SHIP SCENE- Marvellous in the Maru

Nipuni WIMALAPALA

Costumes exchanged

Sri Lankan delegation on board

Dressed up in Sri Lankan style

Sri Lankan delegation at the Welcome reception

After the National Presentation of Sri Lanka

The fancy dress night

The 25th Ship for World Youth (SWY 25) programme ended leaving pleasant and everlasting memories in our minds. It expanded mutual understanding, friendship, cultural sensitivity and interactions among Participant Youths (PYs) from different countries. As a member of the Sri Lankan delegation, I experienced the maximum outcome during the cruise.

A global perspective

The SWY programme, operated by the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, involves youths from Japan and countries around the world. They board the Ship for World Youth, live together, and while on board, they study and discuss common issues from a global perspective and participate in other various activities that involve multi-cultural and multi-national exchange opportunities. This time 250 participants participated in the programme from 11 countries.

The dreamy voyage commenced with the arrival of overseas participants in Tokyo on January 23. Japanese PYs and the SWY administration were waiting for the delegations from Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Mexico, New Zealand, Kenya, Chile, Bahrain, Turkey, UAE and Fiji. After the welcome reception, the delegations stayed two days in ANA Intercontinental Hotel in Tokyo.

Members of the Sri Lankan delegation were Didula Rajapaksha (National Leader), Malik Azeez, Wasana Perera, Supun Hettiarachchi, Nipuni Wimalapala, Keishara Perera, Sinthuja Sivasubramaniam, Dinusha Dissanayake, Amila Kumarage and Sudantha Bandara. The delegation was sponsored by the National Youth Council (NYC).

That was the first unforgettable long-expected experience. The delegations were sent to different prefectures of Japan to stay with Japanese families. Two delegations were sent to each prefecture where they were given a three-day stay with the host families. Sri Lankan delegation together with Kenyan delegation was sent to Fukuoka, which is a beautiful prefecture in the southern part of Japan.

Home stay

During the home stay we enjoyed the typical lifestyle of a Japanese family and their culture, traditional food and also traditional costumes. It was a memorable experience which made PYs confident and comfortable with the Japanese. Host families did their maximum to keep the youth happy and they considered us as their own family members.

Home stay was followed by the pre-departure training session held at National Olympic Memorial Youth Centre (NYC) in Tokyo for seven days. Orientation programmes, ice breaking sessions, leadership seminars, academic course discussions, many introductory activities plus institutional visits backed participants with a strong beginning to the on board activities.

Once the PYs completed the pre-departure training at NYC, the SWY voyage began with great hopes. All the PYs got on board Fuji Maru on February 4 with enormous excitement.

It was the beginning of life time friendships, never ending team spirit, great deal of fun and joy with love and peace. It created unity in diversity.

Onboard activities

Onboard activities always refreshed PYs. The official sessions plus voluntary activities had uniqueness and PYs took part enthusiastically. Even though the schedule was very tight sometimes, nobody wanted to miss a single activity. They were quite active and passionate. Since the onboard activities were of many areas, youth were given an open opportunity to showcase their talents and share their experience with the other PYs.

On board activities were of many forms such as Ports of activities, National Presentation, Club activity, Course Discussions, PY seminars, delegation parties, Letter group activities, Voluntary activities and leadership seminars.

The Fuji Maru visited three ports where PYs were given opportunity to visit many paces, move with local youth from respective cities and understand the lives and culture of Japanese people. In Okinawa, Kobe and Ofunato, we were taken to many institutional visits, letter group visits through which we observed much about Japan. All the time Japanese local youth gave us a strong support to see the places and get to know them. During our visits we were able to see the cities and talk to people and experience the unique culture of each prefecture.

Discoveries

We got the opportunity to visit many large scale institutions and we discovered a lot about natural disasters faced by Japan and the way people have rebuilt their lives with hope. The destructions and devastation made by great earth quakes and tsunami are shocking. But still we were impressed by the way they have stood up and restored lives in a better way. During our activities in those places, we observed a lot about Japanese culture, traditional values and enjoyed traditional Japanese food sometimes. We had the opportunity to move with the local youth and get to know about the particular prefectures and their issues related to natural disasters. I need to stress though that the schedule was quite tight and we did not have enough time to bask in the subject.

The Course discussion remained a major chore of the programme through which participants were given the opportunity to excel in what they prefer. They had a choice among the offered courses, International Relations, Information and Media Studies, Education, Environment and CSR and Cross Cultural Understanding. In each course discussion, there was a well qualified advisor and a facilitator. The course discussion was rather a very practical discussion other than an academic class. All the participants were given the chance to make their voice out and share their experience with the others. It was a solid platform for them to share their cultures, issues and values of their respective countries. All the course discussions visited many subject related institutions such as JAICA, NHK where they sharpened their knowledge on the particular subjects.

National presentation

National presentation was given the utmost priority on board which was considered to be the mirror of each country's culture. Though it seemed to be a very fun gathering entertaining part, each country's cultural image was portrayed. Every country was given one hour to present their National presentation. In all the presentations, every country tried to bring out their history, cultural values and achievements. It was quite effective to introduce and promote each country's culture to the others. Every evening PYs were waiting to see the National presentation of the respective country.

Participant Youth (PY) Seminar was another opportunity given to discuss a common youth issues. Almost every country came up with excellent PY seminars in which they exposed a particular issue or a subject which was positively responded by the others.

Activities

Another impressive activity on board was the club activity via which every PY learnt aesthetic activities of another culture. Latin Dance, basic Spanish language, Shikoku dance, Karate, Sri Lankan dancing and national costume and Japanese drums were some of the clubs offered by different countries. Every PY was supposed to be in one club and all the clubs held an exhibition on the final day to show case what they learnt.

Among clubs, Sri Lankan club remained one of the most popular ones in which about 40 youths learnt traditional Sri Lankan dancing and wearing national costume.

Apart from this, the delegation party of each country, voluntary activities such as Haka, Japanese language, Yoga, Basketball competitions, Table Tennis matches added more energy and enthusiasm to the SWY.

All the activities make youths closer and team spirit was sharpened.

On board life was just like a family. All the PYs became best friends and they shared happiness, love, joy and even sorrow. They were given the chance to live in a multinational environment.

SWY 25 was quite fruitful in every aspect and it was concluded with success. So far SWY has contributed much to the international youth in different ways.

It has enriched youth with friendship, mutual understanding, cultural sensitivity, leadership qualities and team spirit.

SWY 25 family was such a wonderful one and it will form a strong international network soon.

SWY 25 will be connected with the remaining network of ex-PYs and make the network stronger to strengthen our contribution to the society.