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❂We asked Teru-san to show us his grave and give us an ex-planation. At Teru-san’s uncle’s house, we heard about theirviews about death, as well as about the traditions they observefor funerals and memorial services. Regarding the afterlife,Teru-san’s aunt said, “When you die, that’s the end.”❂We interviewed a woman at a store near our inn. She said “InOkinawan culture, graves are considered more important thanregular homes. There are a lot of people who spend lots ofmoney maintaining their graves. The houses we live in now aretemporary homes. Our graves will be our homes for eternity,so we make them big. Even after we die, I believe that we havefamilies, and we work and lead normal lives in the afterlife.”

Naka Bokunen’s talk about Okinawan graves and Okinawanattitudes towards death (see p. 4) left a strong impression onus, and we decided to make it our project topic. When wefound out that even among just the members of our group, wehad different attitudes towards death, we decided this wouldbe an interesting topic to explore.

[China]

It’s fun getting toknow each other because we’re all so different

KoAbby

Bai Yun

Misa

[Japan] [Australia] [Japan]

Choosing a topic for our presentation

Naka Bokunen speaks in front of a grave.

Traditionally in Okinawa, it is believed that when people die,they do not end there. Rather, death is a stage that must bepassed in order for people to go on to the next stage. It was thefirst time the four of us had heard such stories, and we real-ized that people have different beliefs depending on their en-vironment. The four of us grew up in different environments,so we each have our own way of thinking about death.

Ko: I think that once you die, you don’t feel anything orthink anything. That is, you become nothing.

Misa: When I was younger, I believed as the Okinawanpeople do, that even after I died, I would live on inanother world. However, at some point, I naturallylet go of this belief. Listening to people’s beliefsthrough this project, I am once again convinced thatthis is a wonderful way of thinking.

Abby: I believe that people end when they die. But I thinkthe Okinawan belief that people do not end at deathis very good.

Bai Yun: I think that death is liberation from a tiring life. Thisis because everyone has so many things they have todo, and every day is tough.

This is what we discussed

Free research

Group A

In the past, when I had trouble communicating be-cause of the language barrier, I simply gave upsince the foreign people I was interacting withwere people I met only in passing. But in this pro-gram, we couldn’t make progress unless we wereable to understand each other, so I naturally feltthe desire, at times excessive, to communicate,with a dictionary in one hand.

I communicated with Abby and Bai Yun by look-ing up terms in the dictionary, and lining them up,one after another. As I looked words up in the dic-tionary, I made a lot of discoveries about Englishexpressions, so it was a great learning experiencefor me.

Because Bai Yun couldn’t speak much English andI can’t speak Chinese, I was forced to use my Japa-nese, which while hard was really good because ithelped me improve a lot.

Abby

Misa

Ko

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As you can see, it is intriguing to see that each one of us has avastly different way of thinking about the same thing. Thereare many views. There are differences in thinking between theJapanese and foreign students and between the Japanese stu-dents themselves, and these differences are very interesting.They are what makes interaction between people meaningfuland important. Our differences are what makes communica-tion fun. This is what we feel most strongly from our interviewand preparation process for our presentation.

We were intrigued by theexpression uu-too-too. It isa word used to summonthe gods and buddhas,and is intoned during suchevents as shiimii (an ances-tral worshipping eventheld in the third lunarmonth).

This shape symbolizes amother’s womb and theperson that has passedaway returning to thewomb.

We learned the kind ofthinking at the base ofthese rituals from Teru-san’s uncle and aunt who cooperated with our project. During shiimii,people make feasts as offerings, which is due tothe belief that the deadare leading normal lives inanother world.

For example, for shiimii,thirteen uchikabi (papermoney) are burned as offerings, also due to thebelief that the dead areleading lives in anotherworld.

✚ Take a look at the project at http://www.tjf.or.jp/photoessaycafe/cafe_okinawa/izena_work/a/group_a.html.

✚ The presentations were given in Japanese.

Our messageGroup A Project, Eternal House [excerpt]

The members of Group A were all relatively quiet,and I was concerned by the fact that even in our ad-ditional interviews, very few questions were asked.Along with members of the group, I kept track ofthe time, followed up on others’ questions, had

members translate for each other during discussions, andmade sure to take photos when needed. When we met earlyin the morning to practice on the day of the presentation,everyone seemed to have thoroughly practiced their ownparts, and they were all very well prepared. We ended upadding more to our presentation during our preparations, butbecause the four members did their best to cooperate, theywere able to give a successful presentation. It made me reallyhappy to stand in the back and listen to the presentation. AsI listened, I was silently celebrating: “We all worked reallyhard these three days.”

From Piao Jinqiu, tutor for Group A/ interpreter between Japanese and Chinese or Korean

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The measures various countries are taking on trashPaul: People are fined if they litter. Trash cans are of dif-

ferent colors for different kinds of trash. So wedon’t separate trash later, but at the time we throwit away.

Rosie: In Sheffield, we sort and reuse trash as much as pos-sible.

Kensuke: There are some local governments that have lawsprohibiting littering. Also, some local governmentscharge citizens fees for putting trash out by makingthem purchase designated garbage bags and usingthe fees for trash disposal.

Rosie: I wish the UK would implement that charge-by-the-bag trash fee system. Our family puts out less trashthan other families, but we still have to pay the sameamount in taxes, which I think is very unfair!

Hari: Why is it that in the US and the UK, garbage dis-posal and processing are standardized, but in Japan,which is a much smaller country, the regulations ontrash are dependent on each local government?

Rosie: We have been told that construction works are con-tracted to create jobs; they should create jobs to helpwith the clean-up of Izena island!

Kensu

kePa

ulHar

i

Rosie

[Japan][Japan] [US] [UK]

We chose the environment and the garbage problem as ourtopic after discovering trash washed up on the beach and cig-arette stubs at the observation point during our study tour, aswell as hearing Tamaki Shun’ichi talk about how he wrote asong about the changing landscape of the seashore.

❂We went to pick up garbage on the beach. Since it was rain-ing, we put on raincoats and nobody said anything. Within anhour, we had filled seven garbage bags.

❂We asked the person in charge at the municipal governmentabout its policies on garbage disposal. About two or threeyears ago, a law was enacted prohibiting the use of local in-cinerators because they were found to release dioxins. Now,the island spends 10 million yen per year to transport garbageto the main island for disposal in incinerators there. We real-ized there are complex issues involved, such as the fact that itwill cost 800 million yen to build new incinerators that are upto current regulations, and that a lot of garbage washes up onthe shores of Izena.

I think one difficulty might have been that every-one has different ways of communicating, someusing their voices, and others using gestures,which I think is something which depends greatlyupon where you are from. Another problem wassometimes understanding accents, particularlymine, as it is quite strong and from the north ofEngland.

The garbage problem is not simple

Group B

Choosing a topic for our presentation This is what we discussed

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The two Japanese students of our group ended upleading the others. When we were trying tochoose a topic for our project, there were timesthat I, as group leader, dominated the process, andbecause I lack confidence in my English skills Iturned to Hari, who speaks Japanese, for input. Asa result, the foreign members participated, but itwas as if they were taking part in something thatthe two of us had already planned out. As a groupleader, I regret that I limited the range in whichthe overseas participants could take part.

Kensuke

Rosie

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More visible garbage canscan help reduce theamount of trash. Alsosigns should be postedtelling people not to litter.

Izena island is a beautifulplace with sandy beachesand dense vegetation. Itis a great place to live andvisit. However, that beautiful environment ischanging little by little.

Together we went out topick up trash. We sepa-rated the rubbish that wecollected into the differ-ent bags. The village’sproceeds from sellingdesignated trash bags areallotted for the cost ofgarbage disposal.

By working together toclear up the rubbish wecan create an ever morebeautiful Izena.

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Group B Project, Keep Izena Island Beautiful [excerpt] Our message

We realized the garbage problem is not a simple problem.Some people would think “picking up trash that’s alreadybeen discarded is a countermeasure but it’s not the solution tothe problem,” but we believe people who know what a toughjob picking up garbage and cleaning up the environment canbe ought to never think of littering again. Our message is “let’sdo what we can do” to make Izena Island an even more beau-tiful place!

On the first and second day, perhaps due to fatigue,the Japanese students and the foreign students inthe group didn’t seem to be communicating muchwith each other, to the extent that the staff membershad a discussion about how to deal with the situa-

tion. But in the afternoon of the second day, the group mem-bers had grown friendly with each other, and I was relievedto find that there was nothing to worry about. From aroundthe evening of the third day, communication within the groupimproved greatly, with Paul doing imitations of the Japanesecomedian Razor Ramon, which he learned from Kensuke.Paul, who speaks American English, also joked around aboutRosie’s British English pronunciation. We learned later thatwhen Rosie fell asleep early, Hari, who was rooming with her,took her bath in another room so as not to wake Rosie. I be-lieve Group B was able to become so close as a result of thisthoughtfulness they showed towards each other.

From Horie Asako, tutor for Group B

✚ Take a look at the project at http://www.tjf.or.jp/photoessaycafe/cafe_okinawa/izena_work/b/group_b.html.

✚ The presentations were given in Japanese.

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On the second day, when we were still feeling a bit lost on howto communicate with each other, we heard the Shoen DrumTroupe perform and tried performing the drums ourselves.This was the first time we were able to laugh and enjoy eachother’s company without worrying about language barriers.That was the moment when the distance between us began toshrink. We wanted to learn more about the influence of musicon the people of Izena, so we decided to interview variouspeople on this topic.

Music has the power to connect people’shearts

Kin

Kosoo

May

a

Male

e

❂We interviewed Toshikazu-san and his family, Shun’ichi-san, and Teru-san. (See our project)

During our interviews, people of different age, sex, national-ity, and language were able to have a great time together, gain-ing firsthand experience of the “power of music,” which wedecided to use as the title of our presentation.

[Japan][Japan] [Korea] [US]

Group C

Choosing a topic for our presentation

This is what we discussed

Free research

Everyone took responsibility for specific parts ofthe project. For example Mickey, Maya, andYoshida-san worked together to write a script,Kin-chan and I were more involved with the con-struction of the webpage, Vicki and I were alsophotographers, and everyone took part in the in-terviews so the group as a whole had a generalunderstanding of the material.

I liked the different opinions and perspectiveseveryone had to present. As a group I thought wewere strong because we complimented each otherand took all ideas to consideration. While makingdecisions we took votes and if the voting did notwork we suggested other ideas to balance theproblem.

As the group leader, it was difficult for me to fig-ure out how to encourage a certain member of ourgroup with what were really solid ideas to speakup in front of everyone else because she was em-barrassed. However, the participant soon began toactively take part in the discussion perhaps be-cause she realized that her views would be ac-cepted, and that made me feel good. I think thatbeing accepted by peers from different countriesand cultures can give you a lot of confidence.

Communicating my own views was tough, sincemy Japanese isn’t very good. To be honest, it mademe lonely sometimes, but then other members ofthe group would speak to me and interject inter-pretations of what was being said, so it turned outall right.

I strongly felt that language is vital in communi-cation. The few words we could communicate inaddition to our gestures and our emotions wereenough for us to get by in getting along, but whenwe tried to make decisions as a group, it wasn’tthat easy.

Kin

Kosoo

Maya

Malee

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Mick

eyVick

i

[Japan] [New Zealand]

Music is a valuable forumthrough which Shun’ichi-san expresses himself. Hehopes that every day, hegrows as a person, littleby little. He told us thathis life changed greatlysince he discoveredmusic. He writes musicbased on his life experi-ences.

First, we interviewedToshikazu-san. Hestarted playing the drumsas a result of his interestin King Shoen. When heplays the drums with hisfamily, he does not thinkof them as family, butrather, his buddies orcomrades.

Teru-san plays music notto make a living, but because it is his passion.He says that being in lovehas changed his view ofmusic greatly. He can’timagine life withoutmusic.

The Shoen Drum Troupemembers are all veryclose, like a family.Whenever anyone has aproblem, they go to theother members for advice.

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Group C Project, Power of Music [excerpt] Our message

The Shoen Drum Troupe members met through music. Watch-ing them, we can tell that music has the power to connect peo-ple’s hearts, regardless of age or gender. The interviews wereconducted only in a short time, but the troupe members wel-comed us warmly as if we had become family. Music has thepower to transcend national boundaries.

The group I accompanied, Group C, was made upof six girls. They were all very cheery and fun, attimes boisterous, and got along really well. How-ever, there was one participant who had a bit oftrouble getting acquainted with the others because

of the language barrier. The group members recognized thisproblem, and we heard that they had a discussion late into thenight on how they could incorporate her more into the group.And what’s most important, this participant changed greatlyduring the course of this project. She initially did not leave theinterpreter’s side, but during group meetings on the third andfourth days, she took notes herself, no longer depending onthe interpreter. On our last night in Izena, in front of all theother students, this participant announced that she wanted tolearn to be more outgoing, to which the other students re-sponded with a round of applause. This was a most memo-rable moment.

From Yoshida Yuri, tutor for Group C/interpreter between Japanese and English

✚ Take a look at the project at http://www.tjf.or.jp/photoessaycafe/cafe_okinawa/izena_work/c/group_c.html.

✚ The presentations were given in Japanese.