Day 1 & 2 : Arriving in Japan

Hello everyone !

I'm going to keep it brief as I'm writing this on my phone, however I don't know how I can put into a short post how AMAZING everything has been so far. It's not just me who can't quite believe we've made it; after a 7 hour flight to Doha in Qatar followed by a 9 hour flight to Osaka and a 4 hour coach  journey we arrived in Gifu for Ho Ho.

As they say pictures speak a thousand words, so, as I will probably do for the rest of the trip, here are some photos of what we've been up to.

We started off our journey at Heathrow airport, meeting 2 other units off to the Jamboree. 

*generic plane photo* 

Once we landed in Osaka , it was pretty obvious that the Jamboree units had arrived, blue bags EVERYWHERE.

We drove from the airport to Gifu, where we were picked up by our host families and taken to their homes. By the time we had arrived we were hot, sweaty and very tired, but we still had the energy to show our family ( the parents and oldest son) our 'about me' books. 

These are the 3 children in my family, the boy, who is a Cub Scout, is called Ousaku, the oldest girl is 4 year old Itchika and Akari is 1. They are all incredibly cute to say the least.

The man on ththe left is to father of our host family, Taiji and the woman carrying the baby on th right is Hitomi.

After a traditional breakfast of rice, miso soup and various Japanese condiments, including Natto (fermented beans), we went to the town hall and met the mayor.

The hospitality of both the family and the Mayors office was overwhelming.

We visited a traditional Japanese castle withy the local Cubs, meaning we joined up with a couple of other pairs from Unit 8. 

The castle was used by sammori warriors over 500 years ago. This one is called Inuyama Castle.

We took part in a tea ceremony in the afternoon, and I came to the conclusion that green tea isn't really my cup of tea.

The children in our family are adorable even if all we can say to each other is arigatoo ....

As we were walking back to the car we came across a bridal procession, the woman is wearing a traditional Japanese wedding outfit.

Apparently the temperature reached 34c today and the humidity was quite a shock to the system. Amber, I and the rest of the unit are catching the Bullet  train tomorrow lunch time and heading down to the Jamboree site, which is looking pretty damp :(

So, that's day 1 and 2 over, please feel free to leave any comments and check out the unit 8 Facebook page for more photos.

Thanks for reading,

Lauren x

PS this is dinner being made as I type.

6 Days to go: Amazing Project Revelation

Hi Everyone !

Chances are, this will be my last blog post before we actually arrive on the Jamboree site, CRAZY.

In my last post, I mentioned a secret project my Unit had been working on at our last training weekend, and today I can reveal it. Yesterday, we officially released our music video. 

Yes, a music video, planned, choreographed, performed, filmed and edited by Unit 8. A lot of hard work went in to it, so please share it, like it etc We want it to go viral (maybe). 

So here it is, enjoy !

Also, for people asking, the different colours correspond to the patrols, my patrol is green. 

PS Follow me on twitter @Lauren_Allngton for instant updates when we're in Japan

PPS I will be trying to update everyday as of 26th July, so please check it out, leave comments and spread the word about one of the biggest events this year :)

19 Days to go: Last training weekend EVER

Hi Everyone

My last Jamboree training weekend (ever!!), was pretty much completely dedicated to a secret project the Unit has been planning for quite a while.

I don't want to give too much away, as the rest of Unit 8 wanted to keep it a surprise, however, here are a couple of photo's which might give a hint as to what we were up to.

Any guesses ???

We also practiced teaching and supervising the cultural activities we we will be doing on jamboree. A group of very energetic 7 year old Beavers visited our site to make sugar chopsticks, play blind foot ball and do sumo wrestling, Let's just say the sugar made the 'football' very interesting.

We may have mocked the little ones for being so childish, but the hot weather all weekend meant we spent a good hour having a full on water fight. It was all v all but some got a little wetter than 

others...

Wet and wild

That's about it for now, the countdown has really begun, only 19 days till we set of on the biggest adventure of our lives. 

Thanks for reading 

Lauren x

40 Days to go: Stuff

Hi Everyone

Exams and revision seem to have taken over my life recently but a couple of things to do with Jamboree have been happening.

First of all, we had a training day but all we really did was build a gateway. Picture below

The Gateway is more of a climbing frame

I also contacted various museums and places of interest around Wycombe to collect some gifts I can give out at HoHo. The Japanese gift giving culture is something that I've been told about LOADS since starting the Jamboree so its nice to finally have some things, that represent Bucks, to give as gifts out in Japan. The picture below is just a handful of the gifts I'm planning on taking.

I received donations from Hugh Wycombe Tourism Centre, Bekonscot Model Village, The Roald Dahl Museum and Hughenden Manor

Finally, last weekend a few of us from the Unit helped out at Prestival. Prestival is a charity music festival held annually, this year it was in Great Missenden. It is organised by Paul Wooding the District Commissioner, although the event isn't linked particularly to scouting, and we undertook a range of jobs to help with our fundraising.

Summer vibes 

Always time for self promotion

I helped out last year as well which made this year was quite a milestone as it meant I have been mates with the Unit for over 12 months. We emptied bins, did litter picking, parked cars and sold tickets for most of Saturday but got the chance to listen, and watch, the amazing musical performances in the evening. 

The highlight for me was either Duke, an AMAZING beatbox trio, or MBS a rock (I think) band that closed the festival with some solid festival classics.

Lots of familiar (pink)  faces

Of course we found the bouncy castle ....

...And the hoola-hoops

I can't believe its less than two months until we fly out, with only another two Unit meetings before we start our Japanese experience. As much as I can't wait to get out there and witness all the incredible things we've been told about, I also can't help but think how its so close to ending. I've made some of my best friends through taking part in the Jamboree and I can't quite imagine it all being over ....

Aside from that fairly miserable reflection, I hope everyone is looking forward to their long summer, if in Year 11, if not , I hope life is going well for everyone :)

Thanks for reading 

Lauren x

86 Days To Go: Exciting Update

Hello Everyone !

Lots has been happening recently to do with Jamboree, and its all incredibly exciting, I've narrowed it down to three main things which I hope you find fairly interesting . . .

1) Training Weekend

About 2 weeks ago we had another training weekend, again it was at Braidwood and the first outdoor camp so far this year. We had a quick visit to the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden for a photo (below) and then walked, with our kit, to Braidwood in Chesham. The weekend was mainly pretty chilled, cooking, eating and messing about in the woods. We decided to get some patrol shirts for the trip, my patrol, ' Wassup-b' settled on lime green while the other three are getting turquoise, yellow and purple ( I think. . .) This will be a great way of sticking together as a group when we're out there as we have also planned on having our surnames and a number on the back.

Crew

This photo has become a bit 'Jambo-famous'

2) Jamboree Kit

Probably the most exciting part of the training weekend was receiving all our kit for the Jamboree. Along side some exceedingly flattering knee length shorts, we got 2 uniform shirts, a waterproof, a wicking t-shirt, a hat, 2 water bottles, another scarf, a small towel, the sleeping bag and a collection of badges for our various items of clothing. All the kit seems really high quality and there is still more personal orders to come.

For some reason, all my kit is slightly too big but, with 3 months to go, there isn't really much I can do about it .

The whole collection

Towel, Sleeping bag and water bottles

All the kit is suited to the Japanese climate

I think the bags are my favorite part ...

3) Reporting from Japan

I've been asked by members of the CST (contingent support team) to carry on writing my blog whilst out in Japan !
This will mean I'll have access to laptops and wifi so as to update my blog, hopefully, everyday on Jamboree. I feel honored and really excited to be able to write and post pictures about the Jamboree pretty much as soon as it happens. The media and communications team are also hoping to get local newspapers involved so everyone at home can follow our journey. I'm yet to find out specific details but watch this space.

The HUGE Jamboree site 

Thanks for reading
Lauren

120 Days to go: Monopoly Run

Hi Everyone

Its been a long time, school and mocks and revision and camps have taken over and unfortunately I've just not had the time to write anything about the Jamboree.

First things first, it seems to have sunk in that the Jamboree is less than 4 months away and I think I can speak for pretty much everyone going when I say we are so incredibly excited ! I am half way through another post about my favorite parts of the jamboree so you'll hear more about what I've most enjoyed and what I'm most looking forward to soon, but for now, here is what Unit 8 got up to on our last training weekend...

193 Days to go: Christmas dinner with chopsticks

Hello Everyone !

Our Christmas meeting ( about a month ago) was probably one of the most relaxed meetings we've had so far. It mainly consisted of making and eating food , which you can probably tell from the pictures below . . . 

Kicking it all off with a tree 

It wouldn't be Christmas without mince pies, which is what we spent a lot of Saturday preparing.

Jenny showing us how its done

We also made and constructed a huge danish pastry tower called a Kransekake, some better than others.

The basis of our kransekake . . . 

. . . and the finished masterpeice

Chef Stuart also set each patrol the challenge of making a gingerbread house.

Our earthquake hit house 

After hours of work, we finally sat down to a three course Japanese English hybrid Christmas dinner. Some courses were interesting to say the least, but it was generally pretty enjoyable.

Christmas Jumpers galore

Sushi for starters

We all managed to eat a whole Christmas dinner with chopsticks 

Pudding was of mixed opinions

Father Christmas visited us to hand out our secret santas, everyone was pretty impressed with their presents, apart from me. I never got one. 

Julia was pretty convincing as the big man himself

We finished off the evening with the 'rubbish present game' and some other entertaining bunk house games, all of which Charlie the dog got involved with.

A pretty impressive pile of gifts

The aim was to pop everyone else's balloons whilst keeping your own in tact 

Sunday was mainly tidying up and eating the gingerbread houses, we also got given an update on the Jamboree. Now we know when we're heading off and where we are going for HoHo, the Gifu prefecture in central Japan.

Our gingerbread village

Its safe to say the training weekend was a great way to start the Christmas holidays, and once again we can't wait for the next time we all see each other again!   

A very late Merry Christmas from unit 8 !

Thanks for reading !

Lauren :)