A Powell River youth has returned from an international sea cadet experience with stories to tell.
Chief Petty Officer Second Class Tristan Adams spent almost two weeks in Tokyo sightseeing, learning about the Japanese sea cadet program, meeting youth from other countries, visiting historic ships and taking in big city Japanese culture.
“It was a lot of fun and a cool experience,” said Tristan. “It really made me appreciate Canada.”
Tristan has spent the last five years with Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps (RCSCC) Malaspina and is entering his final year.
After a few days in Vancouver with the four other Canadian cadets selected for the trip, they and their chaperone officer flew to Tokyo.
“I didn’t sleep a wink,” said the 17-year-old about his first trans-Pacific flight. “It was too uncomfortable.”
The Canadians were joined by cadets from the United Kingdom (UK), South Korea and Hong Kong for the international exchange hosted by the Sea Friends of Japan, the naval youth program in Japan. “It was quite interesting to see the different uniforms from the different countries,” Tristan said.
During the first week of the exchange the cadets participated in a Sea Friends of Japan national gathering at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Tristan said that his Japanese hosts were impressed with the Canadians’ marching, and he was impressed with the knot tying skills he saw from five-year-old members of the Sea Friends. In Japan, children as young as four are able to join the program and start learning knots that Canadian cadets do not learn until they are teens, he explained.
“Japan’s uniforms are more relaxed than ours and they don’t really march like us,” he added.
Tristan said some of the highlights of the trip were seeing Tokyo from the observation deck of the Sky Tree tower, shopping in the city’s electronics district, going on a roller coaster for the first time, seeing one of Japan’s tall ships — the Kaiwo Maru—visiting a bridge simulator and going out on the water in a Japanese Coast Guard vessel.
The bridge simulator was of particular interest for Tristan who plans to enter the navy after completing grade 12 this year. It is used to train bridge officers on commercial ships. Similar to a flight simulator, it gives ships’ pilots the ability to learn how to handle cargo ships in a variety of circumstances.
Tristan said the experience has helped him better appreciate the support the Canadian department of national defence provides for the sea cadet program. He explained that after talking to cadets from the UK he discovered that they had to pay for not only the trip, but also for their uniforms.
By the end of the trip, Tristan said he was finally adjusting to the heat and humidity. He added that he would like to return to again in the future to experience the more traditional Japan.
RCSCC Malaspina opened its 2013/2014 training season on September 3, but is still accepting registrations for boys and girls aged 12 to 18. Regular training nights are held from 6:30 to 9:30 pm every Tuesday until June 2014 at Timberlane barracks.
For more information about sea cadets or to sign up, readers can contact Dave McLennan by phone at 604.485.5596 or 604.483.3511 or online at [email protected].
