Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Japan!

March 16th-Kimono fun 1

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:53:51 GMT

I was telling Mori-san (my Rotary host counselor) that I had seen Saotome Taichi’s Japanese dance performance and that I wished I could wear a pretty kimono too. XD
Mori-san said that his mom was a Japanese dance teacher and that she had a lot of kimonos at home. He got permission from his mom, so on Sunday, March 16th I visited his mom’s house! Mori-san’s mom was in a kimono. I was a bit confused about what to call her, and Mori-san said it would be good to call her “obaachan” (“Granny”). I also met with Mori-san’s sister and his nephew and niece!

After giving omiyage, etc. we sat around and talked and had tea and Takarazuka Hotel cakes. Mori-san’s relatives said that they were relieved that they didn’t have to talk to me in English at all. (^_^) They also said that I looked young, which was nice because recently my high school friend IM’d me and told me that I looked old in all my pictures. LOL. Everyone was just really nice and hospitable!

Mori-san’s sister and mom and I then went to the Japanese dance room. Mori-san’s mom took out a few kimonos and we picked among them. Mori’s mom helped me into the kimonos, which takes quite a long time compared to Western clothes. We then took many pictures in different locations in the house and with different members of the family. Everyone said I looked like a Japanese person and I was happy. :D I got to try on two different kimonos. Really grateful for that experience!!

I also looked through Obaachan’s Japanese dance photos and videos of her old performances. I really enjoyed that!

I also played a bit of Mozart on their piano. It was nice to play a little bit. I really miss piano since I haven’t gotten the chance to really practice in a many years.

After that, the whole family went out to have fugu! I was really excited since I’ve never had blowfish before!! Everything was really good and I took lots of pictures. I really enjoyed spending time with Mori-san and family! :D Thank you Mori-san!!

March 15th: Rotary PSC party at Asahi Dry

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:37:34 GMT

My semester at Handai (Osaka University) has started!! The start of the school year in Japan is April to coincide with the blooming of sakura. That’s something I just learned this week! I didn’t get a chance to write about Spring Break earlier, so I’ll make a quick summary now of all the fun stuff that happened! I’ll write a few entries on Spring Break. (^_^)

March 15. Rotary PSC party at Asahi Dry (beer hall) in Umeda. Many scholarship recipients attended, but I was the only Ambassadorial Scholar from America. GSE teams and scholars back in Osaka after studying abroad gave presentations. Some presentations included interesting slideshows!

Mori-san and I sat across from Rotarians from Minoh-City. They have club meetings close to where I live, so I’ll be visiting their club to give a speech some time in the near future. Ben, Cultural Scholar from Austria, was also at my table, but I couldn’t talk to him much since he was quite far away. Sadly, it was Ben’s last Rotary meeting, as his scholarship period was ending.

Several scholars and one or two Rotarians performed! There were classical piano and opera performances. Also, Ben is a professional musician and songwriter, so he wrote an original song for Rotary! He sang about his experiences and it was a great song with meaningful lyrics. For more of Ben’s music, please visit www.benshmusic.com. :D

The only bad thing about the party was that everyone was talking during the performances. It made it hard to hear the songs and I felt that it wasn’t respectful for the performers.

At the end everyone held hands in a circle and sang the Rotary song! (^^) This time I knew the lyrics because they flashed the lyrics on a screen. I really felt like part of the Rotary family! It was a really nice moment. (^_^)

Took some pictures and went home. Mori-san bought me two 551 pork buns at the train station. They were really good! Better than pork buns in China. :D

Hanami with PSC Friends!

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:04:43 GMT

Today I went hanami (flower-viewing) with friends from PSC (the Rotary Past Scholars' Club)! It was really fun! All the sakura (cherry blossoms) are in full-bloom now so we decided to go to the park near Osaka Castle to enjoy the flowers. Nakahara-san organized the whole thing and I really appreciated it!

I met up with Nakahara-san at Umeda Station, and we rode the train together to Osaka Castle and met up with Hebi in the station. The flowers in the park around the castle were really beautiful. There were a lot of people and the line to the ladies' room was really long!! There were a lot of food booths selling castellas and Osaka food. We all bought some food and met up with Nagira-san. We then headed over to the main park and Nakahara-san bought us all admission tickets. :)

We put out a plastic sheet and sat around and ate mochi snacks that Nakahara-san had brought. It was fun to sit outside and chat and to enjoy the nice weather. People around us were playing catch and badminton on the grass. Not long after, Ishida-san joined us too! I remembered her from a Rotary party in December.

For dinner, we all went to a fancy Chinese restaurant and had Cantonese food. I noticed that everything was at least 10 times more expensive than in Hong Kong or China...LOL. Spring rolls were really different from real Chinese spring rolls...Everything was pretty good though. I had a lot of lettuce + ground meat. The dumplings were also very good. We were joined by Hamasaki-san, who studied abroad in Brazil with Rotary many years ago. I had met him at the Rotary party in March too. During dinner, Hebi taught everyone how to fold chopstick holders with the paper chopstick wrapper that comes with disposable chopsticks. We also started folding napkins and wet towels...

After dinner, we went over to the bookstore as everyone was interested in origami books. :)We then wanted to go somewhere for dessert so that we could hang out and talk more, but the one nearby place in the Keihan Mall that was open was all full. So we decided to buy food and alcohol at a convenience store. We sat outside next to the river and the weather was great. Hamasaki-san mixed drinks for everyone. There were blends of Coke, milk tea, and coffee with whiskey and plum wine. I don't drink so I had tea and chocolates. (^_^)v It was fun to sit around and talk. After a while the lights around the building turned off. As a result it was really dark but the atmosphere was really nice.

At some point Nakahara-san was saying that Hebi looked like a person right out of "West Side Story"...and Hamasaki-san started talking about "Gekidan Tottemo Benri," a musical company. He is friends with the director of the musical company, Oono-san, because they went to school together! I was really excited because I really like that musical company and I have a lot of respect for that director. I had gone to see his recent production, "Complex," in Osaka in December. Hamasaki-san called up Oono-san on his cell phone and let me talk to him! I was so excited and kind of nervous to talk to Oono-san. I told him that I really liked his production and that I thought it was really well-written. I also told him that my mom from America and my sister also went to see it. I said, "I'm a big fan of Takane Fubuki...I'm really glad that I was able to see a show with her in it!" Oono-san said "Yes, she is great, isn't she? I'll tell her about this next time." He then asked me when I was leaving Japan and I said late July. Oono-san said, "You can come over to our show in Kyoto in June! and just say you are a friend of Oono-san and you can come backstage too." This is all too exciting for me. PSC and I are going to the theater in June!Wow. There really are a lot of cool people in Rotary. and cool people in Rotary know other cool people. What a small world!

Sayonara Grandpa.

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:33:32 GMT

Hi everyone. I haven't written here in a long time. I'm sorry to everyone who has been waiting for a new entry in my blog. I've been on Spring Break, and a lot of fun stuff happened...but also my grandfather passed away during Spring Break. I haven't written in the blog since then, and I've also been really slow to respond to emails. I still went out with friends when I was invited, but sometimes I went home early and things like that. If you've written an email to me and I haven't responded yet, I apologize for the delay. I'm sad that I won't get to see my grandfather anymore, but I hope he is in a better place now. Actually, I believe that I will see him again some day. He is probably watching over me right now.

I realized that I really have to value everyone around me. My family and friends are really important to me, and I really want to make the most of my time with them. I would like to be a good daughter to my parents and to be a good person in general in order to honor my grandfather.

I'm grateful that I got to meet up with my grandfather last summer!

I'll try to catch up on all the great stuff that happened during Spring Break in my blog! There were many days that I just didn't feel like writing but I'm coming back to this journal! Thanks for reading!

Kyoto National Museum！

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:45:12 GMT

Thanks to Nakahara-san, a friend through Rotary, I have a Kansai Museum Grotto pass. There are discount coupons and free admission tickets to some famous museums and tourist attractions in the Kansai area. I decided to be a tourist for a bit so I went to Kyoto yesterday! I went to the Kyoto National Museum. It was great. I’d like to do a lot more sightseeing this month, as I am on Spring Break right now. I really like looking at artwork and artifacts!! I was planning to see two or three museums in Kyoto, but as usual I took a long time looking at all the interesting displays in the museum and didn’t have time to go anywhere else. I was in the museum for about five hours, from 12 to 5.

Since Girls’ Day (Hinamatsuri) was March 3rd, there was a special display of dolls. I think I actually learned quite a bit. I saw different types of dolls like Gosho dolls and Tachibana dolls. There were three grand doll sets that were very impressive, in addition to displays of individual dolls from different times in Japanese history. It was interesting to see the doll set from the Meiji period. I had never seen a doll set in which the Emperor and Empress were dressed in Western-style, military outfits!

Also there was a special exhibit of painted wood carvings. The portraits of people in wood were extremely life-like. I could have expected them to move at any second! There were also some tiny human figures with amazing detail.

I also saw huge wooden Buddhist carvings (many from Kamakura period) and beautiful Buddhist paintings, calligraphy, lacquer bowls, porcelain, kimonos and embroidery, bronze statues, roof tiles, and even blades from the Paleolithic Era. There was some Chinese and Korean artwork.

Compared to the Nara National Museum (which I visited in the Fall), there were many more pieces from Kyoto temples and from the Heian Period.

The weather was great. It was nice strolling around at night too. I walked around a shopping center near JR Kyoto Station. I found a really nice trucker hat (black with Japanese floral designs) and I always wanted a hat like that…but as it was 3000 yen I decided to walk away. Food was pretty expensive too, in my opinion. I ended up getting a sandwich and a beef croquette. The sandwich was really good. But I was quite surprised because there was a lot of butter in it!

At night it got kind of shady though…I noticed there were a lot of women on the street passing out flyers to men. When I passed by they didn’t hand me anything…

Yay Kyoto! I would like to go again soon! I felt very tourist-like.

Counseling Group & Symposium in Kobe

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:01:32 GMT

March 2nd: For schoolwork, went to Kobe to observe the “Remember Kobe” counseling group for families of suicide victims. It’s a good place for people to share their feelings and get support from others going through similar experiences. No pictures were allowed, as everything has to be confidential. It was my third trip to that group.

I can share about myself, of course. In the past, I talked about my experiences and such, and people were very interested to hear about the situation in America and in American schools. This time, I talked about the suicide problem from the point of somebody going into the medical field. At some level, I can’t disagree with euthanasia or doctor-assisted self-death in some cases. I feel very conflicted about the issue whenever I read about it in the news or learn about it in school. As a doctor, of course I would never do anything illegal…but I also believe that a physician’s job is to ease pain and suffering, and to listen to the needs of the patient. Of course I am absolutely against suicide. We are losing too many people to this problem and there are things society can do. but in the case of a terminally-ill patient in severe pain, with no hope of getting better….I just don’t know anymore! This is probably a problem I will have to think about later in my career…I wonder how laws in America surrounding this problem will have evolved by then.

March 9th: Had lunch alone at a really good Japanese restaurant in Bee's Kiss shopping complex in Kobe. I was in Kobe to attend a symposium. The topic was emotional care for families of suicide victims. There was also information on current programs by the Japanese government and NGOs. OMG it was so boring. I am very sorry to criticize the symposium, because people put a lot of work into it…but many of the speakers did what we scholars were taught NOT to do at orientation last year. For example, the speakers read off the slides, apologized before the speech, made slides with too many words…I would have preferred to read a textbook. I was kind of just waiting for it to end, honestly. It was four hours long, in Kobe near Harborland. The good thing is I got some really useful pamphlets and things that can help me in my schoolwork.

Yang (graduate student who is mentoring me) was in a suit and did a good job as the emcee. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of course at this symposium to respect the privacy of the attendees. But I’ll include a pic of me that day in Kobe! I took a picture by the water.

There has been really nice weather in Osaka/ Kobe lately!! It’s kind of like SF or Berkeley in Spring!!

Outbound Scholars Orientation at Museum

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:41:04 GMT

This was a little while ago, but earlier this month, on March 1st, I went to the Scholars’ orientation for Osaka Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars studying abroad next year. Ben (Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar from Austria) and I were both invited to attend. I met up with my friend Hebi (outbound scholar for Scotland) on the train to Umeda and we went to the orientation together. We got there a little early so we went to a coffee shop upstairs with two Rotarians and hung out for a bit. It was really different from the orientation I went to in San Jose last year! I’m glad I got to experience the orientation for Japanese Scholars.

The event was held at the Entrepreneurial Museum of Challenge and Innovation! We were in a seminar room, and each Scholar sat with his or her respective Rotarian counselor. There were some introductory speeches and things, and then a museum docent showed us a video about the history of business in Japan. I regret that I fell asleep a bit during the video…nobody saw so that was good. (^_^;) It was dark and all…It was an educational video! Mori-san (my host counselor) said that he also learned a lot and found it interesting!

Each outbound Scholar gave a short speech. I was really surprised but I was suddenly called up to say a few words. I gave a brief self-introduction and thanked my host counselor and host club. Then, Mori-san was surprised because he was also called up to say a few words. (^_^) Mori-san said that when he signed on to become my host counselor, he thought that it would be really difficult, but he was surprised at how easy it was. He said that I knew a lot about Japan and went to a lot of places on my own, so he didn’t have to do much as a counselor. Mori-san was just being modest!! He has done so much for me. I am really grateful for everything that he has done for me. (^_^)

I was happy to see my friends speak! Not that I have anything to do with their success…but I think I am just really happy for them!

We then went on a tour of the museum with the docent. The secretary from the District Governor’s office and the museum employees gave Ben and me English audio guides. But when we were on the tour I found that I preferred listening to the docent. She gave good explanations, and somehow I feel rude listening to a tape player when there is a person talking in front of me.

I learned a lot about Japanese business leaders. One person that I already knew quite well was Kobayashi Ichizo, founder of Hankyu Railways, Hankyu Department Store, and Takarazuka Revue Troupe. (^_^) Hankyou Department Store I also learned about Mizuno, who started a movement to make baseballs uniform size and weight. I also learned that the name Suntory from Suntory Beer was derived from the word “Sun” (for Japan) and “Torii” (name of the founder). There weren’t that many exhibits, but a lot of signs with explanations of each business leader in history. I have a very detailed guide book from the museum Will read it more when I get the chance. It’s very educational.

The reasoning behind this whole tour during the Scholar orientation was that outbound Scholars are representatives of their home country. In order to be good representatives, they should have a good understanding of the history and background of their country so that they can share information with others abroad.

There was a reception afterwards. I was happy to talk to Takata-san, a Rotarian who had invited Rotary Scholars and Rotarians to see her Japanese dance performance in early February. She is a skilled dancer and used to be an actress in the Takarazuka Revue Company! It was an honor to talk to her. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her the day of the performance, but at the reception I told her that I really enjoyed the show, that I got really interested in Japanese dance, and that she was really beautiful. She showed me a photo book of her performance that day. It was a really beautiful book and I stood around admiring it with my host counselor and with Hebi. Hebi and I also talked to Kawauchi-san, who came to the Rotary event in a pretty kimono. Takata-san and Kawauchi-san were the only two female Rotarians. Unlike in America, it is very rare in Japan for women to be Rotarians!! So far in Japan, I have only met three female Rotarians.

Also talked to a Rotarian who is a professor at Osaka University, where I am studying.

At night, all the Scholars went to Leffe for a drinking party. I drank oolong tea and grapefruit juice. There was really good bread and pizza there. (^_^) I really enjoyed talking to the other scholars! It was so fun! About four girls and four boys went. I thought it was interesting how when we sat down, all the girls naturally sat in a group and boys sat in a group. Not that we didn’t talk to the other side of the table as well. But in general girls hung out with girls and boys hung out with boys. I was told that that was a very Japanese thing to do. At last time’s party, the feeling was more co-ed. I don’t mind either way. Didn’t feel weird at all. LOL. It was really fun. We hung out until almost midnight, then headed back home on the train.

My sister was visiting Osaka that weekend. In the two days after the orientation, we went out with my friends. Went out to sushi in Shinsaibashi, made dumplings, karaoke...(^_^)

More pics coming soon!

Speech at Osaka Tsurumi Club!

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:40:05 GMT

Last Tuesday, on February 26, I gave a speech at the Osaka Tsurumi Club meeting. I was invited by Satoh-Sensei. I had met Satoh-Sensei two times before at the PSC (Past Scholars Club) Christmas party and also at Takada-san’s Japanese dance performance. I met up with Satoh-Sensei at Kyobashi Station and then we rode the train to Taiko-En.

Taiko-En is a really pretty banquet house and the Tsurumi Club holds meetings there once a month. They also have weekly meetings at another location. The banquet house used to be the vacation home of a Japanese baron, so it was very grand and was a fine example of Japanese architecture! There were also Hinamatsuri dolls displayed because March 3rd is Hinamatsuri (Girls’ Day).

I got a chance to meet many Rotarians before the speech, during lunch. When it was time for my speech, Satoh-Sensei went up to the podium and introduced me. I was very impressed by his introduction. It really meant a lot to me. He said that I was a guest from the United States, and that I was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar sponsored by the San Francisco West Club. He also said that many Japanese people think that “American” means “Caucasian” but that that isn’t true. As can be seen now with Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, America is a country of many races and cultures. Satoh-Sensei said, “Joyce’s face is Asian, but she is Chinese-American and she really is an American.” Satoh-Sensei also said that the idea of what an American is is starting to change in Japan.

Satoh-Sensei’s introduction was really deep! I was really surprised and appreciated that. I know that in Japan many people still think of “American” as “white.” In Japan, when I say that I am American, a lot of people ask me, "Are you a half?" ("Half" would mean I had one Asian parent and one white parent.) I was born and raised in America…so of course I don’t like it when people think I am Chinese more than I am an American. I identify myself as American. I hope that more people around the world will understand that America is a melting pot and that the country is very diverse. That is one of the things I really love about my country.

I completed my speech with no problems. Talked much about my experiences with San Francisco Rotary and about volunteering in America. I also exchanged banners with the club president. The club also presented me with a very pretty bouquet of flowers! (Afterwards, at a local supermarket called Daiei, a store employee about my age came up to me and told me that those were her favorite flowers. She asked me why I was holding flowers and I said I had just come from a speech at the Rotary Club.) (^_^)

Satoh-Sensei also made copies of my Rotary First Report (Japanese version) and passed them out to all the Rotarians so that they could get to know me better. I received a lot of compliments on my Japanese. :)

After the speech, I walked around the beautiful Japanese garden with Satoh-Sensei and we took pictures. It was raining lightly but the banquet house staff let us borrow umbrellas. There were stone Buddhist statues and bridges and ponds in the garden. We also saw a heron. It was very “Japanese” and peaceful. There was also a Christian chapel in the garden because Satoh-Sensei said that most Japanese couples like to do Western-style weddings.

Had a good time!

Visited with my friend's family at night. Everyone was so nice. I was so happy to spend time with my friend's parents and sister!

Kyoto with Mina and friends!

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:19:42 GMT

I have a seikatsu ("for living") tutor named Mina. She is a fourth-year student at Handai, and she's basically paid by the university to help me out if I have trouble living in Japan. Since we were both busy, unfortunately, I hadn't met with her much throughout the semester. I ask her questions about Japanese language and grammar sometimes. She is very helpful and nice! A really dependable person.

Yesterday, Mina invited me to visit Kyoto with two of her friends! Kyoto is less than an hour from Osaka. The last time I was in Kyoto was probably when I was 15. I remember seeing Nijo Castle, Heian Shrine, and other traditional sites. When I was 15, I also saw a porcelain doll in Kyoto that looked almost exactly like I did when I was four or five years old! I remember that looking into the face of the handmade doll eerily felt like I was looking at myself...I regret that I didn't buy it but it was so expensive at the time. That was my memory of Kyoto. It was a while back.

Since we don't live in the same area of Osaka (I live in Minoh City and Mina lives in Suita City), I met up with Mina on the Hankyu train headed for Kyoto. We used our keitai (cell phones) and text messaged each other until she found where I was sitting. When we got to the station, I saw big roads and tall buildings. More city-like than my last impression of Kyoto, but I think it was because it was a different area. We were at Kawaramachi Station, so there was Takashimaya and Hankyu Department Stores, OPA, and all that. Of course it wasn’t anything like Shinsaibashi or Umeda in Osaka but it was not very quiet. We met up with Mina’s friends and walked around.

We walked at an incredibly slow pace, though. I am never that slow, except when I am walking with my grandmother on the streets of Hong Kong. The reason is that there were a lot of pretty crafts and things in Kyoto stores. We saw all sorts of pretty fans, pouches, dolls, Kyoto snacks, cosmetic products, and chirimen (a type of cloth) decorations. I also really liked the hand-painted T-shirts and trucker hats and sneakers that we saw because they had floral Japanese designs that I love. I wish I had one of those black T-shirts with sakura falling over the shoulder or a stalk of bamboo on the side or a goldfish swimming across it. They were so simple and elegant! But they were like almost US $80. So I was mostly window-shopping…I still have to pay rent! (^_^) and heating has been really expensive lately. My gas bill is really high…

As we walked along, eventually things got quieter and quieter and more Kyoto-like. We stopped for a lunch and I ordered a tamago-donburi (egg rice).

We visited temples together and walked around in the parks around the temples. It was very peaceful and the sky was very blue. It was a nice day and not too cold. In front of the temple, we saw an old lady selling cell phone straps for 300 yen. OMG she was such a good sales person. Really smart. She kept on saying things like, “Come on! You girls want to get married, right?” because the phone strap was a red string and supposedly was lucky and would help us meet people.

Recently a lot of people have been telling me that I should start thinking about marriage (what the?) and so Mina jokingly said that I should get one. Well I didn’t get one. And part of it was me being stubborn and fighting against all this talk of marriage. (LOL I’m not especially looking right now and I’ll be fine even if I don’t get married!) But the obaasan was such a good salesperson that Mina’s friend Yumi bought one after a few minutes. The granny was really funny too. Like “Thank you! Now Granny can have a hot meal today” and things like that…LOL. And she looked at the rest of us and was like, “That’s all?! What about the rest of you, huh?”in a hostile tone (joking) and then quickly smiled and said “Ookini”(thank you). She was talking in Kyoto-ben (Kyoto language).

My friends said they weren’t sure about the proper way of praying at a temple, but we figured it out from watching other people. People bowed once, threw money into the thing, bowed again, rang the bell, and clapped two times (to make the god aware of their prayer). I said I wouldn’t do it at first, since I’m not a Shinto believer. But then I thought, well I am in Japan and this would be an interesting experience, so I did it. I hope somebody up there is watching out for me. (^_^) We threw in 5 yen, because it sounds like “go-en”…In Japanese, “goen ga arimasu you ni”means “Such that I will be destined to meet with good things/ fortune” (Sorry this my really rough translation of it…somebody please correct me if there is a better way to say it.)　It’s bad to throw in 10 yen because that would be “Juu-en,” which sounds like the word for being far away from “en” (chance). That’s something I learned yesterday. I didn’t know before that the coin you threw in mattered!

We saw a store for maiko taiken, where people get to dress up like geisha and have their pictures taken. I would like to do this some day! It costs almost $70. You get 10-minutes in the makeup and the kimono. They take one picture for you, and then you can take as many pictures as you want with your own camera, but you have to take off the kimono in 10 minutes. (Very Cinderella-like!!) When I was leaving, a tourist came in looking very confused. She asked the store employee, “Does anybody speak English here?” All the employees shook their heads. I felt so sorry for the tourist! So I said, “Hi. I speak English. I don’t work here, but is there something you would like to ask me?” She said, “Yes!” So I explained to her how the store was charging for the maiko experience, and how a phone reservation in advance was required, etc.

When I was translating, the store employee said, “Yes. So please explain that to your friend.” When I said that I wasn’t the tourist’s friend and that I was just translating, the shop owner was very surprised and said “Wow! Thank you for going out of your way to translate for us!” My friends were laughing, too. The tourist said she appreciated my help. She was from Singapore but couldn’t do the maiko experience after all because she was flying home the following day. She asked me where I was from and I said America. (^_^)v

It was easy to interpret a bit. I remember visiting Kyoto when I was 15. My Japanese was horrible then! It’s hard to get around in Japan if your Japanese is bad, because most people don’t speak English. So even though I was about to leave the store I just couldn’t leave that poor Singapore person alone like that…

When I was 15 and in Japan on my family vacation, a lot of regular Japanese people on the street helped me out!! I will never forget their kindness!

My friends and I walked along the streets of Kyoto and I felt like I was on a movie set of old Japan. The streets were really narrow. People in rickshaws passed by. We saw some girls who were doing the maiko experience. They looked really pretty in their kimonos! We stood around and watched them for a while and took pictures. I thought it was interesting how they looked really classy and like they had stepped out of an old Japanese painting…and yet they were using their cell phones and digital cameras and talking like regular schoolgirls.

I passed by a theater and saw a poster for a collaboration between Chinese Kunqu opera and Japanese kabuki actors. How interesting! I think I am not going to see it though. I will see Chinese opera the next time I visit China. I look forward to seeing more Japanese stage performances though.

At night, the street smelled like meat. Actually it smelled a lot like the streets of the Tenderloin district in SF where I used to hang out as a 6th-grader. I feel at home in Japan. :)

I took a few pictures of nighttime Kyoto before leaving. I love seeing the streets all lit-up!

That was my day in Kyoto! I look forward to visiting again. Maybe I’ll do the maiko experience with my sister when she comes to visit.

Valentine's Day with Katano Club!

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:42:05 GMT

This was a big week for me. I was busy because it was the end of my first semester at Osaka University...Actually the nickname of Osaka University is Handai (kind of like how University of California, Berkeley is "Cal") so I'm going to call the school Handai from now on here on LJ...

I had to turn in a semester-end report to Department of Human Sciences...but most of my week was dedicated to memorizing my speech for the Rotary Club. I really cared about doing a good job on it. I've had shorter speeches in the past, but this one was for 20 minutes. I talked about Rotary service projects in San Francisco and my first (obviously very good) impressions of Rotarians as a high school student. I also talked about the suicide problem in Japan compared with that in the US, because that is what I'm studying at Handai. I had a podium and I could have read off the paper but I really don't like doing that. It's really important to me to be a prepared speaker if at all possible so of course I memorized the whole thing. I just sat at home and forced myself to memorize the four pages. (^_^)v I didn't have music or TV or anything on to distract me. There were times when I fell asleep while practicing...haha...It was boring, but in the end it felt really good to know my own speech well.

Katano is about 1.5 hours away from where I live. So that day (happened to be Valentine's Day)I got up at 8 AM, microwaved some fish for breakfast, and got my suit together. Probably my one regret though is that I was having a bad hair day. There was nothing I could really do to fix it! I already tried hair wax and hairspray! I hope the Rotarians didn't mind. It wasn't crazy or anything, but not the best. It did look less horrific after I put the suit jacket on. LOL (^_^)

Katano Rotary Club was great. That is my host club and the Rotarians are always very nice. In Japanese Rotary Clubs there are very few female members. There is only one female Rotarian at the Katano Club. There is also one female secretary named Kinoshita-san who is very nice and always emails me thoughtful comments on my speeches and reports. I appreciate that.

I rode the train to Katano-shi station and Mori-san, my host counselor, picked me up there. He has helped me so much since I got here! Especially with moving into my apartment. He got furniture for me from faraway places and let me borrow a lot of his stuff, including refrigerator, TV, VCR, and pots and pans.

I think my speech went well. I didn't do anything wrong, and I think I said my speech clearly and with confidence. Afterwards, some Rotarians came over and asked me, "Where did you learn to speak such beautiful Japanese?" and things like that. Actually in October, after my first speech at the Katano Club, the Rotarians acted very amazed and one even said that my Japanese was the best of all the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars he had EVER met. (^_^) Of course, I was happy to hear that because I had worked hard to prepare the speech. Honestly, though,I thought that that first speech was quite regular. It was decent and clear. I made no mistakes and had confidence, but I did not think it was like an amazing show or anything. However, the Rotarians seemed VERY impressed somehow so I was surprised. They kept complimenting me on my Japanese! Somebody even said that a lot of Japanese people can't speak as well as I do...I guess she meant public speaking.

One of the things that I was worried about during my speech was that very few Rotarians looked at me while I was talking. In America, people look at the speaker to show that they are attentive. but at the Katano Club, many of the Rotarians closed their eyes and looked straight ahead. I was worried that I was being too boring...but I talked on the phone with my sister Nance afterwards and she said that she had seen the same thing happen in Toyama and for all speakers. Nance said that it doesn't mean the Rotarians were bored...it is simply considered more courteous for audience members to look down or something in order to better absorb the content of the speech. I sure hope that is true!! Because I really hope I didn't bore the Rotarians!!

After my speech, I formally exchanged banners with the club and we took pictures.

I think attending Japanese Rotary club meetings is very interesting. I like comparing American clubs with the Japanese ones. In Japan, speeches and the actual meeting happen after the meal, but in America, people eat during the speech. Also, in Japan the meeting starts with everyone singing the Rotary song (it's in Japanese). Then people shake hands with their neighbors.

After the speech, one of the officers reads "messages" from each Rotarian. Most of the messages are formal greetings to the speaker of the day...for example, most of the messages from my day were "Happy to welcome Joyce" or something like that. It actually feels nice to receive formal greetings from the various Rotarians after giving a speech!

Since it was Valentine's Day (and in Japan girls give chocolates to boys), the one female Rotarian gave everyone a piece of chocolate. :)

I had a good time at the club. The Rotarians are really kind and I feel comfortable around them. I was glad to be done with that speech though. I usually get nervous before speeches! Stage fright? but usually when I am actually saying the speech, I hardly feel scared at all for some reason...

I'm going to visit the Tsurumi Club too. I would like to exchange banners there too.

I stopped by Kyobashi on my way home. There's a cheap supermarket there called Tamade. I basically had a shopping spree there and packed my refrigerator with all kinds of seafood. There was so much stuff at the supermarket. and a lot of people there! It took me a long time to find that supermarket. People on the street didn't know where it was either. I wandered around for quite a long time. Then I saw a lady on a bicycle and she was holding a "Tamade" grocery bag so I ran up to her and asked for directions. :)

Oh, it was Valentine's Day. I visited a department store in Kyobashi and it was basically a sea of women. They were all crowding around different counters looking at gourmet chocolate. There were so many different kinds. I didn't buy any chocolate though...it was like US $2 for one piece and I just can't afford that. and I don't really care for chocolate that is that overpriced anyway...haha...

I had the chocolate that the lady Rotarian gave me though!
So that was my fun Valentine's Day! I spent it with the Katano Club!

A blog is born!

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:55:49 GMT

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in starting a blog. I'm having a great time in Japan! I'll try to update this blog as much as possible to keep you updated on all my wonderful experiences with Rotary and about my activities at Osaka University!

First of all, I have a lot of people to thank!! Thank you to Dr. Scharleen Colant from San Francisco #2 for making this year possible!! Thank you to Bill Gilmore from SF West Rotary Club for encouraging me to apply and for guidance since I was a sophomore at Cal! Joanna from SF West and Emily A., a fellow Scholar, helped me prepare for the district interview. Arigatou! and a big shout out to members of San Francisco West Rotary Club (my sponsor club) and San Francisco #2 for showing me what Rotary is about. :) You are all wonderful people and I am glad that I met you. Thank you for your kindness. :)

And Arigatou gozaimasu to all my Japanese teachers and tutors from Cal and Lowell!! I wouldn't be here without you. I am grateful for the Japanese you taught me every time I give a speech, go to school, or run errands.

I'll include this thank-you list in my profile description. (^_^)