Japanese
August 5, 2003: Out door experiences
Our first group will prepare meals today.

We started the work at 5:40 in the morning and prepared breakfast for 110 people.

The menu was bread and butter, strawberry jam from the farm, fresh milk from the farm, black tea ( for adults), scrambled egg, warmed pumpkin, tomato, and kiwi fruit.
After cleaning the dish, we had a service. The high school students asked at the kids " What is a divine service?" Kids answered back seriously.
After that, the teacher told about the nature watching. All the kids listen to teacher with shining eyes.
An insect net and a water box were distributed to each group. All the kids dashed out.
They watch in the pond, search the bush for insects, and lie down on the grass. They "watch" the nature carefully.

After cleaning up the dining table, we adults went out.
Cows graze calmly in the pastureland.
Each stalk and leaf of the tree and grass feels lovely for us in the farm.
Wild strawberry grow in red in the bush.
Kids returned the room and checked what they caught in the field such as insects, dragonflies, frogs, and leaves. They observe and sketch them carefully.
On the front of the hall is a calligraphy painted by Mr. Yoshikazu Hani, the Founder. It reads "Seikou Udoku (work in the field in fine weather and stay at home reading when it is wet)." < /TD>
We started to prepare for the lunch. We fried a vast amount of vegetable using huge frying pans.
Kids cook rice using firewood gathered by the kids. A stone oven was made by the pond and the firewood was ignited.
The menu is curried rice. Carefully weighed materials were brought in for cooking.
The firewood started to burn at last and the rice is cooked by messtins.
Well, let's take lunch on the grass.
Suddenly, the sky turned dark and torrential rain started to fall. The field quickly turned to a flooding river.
After the summer afternoon shower, cool breeze started to blow. We were relieved in the heated kitchen.
today's between-meals refreshments is corn picked in this morning, yogurt with strawberry jam topping. They were all fresh and tasty.
After the snack, kids went out for shopping the foods. After returning the farm, they noted the money used into the account book.
It is very important even for small kids to keep account and control money.
All the kids calculated the money and listened to the talk by the adults. They promised to start keeping account book from now.
We prepared dinner. The menu was baked salmon with the topping of marinated vegetable. It was simple but tasty dish, indeed.
It was not so easy to prepare as many as 100 dishes, however. We had to cut carrot and leek one kilogram each, and 500 grams of green pepper. All of them were chopped, a great work for us.
In the evening meeting, kids reported on the nature observation in the morning with some illustrations on the wall.
They have learned that when the watched nature carefully, they could find what they hadn't been aware of around themselves. It was a fresh surprise.
The high school student leaders talked about the impressions of the day saying "If you concentrate on a matter, you can do the same thing very quickly next time, don't you think so?"

On the back wall is a map that indicates from where the kids came to join the experience school.
Green dots indicate kids and orange for the adults and high school students respectively. They came from Hokkaido in the north and Kyushu in the south.
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