Japan in Thirty Days

Welcome of All Welcomes

17 Oct 2010 2 Comments

by windyswindt in Windy/ウィンデイー

It has been a long day. A 27 hour travel day to be exact, but it has also been one of the most memorable days of my life.

After months of counting down to the departure date, our GSE Team excitedly met at SFO this morning to embark on an 11 hour flight to Narita, Japan. The flight went smoothly, and the real adventure began as we stepped out of customs to be greeted by Rotarians Ikedo and Takamura, dressed in suits, patiently awaiting our arrival.

We greeted them with smiles, politely presenting our business cards with two hands to one another, bowing respectfully. We learned that we would need to quickly catch a speed train to Tokyo and from there, catch the next train to Shizuoka where we would would be greeted with a Rotary ‘party’ and hotel rooms where we could catch up on some much needed rest.

As we boarded the train I became increasingly nervous about my lack of language skills, but our hosts made me feel right at home. Within minutes we were relaxing on the train, laughing and sharing stories over bottles of green tea and cans of Japanese beer. Although I was not able to communicate my thoughts in Japanese the way I wished I could, I realized that I would need to take baby steps and did so by softly saying, “Sumimasen” to a woman as I reached over her chair to grab my suitcase. I would need to rely on body language, listening well and have the courage to step out of my comfort zone in order to make up for the words I could not speak. I quickly realized that I did not need to know Japanese to make the chubby cheeked baby seated next to me laugh or to share a genunine smile and a friendly wave with a great grandmother as we crossed paths.

By the time we had made it to Shizuoka (4:00 am California time) we were all fading fast, but once we stepped outside, into the warm night air of the city, busy with people, lit up with billboards written in Kanji, I was wide awake and absorbing everything I could. It was a short walk to our hotel, Hotel Garden Square, where we were to have our ‘party’. I was expecting a room of Rotarians, speeches and refreshments but I grossly underestimated what this ‘party’ would be.

We were guided through the hotel garden (which we later found out was 150 years old and home to the last Shogun) to a beautiful private dining room set for 12 people. We were joined by six Rotary members who presented us with gifts of beautiful chop sticks and linens. In Japan, the time and money put into a gift’s wrapping can rival the gift itself, so we gently unwrapped our gifts and carefylly placed the untorn paper aside.

The best part of the evening, aside from the company, was the meal. Sashimi, sea urchin, tempura, tuna over rice, miso soup, fatty fish and many beautiful foods I had never seen prepared in such a delicate, artful way. We were all poured a glass of beer and then presented with a very expensive sake, made here, in Shizuoka. It was the smoothest sake I have ever tasted. They even surprised us with a cake to celebrate Bri’s 30th birthday today.

Our dinner was full of laughter, stories of climbing Mt. Fiji, experiencing the local hot springs, the history of the city and the many adventures ahead of us. Now, after a hot shower I sit in my hotel room, with the window open and a cool breeze blowing in, looking out over the city and wondering how I got to be this lucky.

What will tomorrow bring?

Konbanwa