Alex's trip to KEEP

Every sixth grade class at ASIJ goes on an extended three-day campus trip to KEEP in late September. I went to KEEP and it was amazing. K.E.E.P is the Kiosayto environmental educational program. KEEP is about 100 miles north of Fuji-San. KEEP was founded in 1926 when Paul Rusch, an American in Japan, heard from a person about the town of Kiosayto. Rusch went to Kiosayto saw what a beautiful place it was and established KEEP while showing the Japanese how to play American football. KEEP is now a beautiful place with a view of Fuji-San. KEEP is also a dairy farm with tons of cows and really good homemade ice cream and butter.

On Wednesday September 23, 2008 I was at ASIJ duffel bag at my feet ready for KEEP. The bus ride to KEEP was 2 hours long and boring. When we got to KEEP we dropped our bags in the main hall and rested for an hour. I played football with some other kids (I wasn’t that good maybe because I come from Texas A&M) then after we had a rest the 6th grade went on a hike to a waterfall. I being a Texan had to fall into the waterfall and get wet. The water where I fell in was about a foot deep. It was very cold maybe 45 Fahrenheit. The way I fell in the was that I slipped on a rock trying to get to an overhang my friend was on.

We then went on and walked through Kiosayto up to a dairy farm saw some cows and got FREE ICE CREAM but when I got my ice cream (made from the cows we saw) it fell off. I got a second ice cream (not for free 350 yen) and it fell off. A double fall on the same day. We then got back to the main hall and went to our cabins we were going to sleep in. I was in the Amigasa cabin (the name of a town some where in Japan) with 3 other boys and 3 girls. The cabin had a tatami room with futons, a living room with a couch a table and a card table and a bedroom with three beds. There was also a bathroom and a shower. We had the librarian Mr. Swist with us, he slept on the couch. For diner we had spaghetti with curry. Next we read books and then we went to after dinner activities. Then bed we had hot cocoa and told scary stories so unscarred that I went right to sleep and dreamed about a bathtub that night.

We woke up at 7am had breakfast (all you could eat buffet – bacon, eggs, ham, French toast, cereal, milk). Next the group split in two. Our group (with several translators for the Japanese KEEP rangers) started by looking for 4 leaf clovers. I talked to one of our teachers about the MLB penat race (the Red Sox had won the wild card that morning no Yankees in the postseason) I found out he was a Giants fan (no playoffs for the Giants since 2002). Then we went on a nature hike and climbed some trees (I only cared about climbing the trees) and back for lunch. 6th grade then switched groups. My group then went through the trees looking for nature we could put on a piece of cardboard. I used four acorns, a rock, and a pine needle. After that back to our cabins for an hour of rest time. Back in time for diner it was rice with some Japanese sauce I had never heard of. Evening activities again with some reading. Back to cabins for sleep and rest. The cabin also had a Japanese toilet.

On Friday up at seven again and the breakfast buffet. Because it was raining we couldn’t milk a cow so instead we made butter from cow milk (we shook it for 15 minutes). The butter tasted strange mainly because there was no salt in it only fat. Then we had a 2-hour bus ride back to ASIJ with a stop at a highway rest stop, which was much nicer than any stop in the US. They had restaurants, bakeries, nice restrooms, and a convenience store. I had some Ramon noodles for lunch. We got back to ASIJ at 2:58 two minutes before school ended. Then I had an hour bus ride back to our apartment in Shirokane.

I am so happy to be moving to our new apartment in Shoto. Twenty-five minutes closer to ASIJ.

Alex