Wednesday, November 15

7:00am-7:50am: Breakfast at hotel

We sat at tables organized by level we teach. The group at my table wasn't all that talkative though so after a pretty quick Western-style breakfast, I returned to my room to do some updating of my blog and photos before the program began for the day.



8:00am-8:45am: Orientation at hotel

This was another series of formal welcome speeches like those we received in San Francisco. I've noticed that the showing of appreciation publically for everyone involved in the JFMF program is very important. Each speaker makes it a point to do this. I think it reflects on Japanese society at large.

We did receive some security information during this session that included a list of three areas we should avoid. One is just a few minutes from our hotel. It turns out to be the red light district of Tokyo (I know this because a few of the participants unwittingly found it last night.). We were also advised in appropriate responses to earthquakes (the big one is overdue and Japan is the most seismically active country in the world.) and information on terrorism. Like when I travel with People to People, we, as a large group of Americans, stand out and so it's important for us to do the best we can to fit in and move without drawing undue attention to ourselves.

9:00am-10:00am: Host city orientation

We met Keiko, our guide for the visit to Yukuhashi City in Fukuoka prefecture next week. We also got a dose of the group dynamics of our smaller 20 person contingent for that week. Our first hotel in Yukuhashi is in a resort area on the sea so that should be pretty nice. It's also further south so the weather will likely warm up. So far it's been in the 50s and 60s and I certainly won't complain about that in the middle of November.


10:10am: Depart hotel - sightseeing

This wasn't really a sightseeing bus ride. It was the group traveling to our lunch spot while a guide pointed out some landmarks. Tokyo is a massive city that seems to go on forever in every direction. Every square inch (or in this case centimeter) of space is used with high-rise buildings. Even the cemetaries are jampacked. There are people everywhere yet things move smoothly and quickly and the streets are clean. I have seen graffiti and stickers posted on signs just like in American cities, but it seems pretty rare to find garbage strewn about the street. That may partly be due to the cultural belief that people should not eat/drink while walking. It is rude, for example, to sip from a coffee cup while walking down the street. Life is fast paced and people work hard. I like it.

I did take notice of some American signs along the way: Denny's, Starbucks, McDonalds to name a few.

11:10am-12:10pm: Lunch

We stopped for lunch at a traditional style Japanese restaurant where we sat on mats on the floor. Lunch consisted of tempura vegetables and shrimp, salad, miso soup, pickles and an orange.

I ate quickly though because we didn't have much time to explore the are of Akasuka that the restaurant was in and there were a number of shrines and a shopping arcade to take a look through.

One of the more interesting aspects of shrines is the fortune. You put 100 yen into a box, shake a metal container and pull out a number. The number corresponds to a drawer and inside the drawer is a fortune. If the fortune is bad, you tie it off to a post specifically set for just the thing. This is to get rid of the bad fortune.

I also saw people using incense smoke to heal or bring blessing by moving the smoke over their heads or ailing body part.

Another area had water flowing and small metal cups to catch the water. First, the water is used to rinse the hands, to cleanse the body I'm guessing. Then some water is taken into your mouth, swirled about and spit into the lower drainage area. This is followed by another cleansing rinse of the hands. A number of my colleagues used this area as a photo pose, picking up the cup, dumping unused water back into the pool of water rather than the drainage area, etc. I found this to be a bit insensitive and possibly even offensive. The act was clearly one of spiritual meaning to the Japanese visitors and then a group of Americans used it as a stage. I'd have had no problem if they observed the others using the cups and then attempted to do the same thing, but these individuals made no such move. Instead, they ignored the significance of the area. This was one of those - there are the Americans moments I was hoping to avoid.

1:00pm-2:00pm: Visit to the Diet

The Diet consists of the House of Representatives and House of Councilors, similar to the American Congress. We walked through the main chambers and garden grounds outside the complex. The building itself was like any other national legislature I've been in regardless of country. There was almost no information shared about the building or government; we mostly just walked and looked around so it was a bit of a missed opportunity from my point of view. There is a scheduled talk on government tomorrow afternoon though so that should help put things in perspective.

While driving, we also saw the Imperial Palace grounds nearby. This area is/was guarded by stone walls and a wide moat. It is only opened to the public two days a year during special celebrations and the Palace itself is not visible except from inside the complex. It dates back roughly 600 years.

2:15pm: Leave for Keio Plaza Hotel

2:45pm: Return to hotel

3:30pm-6:00pm: Traditional Japanese theater - kyogen, kabuki

There was a lot of interesting information shared during the kyogen and kabuki demonstrations. Instead of a regular performance, the performers told us about these traditional Japanese theater styles and highlighted their descriptions with sample performances so it was educational as well as entertaining.

Kyogen is the oldest form of classical performance in Japan. The gentleman who told us about it, Don Kenny, was from the United States originally, moved to Japan in 1959 when he was stationed here as a member of the US Navy and never went home. (Incidentally this notion of never leaving has been repeated numerous times already as we meet transplanted Americans.) The initial kyogen performance Don performed before speaking seemed somewhat slow and not all the complex, but such an initial reaction was misguided for me. As Don went on to explain his background, we learned he studied opera and classical ballet in Indiana before joining the Navy. He stated that training in kyogen was harder than anything he had to do getting his degree in opera performance. For the music teachers out there, kyogen requires a complete relaxation of the throat to allow free vibration with no tension. Breathing and singing comes from the lower abdomen rather than the chest. Because his "voice" began in the abdomen, Don said he completed an entire performance while suffering from lahryngitis. When he walked off stage, he couldn't speak in a regular voice yet his vocal performance was complete and problem-free. Pretty amazing stuff.

Kabuki derives from words meaning "off-beat" or not quite moral. The singing, dancing and acting that make up kabuki performances originally were performed by women who might be prostitutes or of a similar class of people. For various reasons, women were eventually barred from performing kabuki and boys adopted the female roles. Later, they too were banned and men performed all roles, male and female. Today women are again permitted to participate although it is still somewhat limited. Like kyogen, kabuki seems pretty simple at first glance because movements are slow. The presenter for this session, Mark Oshima (originally of Colorado), explained that seeing it as slow or boring is the fault of the observer and not the performer. He suggested we needed to slow our metabolisms down in order to fully appreciate what was happening on stage. He pointed out the fine detailing of the body movements to demonstrate the incredible body control performers must possess.

All in all, these performances were quite interesting. I spoke with Don privately after his performance he is going to e-mail me some Finale and Microsoft Word files so I have the sheet music and lyrics to a kyogen play which will be pretty cool.

Evening: Dinner on your own

I went out two of the guys I first started talking to at the beginning of the trip (Jason from NJ and Kevin from Alaska), a guy I ate dinner with on the first night in Tokyo (Warren from Tennessee) and a woman I hadn't met before (Liz from Michigan). We braved the rainy conditions and found a conveyor belt sushi restaurant not too far from our hotel.

These conveyor belt sushi restaurants exist throughout the world. Basically, you sit and sushi passes in front of you. When you see something you want, you grab the plate. There were two different styles of plates representing different costs. At the end of the visit, the staff simply counts the plates and then you pay. I tried a few different kinds of sushi; most of the time I wasn't real sure about what it was.

The staff's attentiveness was amazing. When some fish eggs slipped off Kevin's chopsticks onto the table, a woman was wiping it up before he could even move. As people entered with umbrellas, the staff took them and placed plastic covers over them. It was phenomenal.

My total came to about 1700 yen ($15), more expensive than my first night's dinner but still under the budgeted 2000 yen that was provided for us.

We wandered around the streets of Tokyo for awhile, locating the main train station and an area called Times Square in the process. Eventually, we stopped and asked a man standing outside an adult club where we could find a bar or pub to hang out at and he pointed us to one. We stayed at this English Pub for awhile, spoke briefly to a mixed group that included some German exchange students and had a good time talking and getting to know one another.

After having difficulty finding our way back to the hotel, we eventually hailed a cab. That cab drove us pretty much around the block and we were there. A brief stay at a hotel establishment capped the night. I had a great time exploring the city a bit.