Stephanie- Kawagoe Multicultural Festival

Kawagoe Multicultural Festival

This last weekend I attended a festival in Kawagoe with the members of the Hippo family club from that area. Together we marched in a parade and performed several songs that we had been practicing, one from Korea and one from Mexico. I played guitar along with a few other members and everyone sang. It was fun!

The Kawagoe Hippo club

At the festival there were lots of different groups performing and people dressed in different traditional costumes from around the world. For the parade, my Hippo fellow asked me to wear a traditional American costume, which is hard because the U.S. doesn't really have it's own national traditional dress like a lot of other countries do. What's the U.S. equivalent of a kimono? The thing about the U.S. is it's big and comprised of people from a lot of different cultures and it doesn't have a very long history as a country comparatively. So when people ask me what traditional American dress looks like, or what a typical American meal looks like, it's sometimes hard to say, because it depends on where in the U.S. you are and who you are and the specific culture of the community or family that that you were raised in. In Mexico a lot of people even told me that I looked really American (meaning blonde hair, blue eyes) which was strange because there really is no such thing as a typical 'American looking' person, but it's interesting to see the image of the U.S. in the eyes of those from other parts of the world.

Since I didn't bring much to Japan in the way of an American costume, unless you count blue jeans, the fellow from the Kawagoe Hippo club lent me a cowboy hat that she bought in Oregon and my host mom lent me her western-style boots. I suppose the cowboy is a pretty iconic American image, and America is good at being iconic; I'll have to keep working on improving my costume for next time.


My best attempt at looking 'American'. What do you think?

I had a chance to talk with a lot of interesting people at the festival, and my travel guitar was a great point of conversation. This man was singing a song for me in Japanese set to the tune of "Amazing Grace".

Comments

I'm Nicol, from America!

HELLO! HOLA! こんにちわ ! I’m Nicol and I am the new LEX America Intern, and I am so excited to be here! I will be in Japan for 1 year working at the LEX Hippo office. I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I hear I will be busy and learn many new things! (Please excuse all the english I'm still learning😅) A Little About Me: I am from a tiny town in Oregon USA! I love sports, and almost anything outdoors. I played a lot of volleyball and track and field in high school . ( スポーツすきです ) 😂When I went to college I picked up ultimate frisbee and a little game called spikeball. I have been in 4-H since I was 9 years old and it is how I got involved with LEX- HIPPO Family Club, this amazing program. I’ve hosted 5 month long exchange students, 1 year long exchange student, and participated in a month long homestay to Japan 5 years ago! Since then I have been looking forward to coming back to Japan, little did I know I'd be working for LEX Hippo Me in Kyoto 5 years a

Yukinko and her intern life in Japan

Apa khabar? Sihat? Saya sangat sangat sihat!! Saya ゆきんこdari YOUTHINTERN di 本部どうも！ユースインターンのゆきんこです！所属は横浜北地域、ディアハッピーファミリー、京急線南太田駅、毎週土曜2時〜4時です！オソオセヨ〜今日は、海外インターンブログにお邪魔して、ユースインターン(国内のインターン)をしての体験とか感想？をシェアしたいと思います！まずユースインターンは、5月からやっていて、もう4ヶ月経ちました！やっと、あの敷居の超絶高かった本部にも慣れ(笑)、ヒッポの素敵な仲間たちと仲良くやってます！何をしてるかというと、主に動画作って見たり、地域のファミリーの応援(講演会ワークショップも)いったり、担当？のファミリー応援へ行ったり、本部に行ったり、マナイマキッズパーク(海外インターンが本部でやっている)でお手伝いしたり、ネイチャーキャンプにインターンとして参加したり、、、、いろいろしてます！最初は何をしていいか何も分からなかったけど、先輩インターンを見ながら自分のやりたいこと(ちょっと語弊があるけど)やってます！そもそも何でインターン始めたかというと、マレーシアから帰ってきて、ヒッポの面白さや凄さを感じ、もっと沢山の人にこの活動が広まればいいなと思ったからです。ヒッポの環境って、すごいよね。この30年以上でまだまだ進化してる！可能性無限大だな〜って思う！インターンやってて何がいいかっていうと、経験が詰めること！まあそもそもインターンシップって経験のため？にやるもの？だよね？笑わかんない笑でも本当に、インターンを始めてから、初めて経験することばっかりで、YLならぬITって感じ！！！！全然文字れてないけど笑いつも手探り感半端ないけど、掴めたときは凄く楽しくて、掴めなくても、クネクネしながら、次こそは！ってエネルギーになる。知れば知るほど、自分にはこれができるな！とか、これが苦手だなっていうのも分かってきて、凄い仕事してるかも〜って感じ！でもこんな楽しい仕事あったら最高だけど、、、学べることも沢山あって、自分が最近学んだのは、組織の大切さ、コ

Maddie- Thankful

Thankful Thanksgiving/Host sister`s Birthday Happy late-Thanksgiving! Although it isn`t a holiday that`s recognized in Japan, I was lucky to be able to celebrate with my host family. I whipped up a couple of fall classics: mashed potatoes, pan-roasted brussel sprouts with garlic and bacon, and applesauce. Ingredient shopping was a bit of a challenge. Despite Tokyo having excellent access to many foreign foods, there were concessions that had to be made. Fresh cranberries would be too hard to find, so applesauce was made instead (Japan has many delicious, if expensive, apples, often from the northern prefecture of Nagano). Japanese bacon has much less fat than American bacon, so I had to add some butter to the pan (interesting, considering that I think that many of the other cuts of meat sold are often quite fatty). Also, of course, turkeys aren`t available, so a turkey gravy was out of the question. Despite the differences, everything turned out yummy, and we had a lovely d

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