So this was it. After two years of fundraising, planning, waiting I was hauling my hold luggage off the conveyer belt and wheeling it away to our coach to Nara with 39 other scouts. Despite the excitement of having almost 150 scouts on our plane, I saw mostly tired faces on the coach – maybe a 17 hour journey to Osaka with a 3 hour queue at passport control may take it out of you a little…

About an hour later we were pulling up to a crowd of very excited Japanese people, ready to take our bags from us and introducing themselves as the couples and families we will be staying with for a day before the Jamboree camp. Of course with 40 scouts all trying to find their hosts at 10:30pm, there does tend to be a little bit of confusion so half an hour later, Aaron and I were being whisked away by Nishikawa and his wife to their traditional Japanese home. After a quick shower and dinner of beautiful homemade sushi, we were off to our futons on woven tatami mats and collapsed into an exhausted heap.

So, our first day in Japan was upon us and we were both excited even if Aaron had banged his head     off multiple Japanese-sized doorways. During breakfast Nishikawa said we were “meeting a friend who would teach us traditional Japanese calligraphy and show us the ways of the famous tea ceremony and then having a welcome ceremony held for us”. A small walk later and we arrived at the calligrapher’s house to also find our Scout leader Cate sitting there next to the calligraphy table looking pleased to see us. When we began our calligraphy lesson we soon saw why. Her host (Nishikawa’s friend) could not speak a word of English. Me and Aaron both realised we were lucky to be able to hold full conversations with our hosts. The calligraphy was very interesting especially as the characters were drawn in a style unique to how the calligrapher perceived them to be – a character that represented a house that was lopsided would be drawn wonky. We then got dressed into some traditional Japanese Yukata (summer kimono) to explore the old town of Kashihara with some of the houses there dating back a couple of centuries. They all had the beautiful Japanese tiled roofs that I love and inside was the Japanese architecture which is simple yet perfectionist which completely reflects their culture. Afterwards it was back to the calligrapher’s for a delicious tofu, pickle and noodly warm lunch and then on to the tea ceremony which I was very excited about. It was amazing to feel a part of such a defining part of Japanese culture. We had to bow to enter the room whilst the tea was being made and each cup was brewed and whisked to a frothy perfection, individually and with the utmost of care. A Japanese gelatinous sweet was taken to contrast with the bitterness of the tea and upon receiving the tea you bowed and thanked the tea-maker and the person beside you. Then the cup was picked up with one hand on the side and the other underneath and tipped back and drank carefully. Unfortunately, me and Aaron were in great pain in having to kneel so were allowed to sit cross-legged much to the amusement of our Japanese hosts. After a quick rest, the guests for our welcome party arrived and we had a great time talking to a couple about English TV shows. There was an excellent BBQ and huge watermelons that could sink a ship! After exchanging gifts with the Scouts of the area and with our hosts it was time to go home to Nishikawa’s and I was sad that it was time to go tomorrow.