KEV’s first virtual tour

 

Higashi Nakano

We received the email from an Indonesian school teacher to ask us whether we conduct virtual tours for her students last December. Since her elementary school students have studied from home via video due to the prolonged pandemic, she hoped they could experience Japanese culture and views virtually.

 She found some people who visited Japan appreciating our KEV on the internet. That’s why she contacted us.

Actually, we had no experience of virtual tours, so we immediately discussed our possibility for them. We were also thinking about the need to interact with foreign people because we couldn’t welcome any inbound tourists for about 2 years since the spring of 2020. Eventually, we decided to launch our first virtual tour and organize the project team in our association at the end of last year.

 The 7 members who love novel things gathered around and had several meetings both in person and video-meeting to create our first virtual tour. We made the tour plan where we’d like to tell the students about Japanese seasonal events and introduce our popular destinations such as Tomioka-Hachimangu shrine and Sunamachi shopping street. Then, we suggested our plan to Indonesian teachers and discussed it by email and a zoom meeting. Some of our members went around to film those destinations. Also, locals and local government staff cooperated with us about our activities.

 We really enjoyed exchanging opinions actively with members and interacting with the friendly teachers.

 And, finally we conducted our virtual tour on March 11^th!  The students, ranging from first graders to sixth graders, were very adorable. We all enjoyed the tour with several questions like “I like sushi.”, “I like Japanese tea.”, “I want to eat Tai-yaki. (a fish-shaped pancake)” and so on. They were really cute!

Nakano speaks to students. Other members watching their images

Through this experience, we realized that we could talk with each other and make foreign friends in spite of the pandemic. Thank you for your suggestion for the virtual tour. Some day after the pandemic, we will welcome you in person in Japan!

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