Jamboree Blues

Hi Everyone

The Jamboree Blues are in full swing, and I can't see them disappearing any time soon. It still hasn't sunk in that Jamboree, and all that comes with it, has officially ended. Whilst on Jamboree I tried to keep up to date with blogging, posting photos pretty much as they happened, however, it is impossible to accurately put into a blog post the massive scale and excitement of the Jamboree.

Anyone who was on Jamboree can probably relate when I say 'I wish I was in Japan again', its not that I hate being back in England, it's more that I miss being able to experience every amazing thing we did, from the ceremonies to the parties, with some of my closest friends. I also miss the buzz of the Jamboree site; from being around thousands of people for 10 days to being alone at home, I felt pretty lonely.

Rather, than ramble on forever about things I enjoyed and experienced, I'm going to try and condense the whole trip into my 'Top Ten Moments', which I will hopefully upload in the next week or so  *near future*. In the meantime, here's a couple of photos showing the pure scale and enormity of the Jamboree, which I hope shows just why people describe the Jamboree as overwhelming.  

My bag's blue, can you spot it?

I miss my HoHo family !

The ceremonies showed just how huge the WSJ was 

40000 people, one arena 

Meeting so many different, lovely people was a highlight 

This view is one I never thought I'd see

It wouldn't have been the same without my jamfam

 And I'm pretty good at coach journeys now ....

It might be officially over, but that won't stop Unit 8 ! We are actually having our first (of many) reunion this weekend at Braidwood Regatta, an event we took part in last year (read the blog), to begin reminiscing the biggest adventure of our lives so far.

More photos from Japan and this weekends activities are on their way soon !

Thanks for reading 

Lauren x

TOKYO !

Konnichiwa !

We have officially reached the end of our Japanese Jamboree Journey, as of midnight, Unit 8 would have left Japan :(

But never fret, we have ended our adventure with an amazing 4 days in Japan's capital, Tokyo. Here's what we have done !

This is at the Earthquake centre, we got to experience a magnitude 7 earthquake.

In the evening we made our way across Tokyo to a huge fireworks display, despite the bridge in front of us, they still looked incredible.

On Sunday we went up the second tallest building in the world, the Tokyo Skytree. 

After Skytree we explored the local area, Asakusa, where we discovered a 1000 yen Kimono shop ....

We visited another Japanese temple in Asakusa and found some Buddha statues.

On Monday we had the chance to explore a different part of Tokyo before a UKC organised event 'Tokyo Live'. We went to the busiest crossing in the world, in Shibuya, and took an obligatory selfie. 

We then went to Tokyo live and finally got to watch some Sumo wrestling. 

One of the most interesting parts of the exhibition was the Tuna Dissection; three talented men chopping up a fresh Tuna to music. 

After Tokyo live we travelled across the city to Shinjuku, one of the best places for night life in Tokyo. We found loads of arcades, filled with business men, and had dinner at a tiny sushi bar. 

Today we visited the famous Tsukiji fish market, unfortunately we didn't see any of the renowned tuna selling, but we did wonder round the general market.

In the afternoon we tried to visit the Imperial Palace, but it was shut, so we headed off to a place called Harajuku. Harajuku was predominantly unusual fashion shops, but we spent a decent amount of time in the four floor 100 yen shop.

We've also had a laugh at the airport waiting for our flight to Doha, have a look here: 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10100248958389961&id=277004230&ref=m_notif&notif_t=video_tag&actorid=277004230

So, the last ever Jamboree quote of the day from Adam, 'We come from Bucks and we don't give two flips' 

That's it for now, we're off to Heathrow !

Day 7, 8 &9: Science and Community

Hi Everyone 

The last couple of days have been so busy as usual, so here is a couple of pictures of what we've been doing.

On Tuesday morning, before we went to the Culture tent, the boys took part in a football competition, in which Tabi and I were fantastic cheerleaders.

We then spent a couple of hours in the Culture tent, decorating our ID badges with Japanese gold stickers and doing Crochet in the Finland section.

In the evening we prepared a meal for a Japanese unit from Gifu, the place we stayed for HoHo, however, they forgot .... So we just had a fancy unit meal including caramelised oranges and pears.

On Wednesday we caught the bus early to go to Mine city, a city in Yamaguchu prefecture for the community day. We were greeted by the mayor of the city and watched a drumming and karate performance by local school children.

We then went to another school and watched a Koto ( a Japanese instrument ) performance and then had a go ourselves. 

We also had a go at traditional Japanese dancing before heading to a cave.

On Thursday we went to the beach ! We played dodgebee, volley ball, beach flag and swam in the sea. The whole unit really enjoyed the beach day I think, it was a refreshing break from the heat of the Jamboree site.

So, a final quote from Adam ' I don't like it, I love it love it love it'

PS Alex would like to publicise his sunburn. 'Do you even sunburn'

Day 5&6: Hiroshima and camp life

It's hot, very hot. As in 40 degrees hot, but still we're having an amazing time. 

On Friday we visited Hiroshima peace memorial museum. To get there we had to get the bus at 6 am, which for me, meant getting up at 4.15 to collect breakfast. 

The whole day was focused around peace and hope, with a visit to the peace  gardens, some readings of poems and delivering our peace cranes to the children's peace memorial. 

The picture above was constructed entirely out of peace cranes; inspired by the story of a young Japanese girl who made over 1000 peace cranes whilst sick with 'A-Bomb leukaemia' in the 50s. 

 

On the way back Alex made a new friend....

On Saturday , we were meant to be doing the Nature section of the Jamboree programme, however it was cancelled because of the scorching weather. This left us with a free day to explore the site more.

Behind Amber and I is the whole jamboree site: a small tent city. 

Today was culture day, we got the chance to visit the other units around the site and try some of their foods.

 

I sort of forgot to take many photos but the food was generally good  and the people were incredibly friendly, it was days like that this that we decided made scouting pretty cool.

Apologies for the lack of posts but we haven't stopped since we arrived, and the heat means everything takes longer, plus the wifi doesn't quite reach our site in the far corner of the Jamboree site.

And in the words of Adam Parkes 'who knew raving to Pokemon was a thing'

Day 3 & 4: Jamboree time !

Hi Everybody 

It's been incredibly busy since Monday night, finishing off Ho Ho, catching the Shinkansen and setting up our campsite in Yamaguchi.

To save going into lots of detail, again, here are some pictures showing a bit about what we've been up too.

 

Amber and I ended Ho Ho with a visit to a popular sushi bar. Because of the time of our train we had 'brunch' (an interesting word to explain to our family). We took the recommendations of our family and tried some fish eggs and some eel sushi. 

I can't get over how friendly and welcoming our host family were, they even waved us off at the train station ! 

We spent about 4 hours in total on the trains to Yamaguchi, most of it on the Shinkansen. The journey seemed to go really quickly to me as we found a couple of other UK units and got chatting with a Merseyside patrol. 

By the time we arrived at the Jamboree site, it was dark however this (picture above) is what our site looks like. The whole site is split into 4 subcamps which are divided into Villages. We are in the Northen Hub in Akagi Village, basically the first site in the top right had corner of the 3 km site. 

We spent most of yesterday constructing out gateway and since then we've added sheets on each side which people are signing as they come past.

We then headed to the opening ceremony. I honestly don't think I've seen so many people in one place; 40'000 people on one massive pitch all chanting and shouting, waving flags and supporting their country was the most impressive site I think I've ever seen. 

We finished off the night with a final wash down in the communal shower, which has ended up just being a massive water fight. It's become common to spend any free time in the cold showers because it's so hot and sticky , it was over 33c yesterday and so so humid.

Today we're doing the global development village programme and potential hosting a party at our site. 

So, in the words of Adam Parkes 'We dance non stop, we party till we drop' 

Thanks for reading !

Lauren