Fifty volunteers gathered at the beach of Iwami Sea Side Park, Shimane prefecture on Sunday, March 10, 2019 for collecting trash on the beach.
The volunteers were 28 US service members of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and 18 Japanese students of the University of Shimane.
The international event was organized by ISP, the company that manages Iwami Seaside Park, which consists of two beaches, campsites, cabins, sports facilities, aquarium and parks.
Mr. Yoshiro Morikawa, President of ISP, welcomed the volunteers and expressed his gratitude to the participants. He said a lot of trash was washed up to the beach in winter and the beach cleaning effort in winter was necessary to welcome tourists in summer.
The volunteers then grabbed big garbage bags for burnable and non-burnable trash and walked the length of the beach and picked up the litter.
There were a lot of objects on the sand. Seina, freshman, said “there were a variety of items: salad dressing containers, fishing nets, plastic spoons and plates. I picked them up again and again, but no matter how much I collected trash, I saw a lot of trash lying on the beach.”
The volunteers worked for one hour, ending up collecting ocean trash that filled two trucks.
After the cleaning, a big BBQ lunch was offered by the organizer. Both the students and the Americans enjoyed a great lunch and conversation in English.
The beach cleaning was educational for the college students, because it raised awareness of the litter problem on the beach. Kasumi, sophomore, said she had not realized there was so much litter on the beach because she had never participated in this type of project before. Shusuke, freshman, noticed the trash on the beach was an international issue, because a lot of plastic bottles had labels written in a foreign language.
The interaction with the Americans also motivated the college students to study English more. Amane, freshman, said, “I could not initiate conversation in English. I thought that I had to to overcome my shyness. I also need to increase my English vocabulary, because I could not understand what they said well nor was I able to express myself in English.”
Takumi, junior, said the best thing was that the Americans were friendly and he enjoyed English conversation so much. Yui, freshman, said he enjoyed learning about the life in military. Rie, sophomore, got curious about the life in the base and felt like visiting it.
At the end, the cleanup crew took a group photo and exchanged LINE information each other. Despite the rain, the international beach cleanup was a very successful event: a cleaner beach, insight into the trash problem, motivation to study English and heart-warming conversations. Everyone is looking forward to a next opportunity to make a meaningful contribution.
