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!

FUNdraising projects

Today has been about building up stock for Christmas Stalls. Last year I did a couple and they were very good. We made felt Christmas decorations, bath bombs and cards. Time to stock up.

We got some canvas bags, and at a couple of stalls we have sold quite a few of them. The bonus is they are great fun to make. Today I was playing around with words and some block my Mum made.

I enjoy being on a stall as you can talk to people about the Jamboree. I'm always amazed and very grateful for how generous people are

Catching the waves with the Highflyers

Training weekend 4...we were instructed to bring swimming gear and plenty of towels as we were likely to get wet...at least twice! Oh yes - and don't forget a baby potato? 

We arrive, we carry all the food to a little boat, we board the boat and we were at camp. Camp was at theTrent Lock Scout Activity Centre. I'd not been there before so had no idea what to expect, apart from water.

The weekend included learning about Japanese culture, building and setting sail on a raft, kayaking and eating rice. The potato was for a for a challenge one of the leaders (George) came up with. We had to put it in our mouth and talk Danish.

We had to put up strange tents which was OK. 

We performed Jack and the Beanstalk. I played the 'main' part as the front of the cow, and a magic castle door. People laughed. We had a singsong in the traditional campfire way. In my humble opinion, the guides are way better at singing than the scouts! 

We got some top tips from Japanese cultural guide about going to the Jamboree: Take old clothes which we are happy to leave behind to make sure we can carry back souvenirs. She said to bring back unusual things like tea bowls that can be used for interactive presentations when we return.


All aboard for the homeward journey.

First it was paperclip....

It has begun...I had a lovely paperclip with many uses including

• clipping paper
• Earring
• Hair clip
• Nail cleaner
• Mini cat-a-pault
• zip pull

My challenge is to swap it for something more valuable to sell to contribute to my Japan Jamboree trip.

Very quickly I managed to turn it into a pen! A very fine one indeed. This pen could:

• Write an award winning novel
• Doodle an artistic masterpiece
• Get you an A* in an exam
• Fashionable hair accessory 
• Tent pole for a very small tent
• Base of a pencil case fort
• Half of a chopstick set

So...who would like the honour of having this pen? The only condition is you swap for something slightly more valuable!

Training weekend...catching up with the unit

This weekend was training weekend with my Japan Unit the 'Highflyers'. I really enjoyed catching up with people. 

We were given a tube of smarties which I ate and a post it note on arrival. The post it note turned out to be for nothing but the smarties tube, we have to see who can collect the most smarties tubes with 20ps in! Chocolate and fundraising - what a good combination. Get in touch if you would like a tube of smarties!

Our first activity was patrol time which involved us deciding on a name for our patrol - our unit of 40, is divided up into 4 patrols - we came up with 'The Trolley Dollies' - not sure why!

We were given a present from our leader Ali of a small origami star and were given a chance of making one. I was hoping my crane folding would help but I didn't manage it. I did make a crane from the post it note though.

The year 11s spent quite a bit of time burning their revision notes on the bonfire! I managed to grab some helpful business studies notes before they met the flames!

Part of the weekend was training with the RAF  - they had us doing team building skills with our patrol. We learnt about communication, trust, team work and co-operation.

OK Paperclip time!

I have been given a paperclip to help raise funds. I have until September to trade it for bigger and better things, hopefully ending up with something more valuable to sell to contribute to my Jamboree fund. 

So the question is...anyone want to swap a paper clip with me? All offers considered! 

Cranes take flight

Last weekend I took some cranes to the local primary school as they were having an art fair. It was such lovely weather me and my mum set up a table outside to make cranes. We thought we would sell them for 50p, but the stings we had made were the most popular. We ended up selling these for £1.


There was a bit of interest from the children at the fair so we decided to teach a few how to make them. They enjoyed it very much but it took quite a while as their folds weren't that accurate! I was proud that they came out with something that resembled a crane at the end.


We showed some adults and they weren't much better! We made cranes on demand with people choosing their own colours. Quite a few people had walked there and we showed them how to fold up the crane for safe transport home.

Under Construction

This weekend I will be making origami cranes for a 50p donation at Curbar Primary School. They are having an Art Show and are happy for me to set up a stall.

CURBAR ART SHOW 2014 is held at

Curbar Primary School, Calver, Hope Valley, Derbyshire, S32 3XA

The show is open from 10.30 - 16.30 Saturday and Sunday 17 & 18 May.

Chopsticks!

Today I have been researching things about Japan and have been practising the of art eating with chopsticks. I found some good facts on this page.

Things I'm looking forward to:

• meeting and making new friends
• some of the food (like sushi)
• the cultural experience

Things I need to practice:

• bowing
• eating with chopsticks
• my Japanese   

Some sushi I made with my friend (hope their sushi is better)

Getting selected

Hi I'm Maisie and I have been selected to go to the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan 2015!

I went to a selection day in Belper which involved many team exercises including having an egg as a passport! Now, with the help of my Guide unit - 1st Curbar Guides, I need to raise the money to go.

So far I've been making a load of crafts and looking after neighbours cats! I'll be thinking of other fundraising ideas...so watch this space!

“WA: a Spirit of Unity” is the theme for the Jamboree. The Kanji Character “和” (WA) embraces many meanings such as unity, harmony, cooperation,friendship and peace. WA also represents Japan and its culture.

You can find more about the Jamboree here: 23WSJ