Yap-Japan Cultural Exchange Program was held by Ecoplus from March 7 to 18, 2026, with a 10-day stay on the island. The participants included six female and two male university students. Due to the impact of Typhoon No. 3 (international name Nuri), which formed near Yap Island, the first half of the program involved setting up our living space and learning local life skills amidst heavy rain and wind. As the weather improved in the latter half, students were able to deepen their relationships with the local community.
We stayed in the Maap Community on the northern side of Yap Island. This is a place of fond memories, as it was where we held the first students program in 1992. Tim Moon, who coordinated the first program and was a member of the Department of Education at the time, lived right behind the women’s house that served as our base. Additionally, the children and grandchildren of the elders, Gaayan and Dukchul, who had supported us wholeheartedly since the very first program came one after another to look after us. For TAKANO Takako, Representative Director of Ecoplus, and OHMAE Junichi, Director—who have continued the program for over 30 years—this was a particularly special experience.
長老のラマンさん（左）からお話を聞く。ラマンさんは、過去お世話になったガアヤンさんの長男。Students listen to Elder Raman (left). Raman is the eldest son of Gaayan, who helped us in the past.
The participants stayed at the women’s house in Wonnet Village, a concrete building. At first, a few participants slept inside, but they found it more comfortable to sleep on the breezy patio. They then discovered that the traditional thatched-roof huts on the ocean side were even more comfortable, so half of them decided to sleep there. They were able to rest comfortably, sheltered from the rain.
We had asked the locals if they could share some fish and taro with us, and suddenly, they invited us to the sea. A net had been set in a spot where the water was only knee-deep at low tide, and when we searched the net, we found plenty of fish larger than the palm of our hands. Furthermore, fish had strayed into the seaweed beds that were beginning to dry out, leading to a scene where we chased the fish like a game of tag.
Furthermore, Chigei, who lives in front of the women’s house, appeared carrying fish—including a barracuda with sharp teeth over a meter long—from the sea and generously shared them with us.
いただいたバラクーダ。ラグーンの中でのトローリングで獲ってきたとのこと。A barracuda Chigei caught. He told us he caught it trawling in the lagoon.
We were also invited to a field on the land side to harvest taro. The leaves resemble those of Japanese small taro, but they had grown to a height far exceeding our own, providing enough shelter to withstand the heavy rain.
The coastline facing east has been hit by fierce waves due to rising sea levels. According to the elder, Raman, over the past 10 to 20 years, the coastline has shifted by several dozen meters, and about three rows of palm trees have been swept into the sea. During the major typhoon in 2004, waves crashed around the houses, eroding the foundations of even the concrete homes and washing the house away.
It was a program that also confronted us with harsh realities. The participants who have returned home are compiling their reflections and reports, and we will hold a debriefing session on Saturday afternoon, July 11. Details will be announced on this website at a later date.
そして別の機会にIhiが言った”Maori never die”というフレーズ。彼らの文化はシェアする、分かち合う性質を持つ、と話します。それによって彼らの文化はさらに強く、そして続いていく、マオリは死なない、という表現につながります。それはatuaとのつながり、先祖との繋がりが極めて具体的に意識にあることも関係していると思います。
A presenttion session for the Yap-Japan Cultural Exchange Program, conducted in March 2025, was held on the afternoon of July 5 in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. The session by the seven participants of the program, was attended by over 20 people, including family members, friends, and member of ECOPLUS, with some others watching online.
The meeting began with each participant presenting the daily activities of the 11-day stay on the island. They shared experiences such as arriving in Yap in the very early morning, resting briefly on the floor of school library, building toilets and showers together with villagers, digging up taro, the main staple food, and being surprised by the huge leaves of taros, grinding the coconut meat to make coconut milk for cooking, and being amazed by the countless fish in the crystal-clear waters in the lagoon. These vivid accounts of daily life were accompanied by photos.
Next, each participant shared their feelings about the program. One participant, who had previously been so obsessed with cleanliness that he couldn’t even sit on the airport floor, shared how he came to sit on the ground on Yap Island, surrounding a small lantern, to eat meals. Another shared how, even after returning to Japan, he couldn’t help but recognize the round objects they saw as the stone money in Yap. The participants spoke with big smiles on their faces, and the venue was filled with warm laughter.
Ecoplus held Yap Japan Cultural Exchange Program on Yap Island, Federated States of Micronesia, from March 9 to 18, 2025. The program, which began in 1992 and has continued almost every year, was suspended from 2020 to 2023 due to the COVID-19. It resumed in spring 2024 on a smaller scale, and this time, the program was the first full-scale event in five years.
The participants were four male and three female high school and college students, plus one participant from the previous year as a volunteer staff member.
We stayed in the village of Dechmur in the Tamil municiparity of Yap, for the second time since 2018. Our base of activities was the women’s house. It is a one-story concrete building that serves as a shelter during typhoons.
On the 9th, the day we arrived, the villagers instructed us to weave sleeping mats out of palm fronds. We set up posts on the ground, passed thin bamboo across it, and inserted dead palm fronds to make a toilet and shower room. The villagers had already built a cooking house. A living space similar to the local living environment was created, with the meeting place used as a sleeping place and the outside hut used for the daily life.
The first experience to cut a coconut
Weaving mats and hats
Digging a toilet hole
Use skin of a tree to tie
Toilet on the left and shower room on the right side.
Bathroom completed
The staple food is taro. We were also taught how to dig the taros out from under the huge leaves. Three years after planting the small taros, it is time to harvest them: first the leaves are cut off, then a wooden point about 5 centimeters in diameter, with the tip shaved in the shape of a knife, is inserted into the root to cut the roots, which can then be pulled out. They are wrapped in the removed leaves and taken home in a basket woven from palm fronds.
Where a taro is dug up, seedlings are planted. This way you dig up one taro and have three or four ready for the next one. That way we can prepare the next meal properly,” an elderly woman told us.
Huge leaves of Taro
Cutting roots, dug up the root.
Replant seedings for next harvest
Clean up the taro
Cooked taro
The cooking of taros is also done using dried coconut shells as the first fuel, then thicker wood, and continues for an hour and a half, using banana leaves as the middle lid to keep the heat in. All this work requires meticulous preparation, and the food is prepared through a careful process.
To drink the juice of the young coconut, one climbs a tree that is several to ten meters high, drops the fruit, which has grown to the size of a rugby ball, carries it to the base, and cuts off the thick shell with a large hatchet. The way they cut the rind varies depending on the situation, such as when they are serving it to elders or guests, or when they want to drink it themselves right away. Gradually, the participants understood and mastered these detailed techniques.
The highlight of the program was the 3-day/2-night homestay. Each participant was invited to live with a family as a member of their household. Upon their return, the participants blended into the circle of people and were full of smiles.
The villagers graciously allowed us to immerse ourselves in their daily lives, not as tourists, but from the same perspective, feeling the present and thinking about the future. During our time there, participants never touched a smartphone and spent time without social networking sites.
Reflecting upon their return to Japan, participants said, “I thought there were things I didn’t need in my life in Japan. I thought it would be more interesting to create something instead of looking at Instagram in my spare time.” “I could understand the culture and traditions of the local people by being a part of their lives.” ” I felt that because of the time and effort they put into their daily lives, there was an abundance of appreciation for their food and everything else.”
The main theme of the program is “What is true happiness? Away from the digital-soaked days of chasing “convenience,” we experienced a dense and attentive lifestyle where people talk seeing each eyeballs. The participants seemed to have found a gateway to a new sense of values as they experienced a lifestyle of intimate contact with people and their eyes, which was the case in Japan only a few generations ago.
The participants will reflect on their myriad experiences and write their reflections into a report that will be delivered at a public presentation scheduled on July 5.
