I am a working mother in Japan.  I am working for an airline company and I have two children who go to kindergarten.  

I wanted to have International cultural exchange opportunities with kids, and I launched Club Ciel with a great help of various friends.

I personally love international exchange because my outlook on life changed when I went abroad and learned about different cultures. I also want children to grow globally.

I want to travel around the world with my children as many as I can.  If they become teenagers, I would like them to travel the world alone and let them go to home stays and study abroad by themselves. (If they want to ...)

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The number of foreigners coming to Japan is increasing year by year, but I don't have opportunities to interact with foreigners in my daily life in Japan. 

Due to the pandemic situation from last year, 2020, international exchange opportunities have decreased much more. Not only going abroad, but also in Japan, it is difficult to go out and gather in large numbers. 

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However, even in such a situation, I searched for the possibility of connecting the people all over the world. Is there any good opportunity for international exchange...?

I considered a lot and a lot and I came up with the Idea.  If I could use the power of online communication, I could have a world-scale party and both kids and parents can meet new friend all over the world!

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Can children interact by online tool?  Language barriers, time difference issues ... There are various challenges.  However, let's try rather than worry! let's do it!  I thought that way and  I set up an  online event.

I was blessed with friends who agreed with me, and they participated in the event not only from Japan but also from overseas.

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My children also participated.  At first they were very shy and hiding in front of the computer.  Ok, that was expected.  When I was consulting with friends in advance, we decided to take elements of cooking and art such as "cake decoration" and "making sushi rolls", so that children can enjoy working and communicate even if they do not understand the language.

As we expected, kids were enjoying making cakes or sushi, talking to friends over the screen and having fun in the process.

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Kids are beyond my imagination.  They are genius in playing.  Online wasn't a problem at all.  They found a lot of new things from the event.  It's cold here but friends on the other side of the screen are in the summer, and we are in the morning but the other side is at night.  Even online, the children were very active in observing the other side of the screen, wondering, asking questions even if they couldn't understand the language. 

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It wasn't a beautiful event that could go smoothly according to the rules.   But there was a moment when the children first realized the different part of the world.  I think it's great for children to meet the new world through the activities of Club Ciel. I hope that these interests and curiosity will allow kids to voluntarily acquire a global sense.

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And the day when the border opens will surely come.

It may be a year or two years later.

I will fly abroad with my grown-up children. Let's take off to friends all over the world we met at Club CIel!