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.
Boat tour in the shinny lagoon. 光り輝くサンゴ礁の海をゆく 2018年のヤップ島プログラムが、8月18日から29日まで、現地10泊の日程で行われ、日本から高校生大学生計9人が、ヤップ島タミル地区デチュムル村で、自然に近い現地の暮らしを体験させてもらいました。村人からは、連日、パンの実やタロイモ、魚、カニなどの食材を差し入れてもらい、マット編みや魚取りなど自然の中での暮らしの技を教わりました。
ECOPLUS conducted its flagship program, Yap-Japan Cultural Exchange Program 2018 from 18 to 29 August with nine students from high school to university in Dechumur village, Tamil, Yap. Provided cooked and un-coocked food like bread fruit, taro, fishes, crabs and others, students learnt a lot of locals skills like, weaving coconuts fronds or fishing in the ocean.
このプログラムは1992年に始めてから今年で27年目。デチュムル村では初めての実施でした。 Setting doors to the toilet and shower room. 用意してもらったトイレとシャワーにドアを付ける。 滞在したのは、コンクリート平屋建てのウィメンズハウス。女性たちの集会場です。トイレとシャワー、炊事場は、屋外に用意してもらいました。トイレは、地面を掘って7本の丸太を渡し、中央に穴を空けた構造。周囲をヤシの葉っぱで囲ってありました。周囲に生えていた木の丸い葉っぱは、トイレットリーフと呼ばれるソフトな肌触り。分解が早く環境に負荷がかからないので、この葉っぱでおしりをふきました。
The Program started 1992 and since then ECOPLUS continued the program almost every year. For Dechumur village, it was the first time to host the group.
The base of the program was the women’s house of the village. Next to the concrete building, local toilet, shower room and cooking place were set. Next to the toilet, some trees had very soft leaves called “toilet leaf,” so students used those for their daily use. It was easily degraded rather than toilet paper. Low impact was one of the key words of the program.
プログラムのハイライトは、2泊3日のホームステイ。1人づつ別々の家に引き取られていき、3日間を過ごしました。 During a home stay, a student learn how to weave coconut frond. ホームステイ先でヤシの葉編みを教わる。 ヤップには、米国などから新しい文化や経済活動が入り込んできていて、暮らし方は様々。コンクリートの家に電気洗濯機というような家もあれば、大きな木の下にヤシの葉ぶきの伝統的な小屋が並んで、海からの漁で暮らしを支えている家もありました。
共通しているのは、家族の間の親密な関係。ホームステイ中には親族一同が集まってのお祝いなどもあり、家族の強い絆を日本の参加者たちは強く感じたようです。
One of the most impressive experiences was homestay. Each student was accepted by a different family for 2 nights. Modern economy and culture are changing Yap’s traditional lifestyle but the situations are different family by family. A host family was living in thatched roof houses under a huge tree and another host family has electric washing machine. However, family ties are quite strong in all families. During the stay, some families held a celebrating gathering. Through the stay, student impressed by the strong bond among the family members.
Having so many new experiences, like going to fish with local boys in the lagoon, hunting crabs in night time, being surprised the brightness of the moon, students safely return to Narita airport in the morning of 29 August. From students, such comments were continued. “It looks like the program is not yet terminated. We will digest so many things we learnt and those will guide us toward the our own lives for long time.”
They will work together to make an activity report of the program and will held a reporting session in late autumn.
