utrek camp

Madison Munn
Scholarship payback essay
Some of my best memories of my stay in Japan are at Utrek Camp. On the last
week of the home stay, my host mom drove me and my host sister Yumiko to where the
bus to the camp was waiting. I was happy to see my American friends again, and some of
the host siblings I had met at previous Utrek outings. We had about a 4 hour bus ride,
with a few stops for snacks and such. I was sitting next to my friend Ashley, also from
Prineville, and next to her was one of the councilors. His name was Takafumi, or Taka,
but there was another councilor who also went by Taka, so he told us to call him “Yamachan.” He was really funny and we had a great time
talking with him and taking pictures with all of us
being “gangster,” with sunglasses and backwards hats
we traded around. At one point I pulled out my
sketchbook, and Yama-chan caught sight of some of
my drawings and seemed surprised and impressed,
because he took it and started showing it to everyone
nearby. I thought it was funny, and when he gave it
back, he told me, “Draw something.” I doodled an
anime catgirl, and my friends and the nearby Japanese
people seemed to enjoy that.
We arrived at our hotel, a Japanese-style building. We were all shown to our
rooms to drop off our luggage, and then we were taken to a nearby building for
orientation, making note of the multiple Haagen-Dazs ice cream vending machines along
the way. We would have to come back to those later. The orientation consisted of
introductions from the councilors, camp rules, and get-to-know-you games. We also
heard a local legend from the hotel owner about a giant snake that lives in the largest lake
on the mountain. After the orientation, we were left to mingle between rooms until
dinner. The room I was in was one of the larger ones, which became gathering points for
the friends of the inhabitants, and we were constantly coming in to our rooms to find
people from across the hall or a few doors down sprawled out on our couch listening to
music, playing cards, or eating snacks, whether we were there or not. It was more
entertaining than anything else.
After a Japanese dinner, we took part in a “cultural exchange of nature.” We were
unsure as to what that meant, but we found out it involved watching slides about Japan
and listening to some of the Japanese talk about their culture. Then the Americans went
up in groups by State and talked about several slides of pictures from their own state.
None of the Oregon pictures had been contributed by the Oregon delegates, so we had no
idea what some of them were, but we improvised and got through them well enough.
Finally, the two students from Germany presented their slides. The German girl was very
impressive in that she spoke five languages, including fluent English and Japanese.
After the cultural exchange, my friend Beca and I went off to find the sulfur hot
spring that the hotel is famous for. The indoor bath was much, much too hot, but the
outdoor one was very enjoyable. After the bath, I stayed up with my roommates talking,
mostly with the Mormon girls on the trip from Utah about why they weren’t allowed to
have green tea, after they had declined the green tea ice cream from the aforementioned
Haagen-Dazs machines. We never did quite figure it out.
The next day, we went on a 7 hour hike around the mountain. Around noon we
stopped for lunch by the lake where the snake was
supposed to live. It was an amazing blue color that made
you want to jump right in, but apparently it was very
acidic so that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea.
After lunch we had to climb stairs. A lot of stairs. I think
Yusuke, one of the councilors, told us that there were
300, but I am absolutely
sure there were a few
hundred more, as anyone
else on the hike will agree to. We were all sick of seeing
stairs and had several young children with seemingly
boundless energy, so we kept up a rather brisk pace,
which caused the chaperones and older members of the
group to drop back to join
a slower group and put us
about a half hour ahead of schedule by the time we
reached the next rest point in a marshy area. It was a very
pretty area with lots of pools and colorful flowers. We
decided to press on soon, opting for more time at the
hotel in favor of a longer
break. At the end of the
hike, we took a ski lift
down to the hotel. I traded cameras with Dylan, who was
riding in the chair behind us, so we could take pictures of
each other, but I dropped his camera case and one of the
guys who worked the lift had to go up and get it. By the
time we got back, we were almost an hour early, leaving
us with two hours to relax before dinner. On the other
hand, one of the groups had gotten lost, and they didn’t show up until right as dinner was
starting. They told us they had a lot of fun despite hiking over an hour longer than the
other groups, because some of the American girls made for good entertainment by
spontaneously bursting into song and the like.
After dinner, we went outside to look for fireflies. Yusuke told us that there used
to be a lot of fireflies, but now there aren’t very many because there are more houses and
lights around. We still managed to see a few fireflies (or lightning bugs, as Yusuke called
them). After looking at the bugs, we went to the hot spring again and even managed to
get some of the more self-conscious girls to join us.
The following day it rained, so instead of playing the planned games outside, they
were moved indoors to a large room with tatami mat floors. We played a Japanese
version of duck-duck-goose, which was fun but when mixed with tatami mats resulted in
more than a few skinned knees. We also played a game which entailed sitting on the floor
in two lines and holding hands with the people in your line with your eyes closed. One
person sat at the head of the lines, and they squeezed the hands of the first people in both
lines. The squeeze got passed down the lines and the person at the end had to dive for a
water bottle that was set up a few feet away when
the squeeze reached their hand. It was really fun,
but also resulted in a few skinned knees. There were
some technical difficulties with the CD player after
that, so we were given some free time to play
whatever game we wanted. Most people formed a
large group for the bottle game we had played
earlier, but some of us broke off and played the
human knot game. Then we created a new game
that involved throwing a hat around a circle and
trying to catch it on your head. We had people from America, Japan, and Germany
playing it, so maybe it will become the next big international phenomenon.
When the CD player was up and running again, we sang the Utrek song, and then
we went to craft-making. We had been given the option of trying Japanese basket
weaving, making a silk box, making an uchiha fan, or making beaded rings and hairpins.
I chose beading, but it was fun to look at the things other people had made in other
groups.
After that we had a group curry-making contest. Each group was giving
ingredients and a station for making curry, plus a secret ingredient. My group used
orange juice, but some of the other secret ingredients were apples, potato chips, beans,
and even chocolate. It turns out that curry is surprisingly versatile, so they all tasted
pretty good. I heard that the chocolate curry was especially good, but I didn’t have a
chance to taste it.
That night there was a bonfire. We all got in a big circle, and played games and
sang songs. We did a Japanese festival dance, and
then the Americans lead several summer camp-type
songs. When the singing was done, some of the
guys kicked down the bonfire to make several areas
with smoldering embers and brought out S’more
materials. I had told my host sister about S’mores,
so I was happy that we got to make some together.
Hanging out in the lobby with some of the
other American girls, Kaleigh mentioned that she
hadn’t gotten any hugs at all in Japan. Caitlyn
mentioned that Yama-chan had hugged her once and gave really good hugs, and one of
the chaperones said that he had hugged her too and she agreed with Caitlyn. That gave us
an idea. We devised a plan for a hug contest that we ran buy the coordinators and put into
action the next day during the closing ceremonies. After all the official talking was
finished, the group of girls who had come up with the idea called all the chaperones up to
the front of the room. We went through in a line and hugged each of them in turn, and
then we decided on the two best girls and two best boys, announced them and gave them
each a huge group hug. Yama-chan ended up giving the best hugs after all.
Going back home on the bus was sad, but it gave us a chance to swap name cards,
look through pictures, and catch up on much-needed sleep. I had so much fun at camp
and I definitely plan on going back and doing it again.