Project Report : Tokyo

Tears in the eyes of members of the Tokyo team showed the strong bonds they had forged as they reflected on their activities on the day of the presentation. But their team dynamics weren’t so great from the outset.

The two Chinese participants with an interest in Japan who have been studying Japanese had barely had any experience taking photographs; their initial reaction to the hectic schedule was, “We’ve come all the way to Tokyo but all we do is work on our project from morning till night. We want to see more of Tokyo!” On the other hand, the two Japanese participants, who were active members of their high school photography clubs, declared, “We want to take photos like crazy and stay up late choosing photos for our presentation.” The objectives and pace of the two pairs were out of sync.

But as the group devoted their evenings at the hotel talking openly about their feelings, they came up with a compromise.

Towards the end of the program, each participant was able to assert her ideas on which photos should remain in the final presentation. The members of the team became closer and closer as they frankly expressed what was on their minds, at times getting upset when their views were rejected.

The Tokyo team’s final project about a dynamic city and the lives of the people who inhabit it is the fruit of the team’s tears, hard work, and intense debate!

(Muronaka Naomi, Tokyo Team Guide)