Bandai Sports Camp

This last weekend the BEST Club took a trip up to the Bandai Mountains where we had our fall Sports Camp. We had about 30 students and staff come from Utsunomiya and about 10 students and staff come from Shizuoka University. When we arrived there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground which ruined our outside sports that we wanted to play on Saturday.

On Friday afternoon, we had our Bible Discussion, then Dinner, and free time sports in the gym where we played Volleyball and Basketball. On Saturday morning we started our tournament and played Volleyball and Basketball. We then ate lunch and had free time in the afternoon because we could not use the gym due to another group that was there. During our free time, Bryan, Keith, Tsubasa, Miura, Akun, and I went driving around the huge Lake of Inawashiro. We stopped and fed ducks with the other Japanese tourists. It was an amazing site to see a couple hundred ducks huddled together trying to get bread from the people. We even were able to feed them out of our hands. Don't worry, no one was bit. The most amusing part was giving one duck a huge chunk of bread because it could not eat it quickly. As a result, all the other ducks would attack it trying to get the bread from its mouth. We also saw a handicapped duck with only one leg. It seemed to get picked on a lot and wasn't able to eat much. So the 6 of us fed the handicapped duck and huddled around it so that the other ducks couldn't eat its bread.

We then continued to drive around the lake to find out that the road didn't actually go around the lake. But in the distance we saw a huge Buddha, so we drove up and stopped to take a look. It turns out that it was a 57 meter statue of Mama Buddha holding baby Buddha when he was born. So once again a familiar song popped into by head about Big Mama Buddha. We went inside and climbed up to the top to see out of the window. It was a beautiful view as it was a pretty clear day and snow on the mountains surrounding us. Looking at the Buddha made me remember once again of the Israelites placing their statues on the highest places so that you could see them from far away. Well, this one looked over a city in the flat land in the mountains. It is amazing to me to be able to go with students as most of them respect it but show no signs of worship. To them it is something of the culture but not necessarily something they truly believe.

We then had dinner and played some indoor soccer on Saturday night. On Sunday morning we played Dodgeball, Japanese style, to wrap up the tournament. Sadly, we weren't able to play outdoor soccer, softball, or our final relay race because of the snow. In the end it was a fun weekend and a great experience with some of the students.