REVIEW PRINCESS OF ENVIRONMENT 2005 MARISA TANIA CHILDREN’S WORLD SUMMIT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT 2005 JAPAN 22 JULY – 5 AUGUST 2005
Today is my 1st day in Japan. I arrived in Tokyo – Japan at 10.00am. I went here with my friends. They are Happy, Christina, and Josephine and also our chaperone, Mochamad Zamroni. We will have 10 days in here and join the 2005 Children’s World Summit for the Environment in Toyohashi – Japan with 1000 children from around the world. I think it must be a wonderful experience for us. All of us are the part of Tunas Hijau Club and the only delegate from our country, Indonesia.
At the airport, we met Mr. Hidayat. He is so friendly to us and he is our guide from Indonesian Embassy. In Tokyo, we stay at the guest house of Indonesian Embassy where we can meet many Indonesian people in here.
In the afternoon, we had our lunch to a school for Indonesia people. We meet Mr. Anggoro in there. We share our projects with him. The Indonesian children in Japan different with Indonesian children in New York. They always speak Indonesia. They don’t shy to use our language. I hope we will have a good time together.
After that, we had our lunch with Mr. Anggoro and Mr. Hidayat at Sushi Restaurant. For the first time, it was rudder add but after that I enjoyed it. It was so delicious. Still with Mr. Hidayat, we bough some tickets for Monday, we aill go to Toyohashi with Shinkansen at the day. He speaks Japanese fluently, he learned it for 10 years.
Today, I know that Japan and Indonesia have so many different things; environment, habits and culture. Although they stay in same continent – Asia, Japan is cleaner and saver than Indonesia. Japan is also care with the environment.
Although Japan become the most industrial country in the world, the Japanese people never forget to plant the trees (it makes Japan looks so green, fresh and comfortable), do reduce, reuse and recycle and follow all the rules. We can not find many cars with bad emission, people who smoke in the room and slum area like many places in Indonesia, especially Surabaya. It’s why we are in Japan now, to share our problems and solutions with the other children from 119 countries.
Do you want to hear my favorite sentence at this day?
WELCOME TO JAPAN!
24th July 2005
Today is a wonderful day. I can see how beautiful Japan is. After finished our breakfast, we went to a garden, called Hibiya garden with the train – Yamanote line. The garden is so clean, green and leavy. We saw so many kinds of plants in there. There isn’t any street trader a long the garden. Different with Surabaya, we cannot find a junk yard in that big garden. We just enjoyed the tall trees, pretty colorful flowers and a large pure pool. Let’s plant the trees in Indonesia and make a garden that as beautiful as Hibiya Garden. The dream must come true.
We also went to Ginza by walk from Hibiya Garden. This is a sophisticated place in Tokyo. There are a lot of shops and malls. We cannot buy to many things because the prizes at Ginza was so expensive. It was so amazing to fresh our mind and had shopping.
Today we learn about the real functions of trees. So…let’s plant trees for our future!!!
25th July 2005
Today we went to Toyohashi with the Shinkansen. It’s the name of super express train in Japan. We spent about 2 hours in the Shinkansen. We arrived at Toyohashi at 10.30am, then we went to Hotel Nikko Toyohashi by shuttle bus to join with the others delegates for Children’s World Summit for the Environment. We met so many friends from the others countries. They are so friendly. We trade some souvenirs, name cards, and pins. It’s so fun. Now, the Indonesian delegates have a competition. The winner is someone who have the most pins.
For the first, we did a registration then check in at our hotel. After dinner, we had an orientation and opening messages in the Holiday Hall of Nikko Toyohashi Hotel.
We learned about the Junior Board and the schedule of children’s World Summit. I also attended the Action Group Introduction meeting. I am the member of group 12. Today, I got a lot of friends, new cultures and a big experience to have a discussion with 1000 children from around the world.
26th July 2005
Today we got a bad news; All the fieldtrips and workshops outsides the hotel must be cancelled because of the Typhoons . It will attack our activities places. It made us must stayed in the hotel for this afternoon. But, it’s fine. We had a special opening ceremony at this day. We had a lot of fun.
The opening ceremony was did with speech from the Junior Board. After that, we saw an attraction from Japanese children. They played traditional instrument from Japan. We learnt some introductions and speeches from UNEP, AICHI, TOYOTA, many sponsorships and also the Junior Board. His Imperial Highness Prince & Princess Akishino also attended the opening ceremony and did a speech. That was a great time to learn many information about summit and how to keep take care of the environment during the summit. There was attraction from the students from Matsudachi High School. They also played a traditional instruments. It looks like Japanese drum. They played them beautifully.
We had a lunch time in the bus when we back to Nikko Hotel. At 4.00 pm, Mr. Warren Evan (Director of Environment on the World Bank) gave us a speech at the plenary session. His presentation was about the international issues of the environment. The issues are water supply, sanitation, air pollution, climate change and energy’s problem in around the world.
At that time I asked him a question about my project, Kalimas River. He said if the most important thing is how to make people have awareness to save the environment. He also saked me not to give up to make my project successful.
After dinner, I attended the action group meeting. Today’s theme was energy. We made a commitment and a petition to the governments. The sounds are like this:
“We commit to turn off electric switches and unplug electric devices electricity and make it to be a habit”. I agreed with our commitment, everything must be start from ourselves.
“The government must make a standard an energy use and conservation. They also must do awareness campaign and make the people accustomed to always do travel smart.”
27th July 2005
Yippy !!! Today we visited the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan (Expo site). Wow, it was amazing! We must for about half hour to enter the expo. Yeah, 100.000 people want to enter that place for every day. Let’s imagine the situation when we were on the line and waiting in the temperature of 340 C.
But, that’s okay! We got a lot of fun. We visited Global Common area. It was ASEAN and the Pacific Pavillion. There are Australia pavilion, Philippines, Lao, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, New Zealand, Singapore and absolutely Indonesia pavilion.
We saw many different cultures, different languages, and the most important is the different ways to save the environment. For example is Singapore pavilion. Their pavilion was so fantastic. When we entered the gate, an artificial rain dropped from the top of the pavilion. The decoration changed from one session to the other session. Different with Australia. They showed a movie about the environmental friendly habit at their country.
We had a interesting experience at the Indonesia pavilion. In there, we used our environmental project’s costume – banana’s costume, sribombok’s costume, tree’s costume and I wore environment fairy costume. So many visitors want to take our photos. I will never forget that time. It was a special moment for us.
We have an expo passport. We got many stamps at there. We also met Morizo and Kiccoro – EXPO 2005 mascot – at 5.00pm. We went back to Nikko Toyohashi Hotels to have dinner and a presentation from UNEP. We learned all about UNEP, when they started, what are their activities, how they support the children, etc.
Today was the day to do the Junior Board election. I applied to become a Junior Board for the next TUNZA. But I was not success. My friend, Josephine went to the 2nd selection but she also not success. It’s fine.
Now we know if “above the cloud there is still the cloud”. We still need more practice to be a good leader with a good responsibility. I think today was the best day. It was an enjoyable experience for all.
28th July 2005
Today we went to Ai Plaza Toyohashi to have a plenary session. We learn some presentation about some environment projects from the other delegates. Then we were split into the groups to have lunch in a local school, calls Hokubu Junior High School. The students are very friendly, we try to be a friend, exchanged our name card. Sometimes we have a problem with the language because they can’t speak English. So, I must use body language.
We also had a fieldtrip. We went to Akatsukayama Park. The park is so large, about 63 hectares. There are a lot of interesting place in there, such as Gyo-Gyo Land, Ani-Ani Maru, plum tree garden, Irish garden and insect forest. We invited the Gyo-Gyo Land, Ani-Ani Maru and Insect Forest.
At the Gyo-Gyo Land, we studied about the fresh water fish in to the river. We also saw some foreigner species and tropical fish, many kinds of animals at Ani-An Maru
They are goats, rabbits, marmots, and horses. We can touch some insects at the insect forest. We also played at the insect playground. It was really fun.!!
At night, we have 2 themes to discuss. The 1st is Forest and Biodiversity and the 2nd is water.
Today, I become a group leader; I must be the facilitator for my action group friends. Today we must make a good commitment and petition because water is an important thing in our life. We can not live without it.
So, wait for the final commitment and petition in the last day.
29th July 2005
Today was the last day for the summit. It was a long day. We had a plenary session at the Ai Plaza, Toyohashi; discuss about today theme – Recycling – and also make the Commitment and Petition about that.
After the action group, we have our workshop. We saw a video and a musical drama. It’s all about the ozone layer. We got a comic and stationery set about the ozzy (the ozone mascot).
At the last wrap up session, we adopted the “Summit Declaration”. Give our opinion to ensure that our final commitment and petition was in perfect or clear. And, our commitment and petition are:
Commitment
We commit ourselves to:
- Saving energy and using renewable energy sources;
- Planting 10 native trees every month and boycotting all endangered product;
- Learning and sharing innovative ways to collect, conserve, and reuse water wisely;
- Using environmentally friendly bags and separating all kinds of waste for recycling and processing to ensure minimization of landfill waste.
Petition
We, the children of the 2005 World Summit for the Environment in Aichi, Japan, challenge the world leaders and people all over the world to protect and preserve our environment for the next generation.
- We want the leaders, children and adults from all over the world to respect and recognize that the environment is our most important asset.
- We must develop better ways to conserve energy, as various sources are diminishing and we must turn to renewable energy. Energy is essential for many things in our daily life, for example, lighting, cooking, and technology.
- The earth used to be abundant with many diverse form of life, but this will not hold true for long, as right now, deforestation and other causes are resulting in over 150 species to become extinct every day. So, we must protect the biodiversity of our earth.
- Water is our most precious resources, and without it, there’s no life. If, keep wasting and polluting it, our lifestyle will be changed drastically until we will no longer be able to survive.
- The earth’s resources are simply unable to deal with our current consumption rate.Recycling is imperative, as many materials that could be reused are being dumped in landfills. It reduces waste, so we can benefit from the resources again.
Therefore, we request leaders throughout the world to take the following actions to change our world into a better place:
- Create and enforce laws that improve efficiency and safety in production, consumption, and conserving energy;
- Educate and involve people in reforestation activities, and ensure the sustainable management and protection of our forest and other habitats;
- Protect the quality and quantity of our water resources in order to ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all;
- Enable innovation in materials, process, facilities, and products that create and improve recyclability.
- We believe you should lead by example, and as such, we petition you to implement and enforce these measures.
We also had a closing ceremony. We saw our hand painting banner that we made last night, sounds “WE THE CHILDREN NEED YOUR HELP TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT”. At that time, we choose 10 Junior Board for the next TUNZA International Children Conference on the Environment 2006 in Malaysia.
At night, we had a farewell party. We trade our e-mail, our sign and took some pictures with the other delegates. At that time, all of the summit participants wear different costume from their countries. We, Indonesia delegates wear BATIK. Some delegates showed their traditional dancing and singing.
It was a fantastic time to attend the 2005 Children’s World Summit for the Environment. I represented my country, Indonesia, I can learn many interesting ideas and solutions, have many new friends from all over the world. And know how strong and wonderful is the children power. Together we can do it.
30th July 2005
Today we moved to Tokyo by Shinkansen. We spent about 2 hours in there. After that we went to Meguro Station by train. But we got an accident in there. We leave our laptop and our tickets at that train. But praise the Lord, we can found it back. Because we were very tired so we slept earlier.
31st July 2005
Today we went to Imperial garden. It was so beautiful. We can see local trees in there, off course we took many pictures. It was a wonderful garden. Come on friends, let’s plant the trees. Like our commitment, we must plant 10 trees every month to make everything better.
After that we had shopping at Ginza to refresh our mind. We also went to Shibuya and found Disney store in there. Shibuya is very crowded but the people still discipline to the rules. What a happy day.
1st August 2005
Hmmm.. Past the 1st day of the new month we had breakfast at Starbucks. The coffee was so delicious. After that we bought some dolls at Dare Bear and went back to Annex.
Oh no!!! The door was locked. There was no body at our apartments, where are Roni and Happy? They gone!!!
But based at that tragedy we can met 2 new friends. They are Retta and Ninda. I like them so much. They are so friendly. We had lunch at their apartment at 5th floor. At night, we went to Mushashi and shopping with them. We also had purari, it’s Japanese picture so we can design it ourselves. Now we just like 5 old friends.
2nd August 2005
Today we met the Indonesian Ambassador for Japan in Tokyo, Mr. Abdul Irzan. We told hime about our environment project, gave our pictures and pins. After lunch we went to the ministry of the environment of Japan. We learn about Japan’s environmental condition, the problems and also the solutions. In Japan, they used eco label and do a lot of good habits. We must do it in our country.
Then, we went to Asakusa, bought some oriental souvenirs. There we can saw Asakusa Temple. The gate is so huge, we also saw traditional “Becak” in there.
After that we had Teriyaki for our dinner with Mr. Anggoro, Mr. Wisnu and Mr. Hidayat from the embassy. I like it very much. Now I’m very tired. I made 6 reviews at one day. Phiuuh … I want to sleep now. C U tomorrow.
3rd August 2005
Today we went to Disneyland, a dream land for us. It’s so … wow!!! very amazing. We met all of the Disney Characters, saw Disney electrical parade and also got a lot of fun at 4 lands. They are Adventure land, Fantasy land, Toon Town land, and Tomorrow land. We felt that use are in the fairy tale.
But I missed something at that place. Although Disney Land is a nice place for having fun, it’s not educated for the people and the children, especially about environmental education. For example is about throwing waste.
Disneyland already have many bins in every corner. But, they don’t prepare a view dustbins to separate the garbage, the organic and the un-organic.
Disneyland doesn’t have any places that can tell us about the environment. They only serve, game, cute toys, but you can’t see an exhibition room in there. I hope when I go to Disneyland again I will see all of them.
4th August 2005
I’m feel happy today, because I can meet a lot of Indonesian friends in the afternoon. Yeah, we went to Indonesian school at Tokyo. At there, I share my environmental project and what we did in Japan. We also tell them about our club, Tunas Hijau.
How surprise for me when I heard that all of the students had been very interest with the environment, and also our projects. We will keep contact and share our knowledge and solution via email.
At night, we have farewell dinner with some staffs from Indonesian Embassy. Before that, we spent a wonderful hour at Harajuku. We took Purikura and shopping again. Today is the last day for us, tomorrow we will go back to Surabaya.
5th August 2005
Today is the last day for us. We must go home, hiks..hiks… Good bye Tokyo, good bye Japan… Thanks for giving me very beautiful moment with you.