{"id":135002,"date":"2024-03-04T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=135002"},"modified":"2024-03-06T01:45:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T01:45:25","slug":"camp-zamas-cultural-exchange-foster-lifelong-memories-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=135002","title":{"rendered":"Camp Zama\u2019s cultural exchange foster lifelong memories, friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n A Japanese boy, center, attempts a free throw during a cultural exchange event at the Cap Zama Youth Center on March 2.
\n (Photo Credit: Noriko Kudo, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs)<\/span>
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\n VIEW ORIGINAL<\/a>
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CAMP ZAMA, Japan \u2013 Children from the U.S. military community and Zama City gathered for a cultural exchange event at the Camp Zama Youth Center March 2 to deepen their international friendship through sports and games.<\/p>\n

The event was hosted by the Government of Japan\u2019s South Kanto Defense Bureau and Zama City in conjunction with U.S. Army Garrison Japan.<\/p>\n

Nearly 40 youth, ranging from 9 to 12 years old, were divided into small teams for free throw competitions, dodgeball battles, and the classic “Red Light Green Light\u201d game.<\/p>\n

Members of the Keystone Club, an affiliate of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America at Camp Zama, and Soldiers from the Camp Zama Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers program, or BOSS, served as volunteer staff to support the children’s activities.<\/p>\n

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\n A Japanese boy, center, throws a dodgeball at a cultural exchange event at the Youth Center on Camp Zama March 2.
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Billie Hogan, school liaison officer for U.S. Army Garrison Japan, said the event allowed the military community to work with their Japanese hosts to foster friendship and sportsmanship through friendly competition between children from both countries.<\/p>\n

Hogan said the Japanese children were a bit reserved when they arrived, but as soon as the activities started, they smiled, did their best to communicate with each other and enjoyed the friendly competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cActivities and sports transcend language barriers,\u201d Hogan said. \u201cThey are out there having a time of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogan said she hopes the children who participated will realize that they are not so different and have much in common.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to have a reciprocal exchange to where we learn more about each other\u2019s cultures and spark interests to want to learn more,\u201d said Hogan. \u201cThis has been an amazing adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Camp Zama community and Zama City event participants pause for a group photo at a cultural exchange event at the Youth Center on Camp Zama March 2. Nearly 40 children between the ages of 9 and 12 from the Camp Zama community and Zama City participated and deepened their friendship through sports and games.
\n (Photo Credit: Noriko Kudo, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs)<\/span>
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Waka Ishiguro, a Japanese participant, said she was very nervous at first because she couldn\u2019t communicate with American children in her group. But for her team to win, they needed to understand each other quickly using gestures and simple words.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very exciting and fun experience, especially when we finally started to understand what each other was saying during an activity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ishiguro said communicating with American children wasn\u2019t easy but both sides did their best as a team and came up with words each might know.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed the teamwork to achieve the same goal,\u201d said Ishiguro.<\/p>\n

Ishiguro said she would like to participate again if the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n

Bruce Crispell, an Arnn Elementary student, said he had the most fun with the dodgeball activity because it didn\u2019t require much explanation or words.<\/p>\n

Crispell said simple gestures helped teammates communicate with each other, although he felt a little bit of a language barrier during the other activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really fun today,\u201d said Crispell. \u201cAt the end, everyone won.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Japanese boy, center, attempts a free throw during a cultural exchange event at the Cap Zama Youth Center on March 2. (Photo Credit: Noriko Kudo, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs) VIEW ORIGINAL CAMP ZAMA, Japan \u2013 Children from the U.S. military community and Zama City gathered for a cultural exchange event at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135004,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135008,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135002\/revisions\/135008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/135004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}