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Showing posts with the label minamata

Things to do in Amsterdam

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 Amsterdam Every year, to celebrate my birthday, I travel somewhere, in 2019 I went to Morocco , in 2020 to Israel and this year (2022) I decided to visit Amsterdam. It was a long time since I wanted to visit this city and there I have a friend that I wanted to see, so with these three points combined, I decided to visit Amsterdam in winter. I spent five days in Amsterdam and I visited the city plus some places outside like Zaanse Schans, Zandvoort and Haarlem. One important thing is that I forgot my camera so all the pictures were taken with my phone, maybe the quality is not high but I think they are anyway beautiful. Amsterdam is the capital and the most populous city of the Netherlands, with a population close to a million. It is colloquially referred to as the "Venice of the north" due to the large number of canals which form a UNESCO world heritage site since 2010. Amsterdam was founded at the Amstel, the city's name derives from the Amstel dam, originating as a sm

Korea-Japan 4th part Sumo competition

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Sumo competition A Sunday morning I went to see a kids sumo competition, in Minamata, organised by the school I volunteered for. It was a unique opportunity for me, and a cool experience. Also kids were happy to see me there. Sumo is the national sport, with baseball, in Japan, and students have to learn it, also because it is part of their tradition; for a European it could be a bit weird, but interesting. Everything in the right place In the Japanese school everyone is equal, school provides all the necessary to students. Shoes stroke me: all the same and also in perfect order. During their course of study, students have to clean their school and serve meals regularly. Dohyo Before the competition the ring (dohyo) was prepared putting salt, to purified it. Pre-match rituals Every wrestler before to start the match have to clap his hands to attract the attention of gods, extend his arms to his sides and turn his palms upwards to show he is concealing no w

Volunteer work in Japan, Minamata

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Minamata, Japan Minamata is on the southern island of Japan, Kyushu, in the Kumamoto prefecture. This city is known for the Minamata disease, a mercury poisoning caused by a polluted sea in front of the city, because of that now the city is one of the most ecological in the world. I suggest a movie, title Minamata, about what happened in the city with Johnny Depp.  I was there for two weeks volunteering, the topic of the work camp I did was to stop global warming. Our volunteer work was collecting bamboo in the way to produce charcoal that is a green source of energy and a filter for tap water. A second thing that we did was to go to a junior high school and follow their eco-program, an activity that we did was to clean a beach. It was a very nice period, I was inside the local community, did useful work and knew nice people. Fukuro, Minamata, Japan We were living in this village of Minamata, in a guest house that is the typical Japanese house that you have in mind, a wooden ho

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