In the early morning we arrived at Wakayama Prefectural Cultural
Hall to prepare and rehearse for General Meeting. During that time, we did a
rehearsal for 30 minutes on the stage. We then also prepared ourselves to answer
possible questions and speak confidently in front of the audience.
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| Practicing for General Meeting |
The General Meeting was held in the
afternoon from 1 pm to 3.30 pm. There were presentations from five research
category groups in the General Meeting. The five research categories were “Disaster Prevention”, “Environmental Issues”,
“Tourism and Culture”, “International Issues”, and “IT and Communication”. The General Meeting
of each research category was ran by two chairpersons who had the duty to
present the summary of the Sectional Meeting and coordinate the discussion
between the presenters and the audience.
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| General Meeting of "Disaster Prevention" |
The General Meeting of my research
category, “Disaster Prevention”, was led by Chiharu Anaba from Naga High School
and Ryoka Seto from Koyo High School. After they had been reviewing the
presentations of the Sectional Meeting as well as managing discussion, they
presented the conclusion:
“From everything we heard and discussed, we can conclude that we
high school students can and should start doing many things regarding disaster
prevention. Some of those are thoroughly preparing, raising community
awareness, and campaigns for government support.
First of all, thoroughly preparing for disasters begins with
ourselves knowing what to do for a disaster. If we are initially able to acknowledge
that we are safe, we can then help our family by forming a disaster plan with
them. This could come in the form of acknowledging evacuation routes, preparing
emergency supplies or designating meeting points. After this, we can prepare
for a disaster within community by acknowledging the school emergency
procedures as well as forming a plan to protect the elderly and disabled.
To raise our awareness about preparing for disasters, we can form
a communication network by having high schools teach their students about
disaster prevention and encouraging them to tell their family and friends about
it. Awareness provides information and enthusiasm for people to know what to do
before disasters and helps people to remain calm in the case of a disaster.
If we appeal to the government, they can take actions that affect
all of us. And the government can do what we can’t do. For example, they can
improve the facilities of evacuation centers. High school students can make
request to the local government through petitions. If many local governments have
the same issue, regional governments or even national government may take
action.
We hope everyone here will try some of these things. Please
encourage other people around you to do the same. Change starts with each of
us, and together, we can make our world safer.”
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| Me, answering question from chairpersons |
We did hope that the General Meeting could give insight and
inspiration to everyone.
After the General Meeting had successfully finished, there was
presentation of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Voluntary
Program.
Next, the very fascinating Wakayama High School Student Quiz in
English took place. This was a quiz competition in which every students
participated. The students were divided into group of three where I was in one
group with Teppei Enari and Itsuki Fukutomi. The first round was a true or
false quiz. All groups could respond to the questions by waving paper showing
true or false sign as the answer. One correct answer meant one point. Those who
could immediately reach 15 points got into the final.
Some questions given required us to correctly guess names of
famous people/cartoons/places, identify the correct grammar of a sentence, and
spell word in English. Although my group did not get into the final, we were still happy
because of the fun experience that we had gone through together.
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| My team for Wakayama High School Student Quiz in English |
In the evening we attended Welcome Reception that was held at
Daiwa Roynet Hotel. This grand and gratifying reception was hosted by the
Governor of Wakayama, Mr. Yoshinobu Nisaka.
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| I and my teacher with the governor of Wakayama Prefecture |
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| Girls! |
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| Me and my friends from different countries |
I proudly
wore kebaya, an elegant traditional costume of Indonesia. During dinner, I had
the chance to sing a traditional song of my country, titled “Bengawan Solo”.
This beautiful song was written in 1940 by Gesang Martohatono, it is in the
local kroncong style which is a popular folk style with influences from
Portugese.
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| Performing "Bengawan Solo", an Indonesian song about Bengawan Solo river |
There were
also entertaining performances like a traditional dancing performance by my
friend from Myanmar as well as Kendo demonstration by Japanese female
students.
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| with my teacher and my friend from Myanmar |
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| Performers of Kendo demonstration |
It was a great
honor for me to see and meet important dignitaries like the honorable Governor
of Wakayama himself. It was also a definitely great night where I could also
make friends with amazing participants from all over Japan and all over the
world. We exchanged name cards, had nice conversations, and also took memorable
selfies!
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| Selfie |
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| Selfie! |
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| Selfie!!! |
Sadly, we had to say farewell to all of the participants from Japan at the end of this marvelous reception. But we did not let tears out of our eyes as we knew that our wonderful memories will last a lifetime.
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Asian and Oceanian High School Students' Forum 2016
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