Tokyo Field Trips

On Monday we were broken up into our topic groups (youth development for me) and taken to see some relevant programs in Tokyo.

We visited an organisation that is trying to promote outdoor nature activities for young people. These are quite common in Japan as Japanese youth have little experience of nature. Many adults have never climbed a tree! We also saw a childrens and youth theater. Both of these organisations (in west Tokyo) are quite established, they have existed for several decades which is quite a contrast to many other NPOs in Japan who are quite new. The theory behind their approach is excellent. Both seem to have thought about and analysed the effects of being an economy not a society and materialism and the social emphasis on work further than we have in Australia. Japan seems to be further down the corpocracy track than we are. They talked about `turning time into money` which is what Sony do when they produce video games, making money and chewing up kids time in ways that take them away from family, society, nature and activities that develop them as people and empower them.

Driving around on the bus for quite a while through lots of the city I felt quite crowded and almost claustrophobic in a way I've never felt before. There is no open space. Then we came to a space with a baseball field and a river and walking out into it felt like I was able to breathe again after being suffocated. What we Aussies would consider a medium sized open space felt absolutely huge! - I guess that`s Tokyo for you.

That evening we went to the Tokyo tower - a replica of the Eiffel tower light up in brilliant orange at night. This gave a great view of the city at night another perspective on the extent of sky scrapers. Then we went to an Irish pub where I had a great conversation with Steve a youth pastor from Brisbane about faith and life journeys which was fantastic, we have quite similar perspectives on life. I told him about the thinking=feeling=reckoning theory Dave and I had come up with and he told me that the origin of the word reckon is from reconcile (he has a literature background) and about living or wrestling with two contrasting realities. This just adds so much depth to our theory, which I haven`t fully explored yet.

Having lots of fun.

The NPO Forum

A very quick update on the NPO forum which has just finished.

We`ve had a good three days with Japanese delegates joining us for this forum. As usual the workshops have been the best bit even though these have been the only bit without simultaneous translation, ie. we had to wait while things are translated. But English seems to be the dominant language as some Japanese speak quite good English. Workshops were very short though compared to lectures and plenaries which seem to be the local more formal way of doing things.

The Japanese participants have mostly been younger and less experienced than those of us from other delegations, I am actually to the younger end of our delegation and would probably be younger than all of the yanks and Swedes. So the forum has been more beneficial for them than us but we`ve had an interesting learning experience too.

Friday
After some introductory sessions and lectures we had a welcome dinner with some country items. I did a Steve Irwin impression which only the American`s understood, the Swedes didn't know him and the Japanese thought I was Crocodile Dundee, then we all sang Walzing Matilda.

Friday night was excursions in different directions. Our group went to Shibuya, supposed favourite youth hang out in Tokyo. Heaps of people and the size of Shibuya `city` was amazing. One street doesn't look all that different to a Melbourne city street, but there is just street after street after street of shops, clubs, pubs etc. Quite an amazing atmosphere really.

The most interesting stop was an Anime store. For those who may not know Anime (cartoons and comics) is extremely popular in Japan, it is completely normal for adults to read comic books - cool hey! So this was the biggest comic book store I've ever seen, bigger than most of book shops, and comic books come in some quite thick sizes. There are also a range of associated toy figures available. But if that sounds weird listen to this. Right in the middle of the store with no attempt to hide it whatsoever is an isle of pornographic Anime. Quite graphic stuff really, with all parts of the female body shown clearly on the front cover of various books. I of course made a completely scientific sociological study of this element of foreign culture.

Another stop was the 100Yen store ($2 shop) - four story's of it with everything you could want from a local supermarket.


Saturday
The day was mostly lectures and workshops as above but after dinner we had a cultural exchange evening with various elements of Japanese culture on display including:
- Ikedo (not sure of spelling) a Japanese self defense martial art.
- Sake (pronounced Sakae) - Japanese alcohol made from rice ) tasting - yum yum.
- Kimono wearing - for both girls and boys.
- Traditional Japanese toys - great fun,
- Origami, and
- Writing your name in Japanese script - James is actually quite difficult.


Sunday has been mostly workshops until mid-afternoon but it was 15 degrees and fine. I felt like sunbathing! We also got a great view of Fuji Yama (Mt Fuji) and are trying to plan a trip there on our last day.

The forum was all finished by 4pm though so we had some free time for sight seeing and a couple of the locals, Soari and a guy whose name I can't remember, showed us around some more of Shibuya. Firstly we walked through Yoyogi Park, the biggest public park in Tokyo. It's about the same size as the palaces so a couple of times the size of the Alexandra Gardens. There was a large tent city (or tent village really) of homeless people living in tents or just sets of tarps put together for shelter. Homelessness is a growing issue in Japan but is ignored by the media and denied by most Japanese. In the middle of the park we saw some circus performers and a group of people playing drums - some great rhythms and a few people boogy-ing away. All just people hanging out and having fun on Sunday afternoon, not a side of Japan we've seen a lot of. On the other side of the park we walked past a group of skateboarders including a very serious looking 7 year old? Then we found a group of Elvis impersonators dancing along to music playing on their portable CD player - a real hoot. In a small sort of courtyard between the park the railway station and the main street were a group of young people dressed up as dolls or Anime characters and I mean fully dressed up and in character - theater style! They were just finishing up and taking photos of and with each other so I'm not sure what the main event was, I don't think there's any sort of performance but Saori said it's an important thing for young people establishing their identity to explore other identities - fascinating!

We then headed on down to the shops and found the Oriental Bazaar a traditional Japanese shop apparently well known by tourists. It's Japanese style architecture certainly stood out from the surrounding western style shops and it's products were clearly in keeping with a more traditional Japanese style. We were told though that this is a traditional Japanese store for tourists and you could find more authentic Japanese Shops elsewhere. We had a great time looking around though (even me!) although the prices certainly catered to the more upmarket tourist. I did buy some traditional Japanese wooden Sake cups though (which I plan to use for shot glasses) 4 for about A$20 - not bad. It was certainly good to have some local knowledge in the store so that we didn't get ripped of by some of the more touristy items.

For dinner a few of us decided it was time we needed some Western food and went out for Pizza. Some went back for a quiet night at the hotel, I did some washing and then joined some of the Swedes for drinks at a local bar. The memorable thing about that was that the bar was located off the main road in some narrow windy back streets. This didn't seem to slow down the drivers though so on every corner (and there were many) there was a traffic cop with one of those lit up batons to direct any passing traffic. Not enough traffic for traffic lights, no room for roundabouts but instead of a giveway sign just a cop of every corner! So that's how they have full employment! They've also got what must be the best infrastructure in the world and 6% income tax but after ten years of recession and a badly aging population (30 years ahead of ours) standards of living are dropping and they complain of the government being poor. It's all relative obviously.

Anyway, that was the end of another full day, I'm sleeping like a log I tell you.

James

Tokyo

Hi all this is the first chance I`ve had to access the internet since arrival, would you believe that internet cafes are view and far between in Tokyo! We`ve asked around but not found one yet. You`ll also have to excuse a few typos, this Japanese keyboard is a bit different and I don:t have much time.

I`m having an absolutely fantastic time, almost beach mission like 24 hr adrenalin rush on trying to get check out Tokyo in the small amount of free time we get. But I`m going to try and do this chronologically so let`s start from the beginning.

Wednesday 26th of February 2005
Met the four other`s coming from Melbourne at the airport, had good fun on the flight. Watched Manchurian candidate, Garfield and Cat Women during the flight plus a few video games thrown in. Just before landing we watched a beautiful sunset with brilliant red yellow and blue colours along the horizon, followed shortly after by the moon rising over the ocean with a beautiful reflection in the water. Narita (Tokyo airport 50mins from City) seemed very dark from the air, not nearly as many lights as Melbourne which is not what I expected. We have since seem some typical neon streets in Tokyo.

We then met the rest of the Australian contingent at Narita (7 from Sydney 1 from Brisbane) bus ride to hotel - three level freeways are not uncommon, I even saw one with two levels of freeway over a river!. Checked in and had dinner - first Japanese meal which was great, and a short walk around a couple of local blocks, there's no way I could of slept without at least seeing a bit of Tokyo.

Thursday
Met the Americans and Swedes, all great people, very friendly getting on really well. The Americans all say `don't get me started` about Bush which is great. Formal opening ceremony in the morning and introductory lectures from Japanese bureaucrats via translators in the afternoon - pretty boring. Lunch time excursion we found a shrine right in the middle of inner city residential area, great contrast of open space surrounded by crowded in buildings, beautiful spot, where anyone could offer a prayer. Locals seem to come and do this a any time during the day. After a formal reception in the evening (beautiful Japanese food) I lead the Australian contingent on a one and a half hour walking tour of local suburbs, working it out as I went. We found some Typical Tokyo neon streets and then one of the imperial palaces which cover a huge amount of space, probably more than two or three times the size of Alexander and Botanic Gardens combined.

Before returning to the hotel from the Akasaka Palace we went out to Rapongi the an area known as the international tourist night spot, pretty expensive and full of foreign bars (so funny seeing British and Irish pubs etc run by local Japanese but I guess that happens in Aus too. We were also approached by about 20 pimps within half an hour who had pictures of their girls menu style. But as soon as the pimps realised there were girls in our group they backed off big time. Only saw one hooker actually on the street.


Friday began with a full Japanese breakfast at the hotel, an amazing experience, some tastes very different to what I`m used, some great and others that are more of an acquired taste. Then we went to the NPO forum which is described in another post.


Other miscellaneous impressions of Tokyo/Japan:
Smog is pretty bad, seems visible at night (though it might just be fog or a combination of the two).
From high up, 10 storey buildings stretch as far as the eye can see.
In most places they don`t seem to have the same level of street and general lighting as we do. Even from the air Japan was not nearly as bright as Melbourne. Although central city streets with lots of neon lights are much brighter, just not as common as I expected.

My times up, the Japanese are very punctual, I`ll finish the story some other time, hopefully soon, as we have free internet access this weekend.

cheers
James

Pugsworth in Japan

Hi all

and Welcome to my first post.

I've set up this blog to record my trip of Japan which starts tomorrow. This first post is a bit of background on the trip ahead.

I'm going as part of an Australian delegation on a Japanese government sponsered exchange program for young people with experience working with volunteers in the fields of youth development, aged care, and working with people with disabilities. There are four young people going from each area from Australia, the US and Sweeden plus a contingent leader from each country and of course local Japanese participants. I was invited to apply for a place by a contact from my previous job working with the Victorian Council of Churches but have decided to go representing the VicSRC (Victorian Student Representative Council) whom I've worked with for several years and had the most experience working directly with young people.

The exchange involves a weekend's conference or forum in Tokyo with all participants together sharing their ideas and experience with each other. Then the different areas of expertise head off in different directions. We in youth development are going to Nagasaki for a week where we will have the opportunity to visit places of Japanese cultural and historical significance such as the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Musuem as well visiting various youth centres and programs in Nagasaki. We will also get a chance to do this sort of stuff in Tokyo at different points before we all come together again for presentations and evaluation of the exchange and then return to our home countries.

So the adventure begins tomorrow. I'm really excited about it all. Today has been 35 degrees in Melbourne and the overnight low is expected to be about 20. Meanwhile I'm told Tokyo temperatures will be between 2 and 10, so I'm bracing for a shock.

Please feel free to post any comments you would like to on this blog, it is designed to keep in touch with people while I'm away.

but for now from me it's Oyasumi nasai (Good night)
James