DISTRICT 1030 GSE TEAM TRIP TO DISTRICT 2660 OSAKA

- Report by Helen Illingworth

Applying for a once in a lifetime opportunity

A study trip to Japan?

It took only a second to respond that yes I did want to apply to join the District 1030 Group Study Exchange programme to be part of the team going to Osaka, Rotary District 2660.

Then the work began.

The members of my sponsor club, Longbenton with Killingworth, were very supportive in explaining about Rotary and GSE, the objectives, opportunities and demands of the trip. I felt well prepared for the daunting experience of the panel interview. This insight was invaluable in giving me a realistic idea of what the trip would entail, it is a challenging programme and it is important that candidates meet members of previous GSE teams.

Meeting the Team

The excitement of being accepted onto the team was quickly overtaken by the prospect of meeting the rest of the team. The District Conference provided the setting for meeting Helen Brown and Emma Duff, as well as talking with Howard on a less scary basis. Helen ‘B’ and I drove to Harrogate together, talking non-stop. Helen, Emma and I were delighted to meet up with Howard’s wife Jan who provided some invaluable insider information on Howard ― terrible jokes, habit of losing his camera…

We were also pleased to meet up with the team from District 2660 Osaka, who had the unenviable job of giving their presentation to the Conference. We enjoyed learning about their experience of GSE and about Osaka.

Our preparations for the trip meant that we spent plenty of time together as a team before the exchange trip. I found this to be very helpful in getting to know each other and becoming used to each other’s company. We spent time learning Japanese together and also preparing our presentation, painting our costumes and rehearsing our speeches.

Arrival in Osaka

After a long trip we were exhausted but excited to meet our hosts and to see Osaka for the first time. Our hosts welcomed us very kindly and I was happy to see familiar faces from the District 2660 Osaka team we met in Harrogate.

I was surprised by the size of Osaka. I had not expected such a vast built up area. Travelling along the freeways to our hotel we had a wonderful view of the city, driving past industrial and port areas, commercial sectors with trademark skyscrapers and narrow streets.

Our hosts had kindly arranged for our team to stay at the wonderful Hotel New Otani in central Osaka on the weekends during our visit. We appreciated the time to be together as a team on the weekends and found the time valuable for sharing experiences.

Vocational Visits

I visited four financial institutions during my visit: Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank, Daiwa Securities, Angel Securities and Ikeda Bank.

The mixture of the scale of these operations was well balanced and resulted in a fascinating insight to the Japanese financial sector. It was an invaluable opportunity to compare Tokyo Mitsubishi, one of the largest financial institutions in the world to a smaller regional operator, Ikeda Bank. I was interested to learn of the differences in scale of operation and impressed by the dedication of each to their areas of expertise.

I was interested to note the differences and similarities between operations in Japan and Britain. In both countries institutions are developing access to financial services by mobile phone and the Internet. Regional banks are focusing on their area of expertise and providing high quality service to local customers. Involvement in the local community was evident at Ikeda Bank’s computer operations centre. The centre includes a specially designed indoor garden area that is available to the local community to use for displays, presentations, small concerts or plays.

A striking difference between Britain and Japan is the emphasis on the use of cash and electronic payment methods in Japan and the virtual absence of cheque based transactions for individuals. Despite the decline of the use of cheques in Britain for making everyday purchases, they still play a fundamental role in bill payment and making savings deposits.

I was interested to learn of the popular appeal of buying and selling shares in Japan. The ease of access to facilities was demonstrated at Daiwa Securities’ headquarters in Osaka-shi. A lunchtime ritual, customers visit the retail securities branch to catch up on the latest information and gossip, perhaps making a transaction using the cashier service.

Osaka-Jo

During our trip we visited many sites of historical and cultural importance, one such visit was to Osaka-Jo one of the most famous castles in Japan.

The castle, originally built in the 1500s has undergone a continuous cycle of regeneration. The most recent major renovation work was completed in the 1930s. The castle exhibits include video re-enactments of significant historical events ― a very effective method of communication. This was a fascinating opportunity to learn about people and places in history that are not widely taught in Britain.

Osaka-Jo is set in a large park, which has beautiful gardens and fountains. We enjoyed exploring the park during our free time at weekends, discovering the Sunday morning market, an archery school, baseball field, street musicians and concerts.

We also enjoyed a visit to see traditional Japanese dancing in the grounds of the park. The dancer’s graceful movements unfolded the story, a silver fan was used to symbolise characters and illustrate events in the tale. The grace and skills of the dancer were evident and we learned of the years of training undergone to achieve such accomplishment.

The Impact of Economic Difficulties

On our arrival at the hotel we drove past the castle grounds and saw for the first time evidence of Japan’s recent economic difficulties, the blue tents of the homeless community. We were struck by the orderliness of the community, tents and possessions neatly arranged and stored.

During our visit we were fortunate to visit City Hall and to meet the mayor of Osaka. We raised the issue of homelessness with him, in particular, with regard to the city’s actions on resolving the problems and the impact it may have upon Osaka’s bid to host the Olympic Games in 2008. We learned that the homeless community within Osaka was regarded to be free from problems of drug abuse and crime. So much so that the city found that people who were homeless in other prefectures were coming to Osaka to join the homeless community there seeing it as a safe environment. The tarpaulin shelters we had seen were not issued by the city, but simply ‘acquired’ from building sites.

Hanshin Tigers

We were fortunate to experience the modern culture of Japan as well as the historical. I enjoyed the opportunity to see Osaka’s baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, play. The Tiger’s home, Koshien Stadium holds up to 56,000 people. On my visit the noise from a near capacity crowd was deafening, with trumpets, klaxons and chants resounding round the ground. The atmosphere was entirely family oriented with good humour displayed throughout.

Karaoke

In the first week of our trip, the team made its Karaoke debut to much good humour on our host’s behalf. The experience was much less embarrassing than karaoke in Britain, as in Japan private karaoke rooms are provided for each party so we were not required to sing in an open pub in front of an audience of strangers. Last year’s District 1030 GSE team set us the task of singing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which we accomplished in fine dramatic, if not particularly tuneful, style.

From Electronics to Monkeys

We had the opportunity to visit some of Osaka’s famous shopping areas; Den Den town famous for its electronics stores and Shinsai Bashi, a colourful area full of a wide variety of markets and stores, selling everything from monkeys to high tech electrical items. We enjoyed exploring the underground shopping malls, one of which had a mural of musical instruments built into its wall ― which we enjoyed playing.

Earthquakes

In Britain earthquakes are the subject of disaster movies, in Japan they are an integral part of life.

From my host families I learned of the devastating impact of a severe earthquake they experienced five years ago, the loss of thousands of lives and of the rebuilding of two cities in particular, Nishinomiya and Kobe.

Walking around the centre of Osaka, we noted the architecture of the office blocks specially designed to absorb and withstand the impact of an earthquake. During my vocational visits I learned that the newer buildings were designed to minimise the shock of an earthquake to safeguard bank operations. Happily this is something my own company does not have to contend with.

In the early hours one morning there were two small earthquakes which had woken my host family. My family was concerned that I had been scared by the tremors but unfortunately I had been soundly asleep!

Ancient and Modern Cultures Combined

I found Japan to be an intriguing everyday mixture of ancient and modern culture.

Traditional ceremonies such as the tea ceremony and Japanese traditional dance are not reserved purely for tourists and holidays but play an important part of daily life in Japan with young people choosing to become skilled in these arts.

We visited Nara and Kyoto, two beautiful cities that have many famous temples and shrines.

Nara, is home to Todaiji Temple, in which resides the Daibutsu ‘Vairocana’ (Great Buddha). The Daibutsu, made of bronze is designated a national treasure and stands 15 meters high, weighing about 500 tonnes.

The Daibutsu is guarded at the Great South Gate (‘Kongorikishi’) to the temple by two statues standing about 8.5 meters high, made of wood from the 13 century Kamakura Period. The statues are designated national treasures and represent guardians who know all things. This is indicated by the shaping of their mouths to make the letters 'a‘ and 'z‘.

The temple is set in a deer-park, a favourite place for school parties and family visits. We also enjoyed feeding the deer with the cookies that were sold for them there.

This is only one example of the many shrines and temples we enjoyed visiting and were fascinated by. As well as places of historical and cultural importance, they are everyday places of worship not only for important occasions in the life cycle.

Farewells

It was very difficult to leave all our new friends we made during our stay. It has been a pleasure to tell our friends and families of our visit and about all the people who contributed to making the trip so successful and enjoyable.

Thank you to…

So many people were involved in making our GSE trip a success that the full list would be longer than my report. However I would like to express some of my thanks to those below:

Thank you to all my host families for welcoming me into your homes and families, making the trip so enjoyable. I enjoyed our time together and the valuable opportunity to take part in Japanese family life.

Thank you to all our District 2660 Osaka hosts for your hard work and extreme generosity in sharing your time and knowledge of your city with us.

Thank you to the representatives of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Ikeda Bank, Daiwa Securities and Angel Securities, who graciously spent their time and knowledge on providing me with an invaluable insight into their operations.

Thank you to my sponsor club, Longbenton with Killingworth for providing me with the opportunity to apply for GSE and for their support in my application.

Thank you to my company Northern Rock plc for enabling me to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.

Thank you to Marilynn Potts and Ralph Thompson for the support of our language and orientation classes.

Finally, thank you to Howard, Helen, Emma and Andrew for a ‘tremendous’ trip, I look forward to sharing many bad jokes in the future.

Suggestions and Recommendations for Future GSE Teams

I would recommend any future GSE teams to spend time together as a team before you embark on your trip. Our team spent a significant amount of time together, preparing our presentation and taking language classes and I believe that this gave us a valuable opportunity to learn about each other’s interests and lives and to become accustomed to each other before the visit itself. That meant that we were already a fairly well knit group, having shared common experiences.

I would recommend that future teams spend time learning about their destination in a structured manner as a team, this would give good background information for their trip.

I would suggest that if at all possible information on the hobbies and interests of members of the host families be provided to the GSE team members before the trip. The information on their home country and city that the GSE team takes with them could then include more specific information on their host families’ interests and hobbies.