The international club known as Rotary promotes annual trip that all citizen between the ages of 26 and 40, male and female, and of all backgrounds - should know about - because it is a Rotary-funded six week study aboard and anything can apply to be a part of this primary life experience. If you are this age group - you could enjoy the kind of contact that is described in my notes in this article. To find out more about the schedule go to http://www.Rotary.org and crusade for Gse - Group Study transfer - and contact your local Rotary Club for more information.
Our adventures continued:
Japanese School Girls
April 22nd - Friday:
The best part about going to so many Rotary Clubs is traveling nearby the Prefecture (like our 'state')and seeing so much from place to place - and we're headed today - Antonio, Harry and I with Kenji in his Land Rover - to Buzen West Rotary Club - which takes an hour drive and is settled at about 1 o'clock (if the island is a clock) on the coast. We're in gorgeous wide open land as we drive there - lakes and mountains and not crowded like I opinion that Japan would be. But Japanese think that America looks like La - and I'm afraid that before this trip I opinion that Japan all looked like Tokyo (Harry said that too). The Buzen Club reminds me of being in old Japanese countryside, and we're served a very former (but spicer) rice and curry lunch (yumm - we say). I spoke - and the questions show that the men are lively about women in Rotary - someone asked what happened after our supreme Court decision to let women into Rotary.
Close by was the Tsuiki Japan Air Force Self Defense Base - and Antonio was very enthused to be privileged to what we saw there. We entered the base (spooky to think of Japanese air attacks) - and got a briefing of the history of the base (that it was occupied by the U.S. For a period of time and then returned to the Japanese) and the types of operations and kinds of planes that were on the base. We walked out on to the tarmac where they had pulled out three fighter planes for us to see - an F-1, F-2 and an F-16 (first time that I'd ever seen a fighter plane up close, and was interested to hear that Japanese and Americans collaborated on the most technologically developed planes). One pilot for each of these planes was very nice about explaining his plane to us and its capabilities - one pilot said that he had a wife and two kids, and the plane was his "girlfriend" - it was funny to hear him tell this. Antonio was surprised that the F-16 could pull 9 g's - sounded like a wild ride to me. The pilots were young and thin - because Antonio said that helped them to withstand the g-force - and that they wore extra suits to keep the pilots' blood pumping while they were soaring in the sky. We were invited to the top of the control tower (apparently a rare opportunity) and we could see out over the whole base - including lots of the three types of planes that we had been introduced to earlier. There were rows and rows of planes - like a movie set where they were all ready to take off. I enjoyed the mammoth coast line and lushes mountains that we could see - and hoped that these planes would never be used. We stopped in the Px - and then said goodbye to our gracious hosts. Kenji made a bar-b-que for us at his house later in the evening (Japanese style - which I now understand is all very thinly sliced) - and invited some fun friends - and I hated to miss the late night fun but went to bed early.
April 23rd - Saturday:
Hooray - today we are headed for Yufuin - I read about this before we came to Japan and am delighted that our hosts included this "get away" - it's the "lake-tahoe-wonderul-spot" like we would go off to enjoy in California - and it is marvelous that visiting here I think that we are at the same time "so different, and so much the same" in what we like and what we do. It turns out that citizen that we have met in many of the dissimilar Rotary Clubs have second (usually bigger) homes in Yufuin. We're headed to Kenji's house - and the Tanaka's will be up because they have a house there too. It feels like getting into my Suv and heading for a Tahoe recession - only it's the most celebrated hot springs in Japan.
First though - we stop at the wine store - Kenji is a certified wine trainer we learn - and he wants to serve us California wines for the party tonight (lots of parties with our hosts) - and he says, please don't serve him a sake party when he comes to America (he likes California wines much better) - he's happily joking. Ridge and Opus One are favorites of his - and we leave the store with wine, chocolate, champagne - and off we go because the other team members are waiting for us on the road. Yufuin is past Buzen, along the coast and then a steady increase in grade into the mountains. There are big mountains here - and three hours later, if the island is a clock - we're at 3 on the dial. We come nearby the ridge of the mountain and look down on the gorgeous town of Yufuin - where everybody wants to come, Kenji says. It's bigger than I opinion - and as we drive down the main street - it's the Carmel/Aspen of Japan - fun petite shops that you'd love to poke into with Japanese artifacts. Kenji has a popular lunch spot in mind - the restaurant, Sadonoya - and the rest of the team is there. We sit at a long table on the floor - and they bring hot charcoal pots for us to roast chicken and sprouts on - with blackberry wine that is made in Yufuin (and beer). I offered to make this the "America buys lunch" - but the five Gse hosts would not hear of it - I've spent 0 so far on this trip. There is a good feel in Yufuin - kicked back and relaxed - very Japanese - I see the Japanese shapes in trees and flowers that are so characteristic in Japanese works of art. Much to seek here. We walk through the narrow markets streets, surrounded by magnificent mountains, and stop at Nurukawa Hot Springs for an afternoon soak - the hot springs are all dissimilar and this is a small one, where you can also stay if you are visiting. I'm happy because Teiko and Hiroshi have joined us too.
Kenji's house is up the hill - and is a lovely mountain house, like one that we know. It's a white field stone, with a porch on the front - and when you step out onto the porch, there is a marvelous view of the mountain range. The girls are staying here - and the boys in a house below. Kenji has evening meal reservations at 6Pm at a not-easy-to-get-into cafeteria in the town called Kame-no-i- and it's lovely, in a back room, in a garden setting, with about twenty of us. Mika Hyoguchi (Mika) - classification, Finishing School Owner, Ryoichi Hanechi - classification, Insurance, Masayuki Sugino - supervision Senior Living, Tomoi Kondou - Real Estate and Bakery - and Takayuki Fujimoto, Architect - the Gse inbound committee are all there. The conversation is lively - evening meal is very Japanese, with plates that I don't know (including a small fish) - and it amazes me that champagne, beer, red wine, white wine - are all served at the same dinner.
Again - you might think that the evening ended here - but more was coming. Seiho Ryu joined us for evening meal - a "father" to Kenji - and he is a very celebrated artist in Japan - try 0,000 for one of his paintings - and gorgeous work. We went back to his house - and he signed a book of his painting for each of us - and visiting his house was a treat all on its own. You walked into the house (took off your shoes, of course) and into one big room (kitchen and living) with a big heavy Japanese table and benches on one side and his artist studio on the other - but spanning the whole backside of the house were full length windows that gave you a gasping view of the town below, grand scape of mountains, foliage of the mountain side - and delicate bamboo trees on the far left - as if you were perched for flight. It was easy to understand how Mr. Dou was moved to paint - I would be too - with the magnificence of this majestic spot on earth. He's well known for his delicate portrayal of cherry blossoms and their trees - in the color and stroke that says Japanese. I would love to have some of his work - only even a small one costs ,000. We went downstairs where three of his large paintings where hanging - one of intense cherry blossoms, one of the vista from his living room view (this was the 0,000 one), and one of Mt. Fuji -- all with radical color and gold leaf. Kimiyoshi, Kenji's friend, played the piano for us with all kinds of songs, and we sang as best we could. It was 1Pm before we headed home, bowing many times and thanking Mr. Ryu.
This article is a series -- so read on -- and many days supervene in our marvelous adventure!
Japan voyage - Rotary Group Study Goes to Japan, narrative Seven
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