Program for ASC

Big band:

• Attack of the killer tomatoes
• Watermelon man

Concert Choir:

• I got you babe
• The way you looked tonight

Senior Choir:

• Bist Du Bei Mir
• Shenandoh

Symphonic Band:

• Secret of the soothsayer
• Dublin dances

Sad to hear the camp is coming to an end. Get rid of those badges - there must be someone (or 25,000 someones) to swap with. Even if you get double ups of the Japanese ones you'll be able to swap them at Cuboree here as the cubs here will like the idea of Japanese badges.

Dont worry about the uniform pants. I'll try some Mum magic on them when you get home.
Have a great wind up to camp.

Mxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Last Day of Activities

Today was the last day of activities, accompanied by perfect weather. Activities today were environmental stuff and emergencies/first aid. Not much to talk about really, but I did get some nice photos. Tomorrow is starting pack up and trying to trade off 75 badges. I really don't want to bring them all home. I also did some washing this morning, and my uniform pants are soaking in detergent in an effort to remove Mt Fuji volcanic ash from them (I wore them because they are are dirtier than the navy pair, which I'm keeping for just in case I need a nice pair for going to Tokyo and the flight home.)

Otherwise, no news from this end :)

Re Annual Concert: Ryan always looks like a ferret when he plays. Haley facebooked me about her scholarship - very cool. Nathan always forgets the solo in I Got You Babe (he did a spectacular stuff-up at Geelong). What did choir and concert choir sing?

Annual School Concert

Just home from my FOMPA stint at ASC. Sold lots of glasses of wine and choccies. Everyone asked how you were going.

The concert was great, although I thought they lacked a barri sax player and a bass singer.;-)

• Haley got a Rotary scholarship for general excellence.
• Nathan very noticeably forgot his lines in his concert choir solo of "I got you babe". Oops.
• Declan needed you to help hold the bass line.
• Ryan looked like a ferret when he did his sax solo in Big Band.

A good night, but wasn't the same without you. Those I spoke to said Music Camp went well, but didn't tell me much. I guess "What happens on Music Camp, stays on Music Camp". Shame I didn't get to talk to DJ - he would have spilled the beans.

Your climb up Mt Fuji sounds wonderful.

Have a great last few days.

Mxxx

Fuji-Climbing!

Today we climbed across Mt Fuji - from Station 5 (New) to Gotamba 5 or 6 (not too sure). I'd love to post a lot, but there are half a dozen English vents behind me, so I'll keep it to this:

It was great!

The hike up to the peak we reached was very hard, especially because the ground was gravelly and very hard to get a grip on. Lunch up on the ridge was great - we were above the cloud line and it was great. We were sitting there with clouds flying past and looking down on the valley we'd just climbed up. The climb down was quite easy and actually very fun because the same gravel which was so hard to climb up proved to be very easy to climb down, because you slide with every step you make. We averaged probably 10km/h going down (double the usual speed for hiking), and much faster when we ran. Great fun. :D

I'll post more tomorrow, and maybe some photos.

Re badges: There are loads. I scored a Japanese bag for my NSW AJ one last night and today I'm off to get rid of some more badges. The thing is that while there are loads, they have less district etc. badges are more event ones which usually aren't as nice. Still worth getting though, so expect me to come home with a lot.

Lots of badges to get in Japan?

Fuji-watching :D

Last night was great. Just as we sat down to eat dinner the clouds around Mt Fuji cleared and so we all moved our chairs out of the eating shelter and sat outside facing the mountain. I'm pretty sure I've never had dinner while mountain-watching before.

After dinner we watched one troop practise a dance for the international performances today, which included performances from most of the prefectures. This dance apparently came from a prefecture which couldn't come to the jamboree because of a mad cow disease outbreak, and so it was performed half live and half via video link. Very cool.

Everything else is good. I did some washing today and I'm about to go off and see if I can swap the NSW backpack Tom gave us all for one of the cool Japanese scout bags.

Tomorrow we'll be spending seven hours hiking across Mt Fuji and doing some service in the form of picking up rubbish along the way. Should be really nice, and I'm charging my camera battery now so I can definietly take some photos.

I'd upload some photos, but they take forever. Sorry. However, I do have an open link for my nice Mt Fuji photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31033875&l=8cea977db6&id=1056564023 Have a look.

Photos

Really quick post - really just for photos. I've taken around 300, but here's some of the best. Weather is very variable, and although it is generally really nice there's at least one shower every day. The day after we got here it wasn't a shower and more accurately a huge storm. It lasted 30 hours straight and I woke up yesterday morning with my tent filled with 2cm of water. Spent lunch hanging out everything I own. Otherwise fantastic. Having a great time meeting people. Foreigners are like celebrities, and as we walk to activities or anywhere everyone who walks past yells "konnichiwa" or "hello". We're also asked to sign dozens of hats, shirts, books and everything else a permo will leave a mark on. This has included one guy's pants. Everyone is quite impressed when they realise I speak Japanese, and we're very impressed with some people's Japanese.

Uploading slow, and people are waiting. Maybe photos tomorrow...

Have added same amount to debit card as you started with

Sounds like there is stuff to buy and worried you might need more clothes. Have doubled your card so you have extra to spend.

You can thank me later. :-)

Whaaaaaaaaaa! I missed your call!

I was on an ALIA teleconference and I could hear you beeping but I was Chairing the meeting. Whaaaaaa!!!! Glad you are having a good time. Your voice sounds croaky - are you ok?

Could be worse...

Hope the awesome jacket was up to the task. Video footage of the opening ceremony (at least I think that's what it was) looked very wet.

Heeeellooooooooo?

Anyone out there?

No trees, old tents, long grass,lots of Japanese Scouts

These are my impressions after looking at what I think was some live footage on the Japanese website. It seemed to be mostly Scouts banging in tent pegs into fairly long grass. Actually I am not even sure if it was the right jamboree. I couldn't read the captions. I could have been a Scout event somewhere else in Japan last decade for all I know. The sky was pretty grey, couldn't see a mountain. But I did read some posts on the UK blog last night where the UK Scouts said it was foggy and they couldn't see the mountain. You can see I am using all my information management skills to sift through a variety of sources.

But, I did note long grass - so now I am worried about your eczema and lack of long pants. I wonder if I posted some tomorrow would they get to you in time to be of any help. Oh the dilemmas of long distance mothering...

The big question

Ok - small allocation of internet time - should I spend it facebooking my friends or blogging my mother. Friends? Mother? Friends? Mother? Decisions, decisions?

Hmmmmm Crowded House touring in November

Wonder if I can stretch to a couple of tickets?

So, opening ceremony today?

Well you should be all settled into your little tent by now and starting to get the hang of the whole thing. The UK sites says Opening Ceremony is on today. 25,000 people how awsome is that going to be!

Not a lot of news here. Had the Wrights over yesterday afternoon for belated birthday cake (I made a tea cake with lots of cinnamon). There was a lot of noise and small children arguing. You would have hated it.

I am thinking I might go to school annual concert without you anyway to help out in with the food and drink etc. And I get to hear some of the performances.

Enjoy the Opening Ceremony. Don't get lost in the crowd. At least being one of the tallest there you will be able to see over people's head. ;-)





M xxxxx

Are you in your underwear?

I just went into your room to put your clothes away and saw you had left both pairs of your new cargo pants behind. Did you forget to put them back in your bag? What are you wearing? Are you going to spend 2 weeks in bright green board shorts and nothing else? (That will look nice at any official ceremonies - at least they are an Australian brand.) Would you like me to send them to you? Anything else you need?

M xxx

It all sounds so good

Glad you had a such a great day. I have been refreshing the blog page all night hoping you would have time to post.

It's so good to see some of your photos. Of course you are taller than most Japanese Scouts - you are taller than most Australian Scouts.

Are there any other pictures of anything you want me to take and upload so you can show people?

Glad the presents worked out ok. Do you need me to send anything else?

4.30am is not very far away. Have a good sleep.

Love you lots, Mum XXX