I actually contacted the group before we left Australia to ask if we could join and try to get an idea of when they meet. It's quite different to Australia, where we meet once a week at the hut for a couple of hours during school term. Here they meet every second Sunday for four hours or more, and the location varied, I think almost every time. Lots of using community centre spaces and meeting in a youth activity area in a large park on the prefecture boarder (close to Chiba).
The girls were pretty happy to join guides in Japan, and for the most part, they really liked attending and doing the various activities. These were similar to Australian guides - craft, cooking, games, songs, rope skills, getting ready for camping etc.
The biggest downside was that generally the meetings were on the other side of the city to where we lived. The closest location took a half hour to get to, but most of the time we were taking at least an hour. And Steve or I (or both of us) would have to take the girls there, and then decide if it was worth loitering around or coming home and going back again for pick up. It also meant that the whole of Sunday was wiped out if they had a meeting, and usually we didn't feel like doing too much on the Saturday either, because we knew Sunday would be busy.
One time I had taken the girls out to the far away park for a campfire training session they were doing in preparation for their upcoming summer camp. The girls got to cook lunch (curry rice!) on the campfire in the park, which was pretty cool.
The park was huge, so I thought I'd wander around, explore and catch a few Pokemon.
What I ended up stumbling across was an Iris Festival which was held at the park every year. Beautiful day, food trucks, live music and the chance to appreciate all these beautiful iris flowers that had just bloomed thanks to the warm summer days.
It was so great, the perfect amount of busy but not crowded. It felt fantastic to see an authentic festival being enjoyed by Japanese people and not an overabundance of tourists. I got to see several dance groups perform traditional ordori dances too. Such a highlight for me!
Back to guides, the other downside was that even though there was a group of 14 or so girls who attended, none came from our area of Katsushika, and it was hit and miss who would turn up on any given day. Friendships were very hard to actually establish.
I think the Japanese guides at first didn't quite know what to do with us, but quickly came to warm to the girls and try their best to make sure they understood and were included. Towards the end, they really wanted to make the most of having these Australians with them which was really special. The second last time they were together, they organised a video call with the Australian guides who were conveniently on camp (so the Sunday meeting time matched up). It was kind of perfect that the Australian guides were on camp, in the bush, and were able to walk to the edge of the campsite and show the Japanese guides some wild kangaroos jumping around. So fun.
Not going to lie though, right after the phone call, Sophie had a big wave of homesickness. Double edged sword really. Delighted to see home and talk to friends but then remembering what you are missing is so sadness inducing.
We are about to wrap up guides though, since we are moving on from Tokyo in a few weeks. The girls have one more adventure outing with them: hopefully camping for one night in the aforementioned park. The sleep-over part only goes ahead if it's not horrendously hot though, so still don't know for sure, but we are hopeful!
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