Thank you, Uminonakamichi Youth Center!

For this Children's Disaster Prevention Association camp, we were hosted by the Uminonakamichi Youth Center.
It is a nature center and training facility located in the Ikoi-no-Mori area of the national Uminonakamichi Seaside Park.
It is a wonderful place where you can enjoy the beautiful nature of Uminonakamichi and Shikanoshima Island.
Right in front of us is the Genkai Sea, with its vast blue waters. The surroundings feature sandy beaches and majestic black pine forests.
Although our time here was short, we spent it together, fostering cooperation and completing programs that helped us learn various things with rich imagination.

There are training rooms, multi-purpose rooms, an orientation hall, and a play hall for sports. We played games, tag, and quizzes here together. We also held a candle fire ceremony in the orientation hall.

In the cafeteria, the staff prepares menus that children love, while carefully considering nutritional balance.
Since there might be things some children cannot eat, meals are provided in a buffet style.
Meal times, where everyone chats and has fun together, seem to be very enjoyable.
Making friends quickly is something children are good at, and they deepened their interactions even further during the programs and meal times here.

And then there is the large public bath. Bath time in the spacious facility is also something the children look forward to. It feels so good after a day of powerful activity!
Since there are many fun programs prepared for tomorrow as well, we decided to warm up and get a good night's sleep.

In the adjacent accommodation building, there were common rooms and sleeping rooms lined with bunk beds.
There is no way children who have had a fun day can fall asleep quietly right away. After playing and chatting for a while,
they were encouraged to go to bed and finally drifted off to sleep.

We also take care of cleaning our rooms and preparing or tidying up our sheets and pillowcases ourselves.
Things that might feel a bit tedious are fun when done together!

In front of the building, there is a wide open space where we can play to our heart's content. We also did our morning radio calisthenics here.
There is also an outdoor cooking area where we can have barbecues and hold candle fire ceremonies, and on clear days, we can even observe the stars.
Since this is a place rich in nature, the stars look absolutely beautiful.

The Children's Disaster Prevention Association camp uses such accommodation facilities to spend meaningful time with the children.
Every nature center is built in a very good location with the children's well-being in mind.

When we hear comments like 'Two or three days just isn't enough, I wish we could do more things together,' it makes us feel that spending this time together was truly wonderful.
I hope that while they are close to the sea and mountains and interacting with nature, they will keep disaster prevention knowledge in their memories along with their precious experiences.