This 2019 summer, TOKIHA is running 3 camps throughout Japan. Our directors put heart, dedication and passion into making sure everything is running and ready for our summer camp experience.

This year we have an amazing duo of directors: Momo and Matthew- who are full of kindness, authenticity and drive.

They are the heart of our camps and guide not only our counselor team, but our campers as well. Momo is 1/2 of our director duo.

Four years ago, as a timid undergraduate student at University of California, Berkeley, I sat in a room with a group of people seeking to reconnect with their ancestral roots in what then seemed like the faraway land of Japan.

I had no idea, that at that point in time, my life would be changed forever when I met the first group of TOKIHA Summer Camp counselors.

Since taking part in this program in various capacities as a counselor and now director, I have experienced leaps of growth and professional development that I could have never imagined was possible. TOKIHA does that, it brings out the unexpected talents and potential in us all.

Why is TOKIHA’s mission impactful and important to you? How does it align with your own goals?

I’ve always been “different.” Kids like that are either celebrities, outcasts, or in hiding. I love the fact that TOKIHA is a space for all three of those types of different youth. We help people to shine — sometimes literally, by hanging christmas lights on them!

But in all reality, we really strive to bring out the best in everyone, to accept our differences and shortcomings, and work on improving everything we have. Our mission to liberate and foster collaboration with each other generates this awesome collective intelligence, which would have never otherwise manifested in the world without this space.

I think that being different was always a part of who I was, and it affects my goals in what I believe to be positive ways. At camp, we create differences, erase barriers, and make the impossible possible. This is important and so very necessary to the progress of society and the betterment of ourselves.

Momo facilitating one of our counselor trainings in Berkeley, CA

What are you most looking forward to at camp this year? What is your mindset going into camp as a director this year?

In 2016, I learned about the benefits of taking risks. I boarded a plane by myself with a vague idea of what I would accomplish that summer. I went to our first TOKIHA camp, served as a reference of liberation and learning, and made lasting connections with the people I met there. Years later in 2019, the same campers I fell in love with and cherished at our little campsite in Fukuoka, have come back to study abroad with me in California.

My mindset over the years has always been motivated and ambitious going into camp. I seek to create something beautiful — almost magical — for our campers.

You know, you go in with this glorious enthusiasm to do all these super radical and creative workshops. The concepts we seek to teach are difficult, abstract, and so beyond what they teach in regular schools. Even though I have experiences and a grasp on how things work, there’s always a bit of freedom that persists through our curriculum.

For example, we lead the conversation in one direction, but our campers are empowered to redraw the path and forge different perspectives which we can’t plan or anticipate. We’re merely guides, but the students have their own driving forces. The freedom for things like that to happen helps check my ambitious mindset into remembering we’re here to uplift students and draw out their inner talents, not so much as to impart wisdom upon them. I think everyone has the wisdom already inside, they just need to find the keys.

Once they unlock that part of themselves, the possibilities are endless at camp and afterwards.

So I suppose, I don’t know what to expect — and that’s the kind of excitement that keeps igniting my hopes and inspiration. Which camper will study abroad in neighboring universities next? Which camper will go on to start their own NPO? I look forward not only to the fun camps we have planned this summer, but also to what campers will do in the long run. Who are you campers, and what will you become? Needless to say, our campers excite me sometimes even more than what I have going for myself: it’s an educator thing.