CDC children go peanut picking with children of local communities

Photo By Vivian Blakely | A young girl from Naval Air Facility Atsugi's Child Development Center picks peanuts during a field trip to the Suzuki Farm in Ayase City. More than 70 children from the CDC visited the farm as part of an annual peanut-picking event with local Japanese schools. The event, which has taken place for 15 years, was sponsored by the Ayase Rotary Club. (U.S. Navy photo by Personnel Specialist 3rd Class Vivian Blakely/Released)  

AYASE, AICHI, JAPAN

09.19.2013

Courtesy Story

Naval Air Facility Atsugi

By Personnel Specialist 3rd Class Vivian Blakely

AYASE, Japan – More than 70 children from Naval Air Facility Atsugi’s Child Development Center were invited to participate in a peanut-picking field trip with local Japanese children at the Suzuki Farm near Ayase City.

“Living in a different country with different people and a different society, you can’t learn how to interact with them from a book,” said community relations specialist Sumie Maruyama. “You gain that with experience.”

The annual event has taken place for 15 years and was sponsored by the Ayase Rotary Club. Japanese-U.S. Goodwill Society Secretary General Yoshifumi Furugori began the initiative with Ryosei Elementary School before inviting the NAF Atsugi children.

“The Ayase Rotary Club is part of an international organization about friendship,” said Furugori. “So we decided to invite the children of NAF Atsugi to join in the peanut picking. It is part of our policy.”

According to Furugori, now, many schools participate in these peanut picking trips with nearly 700 students coming through the peanut farm for each event.

For the CDC children, this event was just one of many intercultural activities they participate in throughout the year.

“These interactions are important because we need to show our Japanese counterparts that we value their culture, and we want to experience it,” said CDC training and curriculum specialist Jean Silva. “It’s a friendly environment that we want to share with our surrounding neighbors and convey our appreciation for their country, culture and their people.”

• Date Taken: 09.19.2013
• Date Posted: 09.19.2013 05:29
• Story ID: 113887
• Location: AYASE, AICHI, JP