Pt.6 Japan, Day 20

30Aug10

In the plane right now, should land in Montreal in a few hours now. I have left my blog aside coming to Japan, now I’m thinking I need to write a little bit and wrap up WorldTour2010 as it is coming to an end.
So yeah, I was in Japan for the past 3 weeks or so. Been moving around quite a bit. I went to Tokyo twice to visit two different schools I was considering for grad school. UN University in Shibuya and ICU in Mikata. I had set up meetings with profs before hand so I showed up and asked questions about their peace studies master programmes. I had applied for the Rotary Peace Fellowship earlier this year, applying to ICU. I did the interviews and everything went very well but because I had yet to receive my bachelor’s at the time of application it was hard to pass it through (given its one of their requirements). Meaning I won’t pass this year but I still decided to go check it out and see if it was worth applying for next year. ICU has a very pretty campus, it’s in the outskirts of Tokyo, big campus with loads of green, trees, etc, making you forget you’re in a huge metropolis. It’s a university with master programmes as well meaning you hear you sports clubs practicing etc. UNU on the other hand is right in the city, 10 min walk for the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, making me wonder could I ever lived there, hehe. But in any case, having gone to both, I must say I grew particularly fond of UNU for many reasons that would take long to list, but yeah, next year maybe?

Aside from Tokyo, I’ve been seeing friends in Hamamatsu, traveling to north-eastern Japan (Touhoku Nihon, a region I had never been before… trust me I’ve been around last year), going back to Yamaguchi to visit friends and my host family (where I lived for a year between 2008-2009, student exchange at Yamaguchi Prefectural University).

Before I carry on with the list, I have maybe just a quick note on Yamaguchi and my coming back. I must say it felt really weird to ride the local train from Yamaguchi’s Shinkansen station (coming in from Tokyo). It felt as if I had been brought back in time. And it’s funny because really… my time in Yamaguchi was amazing, I grew so much as an individual living there, so many wonderful encounters, so many amazing friendships, etc. But to me, it felt like that time was done, a “step” or a stage of my life that’s now behind me. I couldn’t help but think that many people who lived similar experiences would probably be there thinking “man, I had the time of my life here, life is so much better here, I want to be back here again”… but for me, no. I’m excited about the next step, I don’t want to stop there. This might make sense to some people, and no sense to others but yeah, that’s how I felt and still feel now. That being said, being back in Yamaguchi was a lot of fun. Had a blast hanging out with friends and doing stuff with my host family. Revisiting profs at my uni and reconnecting with them, etc. It was good for me to consult with some of them on my “academic future” if that even makes sense, hehe.

That reminds me, now this blog post really doesn’t have any structure anymore, but oh well hehe. I flew in to Narita from Delhi airport (coming from Kathmandu originally), it was so funny because everyone in the plane was either Indian or Japanese, before we took off the flight attendants were distributing newspapers, one in Hindi and one in Japanese, she came to me and she was hesitant not knowing what to do, I pointed to the Japanese newspaper (heck I can’t read Hindi…!), opened it and started reading, flipping pages. I felt like everyone around me was staring at me, both from the Indian and the Japanese side hehe. They were probably thinking, “stop fooling around, you’re faking it” but I wasn’t.

It felt so great as well landing in Narita, I couldn’t help but rejoice at the fact that I could finally understand what people were saying. After having been through Swahili, Nepali, etc, Japanese felt like a relief. I also thought it was funny that everyone was Japanese… then today landing at Heathrow I was shocked to see how everyone was so different (funny).

Yeah, okay so Tokyo, Hamamatsu, Fukushima, then Yamaguchi, then what. Okinawa, the southern most prefecture, formally a totally different kingdom (Ryukyu), beautiful place. I tagged along friends who are medical and nursing students or already working in the field and went on a study tour, to this small island of 800 people or less where there is only one clinic and only one doctor, Aguni-shima. We stayed there for 2 days, helping the staff and learning about what it’s like to run a clinic with so little resources, all the challenges involved. It was pretty interesting for me because I knew nothing about medicine and stuff, had never been in a clinic on the “active” side (staff, doc, nurses, etc) but always on the “passive” side (as a patient). The work they do is really impressive (especially given the constraints of the environment they’re in). I was also quite moved to see how the staff cared about the people of the island, treating them with great respect as individuals, not just as “cars” with a problem to fix. I wore a white gown for the time I was there, felt pretty cool although it was way too small for me. It was funny though because when we first got in, we got a patient and the nurse asked me to do something medical, can’t remember what, and I stood there thinking “oh my god, don’t mess up”, hehe. Then we explained I was not a medical student and I took the safe position of observer for the time remaining. Hehe.

We made it back to main island and carried on our “study tour” but in fields outside of medicine. Okinawa has the largest American military base in Asia, and its presence or over-presence on the island forms a strong debate in both Okinawa and the rest of Japan. Not only is it crazy noisy with all the fighter jets flying out and stuff, it’s a foreign country’s army placed in your country. I understood that before going, but hearing people speak about it saying, “these fighter jets are flying out to Iraq today, were flying out to Vietnam during the war, they are going to war, going to kill, all from our homeland” that really struck me, I understood how bad people must feel about that. It’s really complicated though, after Japan’s losing WWII, the constitution was rewritten with a very special, unusual article, article 9 that states that Japan forever renounces the right to war and to have an army, leaving its security in the hands of the US. For some people there, they think this is good because it makes Japan a peaceful nation without an army, frees the children of Japan from ever having to enroll in the army as young adults and fight but on the other hand, it leaves Japan in the hands of US in terms of foreign policy, etc, making it entangled in the US not always so great international relations. In any case, more than ¾ of US bases in Japan are located on the island of Okinawa, taking up a great deal of the land and resources. Okinawans are arguing this is unfair, in some respect a case of discrimination (Okinawa having a different people, different culture, being remote, etc). It’s really a complex issue but really interesting. The US-Japan deal really is peculiar. Definitely something I’d like to study further in grad school.
We got to meet two really interesting people on the main island, Shouichi Chibana and Minoru Kinjou, two anti-war political activists who are fighting for the rights of Okinawans and for the withdrawal or displacement of US bases. So much to write about it. In any case, we got really lucky because Chibana-san took us to two caves, where Japanese would hide during the war in fear of being captured by the Americans. Although the general war principles or rules of war of not attacking civilians etc did apply back then, and were respected by the US, Japan taught its people that the Americans were terrible and that they would rape, torture and kill everyone they captured. The Japanese were told to commit group suicide if the risk of being captured was too high, as suicide was “better” than being captured by the Yankees. Chibana-san showed us two caves, one with 85 something people hidden inside back then and one with a whole lot more (can’t remember, thinking it was close to a 1000 or something). In the second one, two Japanese who had just come back from Hawaii convinced everyone that the Americans were not going to do such things and therefore people were saved. In the first one however, no one knew, they all relied on the information they had been given by their government, and when the Americans approached, committed group suicide. This is where the picture gets really rough, because there were a lot of children in there, and they can’t obviously kill themselves being so young, so the mothers had to do it… Can you imagine? And then when they tried to kill themselves sometimes they wouldn’t succeed and in despair would run outside the cave hoping to get shot by the Americans, but they wouldn’t… how terrible is that. When you walk in the cave you can still see bones and stuff… it’s really terrible. Imagine the moms, the scars on their souls… it’s really sad. Chibana-san is saying that those deaths could have been avoided, that it wasn’t group suicide but rather murders, the killer being the government and the education it gave or didn’t give to its people. He would like to correct history and rewrite the textbooks Japanese kids read for history. Really interesting stuff, but yeah, being in that cave was really gloomy. You could still feel it somehow.

Enough sad stuff, hehe. The rest of Okinawa was great, the sad stuff was great too though because I learned a great deal. But yeah, I just don’t want to finish on that so let me repeat again how beautiful the southern islands are, it really is crazy, paradise on earth. Transparent turquoise water, being August I was a bit concerned about the weather and everything, everyone saying it was going to be crazy hot. Well turns out Tokyo was much hotter, humidity comes in to play here. Being by the seas you get refreshing breeze, etc. It was amazing.

Let me post a few pictures here:

Welcome home in Japanese

Shibuya, Tokyo

United Nations University

UNU

Obon in Hamamatsu

Minori and Kanta-kun, Fukushima

Me & Kanta, Fukushima

Akaza, Minori, Taichi, Me, Fukushima

Fujikawa

Host dad & mom in Yamaguchi

With Mayuko & Mina in Yamaguchi, by Rurikoji

Home in Yamaguchi

Host family party

Me & Basu

With Beth & Mayuko, Yamaguchi

Rurikoji

With Basu and small Aya, Yamaguchi

Habushu, habu = poisonous snake … Sake.

Minori and Kayoko, Aguni-shima

Minori & I at Nagahama Beach, Aguni

Okoshi-san & I, Aguni

Habushu, Habu no awamori… It’s sake… with a poisonous snake inside. Yup I did drink it.

The group in Yomitan, Okinawa – Okoshi, Megumi, Minori, Elliott, Kayoko, Chihiro, & host staff

Okinawa

Good times… !

Anti-war, pro-peace activism by US Marine Corps Facility, Okinawa

That pretty much wraps up Japan, had a wonderful time there. Love it. Coming back a second time I must say I now see it from a much more objective eye than when I first came last year. I now see the similarities a lot more than I did before. I guess my experience in Tanzania and Nepal had an effect there as well. But all in all, I really love it, it’s funny because, now I just finished the video so I realize how much footage I had and how hard it was to fit everything into 10:59 (YouTube’s limit length for videos) but when I was there I felt like I took so much fewer pics and videos than the other segments of my world tour this summer. In some respects it didn’t feel like I was “traveling” being there. I was visiting schools, driving my friend’s car, hanging out with buddies, studying about Okinawa, the war, US relations, etc, I don’t know, totally different feel. I could understand what people say, make myself understood, much easier than Tanzania or Nepal, or even Spain for that matter, hehe. Yeah I don’t know, was great to be back and hopefully I’ll be back again soon. September 2011? United Nations University? Who knows. In any case, I had a great time and I’m really glad I made Japan my last stop on this tour, for many reasons.

Attaching the YouTube Video:  (Should be up and ready within a few minutes)

Enjoy!

–

I should probably write a little bit to wrap up the whole thing too. I’ve been gone for 4 months now, running around, going places, doing things (wow, that’s vague, hehe). No but really, from taking care of the cutest kids in world in an orphanage in Tanzania to building toilets for low caste families in Nepal, from going on Safari in gorgeous national parks to climbing to Everest Base Camp, from learning about International Relations in Geneva to presenting my research in Multicultural Management in a conference in Barcelona, I’ve been busy, doing really interesting stuff. I no doubt grew up in the process a lot. But I guess what I am most grateful for is the encounters, the human faces, the new friends, the common stories. I can think back of my fellow volunteers in Tanzania, we had such a cool group, really fun bunch of people, to my host sister Ana and grand ma Bibi in Arusha… my host family in Nepal, my host sister Susma and my bro Diwakor, the people of the village, my fellow volunteers again on that side of the world too. The cool group we had in Switzerland, studying together for 3 weeks, watching the world cup together in pubs, hanging out, walking by the lake talking about life. Really every step along the way has different faces, making the experience so much richer. One can travel to touristy locations, the most beautiful places in the world, but when you pass by as tourist you don’t really get a chance to integrate into the local environment and discover its true richness. That’s why I’m glad I did what I did, the volunteering, the study programmes, etc. Really puts you there, connects you with the place and with people. Would recommend to anyone… such traveling.

If you read this and you have been part of my tour, somewhere along the way I say thank you for having been there and for what we have lived together, if you weren’t there but have followed along the way reading this blog, I say thanks for reading and I hope I may have had some positive influence on your life, my experience being an inspiration for you to go out and live your dreams… or on a more factual, objective level that you might have learned something interesting, hehe.

That’s about it, really grateful for everything. It’s been an amazing trip in so many regards, opened my heart…

…

Will be busy in the next couple of days, my host family coming to visit for a week starting tomorrow (yeah! I know), ItsOneHumanity.org launch Sept.3 (www.ItsOneHumanity.org), our technical brain unfortunately had to leave us because of an injury and changes in workload at her real job so it’s quite challenging but we’re on it, and then Bishop’s starts again Sept.8. One more semester and then graduation. Will probably be working full time on the FOOD (www.beginswithfood.com) project from the time I graduate to the time I start grad school. Lots of stuff in the works but it’s all exciting!

Thanks again for having followed me throughout this 4-month period.

Thankfulness is what makes your heart see how rich life can be.

All my best,

Love & light,

E

Filed under: WORLD TOUR 2010   |  1 Comment
Tags: Grad school, Hamamatsu, Japan, Okinawa, peace, Pt.6, Tokyo, WorldTour, Wrap-up, Yamaguchi