[Date & Time］Saturday, July 27, at 11:00～17:17[Spots］Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Hasedera Temple, Kotokuin Temple (Great Buddha), and (Option) Yuigahama Beach
[Visitors］53 JICA participants from 27 countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uganda, and Zimbabwe
[Attendants] 14 KSGG members
[Languages] English and Spanish
Out of 53 participants, 22 are from Latin America. We divided them into 2 groups and guided them almost in Spanish. Optionally 15 participants went to Yuigahama Beach. I heard some participants didn’t have the sea in their own country. It could be easily imagined how deeply they were moved to see the sea.
The leader of my group was an Ethiopian participant. He held the number flag of our group to make sure that all of them were with us and every time counted the number of the participants of our group. Thanks to him, our group came together as a group and we had an enjoyable day. In front of the pair of stone statues called komainu at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, a Zimbabwean participant cheerfully imitated the shapes of the komainus’ mouths, opening his mouth wide and then closing it. In front of Hase Station, he also got interested in the sign showing 4,5 meters high above the sea level and took pictures of it. He said he lives on the land more than 1,000 meters high. At Hasedera Temple a Thai participant showed a great interest in the description of “yaku-doshi” (unlucky ages), written beside the Amida hall. He said they also have it in Thailand. In our group there were two Muslims. They couldn’t eat and drink during the tour as that day was in Ramadan. However, all through the tour they were very energetic and walked to the beach.