Ho Ho - home hospitality

My Ho Ho was in Kanazawa - Ishikawa Prefecture (石川県, Ishikawa-ken) located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in the Chubu Region.

Kanazawa is famous for it's landscape gardens and castle.

Day one of HoHo

After the long journey, we arrived in the train station to find all our Ho Ho families. They were all standing around waiting to be introduced to their new children! We stood in a line waiting for someone to call our name. Me and Selina were the first to be called up, we met the grandad and one of the daughters, with two of her children. 

We were driven to their house, my first impressions were obviously very friendly and excited to hosting us. It seemed like they had been waiting for a long time for us to arrive. 

It became obvious it was a very large family. We were given slippers to wear in the house, we put our bags in the room and had a tour. It was quite different from a western house, all the rooms where you don't wear slippers were raised (e.g. the shower and toilet) the hand basin was just in the hallway. A large and open house with traditional doors and floors.

When we went in to the living room, we were introduced to everyone in the family that was there and we looked at pictures of other family members. A boy wrote out all the names on a piece of paper for us. We go back in the car to go to the welcoming party. There was one patrol from another unit there. The rest of their unit had been delayed at the airport, causing some confusion with their pairings. We went into the room and had speeches from the Mayor of Kanazawa, a Scout leader from Japan and Stephen our unit leader. There was a gift exchange between the leaders.

Then food. A buffet of sushi, octopus balls, chicken testicle skewers, edamame and tempua. I didn't eat the chicken!

We went back to our Ho Ho and had a well needed shower. It was a bit weird - like a wet room set up, the bath had a screen to control everything like change the temperature, and the shower was a hose coming out of the wall. Washing completed we went to bed on a traditional mat on the floor, actually very comfortable. The pillow, stuffed with beans, was lees comfortable than the traditional mat. 

Don't forget your toothbrush!

All the prep, all the anticipation, I can't believe it's nearly here!


I have been packing and repacking, walking round with my dogs to get fitter and drinking loads of water in preparation for the heat.



So soon it will be farewell UK, Konnichiwa (こんにちは。) Japan!

My goal is reached!

Thanks to craft sales, cat sitting, folding what seems like 100s of cranes, generous donations from family and sponsorship from Bakewell & Calver District Guiding I have reached my fundraising target! 

I have to say I've really enjoyed the fundraising, particularly standing on the craft stalls and talking to people about the guide experience and what a Jamboree in Japan might be like. I was touched when some people gave me a donation and didn't even buy any craft.

It's made me aware of the effort of the guiding community to raise funds for many activities that young women can benefit from. I was happy to donate some of my Christmas money to a young guide in M&S bag packing, they were raising money for camping equipment.

The journey so far with my new unit has been amazing. Getting to know new people and learning new skills has been great. For practicing going to Tokyo we went on a fantastic trip to London. It was a great way to bond as a patrol and we met Paddington.  I'm so excited to be going to Japan!