Ikata Visit (Part 1)

The following are photos taken from the Ikata portion of the Ikata-Red Wing Exchange taken by members of the Ikata International Exchange Association Office. This is the first of two posts.

これからは、RW受け入れ事業からの写真で、伊方町国際交流協会事務局員は撮りました。パート１。



The students from Ikata, chairman of IIEA, and two English teachers excitedly waited to welcome the Red Wing Delegation at Matsuyama Port.

The first all-group photo of Ikata and Red Wing students, chaperones, host families, and members of the Exchange Association.


Dawn and her host families (Yamauchi and Hirose)

Willa and her host families (Masaki and Kikuchi)

Riley and her host families (Doi and Kadota)

 

On Tuesday, the families gathered once again for the official Welcome Party Dinner at Seto Agritopia. The Ikata students introduced their families and the Red Wing students talked about their experience so far.



The IIEA Chairman, Mr. Hirose shared a few words about the Ikata-Red Wing program and also gave gifts to the students and chaperones. Students stayed over for the night after shooting fireworks and playing games.

The next day, we went on a tour of the Sadamisaki Peninsula (entire town of Ikata). Our first stop was Misaki Junior High School where Mr. K and William (Misaki ALT) held an English class specifically for the students to join in.

After the class was over, we headed to Seto Wind Hill Park to look at the windmills that grace the landscape of the peninsula. You could see the Uwa Sea and Seto Inland Sea from this viewpoint.

We headed to the Machimi Folk Cultural Museum and learned about the history of Ikata.

Willa is posing in front of Kitabari, the ship that sailed to San Francisco from Yawatahama in the early 1900s.

Before entering the tea ceremony class, we were welcomed to the sight of Tanabata decorations filled with written wishes.

Of course, the seiza position (kneeling position) is quite hard even for Japanese.

The summer-style tea ceremony was accompanied with a koto player.

The sweets handed out. Very cute.

The sheet music for the koto.
Next, we went to a taiko (Japanese-style drum) workshop held by Maggie and Dodo Taiko. They learned the basics of hitting, music notation through words, as well as a Practice Song from North American-style taiko. At the end, Dodo Taiko performed a local Iyo song. The students also got to try hitting a variety of the drums, such as the Odaiko (big drum).