Okinawa Climate Camp

When Anna and I found out we were going to Okinawa, we were (obviously) really excited about the amazing opportunity. At first, when I learned that this Climate Camp was only going to include Japanese and American champions, I was a little nervous. On the other trips I’d been on, the majority of us had been foreigners. But for this one, Anna and I were going to be the only ones in a different country, the only ones who didn’t speak Japanese. It turned out to be a great experience. It was a bit difficult to get used to not speaking the dominant language of the group—English is such a universal language that I don’t think we get that experience very often. Mika, the BC staff for Japan, was a HUGE help with the translation, and one of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to know everyone. It was also inspiring to hear about their projects—some of them are so different than any initiatives I’ve heard of in the US.

On the first day in Okinawa, we actually got to participate in two of the Japanese champions’ projects. One was decorating a “nice sensu” (a fan) with a slogan and/or design related to our own projects, and the other was eco-cooking—we cooked dinner outside on an open fire! I was a little doubtful at first (it was pouring), but the curry was delicious!

One of the main goals of Climate Camp was to create a 5-minute video focusing on different perspectives on climate change in Japan (and more specifically, Okinawa). Our first idea for making the video was to split up into three groups. Each group would come up with a story board and take turns carrying around a video camera, filming anything that looked relevant. After camp, we were going to review the footage and create as many videos as we had footage for (if there were only a few good segments, we were going to combine them all into one video). After about 20 minutes of brainstorming in groups, however, we realized that language was more of a barrier than we had counted on. We changed plans, deciding to work as one team, and take turns using 3 separate cameras to film for one storyline. We spent the rest of camp gathering footage–filming interviews, getting clips of lectures and scenery, and each of the champions recorded a short summary of his/her project. Toward the end of camp, we wrote a script for a voice-over narration that would be added while the film was edited. The video will be in both Japanese and English, with subtitles in the alternate language. I haven’t seen most of the footage, so it will be fun to see it!