For this years field studies, we went to Niseko, Hokkaido.
Area of Interaction: Environment

Day 1
The first day was mostly on the plane to go to Hokkaido, for about two hours. When we arrived at Hokkaido, we went on a walk around the place. There was a massive change between the environment of Hokkaido and Yokohama/ Tokyo. First of all, the temperature was very different. Although I thought it would be a lot more colder, I think it was colder than Yokohama. There were also more greenary and less vehicles and large buildings.

After we arrived, we went on a small walk around the place to get to our campsite. There were very less people and cars but there were a lot of trees/ plants and huge lakes. I didn’t have a time where I thought it was crowded. The air also felt fresh, unlike in Yokohama where there are less nature.

When we arrived at the campsite, we separated in two groups – the group that made our dinner (curry), and the group that set up the tents. For making the curry, although we had the appliance, we had to make fire by ourselves and cut and cook by ourselves. After dinner, we went to the onsen/ hot spring/ bath then came back to sleep in the tents. There were different sizes of tents, and my tent had 6 people. It was really really really cold at night and the morning. In the morning, I barely couldn’t get out of my sleeping bag because of the temperature, and my hair was messy.

Day 2

On day two, we went hiking again, but this time we had less concrete, and we basically went around the campsite then came back before breakfast, which the Niseko Activity Center (NAC) made for us. Afterwards, we packed our things and went to HIS, Hokkaido International School in Niseko because a former teacher from our school was there. They had prepared lunch for us, and then we had basically time to practice our skits for the skit night. My group did Hunger Games (although we didn’t show it at the night). Later, we went to a Japanese agriculture high school near HIS, and they taught us how to make dry flower arrangement. It was heard because the flower was really fragile and easily broken (the flower arrangement in the picture isn’t mine).

After visiting the high school, we went to a farmer’s house to help take down her greenhouse, and then we make jack o lanterns because it was halloween soon. The jack o lantern in the picture is my jack o lantern (i was still working on it). It was disgusting to pull out the inside of the pumpkin, because it was all orange and slimy.

Day 3
On day three, my group, Group 2 did mountain biking in the morning, and rafting in the afternoon. We biked around Yoteisan Mountain, and the course was about 23 km, and it was about two hours. There were mud and dirty puddles, but I had fun. Our lunch was soba at a restaurant, and we had rafting after that – we had to put our dry suits on. As we were getting ready for rafting, it started raining hard, which made the temperature colder than before, and the water was really freezing cold. Despite how cold it was, it was really fun because we even got a chance to get in the water. We also got to eat wild eatable berries straight from the tree, which I don’t think we will be able to do in the urban areas. We also had a movie night at the end of the day and we watched Eragon.

Day 4
Day four was basically our last day, because the fifth day was mostly at the airport, in the bus or airplane. Day four for my group was kayaking. My partner was Kate, and we were suppose to go to an island with deers and eat lunch there, but since the waves were big that day, we had to go back when we were half way to the island. It was really tiring because we had to keep rowing to reach fast. Me and Kate were fast at the start, so we had to go more than some people, which was hard and really tiring. Lunch was burritos and soup. After that, we ate ice cream, and then played outside with balls. There were also animals there, like goats, rabbits and horses. At night, we had the skit night which was funny because my group practiced a part from The Hunger Games but at the end, we didn’t present it. I think one part of my favorite of this year’s field studies was the onsen/ hot spring.

This year’s grade 7 camp was very fun and I enjoyed it a lot. Although we went to the same place as last year, Hakuba, Nagano, I think I got to try new experiences during the 5 days, and was sad to leave on the last day. My visual journal is to remember the grade 7 field studies and the new and different events we did.

I think for this project during field studies, I did well, especially on the part where I drew the plants during the hike, and using the different fonts. Also, I think I did good when the days when I didn’t know what to write or draw, I just wrote notes on the day, and took random pictures either people or just things, so even when I finished it on the other days, I will be able to remember what I did.

I think my strength in this work is organizing the layouts. Especially the page on the hike,  I think I did well the best in my journal. I also think that one of strengths is the different fonts I used. Using different fonts was something I had to work on, but during this unit, I think I got better.
I think my weakness is the drawing of people non realistically, since the people does not really look like the real people. I also think that I can improve on writing more text on some of them. This can help me describe the events more detailedly and the reader can understand it better.