TIM WAKELEY

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Getting there

Our adventure started at 1.00am on the 25th of July 2015. The culmination of two years’ worth of

fundraising, practicing, rehearsing and bonding. Ever since the leadership team and the 36 young

people had been selected in 2013 we had been getting ready for this moment so we could be

prepared for our trip in the best way possible. My role in the unit was Deputy Unit Leader.

We assembled at the headquarters of Humberside Scouts, Raywell Park. Shortly after 2am, the

Coach arrived with the other half of our Unit’s members on board, all the way from Durham. We

loaded our gear and said our goodbyes and we were off to Manchester Airport.

Figure 1 Scouts make their way to Japan

Before we knew it we were on our Etihad flight bound for Narita Airport, Tokyo via Abu Dhabi. A

nervous time for the first-time flyers amongst us. The flight was comfortable and many of our party

took the opportunity to grab some sleep, a recurrent theme of our trip.

We landed in Narita just after lunch on the Sunday the 26th. We were whisked through customs and

immigration and we were soon on our first train into the Shin station in Tokyo, so we could catch our

first Bullet train out to Niigata. The bullet train was a double-decker, travelling at up to 200mph,

close-to buildings flash by in a blur, thousands of small lime green paddy fields in the near distance

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mix into one and the mountains march past in a stately procession. The 300 mile train journey was

over before it seemed to start.

Home Hospitality

We were met at Niigata station by a delegation of Scouts from Niigata prefecture. They took us

straight to our reception event where we exchanged gifts and speeches before getting a taste of our

first noodles. Our hosts seemed to be surprised that we could use chopsticks. They were also very

sympathetic to the fact that we had been traveling for about 36 hours without much sleep, so we

were introduced to our families and taken back to their homes to start our “Home Hospitality”

experience.

My hosts were Satoshi Ito and his wife Kyoko. They have two sons and a daughter but only Gaku, the

youngest son, was at home. They live in the suburbs of Niigata where Satoshi is a Rheumatologist at

the University Medical School. I was made to feel very welcome from the moment I arrived. After a

quick shower, there was a chance to take some refreshment and sample the local edamame beans

(delicious) and chat with Satoshi, Kyoko and Gaku before eventually collapsing into bed at about

midnight.

Satoshi was working the next day so it was up to Kyoko and Gaku to entertain me for the day, what a

fine job they did.

The day started with a delegation from our Unit going to the local Prefectural office to meet the

Governor of Niigata prefecture. The offices were very grand and the Governor wore his ceremonial

Kimono for the welcoming ceremony, where speeches were made and gifts were exchanged. The

whole event was filmed by the local TV station and one of our young people, Caroline Knox, was

interviewed for an article on TV that night. This was a very proud moment for everyone in the Unit.

Figure 2 Unit Leader David Stokes attends to ceremonial duties

After our official business was concluded we had the rest of the day at leisure with our families.

Gaku and Kyoko took me to a soba noodle restaurant for lunch. Soba noodles are made from

buckwheat flour instead of wheat and they are generally chilled after cooking, ideal given the

temperature outside! The noodles are dipped in a light sauce before eating; mine were also

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accompanied by a plate of tempura prawns and mild chillies and also some sushi, delicious. The

whole meal was washed down by cold tea that featured “burnt barley”. This drink seemed to be very

popular with Japanese people wherever we were in Japan.

After lunch we drove to the Yahiko Jinja Shrine, the current buildings date from 1916 after the

original shrine was destroyed in a fire. It was a very beautiful place with groves of pine lending a

pleasant calming fragrance in sharp contrast to the constant frenetic din of the higurashi (cicadas).

Just before we entered the inner shrine we performed a ritual cleansing with bamboo cups, washing

our left hand, then right hand, then our mouths, before finally washing our left hands again. After

cleansing you are allowed to enter the inner shrine where the altar is, once there you clap before

offering a small sum of money to appease the gods. Finally, I had my fortune told by way of selecting

a small sealed envelope from a basket containing many envelopes. I cannot read Japanese so I was

unable to tell what it said. Gaku reliably informed me that I would become very wealthy, but sadly I

wouldn’t live long to enjoy my wealth……

Figure 3 Kyoko prepares to enter the shrine

Next we visited some thermal baths for a physical cleansing. A hot Jacuzzi followed by a very hot

pool followed by an extremely hot thermal pool that smelt of sulphur and then a sauna, all book-

ended by showers. I certainly felt the benefit for a while when I came back outside. Super-

experience.

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We returned home via a supermarket where the raw ingredients were purchased for another of

Kyoko’s excellent meals. This time ramen, sashimi, pork and pickled vegetables, delicious once again.

Satoshi returned home quite late after a long day at work. After we had a chat about the day it was

time for bed.

I awoke the next morning and sadly my superb Hoho experience was over and it was time to travel

to the Jamboree. Satoshi and the rest of the Niigata contingent were traveling to the Jamboree with

us on a flight from Niigata to Fukuoka in the South of Japan some 2 hours’ drive from the Jamboree

site. We said our goodbyes to our respective families, took some photos and made commitments to

meet again and we were on our way.

Figure 4 The extremely hospitable Itos

When we arrived in Fukouka it was as if someone had turned the temperature up another three or

four degrees. Its hard to describe the heat we encountered in Japan as the humidity played a large

part in the “feels-like” temperature. It got to 41 oC in the shade one day, 51 oC in direct sun and the

high humidity generated a “feels like temperature” of 54 oC. Scorchio! The three hour coach journey

to Yamaguchi was in an air conditioned vehicle, our last air con for a while.

Jamboree

We arrived at the Jamboree mid-afternoon, my first impression was the sheer scale of everything.

We got booked in and made our way to our site on Ishizuchi sub camp, plot i21. It took a good 10

minutes to get ourselves to the site pulling our big holdalls behind us, tiring work in the heat.

Next up was the collection of our equipment, either from our Japanese hosts or from the crate that

we had packed and shipped all the way from Gilwell in Essex back in May. Once we were

pitched/unpacked and settled in we had time to have a look around. We had Pakistanis to our right,

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Japanese over the camp street and Americans to our left and just up the street some

Luxembourgers. In the spirit of Scouting the Japanese helped us set up our camp.

We soon settled into camp life. Up at “ridiculous o’clock” to collect the ingredients for breakfast and

lunch. Once breakfast was eaten, usually egg based, we were off to our activities. After activities had

finished in the afternoon we would queue up again for our evening meal rations. After supper on

most nights and in the parts of the day when we had no scheduled activities, everyone would be free

to explore, make new friends and swap, but everyone had to be in bed by 11pm!

Figure 5 The Jamboree Site

Global Development was the first day’s activity where our young people learnt about issues around

the World, chocolate farming held a great deal of interest for me! On another day we attended the

City of Science, on another we went on a Nature Walk where we got to see even more dragonflies

than we saw at the Jamboree site.

The undoubted highlight of the program for me though was “Community Day”. Our first stop was a local Elementary School. The School was shut for the summer holidays so the children had come in specially to meet us. What a great time they showed us. First we had an origami lesson. My two young friends demonstrated the art of folding a tiger which seemed very nearly impossible but they seemed to cope easily. Next up was some Kendama, a wooden ball and cup that requires good hand-eye skills, tossing a ball in the air attached to a string and then catching it in a cup. Finally we were treated to a Japanese tea ceremony. The tea ceremony was very interesting and precise; I gave the lady a gift of a box of Yorkshire Tea bags just in case they ever got bored of the faffing around. In the afternoon we visited a hydro-electric damn which was in a very pretty location. Strangely enough the highlight of the damn visit was when we got to walk through the bowels of the damn, encased in many meters of reinforced concrete the reported temperature of 13OC contrasted quite nicely with the blistering heat outside!

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Figure 6 Origami Tigers

Figure 7 A beautiful vista

Figure 8 Elementary school visit and the tea ladies

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The Opening Ceremony, the Arena Show held half way through the Jamboree and the Closing

Ceremony were all exciting with booming PAs and enormous screens beaming the action around the

giant arena area. The Crown Prince of Japan and the Prime-Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe attended

the Arena Show. An interesting experience to be within shouting distance of a living-breathing deity.

Sadly, the final act of the closing ceremony brought the curtain down on affairs somewhat

prematurely when he unleashed a foul-mouthed volley after his first song. On reflection it may not

have been the best idea to book Marty Friedman (ex lead-guitarist of Megadeth, a famous thrash

metal band) for a Scout Event!

Figure 9 The opening ceremony

One activity that was memorable for different reasons was our daytrip to Hiroshima. The 70th

anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima occurred whilst we were at the Jamboree. We visited the

Peace Park two days before the official memorial ceremony. The park is practically at the epicentre

of the blast site. 300,000 people died as a result of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Very

chilling when you find out that the bomb used was quite small and only a small amount of the

explosive force of the warhead was unleashed. It was a very sombre day, the museum was excellent.

Figure 10 Hiroshima Peace park

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Everything at Jamboree was amazing but the standout aspect was the international

brother/sisterhood of scouting. Over 30,000 young people getting on together, a total of 156

countries represented from all over the World. Given the large volume of young people there, the

behaviour in general was of a very high standard, I was very impressed. It was almost silent by 11pm

every night. During Culture Day, we had two hours with half of the unit entertaining and feeding any

Scout who wandered onto our site whilst the other half of the unit visited different camps to see

their culture and eat their food. After the two hours was up we swapped and those that had been

entertaining and cooking got to go wandering themselves, a great way to get to know each other

better.

We also swapped Patrols for evening meals on other nights too. I particularly enjoyed our visit to

have supper with the Dutch and Equadorians. I don’t know where they got their rations from but the

food was much better than ours!

All things come to an end though and before we knew it we were breaking camp on the last full day.

We slept under the stars on the last evening. The night-sky was fantastic, millions of stars in the sky,

one for every person at Jamboree and one each for all the Scouts that weren’t there too. A fitting

end to the Jamboree and an amazing experience.

Next morning we were off to Tokyo for our next adventure. We waited on Shin Yamaguchi watching

the Shinkasen whistling through. Then it was our turn as we boarded one of the four specially

arranged trains to take us to Tokyo. Our bags had been portaged ahead by lorry so we were traveling

light and consequently smoothly.

The journey again was super smooth and quick, I had a GPS speedometer app on my phone and I

saw it hit 184mph at one point. Again the mountainous interior of Japan was always there providing

a backdrop with the lush green paddy fields like chequer-boards in between us and the wilder

terrain. None of them much bigger than an acre I noted. Nothing like the enormous 150 acre barley

fields of the Yorkshire Wolds.

Mimasu Tokyo (visit Tokyo)

Before long we were in the biggest metropolitan city in the World, Tokyo. Thirty five million people

crammed into an area not much smaller than East Yorkshire. But straight from the beginning it was

obvious that this city just worked. We jumped on a coach to take us to the National Youth Centre,

there were plenty of traffic lights but no real hold-ups to speak of.

We collected our bags and took them to our rooms before heading out in our patrols. We were each

given a travel card with about £20 worth of travel on. This card was good for any train, subway, bus

and most surprisingly 7-11 store or even more surprisingly the ubiquitous vending machines. We

managed to avoid temptation though and reserved its use solely for the underground.

We soon mastered the Tokyo underground, which of course worked perfectly. Our first destination

was the Earthquake Simulation Centre. We all took it in turns in groups of 4 or 5 to go into a

simulated dining room. There was a fairly heavy wooden table with chairs around it. We were all

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given a cushion and told to put the cushion on our heads, climb under the table and wrap ourselves

around the table leg. After a short video explaining the horrific effects of the last earthquake on

Japan when thousands of people sadly lost their lives, the shaking began. I think its fair to say that

the simulator itself was probably scarier than most rollercoasters. Everything was jumping several

inches from the floor with every shake, the table was big and heavy, it was quite scary. I can only

imagine the real thing is quite a terrifying experience.

Back to base next for a quick freshen up and then our first meal. Our patrol opted for a trip to

Shibuya where the famous pedestrian crossing is. That was fabulous fun. The traffic suddenly stops

when the lights turn red and then about a thousand people pour out onto the several crossings that

cut across the intersection. After 60 seconds or so the lights go green and there will be a small gap

between some pedestrians and a scooter will shoot through it followed by cars, then trucks. The

motor vehicles reclaim their territory for another 60 seconds until it’s the pedestrian’s turn again.

We dined in a little grill restaurant where they brought us a succession of meat dishes, freshly

cooked. We ate our fill for a very reasonable £70 for the 10 of us!

Figure 11 Ramen noodle bar

The next day we were up again to do some sightseeing. First up was the Meiji shrine, a short walk

through the Gardens from the National Youth Centre. One of the most culturally important shrines

in Japan. We cleansed ourselves spiritually as per normal and took in the atmosphere. The staff at

the shrine were preparing for a wedding. A strangely westernised wedding in a very oriental setting.

We walked from the shrine for what seemed like hours until we reached the Emperor’s Palace via a

very interesting Sci-fi shop, where the young people took the opportunity to buy sci-fi and manga

based gifts and mementos.

In the afternoon we made our way to Joyopolis on the outskirts of Tokyo where we met with 20

other UK units for a night of excitement at Sega’s computer game based theme park. Very exciting!

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Figure 12 Entrance to the Meiji Shrine

Monday morning and our last full day

in Tokyo. One of the highlights of the

whole visit was saved until last, Tokyo

Skytree. Completed in 2011, its

enormous spire tops out at 634 metres.

We had tickets to the first observation

deck at just over 400 metres. It is a

truly stunning building, try to take it in

from less than half a mile away and

you’ll get a stiff neck as you peer

skywards.

We were ushered into a lift to make the journey to the observation deck. Certainly the fastest lift

I’ve ever been in. Strangely enough there is virtually no sensation of movement within the lift as it

hurtles up the shaft at 10 metres per second. When we got to the observation deck we were treated

to unrivalled views of Metropolitan Tokyo, the home to 35 million people. When I say unrivalled, this

isn’t the whole truth as it is possible to pay an extra 500 yen to go up another few floors for an even

higher observation deck, which I did. It was worth it too! Sadly, like most days, visibility wasn’t good

enough to afford a glimpse of the mighty Mount Fuji, maybe someday I shall return to see it with my

own eyes and maybe even climb it.

Figure 13 Tokyo Skytree

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The rest of the day was spent shopping

in the fantastic arcades around the

various districts of Tokyo. We had an

amazing sushi lunch at a sushi bar

outside the train station at Akhiabara. A

great big slate of sushi for the equivalent

of £10. All the time a team of garrulous

sushi chefs worked away behind the

counter preparing delicious fishy rice

parcels, shouting at people coming in

and out of the restaurant and generally

harassing the serving staff, very

entertaining.

For our final evening we were back at

the National Youth Centre for a cultural

show called “Tokyo live”. This was great

fun as we got to see demonstrations of

drumming and martial arts including

sumo. The evening also allowed the

Scouts to relax and chill-out with UK

Scouts for one last time in Japan.

Sadly our last day came round. Up early for a quick dash around Ginza district and finally back to one

of our favourite places, Shibuya district with its excellent shops, restaurants and the Shibuya

Crossing. Before long though we were back at the National Youth Centre loading our bags onto the

coach back to Narita Airport.

The journey home passed by in what seemed like a flash, mainly due to the fact that most people

were absolutely exhausted and slept through the first flight; the long lay over in Abu Dhabi, the flight

back to Manchester and finally the coach ride back to Raywell in Humberside.

Our friends and family were at Raywell to whisk us away, but there was time for one final farewell

for the young people and the leaders. There were tears, which is easy to understand. The young

people had shared such an incredible journey together, not just during the 18 days on our adventure

but during the near two year preparation period when we got used to living, working and playing

together. They shouldn’t see this as the end of something though; hopefully they will recognise this

as the start of many other things.

Figure 14 Yo Sushi!!!!

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Personally, the whole experience for me was a test of team work, organisational skills, patience in

extremis and endurance. Encouraging personal development, particularly of young people in

Scouting, is a real passion for me. Its hard to imagine I will achieve any greater satisfaction than that

which I got from seeing the progress our young people made over the two years. I also got to visit

the most exotic country and culture in the World (with proper plumbing). I can thoroughly

recommend a visit, it is amazing. Finally the Jamboree, words can’t really describe, although I can say

that there are 30,000 young people that can make a real difference in our World in years to come!

Role on World Scout Jamboree 2019, Summit Reserve, West Virginia, USA

Tim Wakeley

November 2015