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A group of teenage Jersey Scouts will be learning how to travel as fast as bullets ahead of a trip of a lifetime to take part in the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan next summer.
The six boys and three girls are off to London this weekend to practice hopping on and off the Tube with all their luggage on their backs so that they are well prepared to take Japan’s notoriously fast Bullet train.
They’ll be racing round the Underground with other scouting groups from Leicester, Derby and Coventy.
Assistant Explorer Scout Leader Greg Ruellan said: “This weekend’s trip to London is our first priority to make sure all 40 of us can get on and off with our kit bags intact without leaving someone on a platform - or stuck in a carriage as the train hurtles off to its next destination.”
Around 30,000 teenage Scouts from all over the world will be taking part in the World Scout Jamboree from 28 July to 8 August at Kirara-hama outside Yamaguchi City.
Mr Ruellan hopes one of his charges will be among those picked to take part in a special commemoration to mark the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The Jersey group has just received a £5,000 donation from the Lloyds Bank Foundation in the Channel Islands to help boost their fundraising efforts - they need £26,000 to take part.
Mr Ruellan said: “We are grateful to the Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands for its generous donation to our fundraising efforts. We are all eagerly looking forward to the Jamboree and the opportunity to meet fellow Scouts from all over the world, and our three-day sightseeing stay in Tokyo before we take the Bullet train."
After the Jamboree the Scouts will split into small groups and get some “ho-ho” time, spending five days living with local hosts families.
Mr Ruellan said: “I think this will be a massive eye opener for the young people living and eating with locals, who I might add speak very little English. We are going to be getting Japanese lessons and we will be learning about the culture.”
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