Jumi A-S (Girl Scout Leader)

Jumi grew up an only-child in Chiba, Japan. When she was eight, her father decided she should be more of a people-person, so he signed her up to be a Brownie with her local Girl Scout Troop.

When Jumi was a Brownie, she remembers her troop mainly focusing on songs and games. When she progressed to being a Junior however, they began to learn skills like building a tent or creating a DIY oven. The different skills started becoming harder and harder, making Jumi want to quit. But after she talked with her Girl Scout leader she gave it all another try and continued being a Girl Scout. Nowadays, Jumi’s friends often compliment her on her perseverance and determination.

When Jumi was still a Senior Scout, she took her first troop trip out of country to visit Quezon City in the Philippines. This was the first opportunity Jumi got to use her English socially and it made her realize that if she wanted to communicate properly with people around the world she would need to study harder. So when Jumi returned to Japan, she threw herself into her studies.

Later on, Jumi became a Brownie leader of her own Girl Scout troop. She taught her girls the skills, songs and games she learned when she was a Scout and watched them grow into Ranger Scouts.

As a Girl Scout, Jumi wore a navy blue ensemble of a skirt, shirt and cap. The uniform was the same until about two years ago where the uniform changed to reflect level. As a leader, Jumi wears a uniform consisting of a navy-blue suit.

World Thinking Day has remained unchanged from when Jumi was a girl however. In Jumi’s area, they choose eight global action themes a year. Each troop chooses two to focus on and then the council has a group discussion.

Two of the songs that Jumi taught her troop are the Princess Pat (a song Jumi learned in the USA) and Conpact. Conpact is a Japanese game song where the girls dance as they sing about getting ready for a date.

Jumi’s troop celebrates the holidays together with parties at New Year and Christmas. They also have cooking competitions where they quiz the girls who are “on the stage” about different skills and dishes.

Instead of the American cookie selling, they go around collecting donations for UNICEF once a year. Jumi often takes this opportunity to teach her girls about how to handle money and how the money they collect will be spent. As Ranger Scouts, they used these skills to help them help people affected by the Earthquake.

Jumi has traveled to the USA for Girl Scouts and she noticed a few differences between the American and Japanese Girl Scout Way.  One difference is troops are attached to schools in America, while in Japan they are attached as one troop per town. She also noticed a difference in teaching style. She used the idiom “don’t cry over spilled milk” to illustrate her point. She said that when a Japanese Girl Scout spilled milk, the Leader would be sweet and come help her clean it up with a paper towel or a mop, but if an American Girl Scout spilled milk, the leader would give her a hint to clean it up. Jumi noticed benefits in both of the methods, but she said that if she was continually helping a girl clean up her “spilled milk”, the girl would never learn to do it on her own.

At this point in time, Girl Scout’s is Jumi’s life. Her troop is “like a house” and her family is inside.

If you want to know the stages in Japanese Girl Scouting, go to the Index Page and check near the bottom.

Satoko K-B. (Lifetime Girl Scout)

In 1978, Satoko when eight, the town neighboring hers started a Girl Scout troop. When her mother found the poster she signed Satoko up immediately and Satoko went to her first meeting. She remembers it well.

The first meeting was a sort of informational meeting. Besides one Brownie and her leader, everyone else there was as new as Satoko. Satoko remembers looking at the girl in the Brownie uniform and anticipating when she would get to wear that uniform. But before she was allowed to wear a uniform or say the promise, she and all the other girls had to learn what Girl Scouts was all about. They learned how to do a circle, as well as sing a few songs. One of the songs she learned that day was called Vista and she remembers it went something like “Free, Free Fly, Free Fly Flo, Vista, Kum-latta Kum-latta Kum-latta, Vista.”

Satoko’s new troop was called Troop 75 and she was part of it for almost twenty-years. She had to leave it because of a mishap though and she moved to a troop in Ebina, who accepted her. She has been with that troop over ten years now. All together she has been in Girl Scouts for thirty-five years. She currently lives in the United States, but she still registers as a troop leader in Japan. She is also currently on the board of the program Nobuko co-founded called GS-FOU Friends of US (FB). She joined a few years ago and she helps with Girl Scout camps, document translation and advice about American culture. Satoko is happy because even though she doesn’t currently live in Japan, she can still help the Japanese Girl Scout cause.

Satoko’s first Girl Scout camp out was in 1979. It was a spring camp and her troop stayed in a cottage. What made this experience special to Satoko was that is wasn’t only her first camp experience. All the girls with her were also having their first-time experiences. She also remembers her first primitive (tent) camping experience. It was like Kotoe’s experience in the fact that her campsite was on a hill with her tent at the top and the mess hall at the bottom.

When Satoko was a Ranger Scout (check bottom of index page) she applied for a Girl Scouts overseas program (called Wide Opportunity). She was selected as part of the delegation going to Pennsylvania. The main event of the program was called 1986 Arts Odyssey and it was hosted by the Talus Rock Girl Scout Council (now merged with the Girl Scout council of Western Pennsylvania). 1986 Arts Odyssey was a ten-day workshop. Each girl could take her pick of what type of classes she could attend (Dance, Drama, Visual Art, ect.). Satoko chose the visual arts class. She spent her ten days in painting classes, sculpture classes, design sketching classes and more. At the end of the program, her and the other eighty girls showed off their work at an exposition. After the program, Satoko spent four weeks in San Francisco.

During and after the program, Satoko was staying with a host family. At that time, Satoko couldn’t speak much English and understood less then fifty-percent of what the host family told her. Luckily her host family was generous and patient. They didn’t mind repeating what they said and they sometimes drew pictures for communication. At that time Satoko often carried a Japanese-English dictionary around. She is still in contact with her old host family and sometimes they visit each other or do Girl Scout exchanges together.

When Satoko was an active troop leader in Japan, she tried to share some of she learned in the United States with her troop. She played chain games, she taught them American Girl Scout songs by removing the lyrics and adding clapping, she taught them a game called “Merry-go-round” (description in comment at the bottom) and how to make SWAPS. According to Satoko, Japanese people are traditionally good with working with their hands so things like macramé pencil boxes and dog are really easy for them. However the girls were intrigued by the American s’more SWAP and marshmallow on a stick SWAP.

In 2000, Satoko’s host family invited her to help them run a camp with their council as part of the outdoor staff. At the camp Satoko taught girls origami and Japanese style writing. Another camp Satoko helped at in 2010 was a Japanese Girl Scout camp that was celebrating the 90^th anniversary of Girl Scouting in Japan. The camp had girls from over fourteen different countries. In the beginning the Japanese girls were very shy with the new girls, but by the end they were begging them not to leave since they had become such fast friends.

Satoko helps to encourage young Japanese Girl Scouts to branch out and have confidence in themselves. If Satoko had not become a Girl Scout her life would be very different from what it is today. She would not have moved to the United States, she would not have met her husband and she would not have many of the friends she has today.

Japanese Girl Scout Fact: They don’t have a Bronze, Silver or Gold Award. Instead they have something called the B-P (Baden-Powell) Award (it used to be the B-P Trophy). To win this Award, Ranger scouts do a project and they send a report of their project in for a council review. If the council approves it they get the Award

Nobuko A. (Lifetime Girl Scout/Leader)

When Nobuko was ten, she heard about a Girl Scout exchange program between Japan and Korea in the news. She was so impressed with the idea of an international exchange and having sisters abroad that she decided she wanted to join the Girl Scouts. Since her mother knew nothing about how to join, she used the phone directory to find the Girl Scout headquarters in Shizuoka.  When she told them she wanted to be a Girl Scout, they got her in contact with her local troop. That was almost fifty years ago.
In the time Nobuko has been a Girl Scout, the uniform has changed three times, Girl Scouts broke into different levels (Tenderfoots, Brownies, Juniors, Seniors & Rangers), the role of Girl Scouts in Japan changed and the words of the Japanese Girl Scout Promise changed (but they still kept their original foundation).

One of Nobuko’s favorite memories from when she was fourteen her leader planned international exchanges. Nobuko had an Okinawan Girl Scout (in an American Girl Scout uniform) come and stay at her house. They stayed in touch for a few years after that, but lost touch when the girl graduated high school and moved to the mainland. But that wasn’t the end of Nobuko’s international experiences. With the Ranger Scouts she learned of the Girl Scouts of the West Pacific. In the offices of the Girl Scouts of the West Pacific, she made a friend who invited her to a conference. At the conference, she got to meet some very active leaders, some of whom were American.

Comparing the Japanese Girl Scouts and the American Girl Scouts, Nobuko said that the Japanese girls more quiet, preferring to listen rather than talk. The American girls, on the other hand, have a lot to say. Nobuko liked the “American Way” - as she put it, and she kept in contact with the leaders. Together, they created a program where American Girl Scouts on military bases and Japanese Girl Scouts get to meet each other and have get-togethers and exchanges. The program that Nobuko is part of is called Friends of the US.

Recently, Nobuko’s Girl Scout troop had a tea ceremony with an American troop for the New Year’s festivities. They also invited foreign Girl Scout troops to their Girls’ Day (Hinamatsuri) festivities.

Nobuko always starts her meetings with the song When E're You Make a Promise. Nobuko has taught this song to many of her American friends, and she is surprised that this song fell out of favor with younger leaders since it's that promise that is what Girl Scouting is all about. Nobuko also know the internationally famous Friendship Song, Taps, Smile Everybody Smile (lyrics in a comment under post) and the song Penguin Attention.

Nobuko plays many games with her troop. Two of the most popular games she plays are Kim’s game and Wide Game. Every year Nobuko’s troop competes in the annual badge design completion. On the topic of earning badges, Nobuko always tries to instill in her girls that even after the badge is earned, they must keep going forward and learning more.

If Nobuko hadn’t been in Girl Scouts, she wouldn’t be able to speak English; she wouldn’t have made as many friends; and she wouldn’t have such a deep feeling of sisterhood and camaraderie with all the girls of the world. In Nobuko’s eyes, Girl Scouts are the seed for world peace.

“In one hundred and forty-five countries, there are many Girl Scouts. So the Girl Scouts make world peace because we are sisters all together, no more war, no more fighting. That’s the value of Girl Scouting.”

Nobuko was especially touched when she watched Malala’s speech and immediately came to the conclusion that she was a Girl Scout (though, she isn’t). Nobuko feels that all girls should be like her and tell their opinions to the world.

Fun fact About Japanese Girl Scouts: They don’t actually sell Girl Scout cookies. Instead, three days of the year are spent gathering donations for the Red Cross and for things like nature conservation.

Nobuko has shared a story on the history of Girl Scouting in Japan elsewhere. The story can be found here.

Special Post: How Girl Scouting (and Guiding) Originally Started & Why Japanese Girl Scouts Are Not Called Girl Guides (An Extra Story From the Interview of Nobuko A.)

Boy Scouts started before Girl Scouts. It was founded by Lord Baden-Powell in 1907 when he took a group of boys camping on Brownsea. A year after that Lord Baden-Powell published his book Scouting for Boys and Boy Scouts took off.

In 1909, Lord Baden-Powell held a Jamboree for Boy Scouts at the Crystal Palace in London. He was surprised to see a group of girls marching among his Boy Scouts. He asked them who they were and they said they were Girl Scouts. Baden-Powell thought that scouting was for boys so he had his sister Agnes Baden-Powell help him found Girl Guiding.

At that time, Juliette Lowe had a company of Girl Guides in Scotland. She liked the idea of Girl Guiding so much she wanted to take it back to her home country (the USA) under the name of Girl Scouting. So she talked with Lord and Lady Baden-Powell and brought the practice home to the United States.

In 1919, Girl Guiding started in Japan. However it was banned during World War II. In 1945, it was was reinstated by General MacArthur because he thought that "Democracy must lead for the youth." He encouraged ex-Girl Guide leaders to start a new movement (as Girl Scouts) and that is why Japanese Scouts are called Girl Scouts and not Girl Guides.

Nobuko's interview is here.

Kotoe K. (ことえ) (Ambassador)

Kotoe has not only been a Girl Scout in Tokyo Japan, but she has also been a Girl Scout (American Girl Scout Overseas) in Seoul, Korea and a Juliette in the UK.

As young child in Japan, Kotoe’s parents sent her to an International School in Tokyo. When Kotoe was in third grade she joined the Brownie troop at her school. As a “Japanese Girl Scout” (part of Japan’s Girl Scout Association) Kotoe wore the Japanese Girl Scout uniform. Her uniform consisted of a light blue beret, a white shirt, a light blue skirt, a navy blue belt, navy blue knee high socks, black shoes and a red scarf (the color specific to Brownies, when she became a Junior she began to wear a brown scarf). Despite being a Japanese Girl Scout, Kotoe earned the American Brownie Try-Its and sewed them on her uniform.

Kotoe's first overnight camping happened during her time as a Brownie. During their trip it rained so hard that they couldn’t light a fire, so they lit candles. When it was time for sleep Kotoe remembers they had to “put the light away” with their fingers.

In fifth grade, Kotoe quit Girl Scouts. In the time when she was absent from the Girl Scout organization, she moved to Korea and proceeded to go to another international school. In seventh grade, a Cadet Girl Scout Troop was formed at her school and Kotoe joined it. Kotoe’s troop was made of the daughters of expats from Bolivia, the UK, Australia, Italy, the USA and Japan (Kotoe). Kotoe’s new troop often took trains to different parts of Korea to do different activities. Once they made sandwiches for the homeless of Seoul. Another time they took a trip to the army base in Seoul. Yet another time they rented snowboards and went snowboarding together. They tried to earn the Lady Baden-Powell Badge together but they couldn’t complete the camping part of it due to the fear that they might catch swine flu.

As was mentioned above, Kotoe is considered part of the American troop and her troop occasionally did joint events with the local Korean Girl Scouts. To communicate they mostly used English with the Korean girls who knew English translating for those who didn’t. They also used a good deal of hand-motions and shows of emotion.

Besides learning about the culture of her host country, Kotoe also learned about the different cultures of the countries of the girls in her troop. The troop would often go to different girls houses to do different activities (like once they baked Christmas cookies at the Bolivian girl’s house) and while Kotoe was at the houses of her fellow scouts she would often learn a bit about their native country due to the food her fellow Girl Scouts served or the decorations that adorned their walls.

When Kotoe was in elementary school in Japan, she was never the outdoorsy type but that all changed when she got the opportunity to go to Girl Scout camps. She attended camps during her summer breaks from school in Korea and later from school in the UK.

The first camp she ever went to was located near Amalu’s hometown in Okinawa. It lasted for around a week (the longest time Kotoe had spent in a tent up until that time) and consisted of the normal camp things like singing and games. Some of the songs Kotoe knows like Five Little Angels, The Princess Pat, The Guiding Light (learned from an Indian Girl Scout) and Taps, were learned at that original camp.

The second camp was at a place called Tama Hills. Kotoe’s campsite was parked at the top of a tall hill. It took half an hour to get up or down the hill. Kotoe thinks they spent at least two hours a day going up and down the hill. They had to go down the hill to eat meals (breakfast and dinner (not lunch)) and to do some activities. They traveled the hill so often that they got blisters on their feet.

At almost all the camps Kotoe went to, it rained. It rains so much that generally, by the end of the week, all the Girl Scouts are huddled in a cafeteria or craft room of the camp due to the unfortunate fact that their tents and campsites are flooded. Tama Hills was no exception to this common occurrence.

At the time she did this camp (the first Tama Hills experience), Kotoe was 15 and she was the odd one out since all the other 15-yearolds were P.A.s. At the time Kotoe didn’t even know what a P.A. was but when she found out, she decided it was something she wanted to do. The next year Kotoe did the camp she came back as a P.A. and she loved it. Teaching younger girls how to do crafts, sing and more has given Kotoe the chance to build her confidence and communication skills. At her school, Kotoe interacts with younger and older girls alike in many ways, if Kotoe hadn’t been a P.A., she might not have had the skills and guts to become the head girl at her all girls boarding school in the UK.

Due to Girl Scouts, Kotoe went to the same Mt. Fuji Leadership program that Amalu did. At the program, Kotoe learned a variety of things; to sew, to make cosmetics from food (Kool-Aid to lip gloss), do orienteering and how to be a leader. To Kotoe, leadership is not just the job of the “appointed leader”, it is a job shared by everyone. Everyone is a leader in her own way.

Another Girl Scout event Kotoe went to was one located in Iwate, Japan. Kotoe and some other scouts took a bus to visit Japanese Girl Guides in Iwate whose homes were affected by a tsunami. They taught the Iwate Girl Guides American Girl Scout songs and games, and they even shared a meal of classic PB&J, a meal some of the girls had never tasted before in their lives.

Kotoe also recently visited the WAGGGS gender equality event in Tokyo called The World We Want for Girls. The event discussed the different examples of gender equality around the world and possible ways to reduce the gender inequality in some places and improve the life of women around the world. Kotoe was especially touched by a Girl Guide leader from Maldives. In her country girls are married in their late teens and have children in their early twenties. Love is not even a factor in their marriages. Kotoe had heard stories like this before, but hearing it from one who had actually experienced it meant way more to her then the stories she had read or seen in the news.

Kotoe has just graduated high school and the road of her life is ahead of her. When she goes to college in the UK or in Japan, she plans to become a Girl Scout leader. Kotoe wants to share the opportunities, skills and knowledge she has gained. One of the final things she mentioned in the interview is that Girl Scouts taught her that happiness is contagious. As a Girl Scout, one does many good deeds, and each one, no matter if it is small or large, is bound to make at least one person happy. That one person will spread their happiness to countless other people. This will improve our world one person at a time.