that each member of the group at least has become more open toward each other. So, they can comfortably share their story with everyone in the group. It was emotionally intense. The stories are confidential for each respective groups so I can't tell it here. What I can say is, these kids have gone through harsh reality. And back then, they were alone. Some students even cried. I didn't cry at the moment, but I was so sad that I couldn't utter a single word. But I was glad to be able to join this session. By knowing their past, a strong bond grew between us. At the end of the session, I tried to cheer them up and motivate them. I tried to convince them that no matter how painful their past was, a bright future awaits everyone who makes the most effort. And on the last night of tsudoi, there was something called "campfire". Every participant gathered in a field, centering a medium-size bonfire. We were having fun at first, we sang the theme song, and we danced. And then, every representative from each group moved forward. They spoke out their will and resolution loudly while holding a fire torch. Everyone was silently listening to each representative. This session is so iconic. I almost cried in this session. This was the moment that I definitely will not forget. On the last day, we had to write a message to everyone in the group on a sticky note. And later, you pasted it on a carton paper. I slept late to write all of these messages LoL. I want everyone remembers me forever, and I want everyone to feel that they are important to me. So I wrote a pretty long letter for each member of the group. You know that you become attached to a person when you feel sad if you are about to say goodbye. That was what I felt to everyone in the group. And finally, after the closing ceremony, we parted away :'). I hope we can meet again later :D. 

I would like to thank every intern for helping me as a volunteer on many occasions. Theresa, Shane, Yasmin, Louise, Winky, and Xan. You guys are awesome. And to everyone that made my experience on tsudoi unforgettable. 

These are the photos that sum up akagi tsudoi.

*Forgot that I am not allowed to upload any pictures of someone without their permission.  

Campfire

Me delivering my impression on closing ceremony with my broken Japanese