Final Reflections

   I'm really glad that I went on the trip. I got to experience a lot of things that I couldn't have gotten anywhere else and the cultural insights are sure to help me when pursuing a career with my international business major. I also had a lot of fun and met a lot of great people. When I left I thought that 21 days was such a long time to spend away from home with people I barely knew but the time ended up being too short.  If I can make it happen I would love to go on another study abroad next summer or maybe even a full semester on to Taiwan, even if I can't I'm planning some sort of adventure. I've always loved traveling but this trip made me love it even more. It was really hard to go back to work when I still have so much of the world to see. Anyone who is debating about going on a trip like that should definitely go at any opportunity.

Japan Reflections

   I liked Japan but less than I thought I would. I think most of the problem lies with high expectations. I've heard so much about Japan over the years, I used to be a huge otaku (in the American sense of the word) and a friend of mine recently came back from a year in Japan and he's obsessed and basically only talks about how amazing it was and how much he wants to go back. I've noticed that my male friends who have visited recount the experience very fondly while the majority of my female friends "had a good time but wouldn't want to live there" aside from one who does live there and hates it (because her husband is Japanese and from a "good" family and her in-laws want her to stay at home and learn a bunch of traditional things despite the fact that she's a foreigner).

   There were some really amazing days in Japan like the days we went to Kamakura and Itsukushima, and it wasn't that the other days were bad but I didn't sleep well and understanding between 1/4 and 1/2 of  random people's conversations  was more distracting and frustrating than helpful.

   I would go back since there were a lot of places I wanted to visit but didn't get to like Hokkaido, Kyoto, Osaka and certain Tokyo landmarks. Even so, I wouldn't really want to live there apart from maybe teaching English for a year (though for that I'd prefer South Korea). I would be happy with business trips there though.

Japan Day 9: JICA and Free Time

   Our last official visit was to JICA which stands for Japan International Cooperation Agency. They are a government agency that sends volunteers, technical advisers, loans and grants  to developing countries. One of their major projects right now has to do with education in Africa and other parts of the world. It was nice to learn a little bit about a government agency even if they act mostly independently. 

  When that was finished we were free to do what we wanted until 7 pm. I got some curry for lunch and ended up running into someone for Alaska who had lived in Japan for 5 years and we got to talking. I took a train to Tokyo station, walked around a bit and found some last minute presents.  I sort of wish I'd gotten more done but it was really nice to just walk around for a bit with no destination in mind. 

Japan Day 8: Yamaha Brass and Farewell Dinner

   I used to own a Yamaha trumpet so seeing how it would have been made was pretty neat.  My favorite thing I learned is that the polish tubas using a machine originally meant for aircrafts. The hand carved saxophones were interesting as was the assembly of woodwind instruments but aside from that it was like a lot of other factories. After going on a break workers do stretching exercises which would be good to introduce into factories in America.

   Then we all went out for dinner together which was great, well I thought so but not everyone loves seafood.

Japan Day 7: Gifu

   We had a rare free morning which was wonderful and gave me a more time to talk to my friends and family given the 13 hour time difference.
    The camera crew came back which wasn't fun, luckily we split into two groups and they went with the other one.
    My groups first visit was to a wagashi (traditional sweet) shop. Since I work part time in a bakery I was really interested in the history and techniques of making such gorgeous things, the shop we visited had been around for about 150 years though not in the same location. We got to try our hand at making three sweets and then ate one of them with tea while learning a bit about the tea ceremony which was really interesting. The sweets we made had a red bean paste filling which I like but some of my classmates weren't used to it.

This was the best one I made

   After that we went to Zenko-ji to learn about Zazen meditation. While I had learned about the history of Buddhism in Japan I hadn't learned anything about how meditation was practiced (just that it was). The first round was really peaceful and nice. It was harder to concentrate the second time with people talking loudly outside.

   The last stop was to Fujii Butsudan, a company that makes Buddhist altars. They can be very complex, take a long time to make and can be incredibly expensive but they are a family heirloom that can be passed down. They come in a variety of different sizes and range from plain to flashy since each sect has their own specifications.

Japan Day 6: Nagoya University

 

   Visiting Nagoya University was an eye opening experience. I knew that Japanese colleges wrote their own undergrad entrance exams but I didn't know that the graduate exams were so difficult. When we visited the library (which was awesome) I was surprised to find a whole section intended for foreign students.
   On the whole student life seems similar in both countries but Japanese students are placed under more pressure and undergraduate students don't work unless it's for the school.
    It took a little time to find a topic of conversation, but once one was found the students started to open up and they were very nice though painfully shy.

   

Japan Day 5: Mazda and Itsukushima Shrine

   I was a little surprised at how interesting I found the Mazda visit to be. I'm not a "car-person" and I've visited car factories in the past and once you've seen one you've basically seen them all. Seeing the old cars was interesting, though I would have preferred if the allotted time had been a bit shorter.

The green color and plaid seat combination is... interesting

    I think I would've enjoyed it more if the students from the other school hadn't been there making whispered culturally insensitive remarks and ignoring the "do not touch" signs.

   After the museum part we had a brief chance to view part of the factory from a platform before going back for a video.

   I think the most interesting thing about Mazda was that they had their own little city complete with a giant bridge and a technical school, unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of that part.
  
 After that we went to Itsukushima Shrine, aka the thing I'd been looking forward to most. We had to take a train and then a ferry to get there.

You could see the gate from pretty far away

    I wasn't disappointed at all. It was lovely and I took so many pictures that they had to have their own folder on my computer. The current gate may be the eighth one and the shrine may have had a lot of work done but that doesn't take away from the sense of history of the place. I would love to see it at high tide.

A small shrine in town

    The deer were fascinating in the way that they would just approach you and I saw a restaurant throw some vegetable scraps out to them. I could have happily spent a whole day on the island. If I ever go back I'll have to visit the aquarium as well since a classmate went and took some beautiful pictures.

Taiwan Reflections

   I really loved Taiwan, which was a surprise. I had done some research which was promising but I was looking forward to Japan more than anything and was worried that the weather would have me miserable. Instead I ended up not wanting to leave. It was beautiful, people were friendly and Taipei city moves at exactly the pace I like. Transportation was effortless in the city and the mountains were wonderful. There was cheap delicious fresh fruit and a lot to do within walking distance. The weather didn't bother me much after the second day (just a little wince when I left an air conditioned building) and I'm one of those strange people who loves rain so I was pretty much set.

   There was so much I wanted to do, I feel I could have spent the whole three weeks there. I'm definitely planing on going back in the future, especially I'm going to start taking Chinese classes to improve my appeal to employers. If a good exchange opportunity were to come along in the future I would take it in a heartbeat.

    I made a lot of new friends and it was so easy to meet new people and strike up a conversation,  even with non-students on my day off, I haven't really got that feeling in Japan so far.

Japan Day 4: Hiroshima

   Hiroshima was really hard for me but I'm glad that I went. My grandfather served in WW2 in the Pacific Theater and though he didn't talk much about what he actually did (though we found his journals after he passed) he made it clear that the war was between the governments and not the people. He taught us about the events of the war in a balanced manner and took us to Pearl Harbor as well as the ruins of a Japanese internment camp. When he did speak of Hiroshima and Nagasaki he said it was unimaginably horrible, especially for humans to do to each other, and basically just told us the facts of what had happened.

   Being there in the museum and reading the stories made it more real. I had known that they were people just like me but I couldn't really wrap my mind around the devastation until I saw it. I honestly had to skim the last little bit of the museum and get out into the sunshine.

   The city is beautiful now. There are trees and flowers and a park with choirs and musicians and it's amazing and vibrant and there are so many people.

   Afterwards we had a group discussion  and were given the evening to do whatever. Tiffany, her friend Kaori and I went out for okonomiyaki which is a Hiroshima specialty.

It has cabbage, cuttlefish, shrimp, bacon and a few other things in it. It's actually really good.

 

Japan Day 3: Kamakura

   It was a long and awesome day. I got a sunburn (I wore sunscreen every day in Taiwan) but it was worth it, we the Kamakura Daibutsu, Hasedera Temple, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and Kencho-ji. 3 Buddhist temples and one Shinto shrine in a day can run together a bit but I would absolutely do it again.
 

Kamakura Daibutsu

Entrance to Hasedera Temple 

These cute little Ojizo-sama statues were tucked away along the trail (and represent one of the few things I really knew about Buddhism before I took my Japanese history class)

The entrance to the Shinto shrine presented a prime photo opportunity  

A couple taking wedding photos

There are a lot of little food carts just inside the gate, this one had pineapple 

Miko running a little stall for talismans and things

Sake offerings

We were really lucky and got to see a wedding in progress!

At Kencho-ji

    There was another building at Kencho-ji but it was a 15 minute hike away and I din't have time to visit it but I'd like to if I ever get another chance.

Japan Day 2: Edo-Tokyo Museum and Sumo

   The Edo-Tokyo museum was our first stop of the day. It was interesting but a bit disappointing, there weren't many artifacts though there were several scale models of towns and such. As a seasoned museum goer I had expected it to be a bit bigger, though what was there was well laid out. A friend of mine is attending grad school for museum studies and I've helped her with a few projects so I know the design would be considered exemplary. 

   The model villages were interesting even though (and maybe especially since) I had seen similar ones in my history textbooks. There were a few large buildings that dominated the space.

   The best exhibit in my opinion was of a wartime household, the children's toys on the floor humanize it a lot and remind me strongly of a picture in one of my childhood  books of  family portrait taken in a similar stetting in America around the time period being represented.

   After that we went to the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament (one of the many days of it). I liked it a lot more than I thought I would because there was this great crowd atmosphere that you wouldn't get from watching it on television or the internet.   The first few still dragged a bit, especially with the seemingly endless posturing before that  actual matches began but as we got up to the more important matches even that part got more and more exciting.

   As someone interested in marketing it was cool to see how they'd managed to bring in advertisements in the form of traditional products on cloth banners as sponsors of different rounds. If I ever go to Japan again with someone who has never seen sumo, I'd take them but I wouldn't go again by myself.

Japan Day 1: Travel

  The day started out almost obscenely early with a slightly more than two hour bus ride from Taichung to the airport. I could have slept but I tried to fight it because I knew it would be at least two years before I was in Taiwan again.

    The airport was fairly interesting, I saw a Hello Kitty airline (which I feel is great marketing) and my gate had a special exhibit of Japanese puppetry

   The 3 hour flight was perfectly clam and normal. When we got to Japan however, we had somehow picked up a camera crew which wasn't fun.

   The ride from the airport to the hotel wasn't bad, and we were given the rest of the day to do as we wished. One of the highlights of the day was getting individual hotel rooms (and knowing it would last until the end of the trip).

   I honestly wasted this free afternoon by watching Japanese TV (or more accurately a program with one of my favorite K-pop bands as guests), messaging my friends and family and working on my blog.

Day 11: LC Saxophone Museum/Factory and Farewell Dinner

   Our second stop of the day was to the LC Saxophone Museum, aka the place that will make my band teacher jealous.  The company was founded by Lien Chang and was the first saxophone manufacture in Taiwan.  We watched the standard movie and were offered a chance to try out our saxophone playing skills with mixed results.

   Then we went into the museum part and looked at many different models of saxophones and got to make a keychain  by using one of the finishing methods used on saxophones.

   The final official event in Taiwan was a group dinner. It was really interesting though I sort of wish we would have been told just how many courses we were getting because every time we thought we were done more kept coming. 

    Yeah don't eat the brain/nervous system of the shrimp even if Carol tells you it's good, luckily someone else was the one to learn that first hand.