Expectations vs. Reality

I’d always thought that I had a good understanding about Japan. I had taken various classes in high school, and many of my relatives are either from Japan, speak Japanese, or continue practicing various traditions. Coming on this trip, I expected to be experiencing the high tech life often shown in movies. I thought dining would be facilitated by robots, almost everything being automated, with technology and anime themes everywhere. I didn’t expect to experience the countryside, much less fall in love with the villages in Nagano, where there was no Wi-Fi, freezing temperatures, and slippery roads.

I expected country life to be slow, especially compared to busy Tokyo life. Farming had never peaked my interest, as I had always pictured it as hard, dirty work with large machines, but I didn’t expect it to be fun, or such a large part of the country’s economy. While staying with the Miyazaki family for our homestay, we had the opportunity to go to an apple orchard and pick fruit from the Miyazaki family apple tree. There was nothing like eating apples fresh off the tree, surrounded by the snowcapped Japanese Alps. The apples were the largest, sweetest apples I have ever tasted; you could practically taste the love that went into growing them. We also had the opportunity to see the many farms and produce along the way. It seemed that every house had a garden in their yard for fruits and vegetables or water patties in the back for rice. Entire farms were managed by small families, so there was little use of heavy equipment and much attention to detail. The village of Hakuba, where students experienced their homestay, along with many other villages throughout Nagano, are large contributors to Japan’s overall agriculture, and are considered top contributors in many different vegetables, wasabi, apples, and blueberries. For areas that seem so small and homey, I was amazed to find out that so much production was being done.

Although we were only in Nagano for a couple days, we felt welcomed like family, but it made leaving Nagano bittersweet. I feel so blessed to have had this experience with everyone. From this experience I have come to love Japan’s natural beauty and the hospitality of the Japanese people, and can’t wait to visit our homestay families again soon. Anyone else ready to make the trip back?

OMG Wasabi Ice Cream

One of the most memorable experiences of the Japan Study tour was going to the Daioh Wasabi Farm. I have never been a fan of wasabi, and had avoided eating it at all costs in the past. However, seeing how much care and effort went into growing wasabi, and listening to Wasabi Master Hama made growing wasabi sound like an art form. Considering how specific growing conditions needed to be it’s understandable that people made careers out of it.

            So many of us in the group were so inspired by the work ethic of the wasabi farm that we wanted to try some of their products. We had gotten there late in the afternoon so many of the food stalls were closed, so many resorted to trying the wasabi ice cream. I had told myself that I would not purchase my own, seeing as I greatly disliked wasabi, but I felt compelled to get one like everyone else. Everyone was saying it tasted good, and I wanted to see what all the hype was about. So that left many of us eating wasabi ice cream cones in mid-forty-degree weather.

            The taste wasn’t horrible; on the contrary it actually tasted pleasant. It had all the flavor of wasabi, but without the spicy “bite” one would expect. I could only describe it as weird. I nursed that cone for about half an hour due to the chilly weather, so when it came time to board the bus, I was told that my ice cream was not allowed on. In an effort to prevent further delay, I promptly ate the (large amount) of remaining ice cream as fast as I could, and that’s when the tears started. Eating the wasabi ice cream in small bites tasted fine, but in large mouthfuls the full brunt of the wasabi flavor hit my taste buds with a vengeance. My tongue was burning and tingling and my eyes were involuntarily watering. There was no trash can in sight so the only thing I could do was suffer through. I boarded that bus looking like a hot mess. Definitely an unforgettable experience.

            So lesson learned: it’s always good to try new things, just do so in moderation.

            

Japan First Impressions / Host Family Experience

*Note: Not posted in real time

It is halfway through the 10 day Kakashi Project Japan trip, and I am currently in Nagano, Japan.

A few reflections on Japan so far:

Everything is so clean and orderly. And unlike in the United States, there’s so much color integrated into various designs, which is really aesthetically pleasing. I haven’t seen an “ugly” part of Japan yet. Even the older buildings are very clean and have a tremendous amount of charm to them due to the thoughtfulness of how things are placed and organized.

First morning in Tokyo 

Our very first night in Japan we stayed in a Tokyo hotel, and shortly after arriving we walked around our hotel a bit to get a feel for the area. Even in Tokyo, one of Japan’s biggest cities, I felt extremely safe walking around at night – which is something that I would never do back in Hawaii.

I also didn’t see a single homeless person or piece of trash on the street, which is completely opposite from what I see everyday when attending university in downtown Honolulu. No sign of homeless, trash, or danger. Yet, there’s so much happening on every corner. Japan almost feels like a strange utopian world.

When arriving to Nagano, we were each assigned to a homestay family. I was assigned to the Kakimoto family, where I met “Otosan”, “Okasan”, and their two children Soshi and Kaari.  As soon as we entered their home, the Kakimoto family immediately made us feel like we were at home.

Nagano Winter Alps 

Our time with them was filled with delicious Japanese food (and lots of it), skiing, shopping, baking, onsen, chatting, and laughing. Okasan spoke some English, but there was often a communication gap. Despite this, she was extremely energetic and devoted to communicating with us through hand motions, comparisons, and expressions. While giving us skiing lessons in particular, she made sure to give us step-by-step instructions and even physically catch us to stop us at the bottom of the hill. Otosan didn’t speak any English at all, yet he was able to make us all laugh throughout our stay simply through actions and gestures. Kaari, who spoke English very well, immediately took us under her wing and treated us all as sisters, including us in activities and conversation, and snapping tons of photos together. So far, the home stay portion was my favorite part of this trip. Just being able to interact with people from another country, be a part of their every day lives, and be able to talk and bond with them despite cultural differences, was an amazing and unforgettable experience. While it was difficult to say goodbye to the Kikumoto family, I know that our time with them was well spent, and I am happy to have made memories with them, and look forward to creating more in the future.

Until then, back to Tokyo!  

Nagano Beauty

Everyone was nervous about this trip. Nobody knew what to expect. We were all excited to sight see, venture out on the streets and witness with our own eyes what Japan has to offer. However, I believe that the homestay was the most nerve-wracking experience. But clearly, it was the most memorable part of our visit. Most of us had grown up in the city, or a city-like environment. None of us for the most part was prepared for Nagano's beauty and the experiences the country side has to offer. It was a new sight to see; full of beauty, nature, and powdery snow everywhere. It felt like a dream, so surreal. However, pictures are worth a thousand words. But words aren't enough to describe the exquisite sights that I, along with everyone else, was able to see with our own two eyes, taste with our own taste buds, and definitely the experience that our whole body was able to do and feel.

STOP! You may not reach beyond this point. Onsen time!

Every breakfast, lunch, and dinner was spent together on the dining table with everyone. Already missing Okaasan's home cooked meals.

The sweetest apples anyone can ever taste. Picked it myself from Okaasan's apple tree ;) Oishiikatta!

Have a little view of Nagano's natural beauty

You best believe it! The 1998 Winter Olympics for ski jump was held here, and I am standing right infront of it. 

Traveled all the way up into the mountains for Nagano's famous Oyaki. Saw it made and cooked right infront of our eyes. The view and the taste was phenomenal!

You can never forget about the Northern Alps in Nagano. You cannot miss it!

Nagano had a lot to offer. Too many pictures were taken for keeps sake. You can never truly know the beauty of Nagano unless you see it for yourself. Next time, let's visit Nagano in the Spring and Summer shall we?

Home stay

Nagano Home stay : 

The majority of us students went in to the home stay portion of the Japan trip nervously as we had no idea what to expect, except for the given fact that there would be a significant language barrier between the students and the families. Little did we know how truly insignificant this aspect of the home stay would be, as the communication barrier would go on to just make the experience even more perfect.

As for my personal home stay, the family we stayed with was one of the most beautiful families that I've ever come across - The two oldest of the three girls (9,8,5) were prodigies and national champions in both mountain biking and skiing, and are scheduled to participate in the 2020 Olympics set in their beautiful home city of Nagano! As for the third, after a couple of nights of board games and seeing her competitive spirit at play, I could only imagine a similar route in her future as well. They were a humble family despite all of their collective accomplishments who loved each other very much, and in my time spent with them I never once saw any of them mad at each other or tired of each other, despite spending nearly every waking second with one another.

They showed true patience when it came to including the six of us male american students who spoke very little Japanese collectively into their home. To keep this short, they shared their culture with us in every way possible - helping us with our Japanese, helping us write Kanji, playing Japanese board games, etc. It wasn't even necessarily these activities that made it so special, but the time we all got to spend together as a whole.  Not to mention I got to ski for my first time! And what greater place to ski than one of the most beautiful places in the world, in Nagano?  

I would go through this experience again in a heartbeat, and every ounce of doubt in this experience I had going in was quickly eradicated.

To close,  If you ever have doubt or second thoughts about going through an experience, just dive in, man. Whether you love it or hate it, at least you can't say "what if". 

Sophia University

I went to Sophia University recently as apart of the Kakehashi project. I had an amazing time at the University. One of my old school friends goes to the university and i can see why. The University was really amazing so pretty and so clean. We were first given a general overview of the campus and then we meet several students from Sophia. It was really interesting meeting students from another country and seeking there perspective on school. All of the students that we had in our group were English major and spoke English very well. As a group we introduced ourselves and then we folded origami cranes, mine did not turn out so well but i really enjoyed the activity. We were then given a tour of the school. It was really pretty and cool. As we came back to the library we all saw a Mount Fuji which was really amazing and cool. Also i have the students guides some gifts from Hawaii. The president of the school then gave a talk which was really nice. After that we all took a group picture and then our student guides left us. We then went to a class which talked about cultural identity. One of the things that i did in that class was hand out gifts that i had to random people around me. I wanted to do the to show some Hawaii generosity. I think that they all like the gifts. I had a really enjoyable time at Sophia and i would like if HPU could develop a partnership with them.

Kakehashi project Workshop

Not surprisingly, our group did a great job presenting our appreciation to Japan's hospitality, close-knit family philosophy, authentic delicacy, well-reserved history, cutting-edge technology, advanced infrastructure system, sustainable energy concept with promoting HPU's diversity culture during the presentation!!Gratitude to HPU Study Abroad, to Ministry of Foreign Affair, to JICE, to Nippon Travel Agency, to our lovely coordinators! #kakehashiproject, #HPUxJPN15#