LABO Camp-Daisen

I have only been in Nara for about and hour and already, Nahomi, my host mom has fed me cheese cake and Belgian waffles...
I had a great time at LABO Camp!
It was a 5 hour bus ride to the mountains, but it passed quickly because I watched Juno (for the 38th time!) on my iPOD...
When Tomo and the rest of Sakamoto Party (my LABO party) made it to Mt. Daisen, we were placed in the group 'Deneb 2'. Each group consists of about 30 kids...there were about 15 groups total!
The camp is run my coaches, college-aged kids who make sure everything is running smoothly. Our groups are directed my Senior Mates, kids around my age who have been in LABO for a while.
We also had 3 Group Mothers, who stayed with our group and helped with the kids.
We stayed in hotels with traditional Japanese futons, food, and public bath.
All of the International Youth (IY) were encouraged to participate in all of the activities,　and that included the public bath. It is not such a big deal because it is just a custom in Japan and is considered a part of the camp routine.

Each camp session has a 'Theme Activity', based from a children's' book. The Theme Activity was The Sign On Rosie's Door.
We had to sing lots of songs and practice acting out the story.
It was difficult to understand what was going on, but I tried my best to just jump in and act like a little kid.

I quickly learned that LABO camp is not accommodating to vegetarians. There was meat everywhere, and most Japanese don't completely understand that being vegetarian means not eating meat in any form. I was stuck with rice and cabbage for every meal until my IY counselor smuggled me a couple of boxes of Calorie Mate, a high-fat, high-protein biscuit.

I was able to communicate with the kids even though they didn't speak English.
I taught them a few 4-H songs and games. They thought I was completely insane and funny, but that is the way you have to be to have fun at LABO camp.

It was a new experience and I had a lot of fun!