Otsu Municipal Hospital will hold the "Summer Wakuwaku Hospital Experience & Exploration 2026" on Saturday, August 8, 2026. This event has been held annually since 2019, except during the pandemic, as part of our initiative to be an open and accessible hospital to the community. It has become a highly popular program, consistently receiving far more applications than the capacity. [Web page] https://och.or.jp/about/event/ Passing our message to the next generation We believe it is essential to communicate with children—the next generation—if we want our hospital to be truly regarded as an indispensable and valued institution in the community. The "Summer Wakuwaku Hospital Experience & Exploration" event was made possible by the collective hopes and aspirations of our staff who wish to be a workplace that children admire as a dream career and where they might one day want to work. A highly popular event with over 400 applications Last year's competition rate reached a record high of over 6 times the capacity! The Summer Wakuwaku Hospital Experience & Exploration has been held since 2019 for elementary school students and their guardians, consistently attracting a large number of applicants. Until two years ago, the capacity was limited to 50 pairs, but to allow more participants, we increased the capacity to 60 pairs starting last year. Despite the increase, we received even more applications—last year saw a record high of 411 pairs applying, resulting in a competition rate exceeding 6 times. The event also achieves high satisfaction, with over 90% of participants responding "satisfied" in last year's post-event survey. Explore areas of the hospital normally off-limits Surgery robot and endoscopy experience are especially popular During the Wakuwaku Hospital Experience & Exploration, participants can explore areas of the hospital normally unseen by the public and experience various hospital jobs together with doctors and nurses. In particular, the surgery robot (da V