My GSE Trip to Northeast England

Ken Nakamura

GSE Team Leader, a member of Minoo Central Rotary Club

I was suddenly told one day, "You shall be the GSE team leader to D-1030 in Great Britain. Durham is a large city in the northeast region, I've heard, and there are famous golf courses there. You should have a good time." But, I don't play golf, and I had no idea what famous golf courses he was talking about!

When I looked up D-1030 in the Rotary International registry, I saw that it is a region centered around the two large cities of Newcastle and Durham. That, and the fact that the two counties of Durham and Northumberland are located in D-1030, is about all I was able to learn. I was sure that the main city of Durham County was Durham, but that's all. I knew that Northumberland County bordered Scotland to the north, but I didn't know any of the cities there.

What bothered me was that apart from Durham County and Northumberland County, I had no idea what counties Newcastle and Cleveland were in (or if Cleveland was a city or a county), because my map did not show the county names. Since Newcastle is a large city, with a population of about 300,000, I suspected that it was the administrative center for the county. If so, then what county was Cleveland, to the south, in? It wasn't really all that important, but these questions about the administrative districts where bouncing around in my head from the time I left for England until I returned to Japan.

In the end, this is what I learned. In England, cities with populations of up to about 200,000 are classified as (what we would call in Japan) ordinance-designated cities, and counties are, more or less, administrative districts that encompass a number of smaller towns and villages. For example, in the region around Newcastle, the total population of the three major cities of Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland and the surrounding areas is about 1.75 million, and these three cities are located in the county of Tyne and Wear.

The southern part of D-1030 is now called Teesside, but in the past it appears that the area had been called Cleveland. Before that it had been called North Yorkshire, and prior to that North Riding. It is a compound metropolitan region centered around the city of Middlesbrough. The seaside region of Durham County, the educational and tourism center of the area, is located between Tyne and Wear, to the north, and Teesside, to the south, and it is dominated by the broad agricultural belt of Durham County. Bordering Tyne and Wear County and Durham County, to the north, is Northumberland County, which borders the vast country of Scotland on its north. This is what I interpreted the territory of D-1030 to be.

It appeared to me that the city and county offices were very streamlined personnel-wise. When I went to visit mayors, there were times when the only person in the office was the mayor. I didn't see any other office workers there, and it was almost as if the mayor was merely a symbolic figure in an empty assembly hall with a doorkeeper. These small offices are located all over in order to meet the needs of the citizens, and it seemed to me that the main County Council and City Council offices did not have a large number of people assigned to them.

The 1999-2000 District Directory gave the following information for D-1030 (I have also included some personal observations in the following paragraphs):

The oldest clubs are Newcastle (established in 1915) and Sunderland (established in 1922) with current memberships of 67 and 57, respectively. There are 29 clubs that were founded before 1945. The newest clubs (2 of them) were founded in 1991. Most of the clubs were established between 1922 and 1927, and a number of new clubs were founded around the end of the Second World War. There were many new clubs established in the 1970's, but the 1990's saw very few new clubs established.

District Governor: Mr. John Billany (52), who has worked at a number of occupations (such as the fishing industry), and now manages a water treatment engineering firm and is a member of the Newton-Aycliffe R.C. (established in 1977, 30 members).

Club Meetings: About half the meetings are lunch meetings and half dinner meetings (It is hard to get new people to come out to lunch meetings, and many are calling for a switch to dinner meetings). Most meetings are held at inexpensive pubs (cost is about 800 to 1,000 yen per time, compared to that of 3,500 to 4,500 yen in Japanese RCs), with only a few choosing to meet at expensive hotels, etc. They don't sing the Rotary song at the beginning of their meetings, but they do say grace before eating. For example, "For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful and forever mindful of others less fortunate than ourselves. Amen." It was humble and reverent moment, and worthy of respect.

Club Offices: There are no club offices or office workers, and the club presidents work out of their homes. (I asked a number of people about the location of the governor's office, but no one could tell me. Probably he works out of his home, too.)

This year's treasurer, Tony Everett, receives no salary and handles the finances in his spare time.

ZONE: D-1030 is divided up into the following zones:

Zone 1: Northumberland Region

Zone 2: River Tyne North, Tyne and Wear Region

Zone 3: River Tyne South, Tyne and Wear Region

Zone 4: Teesside Region

Zone 5: Durham County

We gave our GSE team presentation (slide show introducing Japan) in each of these five zones.

Rotary Service: They are very active. Activities include giving assistance to young, physically disabled people, collection and donation of used eyeglasses to Africa, giving assistance to those who are not able to get medical treatment on their own, donating solar energy cookers to Nepal, distribution of videos aimed at reducing school violence, giving social assistance to Eastern European nations, etc.

The Rotary International headquarters is in the United States. Since America is viewed by England, in a sense, as the "new kid on the block," British Rotarians don't like to think of themselves as being under the American headquarters, organizationally. For this reason, the British Rotary is officially under the auspices of the "Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland" (RIBI).

Our GSE team arrived at Newcastle Airport at 10:30 in the morning on September 4, 1999. We were met by Rotarian Stephen Croft (immediate past governor, member of Stockton R.C.) and his wife, Rotarian Jim Suthering (past governor, member of Ashington R.C.) and Rotarians Bob Crosby, Dick Coard and Eric Marshall (Ponteland R.C.).

Past governor Croft was there representing incumbent governor Billany, who was on a Rotary service trip to Hungary the day we arrived. Mr. Suthering is a former chairman of the RIBI Service Committee, and he has also been to Japan in the past as a GSE team leader to Morioka in Sendai area. The other three men were members of the Rotary club nearest the airport. We were taken to a nearby Holiday Inn where we were to spend the night, and there we had the chance to meet and get introduced to the other three Rotarians.

"England is a small island nation just like Japan." This impression England, which I had before arriving there, disappeared immediately upon my arrival. As I looked around me, I didn't see a single mountain. Instead, I saw broad, endless green flatlands spreading in all directions. It looked to me like one huge golf course or a vast prairie pasture. When I commented that there weren't any mountains, someone pointed toward the horizon and said to me, "There's a mountain over there. That's Mt. Cheviot." What a difference between what we call "mountains" in our two countries!

Of course, there were large buildings in and around the big city of Newcastle, and there were some large factories. But the factories were limited to the region between the sea and the River Tyne, and they took up only a small fraction of the vast green flatlands that spread before me. What's more, more than half of the land in the city limits was greenery.

About one half of RIBI-1030 is found in the rectangular region running north and south (50 km wide and 100 km high), and this region is considered to be residential. The other half of RIBI-1030 consists of wetlands and forests -- the famous moorlands. The gently rolling plains have been a bountiful pastureland since medieval times, and under the ground there is anthracite coal and iron ore. From the time of the British industrial revolution through to 1930, this region was a thriving mining area, and the industries that made use of the coal (the railways and shipbuilders) were also located here. The steam engine was invented here, and the world's first steam locomotives operated here. One of the Rotary clubs we visited has a unique name, Washington Forge R.C., which symbolizes what took place in this region in the past. The port here became the world's number one exporter of coal, and it was from this region that Japan imported many armaments it needed during the Japan-Russian War. There is even a manor house (formerly the Armstrong estate) in this area which has exhibitions related to the Japanese imperial family and the Tokugawa shogunate.

Following the end of the First World War, the shipbuilding industry was the first to go. Then the steel mills were shutdown, followed by the coal mines. All that remained was a serious unemployment problem, and coal-slag heaps as far as the eye could see. I was told that the remains of hundreds of years of coal mining in this region was not so much the slag heaps themselves, but, rather, the fact that the broad, green plains that had been there were no longer visible.

In October, 1936, the famous Jarrow March began in this city. The citizens, who had no jobs and were desperately poor, left Jarrow and begged for food along the way as they headed for London to ask for government assistance. History records this as the great march of the poverty, but the local people refer to it as the" Jarrow Crusade". There is a monumental plaque to this march at the city council office in Jarrow.

This great march of the poor is not a fairy tale. It is a true story that took place when I was a child, and some of those who participated in it may even be alive today. Of course, you could say that Japan, at that time, was even poorer than England. But, I imagine that most Japanese back then, and even today, had no idea that such poverty existed in England.

On September 6, 1999, I stood with PG Jim Suthering at the very spot where the Jarrow March began.

The former coal mining area is a 5-minute car ride from the city, and today the area is nothing but a broad, green plain with a highway system stretching across it. None of the awful slag heaps remain and there is no sense of poverty. Instead, it looks like any other rich, abundant British city parkland.

Where did all the poverty go? Who banished it from this place, and created prosperity here? Where did all the money come from to accomplish this? The more I thought about it, the more amazing it seemed.

There is only one old mine left, and it has been turned into a coal mining museum. The green grass of the museum grounds was, of course, a slag heap at one time.

On September 8, I was taken to this museum, the Woodhorn Colliery Museum, by the Ashington R.C. president Ed Birkett, PG Suthering, and another Rotarian, George Graham.

Throughout my one month in England with the GSE tour, I was allowed to speak my mind without being scolded, and my hosts let me do whatever I wanted to do. All the Rotarians in RIBI-1030 were so generous and patient with us. I sometimes felt kind of like a "stage clown" the way people were "entertained" by the things I said and did, but we were all able to enjoy the GSE program together. It was quite enjoyable, and I am very, very grateful to everyone.

Football is quite popular in all the cities of RIBI-1030. In particular, two teams in the region are bitter rivals: Newcastle United (white uniforms with black stripes) and Sunderland AFC (white uniforms with red stripes). Newcastle United is the team on which the legendary soccer hero Wor Jackie played.

The coal miners here had to endure terrible working conditions underground in the mines. The coal miners' labor union introduced football as a means of helping the miners maintain their health, and this is how football was first introduced to this region. It was here that local hero Wor Jackie Milburn began to make a name for himself and eventually became known around the world. This former coal miner will always remain a hero and an idol to the people in RIBI-1030.

Sunderland is the arch rival of Newcastle United, and they have built a large soccer stadium (which seats tens of thousands of spectators) where the slag heaps used to be. In front of the stadium stands a landmark that can be seen from afar: a huge lantern. The stadium has been christened "The Stadium of Light," and the lantern is patterned after the small lanterns the miners used to carry into the mines. This huge lantern, which light day and night up in front of the stadium, serves as a nostalgic reminder of bygone days now that the last remaining mine was shutdown in 1990.

It seems that England used to be a land of abundant forests. As the world entered the Middle Ages, the forests of this region became a source of high quality lumber for shipbuilding, and the trees were all cut down. The beautiful green fields that we can see in England today are nice, but they are there because the virgin forests were all cut down.

Almost all the large trees that used to cover this region were cut down to make large, sea-going ships during the age of shipbuilding, and the land changed into the flat, plains found today. The land is too wide for grain farming, so it is used for pastureland for ranchers. There are many cattle, horse and sheep farmers, and even today, the sheep droppings are enough to bother tourists who come to see the remains of Hadrian's Wall (180 km long, including the Antonine Wall), which was built by the Roman emperor Hadrian in the second century A.D.

I have already mentioned that one used to be able to peel back the top layer of soil in this region and unearth coal, Britain's black treasure. Despite awful working conditions, this coal was mined and shipped out all over the world, making this region, at one time, the number one coal-producing region in the world. Much of the coal was transported down the River Wear and used in the shipyards that spread out around the mouth of the river. The number of ships built here in 1830 equaled the total number ships built by all the other shipping ports in Britain, and in the early 1900s this region rose to be the biggest shipbuilding area in the world. The coal mined here was, fortunately, also good enough to be used in steel manufacturing, and the three industries of coal mining, steel manufacturing and shipbuilding enjoyed world-class status up through World War I.

After the First World War ended, this region was hit hard by deflation. Both the coal and steel industries went into a recession, and the shipyards were closed down. According to statistics from 1930, unemployment soared to one third of the labor pool. The Jarrow March of 1936 was the result of these conditions. On top of all this, this region was the most heavily bombed part of Great Britain during World War II, and the homes that were destroyed by the German bombs were left standing as they were until the war ended. To cope with the situation, the government implemented the Industrial Estate program in 1938 to help alleviate the unemployment in the area, but it was successful for only a short time during the inflation years of the war.

When free market competition appeared after the end of the war, British industry was hit hard on all sides, and the blow sustained by the steel and shipbuilding industries proved to be fatal. The coal industry also lost out to cheap coal, and despite the already terrible working conditions, layoffs continued to increase. The Atlee government, which many hoped would rescue Britain's ailing industries, announced that it was nationalizing the coal mines, but in the end this did not succeed in saving the industry.

The Sunderland History and Heritage website contains the following information: "Since the end of the war, however, increased overseas competition has seen the shipbuilding industry flounder until it disappeared completely in the 1980's. The area's local coal mines followed the national decline in the industry, and by the 1990's, Sunderland's coal mining had ceased."

The British pound, which at one time had been equal to 1,250 yen dropped to 1,080 yen and then plummeted to its present level of just 200 yen to the pound. When we went to Great Britain, we went with a bias that "England's government is broke." But when we arrived at the Newcastle Airport, we soon noticed that reality did not line up exactly with our biases.

England is a broad, beautiful land, and the people are not as concerned with trivial matters as we Japanese are.

We traveled from Ashington to Alnwick to Birtley to Sunderland and then to Gateshead one after another, with different host families in each place. The places we visited were, of course, all different, but they were all modern. The roads were new, the buildings were new and the infrastructure seemed brand new. It certainly seemed to me to be a much more affluent country than Japan.

When I asked various Rotarians about this, they said, "Maybe it feels that way because the land is so broad here ..." Maybe that is the reason. But, it seemed to me that it was due to more than the breadth of the land. All five of us on the GSE team thought about it, talked to people about it, and "ruminated on it" the entire month we were in England. Yet, even now, we have no firm conclusion on the matter. Anyway, there is no mistaking the fact that all the beautiful and modern things we saw cost a lot of money.

According to the Rotarians I talked to, all the new things we saw there were built over the last 10 to 15 years on land reclaimed from unsightly coal-slag heaps. Now, all one can see for miles around is vast, beautiful green fields, and, depending on whom we asked, we were told that this transformation from slag heaps to green fields took between three to five years. To be sure, however long it took, it was a very rapid feat of civil engineering.

The government in London has done much to build new public parks, improve the infrastructure, and increase the number of public facilities. It has even built a huge glass museum called the National Glass Center.

Gateshead and Komatsu City, in Japan, are sister-cities, I was told, and when I visited the city council building, I noticed that the lobby was filled with various kinds of ornaments and other items which were donated from Komatsu City. The current RIBI-1030 governor, John Billany, told me that in the past, his engineering firm's best client also was Komatsu, Ltd. (translator's note: a company that manufactures bulldozers and other earth-moving machinery). Maureen Maltby, the vice president of the Birtley R.C., led some 100 female teachers to Komatsu City on a goodwill tour, I was told. When I asked where the Komatsu plant was now, I was told that it had already pulled up stakes. What a transient dream it was. Nissan is now the largest foreign corporation operating in this region.

Brian Dixon, of the Middlesbrough-Erimos R.C., took me on a tour of the British Steel plant. They have a wonderful plant visitation system there, and I was able to understand the importance of this huge plant. They have joined hands with Japan's Nippon Steel Corporation and others, and they now control the European steel market. I was awestruck by the manufacturing process they have there to produce super-long rail steel. Seeing how they have all their cutting-edge technology located in such old, decrepit buildings, however, gave me a feel for how old the Great British Empire is.

This region is still lacking the punch it needs to attract industries, even though it is a model reinvigoration region. Hexham, an inland city, has attractively invited the sawdust processing plant, but I was told that they now have an air pollution problem. (After hearing that, I looked in the direction of Hexham and noticed that there was, indeed, a hazy smog lying over the sky.)

Besides manufacturing plants, one success story is a large-scale shopping complex in downtown Newcastle. At one time, it was one of the largest shopping center in the world. At a glance, the shopping area seems quite showy and successful, but right now the problem is consumer spending power. If more people had steady jobs and steady monthly incomes, things would be different, but, now, this place merely has the look of being a grand shopping complex.

Right now, as far as finding a good place to work is concerned, people in this region are putting their hopes in the establishment of new kinds of businesses -- the "headquarters industry" and "relay center industry."

Fourth-tier industries, such as Diners Club and ITT, are using this region for their communications bases. From here, they prepare and send out customer invoices all over the world, and they are making these offices their telephone communications centers.

The suburbs of Newcastle and Sunderland are seeing large numbers of tall buildings appear on their former slag heap lands as industries from around the world move in to establish communications headquarters there. To be sure, such an industry is quite labor intensive, and already some 20,000 women have found employment at such companies. The future outlook is bright, as demand for new workers is expected to rise sharply, but most of them will be part-time-workers.

I had the following conversation with one elderly Rotarian.

"Japan is a great country, and very rich. But, I don't know how rich it is. Please tell me about the abundance of Japan."

"How do you know that Japan is affluent? You have never been there or seen it."

"Everyone says so. Japan is flooding England with its cars, cameras and electric appliances."

"And so you compare England and consider England to be a poor nation?"

"No, England is also a rich nation, I think. But, compared to England, Japan is much wealthier. I just don't know in what ways."

"Unfortunately, I don't think Japan is affluent in comparison to England. You are mistaken."

"But, everyone says that Japan is the richest nation in the world ..."

"That's not true. As far as I can see, England is far more affluent than Japan is. But, I see your point. From the standpoint of foreign currency reserves, Japan has accumulated much wealth. But average citizens actually have a lower standard of living than those in England."

"I don't understand how that could be, with Japan exporting so many things."

"But, it is England that is buying them. Those who have money are the ones who are able to buy things, right?"

"Well, I guess so. You buy things because you have money. Without money, you couldn't buy anything."

"Japan sells all those things because it wants the money. In other words, because we don't have money, we sell things. If we had lots of money, we wouldn't have to sell things."

"So, we buy things because we have money, and Japan sells things because it doesn't have money. That sounds reasonable. Still, it's actually a little difficult for me to imagine that England is better off than I thought it was."

"Well, why don't you come to Japan some time? You will see right away that England is far more affluent than Japan."

"I see. England is more affluent? I'm happy to hear that. But, still, we are always hearing on TV that Japan is more affluent than England. But, there must be some truth to what you say. Oh, I don't know ..."

Before leaving for England, I often heard people say, "If you are asked about your religion in England, be sure you don't say you have no religion at all. There is a great chance that they might think you are a brute." So, whenever I met people, I asked them, "Are you Catholic, or do you attend the Church of England?"

Nine out of every ten people I asked, responded, "Well, I guess I belong to the Church of England, but either one is fine with me. I rarely go to church anyway."

The Durham Cathedral is the second site to be designated as a world cultural heritage site in England. It is, more or less, affiliated with the Church of England. A Rotarian named Tony took me to see it. He is quite knowledgeable about history and explained many things to me. When he was done, he said, "Well, let's go." He didn't pray while he was there, and he didn't encourage me to do so either. He had merely brought me there for sight-seeing. I had observed those who came to visit the church, and there were many, but not a single person bowed in prayer. Every one of them had just come to look around, and then they left.

It seems that I was the only one that thought it a bit strange. "After all, isn't this a place of worship," I thought to myself. For this reason, I deliberately and slowly took some time to bow my head, and I even put some money in the offering box. In Japan, whether we go to Honganji Temple or Zenkouji Temple, regardless of our Buddhist sect, it is simple etiquette to take time to bow before the Buddhist image. If one doesn't even do that, he can't help but be called "non-religious." I guess that means that most British people are non-religious.

I asked 20 or 30 Rotarians what denomination they belong to, and of those, one said Catholic and about five said Methodist. Almost everyone said they were Church of England.

Henry the 8th left the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England in 1534 so that he could resolve his marital problems, and since that time, most people in England automatically joined the Church of England. However, in recent years, as more and more English people find themselves leaning further away from the Royal Family, they are also leaving the Church. It seems that many are running away from religion altogether. The situation is similar to what is happening in Japan, only in regard to Buddhism. Still, in Japan, even when Japanese go to temples just for sight-seeing, we will at least bow momentarily. But of all the people I saw who came to look at Durham Cathedral, not even one bowed toward the front of the church. A number of Rotarians said something like, "The Church business is in recession right now." I wasn't quite sure what the meaning of the grace was before meals at the Rotary meetings we attended. There were some clubs that took a few minutes to offer thanks to God, and others who got it over with in a second!

It certainly seemed to me that, to some extent, people have turned away from religion.

Jim is a past RIBI-1030 governor, who visited Japan as a GSE team leader that went to Morioka in Sendai area about ten years ago. He was the owner of two Spur franchise supermarkets, but is retired now. His days are busy with Rotary service and pursuing his very hobby, photography. June told me, "I'm not a golf widow. I'm a camera widow!"

They live in a large home, and just two days after my arrival in England, they presented me with a pair of large wine glasses, which they told me were to be a memento. When they gave them to me, I thought to myself, "What am I going to do with these for the next month?! He must be a great optimist to give such fragile things to someone like me!"

They have a huge bathtub, and the bathroom is decorated with artificial roses that climb up a pillar. "Feel free to use the tub any time you wish," they told me, but seeing as I was just one person, I felt bad getting that big tub all dirty and thinking of the work it would take to clean up after me. So, instead of the tub, I just used the shower, which was in the corner of the bathroom. Unfortunately, there wasn't much water pressure, and I couldn't get much water to come out of the shower head. (This was a problem common to all the houses I stayed at. All the showers and bath tubs had inadequate pressure. I guess this is a weak point of British homes.)

"When I went to Japan, everyone there treated me so kindly, so now it's my turn to reciprocate." And he did! He showed me the many slides and videos he took during his trip to Japan, and he told me of the wonderful time he had in Miyagi and Iwate district in Japan.

"As far as the GSE program is concerned, I think the vocational study of the program is not as important as spreading goodwill," he said. "The mission of GSE goodwill is achieved as team members visit a foreign country and enjoy the sights, and then come back home and welcome team members from that country to their country. It is the host families who are responsible for welcoming the interesting travelers from afar, and they wonder what their interesting visitor will be doing during stay days. It isn't about running around wildly doing all kinds of things. The visitors must take into consideration how they can make the time enjoyable for their hosts. And one thing that is extremely important in this regard is your presentation program. If your presentation goes well, it will leave all the Rotarians with a good feeling. They will respect you, and enjoy the time with you. So, have you all spent time practicing and rehearsing your presentation? ... What?! You haven't practiced yet?! This won't do! You have to practice for your first presentation, which is tonight, here at my home. You can use that room over there."

And with that, he let our team use a large room (it was like a small museum) in his home to practice. We had there first practice for showing and reading of our presentation, accordingly.

One thing that was a little bothersome for me was being asked to drink several times a day. When I would say, "No thank you," it would be followed by "If it's Japanese sake (rice wine), you'll have some won't you?" And he would offer me some sake that he received from his Japanese friends. He is not a drinker, but he likes to enjoy a good time talking and laughing together while we drink. The sake was kind of an ice-breaker for us, I guess.

His sister is an expert cook and baker, and she has written several books. She remembered how I had shown an unspoken interest in her books in my facial expressions, and sent me several books later. Her name, Jane Suthering, is on the cover, and I have her signature on the inside cover of each book. She is a very observant and considerate person.

Fred is a physical physiotherapist who has been totally blind since the age of thirteen. He met Sheila at therapy school, and they were married. They opened their own clinic, which they have been running now for over ten years. He is a learned man, much like Hanawa Hokiichi (a famous Japanese scholar who also was a blind), with a personal library of thousands of books, and he is the resident scholar of Alnwick R.C. His wife is the one who does the reading for him. He writes himself, using an ordinal typewriter but slightly modified, and he is quite a fast typist.

He has Braille books, but says they are too bulky for him. Of course, he is also able to use a Braille typewriter. When he needs to get a book from the shelf, he does it himself, judging the book by its size, thickness, and feel. Then he opens it, more or less, to the right spot, and has his wife read for him. Sheila said to me, "I am no more than a reading machine for him," but it seemed to me that she enjoyed reading for him.

His wife goes along with him to the Rotary meetings, and several years ago he served as club president. Whenever I asked anyone of his rotary club a question related to politics, economics, history, the Rotary, or whatever, I always got the same response -- "Ask Fred." Fred remembers just about everything he hears, and he loves sharing his knowledge with others. He has read just about every book in his library, and when talking to me, he would sometimes stop, go get a book from the shelf, turn to the appropriate portion, and continue.

When the light bulb burned out in my room on the second floor, I called downstairs to tell him, in a loud voice. "OK!" he yelled. He ran up the stairs, grabbed a ladder from the next room, and set it up in the middle of my room right under the light fixture. Sheila brought a new bulb, which he promptly replaced. "That should do it. Please turn on the switch." Up until then, he hadn't asked us to do anything to help. "The only thing that is inconvenient for me is the fact that I can't see if the light is on or off," he said. When I asked him if it wasn't dangerous for him to run up the stairs as he had done, he said, "It's my own house, so I know where everything is." Makes sense.

One night, after a long day, I returned home late and looked around for Fred. I found him all alone in his room listening to music. "It's dark in here," I said, and with that, he replied, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'll turn on the lights right away. It sure is inconvenient being sighted, isn't it?!"

What's more, one time he said, "I think I'll light the heater. It's getting a bit cold in here." He felt around for a match, and lit the gas heater. He is used to doing it, so it's not dangerous at all. "My whole life has been one of happiness," he said cheerfully. "I have never been troubled or bothered by the fact that I cannot see."

It was at this time that I thought about my own situation. Just before our departure for England, I was having more and more trouble with sickly double vision. "What will I do if I lose my sight?" I worried. But, after meeting Fred, I was able to say to myself, "Even if I lose my sight, I'm not going to make a big thing of it."

Ray Palmer is retired now (he used to work at a lumberyard in downtown Gateshead) and he is a very dedicated Rotarian. He is a professed elderly computer maniac. Even in England, it is rare for someone of his age to take up the computer and master it as he has. Whenever he has free time, you can find him typing away at his computer. Another hobby of his is renovating his home with the latest gadgets. He has furnished his home to the point where his housemate, Roger (36), can handle the cleaning, laundry and cooking "single-handed."

One morning, Ray said to me, "Ken, the writing on the manuscript you were looking at last night while giving your speech was so small and hard to read. The best thing to do is to make your manuscript easier to read. In our country, one must be able to read his speech in a dignified manner. I'm going to redo your speech on the computer, and I don't want to hear any objection from you. OK? So hand over your manuscript."

After a while, Ray returned. "Now the letters are larger and you'll be able to read it easily even in a poorly lit room. And I printed it out on tough paper so that it won't wear out from use, and you'll be able to use it for the rest of the trip. And, since you still don't know the names of all your team members well enough, I've typed out the names and occupations of the five team members for you on the back of this namecard-size piece of paper. You can keep this little paper in front of you when you are standing in front so you won't flounder about when introducing the team members. "

What a kind man! He rewrote my speech in beautiful British English and typed it up for me. Thanks to Ray, I was able to use that speech for the remainder of my trip and, more or less, give a good speech wherever we went on our trip.

One time, Ray said, "I am a perfectionist, and I think I have refurbished my home to perfection. Still, if you notice anything that could use improvement, please point it out to me."

"Um, well, it may look perfect, but I think one thing could be improved -- the toilet. You've gone to all the trouble to make your home perfect and up-to-date, but your toilet belongs to a previous generation. You are still using toilet paper. In Japan, it is becoming the norm to have toilets that wash your bottom with a spray of warm water and then finish off things with a blow dry."

"I see. I'd thought that was a bit strange, but that's what you do in Japan, huh? I'll look into it right away and see if I can find a contractor to locate one for me. I've never seen one in England, but if you have them in Japan, we should have them in England." And with that, he rushed off to check into it.

After returning to Japan, I mailed him two catalogs for toilets manufactured by Japan's two largest toilet manufacturers.

Derek lives alone in a home with a front and back yard, and he is the manager of two post offices. He used to live with his older sister, but she is now living in a modern, private rest home. He took me to visit her during my stay. One look and I could tell that she was a fragile, quiet woman. She used to work as a typist, and Derek told me that she sometimes spends time working on the personal computer they have set up there in a corner of the home's common room. In this regard, she is completely different than an elderly Japanese woman.

When we were just about to leave her, she seemed so sad and lonely, and we turned around, took hold of her hand and had our picture taken with her. I was told that the rest home was an average grade one, with a monthly fee of about 250,000 yen (approx. US$2250). Those who can afford this pay it, and those who cannot pay it all receive government assistance which pays for that portion they are unable to afford. The amount per month seemed a bit high to me, but Derek insisted that was the cost when I questioned him about it again.

“The Royal Mail”

Derek's two post offices are located in a rather poor section of town, and he employs two or three friendly middle-aged women at each of them. Of course, there is a "Royal Mail" placard hanging up outside, and they have a counter for mail-related work and selling stamps. Still, it seemed like the main part of their work is related to the distribution of unemployment benefits. They also handle National Savings there, and the pamphlets they had there indicated that they pay between 3% and 5% interest annually. Still, I didn't see anyone come in to make a deposit while I was there. I took a pamphlet for my own reference.

When one considers the interest paid here in Japan, the rate in England is excellent. And since the money is being deposited with the British government, there is no worry that it will be lost. I recommend that Japan's rich Rotarians put some money in British National Savings.

The post offices are scheduled to open at 9:30 (8:30 ???), but I noticed that the doors were still closed five minutes after opening time and there were 15 or so people waiting in line outside. When I asked why they didn't open the doors, Derek replied nonchalantly, "I don't know. ... We'll open up in just a minute."

Derek isn't one to go to great lengths to do things, and it seemed to me that he eats most of his meals out. For breakfast, Derek eats a kind of boxed cereal that looks a lot like cattle feed, with some sliced banana and milk on top of it. I guess it takes some getting used to, but it seems that this kind of breakfast is normal in England. We went to the supermarket together one day, and I bought some vegetables, salad and crabmeat fishcake (made in Thailand and less than half the price of that in Japan), which I used to prepare the evening meal. Derek seemed to like it and ate it all up. He said with a satisfied expression, "I've never seen this crabmeat-like fishcake before, but it's not bad at all." The prices of fruits and vegetables at the supermarket, as well as at a grocery store near his post office, were at least half that in Japan, and some things were just one third the price! Processed meats were also cheap, but I didn't think the fish prices were so good (and the selection was poor).

When it was time for me to say good-bye, I said to Derek, "Be sure and eat more vegetables!"

Anyway, you will never find a more good-natured fellow than Derek.

Brian, who is 61 years old, is a retired car dealer, and he is a very calm, intelligent gentleman. He and his wife have three children. They are all living out on their own now. It seemed to me that he and his wife were living out their retirement years together very peacefully in their new, fully-equipped home.

During the evening meal, they always turn off all the lights, and eat by candlelight. They go all out to provide the proper mood for dining, and they have music playing softly in the background as well. I had thought that they might play something more British at this time (like "Royal Fireworks"), but instead they played semi-classical music, like sentimental, old film soundtracks.

After the meal is finished, they always close their eyes and spend the next hour or so listening to music in the dark, candle-lit room. No noise can be heard from outside, and occasionally the flickering of the candles would intrude upon the tranquility. Now, all this may sound very refined and elegant, but it was also, somehow, a bit lonely spending time together just closing our eyes and inclining our ears to the softly flowing music.

The Dixon's home is located in a quiet residential area, and they have a large forested area just behind their home. Of course, by "forest" I mean a British forest, which is just flat land with many trees on it. It was a very comfortable place to take walks, though. After breakfast, Brian and Endi take a 5 to 10 km walk through the forest. I went along with them for several kilometers one time. There was a small brook in the forest, and, unexpectedly, a small pasture as well. It was a very pleasant change of pace. There were horses and cows grazing there, so it was obviously someone's private land. There was a simple wooden fence around the pasture, with a gate. It seemed that anyone was free to walk through the pasture as long as they were sure to close the gate behind them after passing through. If the land is cultivated, people need to be more careful about how and where they walk, and there are usually special signs posted, which say, "This is the path." We were able to see the moor far away to the south of the forest.

When one looks at the moor from a distance, all that can be seen is a purplish-brown mat that stretches out across the broad plain. There aren't any trees or large rocks. Of course, there are no houses or buildings of any kind. Since it is such a vast, empty plain, one sometimes feels a sense of mysteriousness there. Maybe it is because the British sense a sort of divinity in this vast, empty space that they prize this worthless plain with such (almost abnormal) fervor.

Jeff worked as an engineer at chemical plants in Chicago, Boston, and Florida for 18 years, and it was in the United States that he met and married Anne. About ten years ago, they returned to his native country, but there were few job openings for chemical engineers in England. So, he decided to retire a bit early, and they are spending their days comfortably and leisurely now. They often go to America for extended trips because they miss living there, so they are a half-American couple. They live in a modern home in England (although the Christmas card and gift I received from them this past winter was mailed from Florida!).

"I've got nothing but free time, so if there's anywhere you'd like to go, I'll take you there," Jeff offered. So, I told him I would like to visit a manor house. To which he promptly replied, "That's simple. My uncle's house is nearby, so let's go there." I was somewhat surprised by this. The number of famous, old, mansion-turned-museum manor houses is limited, so I never imagined my host would say, "Let's go to my uncle's manor house." The house he took me to is called Sion Hill Hall, and it was a fine, stately museum with many tourists. The brochure I received said this:

Sion Hill Hall

Kirby Wiske, Thirsk Tel: 01845-58726

Neo-Georgian country house, designed by Walter H. Brierley, with a collection of fine furniture, paintings, porcelain and clocks assembled by the late Herbert E. Mawer. Tea room. Gift shop.

When I read this, I saw that the owner did, indeed, have the same last name Jeff did -- "Herbert E. Mawer."

"I'm really surprised, Jeff. So, was your family originally nobility?"

"What?! No, way. We were all commoners." Jeff went on to explain that both his father and his uncle had already passed away, but they had not been very close to one another. The younger of the two, Jeff's uncle, had run a bakery both before, during and after World War II, and he also made confectioneries. During the war years, food became quite scarce in England, and he sold bread and confectioneries as fast as he could make them. He became quite wealthy in the process.

With the money he had made, his uncle bought an old manor house from an impoverished nobleman, and it came with everything: furniture, antiques, curios and works of art. Even though Jeff's father wasn't on such good terms with Jeff's uncle, Jeff was allowed to come and stay at the manor house a number of times when he was a child. This home had now become Sion Hill Hall.

His uncle continued to make lots of money, and he bought up more artworks before he passed away. He had no children, and his wife later remarried. Her husband soon died, and she was left alone, again, in this large, sprawling house. She had much free time, and she decided to open up her home as a museum, but a few years after that, she too passed away. When she died, there had been almost no contact whatsoever between her and Jeff's family, and no one knew who would be able to take over and keep this museum. Jeff told me that it had probably been taken over by some foundation.

The first thing Louis said to me when we met was, "You can tell from my name, 'Cresci,' that I am descended from Italian immigrants." Louis used to be the principal of local college, and his wife was a nurse. Until he became principal, Louis had been teaching geography and history. He and his wife, Sherri, bought a centuries-old stone home, redid the interior, and fixed up the yard by themselves. They are a typical retired couple. "Both my wife and I worked for many years, so we are both receiving a pension. For that reason, we are able to travel overseas about one month every year. If we were living on just one person's pension, we would never be able to do that," Sherri told me of her own accord. She also said, "Nursing is a very stable, good career for a woman, but being a woman doctor is better. The pay is better, the pension is better and the social status is higher."

James used to be a doctor of internal medicine, and his wife was a nurse. His legs aren't so good now, so his wife drives him around and does everything for him. They are both very warm-hearted and dignified, and when I saw them I thought that they were truly representative of a British gentleman and lady. They live alone and enjoy a relaxed life in a quiet house in the woods. The front and back yards of their home are covered with luxuriant trees, and in the early evening, the yard is filled with the melody of chirping birds. When I heard the sound of the singing birds, I thought that Beethoven must have written his "Pastoral Symphony" while listening to such sounds. It was, indeed, a beautiful "orchestra."

James and Lilian have one daughter. She is married and living in Denver, Colorado in the United States. Her young husband works there as a computer engineer at the Diner's Club headquarters. She is very precious to them, and Lilian talks to her almost daily on the phone.

Lilian is a very gentle, dignified woman and seems to me to be a grand wife. On top of that, her speech is wonderful. She speaks slowly and pronounces each syllable so clearly. Her slow, deliberate speech in her husky voice was just like what I heard when I first started to learn English long ago in school. She puts a break between each and every word, taking much more time than most people to say what she wants to say. It was just like I learned in my Crown Reader.

I was able to cook a Japanese-style meal just one time during my stay with them. I asked Arthur and Lilian to take me to Chinatown in Newcastle, and there I bought tofu (soybean curd), shelled shrimp, green vegetables, some base for mabo-tofu and the ingredients to make tempura. In the end, I made a rather "unique" mixed meal of Japanese- and Chinese-style tempura, parched vegetables and mabo-tofu. Fortunately, despite my being in a cold sweat worrying whether or not they would like it, Arthur and Lilian said it was delicious and ate it all up.

Here's a brief description of some of the troubles I encountered while making the meal:

1) Since they didn't have any chopsticks, I couldn't properly fry the tempura. (Halfway through the cooking, Lilian recalled that someone had given them a pair of chopsticks long ago, and she got those for me to use.)

2) The mabo-tofu base turned out to be for Cantonese cooking, so it was very spicy.

3) The electric burner I had to use did not get hot enough to properly prepare Chinese, stir-fried dishes.

4) The wheat flour (what they use regularly in their home) I had to use for the tempura batter was such that it was either too hard (if less than the perfect amount of water was not used) or too runny (if more than the perfect amount of water was used), so it was less than ideal for tempura batter. (I probably should have bought the right kind of flour at Chinatown.)

5) They didn't have a non-Teflon frying pan, so when the heat was turned up to maximum, the Teflon started to peel off.

They said it was good and ate a lot, but it may have been nothing more than typical British etiquette which calls for one to eat everything down to the last drop.

Their hobby is collecting porcelainware, and they had many plates displayed around the house as decorations. Of course, they had some famous British porcelainware, like Royal Dorton and Royal Worcester, but the type they had the most of was a set called "The Story of Tea," which is made by a tea wholesaler in Newcastle and decorated with cute, handicraftique drawings. When I had to leave their home just before we returned to Japan, they presented me with one of these plates as a souvenir, and we now have it on display next to our Raynaud porcelainwares.

So, that ends my discussion of the eight host families who opened their homes to me. But, there was one other couple who, although they were not one of my host families, helped to make arrangements and preparations for our homestays. Their names are Philip and Joan Hopps.

Ten years ago, Philip came to Japan under the leadership of Jim Suthering when the RIBI-1030 GSE team visited Miyagi and Iwate. Within a year of that trip, at the recommendation of PGD Suthering, Philip had joined the Washington Forge club, and he is now quite active in the Rotary. He was asked to be the one to speak about the club's activities at the District annual Conference.

Philip works for the Durham County police force, and his job is similar to that of the chief of criminal bureau at a Japanese prefectural police headquarters. He is about 45 years old, and quite handsome, likable and fashionable. (I don't know why, but it seems to me that all the police officers in England are quite handsome.) When the Royal Family visited Durham County, Philip was assigned to be in charge of their personal bodyguard. He looks back on this assignment proudly, I think, but I'm sure the queen wasn't displeased to have such a fine man in charge of protecting her, either.

Joan and Philip were classmates in high school, and both their fathers were police officers. They married early and had to start working right away, so they were unable to go to university. Still, they said they are both satisfied with their married life. When I mentioned that with his good looks, Philip probably had lots of girls flocking around him in high school, Joan smiled and said happily, "I had lots of competition."

On Tuesday, September 14, when we visited the Constabulary of Durham, Philip accompanied me from start to finish. He gave me a very detailed tour of the place, showing me the headquarters which controlled all the departments, including the fingerprint department and the firearms department. The Constabulary of Durham oversees eight police stations with 1,600 police officers (of which 17% are female). I heard that the chief of police is also a member of the Durham Bede R.C.

At a dinner meeting we attended on the last night before saying good-bye, Philip said to me, "This weekend I've been invited by the queen to visit Windsor Palace."

"Please say 'hello' to her for me," I said.

"Ken, does the queen know you?!"

"Well, no, but this is 'business.' Who knows? She might talk as if she knew who I was."

After this conversation, I said farewell, and about ten days later, I received a letter from him after I had returned to Japan. When I opened it, I found only a postcard of Windsor Palace. I suppose he hadn't had a chance to have his picture taken with the queen.

Even though no one had asked him to do so, Philip bent over backwards to do all he could to help our GSE team while we were in England, for which we are all very grateful.

There are very many castles, palaces and manor houses in RIBI-1030, and more than half of them are now museums. Every village had at least one, and some had as many as three. Our team visited so many castles, palaces and manor houses during our time in England that it is impossible to tell about all of them, but I would like to mention a few representative ones.

First, Alnwick Castle. This castle is not very well known in Japan, but it is, without a doubt, a huge castle. On Thursday, September 9, our team was taken to see Alnwick Castle. The brochure we got there said this:

GREAT BORDER STRONGHOLD Alnwick Castle is the second largest inhabited castle in England and home of the Percy family since 1309.

One look at the photo of the castle, and you can tell it's a palace. Today, it contains a museum, restaurant, and banquet hall, and the large garden is a wonderful place to take a stroll. The artworks on display there included paintings and, more than anything else, Regency-style furniture that was given by Queen Victoria.

The Bowes Museum Durham City, is a French-style art museum located in the town of Barnard Castle, 50 km southeast of Middlesbrough in the Tees gorge. Of course, this museum wasn't built as a museum deep in the middle of the mountains. It was originally the home, or palace, of the Bowes family. The Bowes family is said to have had its beginnings (and this palace is said to date back to the days) when William the Conqueror was king and the Earl of Richmond came from Normandy.

Our GSE team was invited by the Barnard Castle R.C. to tour The Bowes Museum on Thursday, September 23. There, we saw not only the items on display, but we were able to get a behind-the-scenes explanation of the repair and maintenance work carried out on the paintings and the castle itself.

In the village of Barnard Castle, where The Bowes Museum is located, one can also visit the ruins of a large castle (the Barnard Castle, of course), and these ruins are actually more famous as a tourist site than the museum is. The brochure from the castle stated:

English Heritage. Barnard Castle was one of the largest medieval castles in north England, the principal fortress of the mighty Baliol family.

I don't know who the Baliol family was, but these ruins, some of the largest in northern England, were quite a sight. It is said that the only ruins we have in Japan of this size are the Tajima-Takeda ruins, which are in some way related to the family of late Rotarian Mr. Ohtagaki, past president of the Toyonaka-Senri R.C. But, after getting a glimpse of Barnard Castle, it was clear that this castle is about twice the size of Tajima-Takeda Castle. After visiting the castle, we went across the River Tees, to the south, and toured the Deerbolt Young Offendres Institute (a reformatory). It is quite modern, and I remember commenting that, "This facility is more comfortable and easy to live in than a Japanese hotel." The name of the restaurant, at which the Barnard Castle R.C. treated us to a wonderful lunch, was the "Dickens." As the name indicates, we were told, Charles Dickens used to sit here at these tables and write his novels.

It is clear that in England, any collection of beautiful works of art is looked at as a museum. Many of England's palaces and manor houses have been turned into museums where paintings, furniture, exquisite clothing and other items are on display. We visited between twenty and thirty of these "museums" during our GSE trip. In my eyes, they could be divided up roughly in this way: 30% art museums, 30% natural history museums, and 30% historical museums. Of course, many of these museums were, more or less, combinations of these three types. The one I enjoyed the most out of all the museums we visited was BEAMISH, The North England Open Air Museum.

On Tuesday, September 28, the four young team members went to their respective vocational study trips. When I mentioned to my host, Louis Cresci, that I wasn't sure what to do that day, he told me that it would be a waste to just lie around all day. So, he decided to take me to this museum.

The brochure said:

A major development by the Counties of Cleveland, Durham and Northumberland; the Metropolitan Borough Councils of Gateshead and South Tyneside; the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the City of Sunderland and North Tyneside Council.

Beamish is an outdoor museum that has been built under the sponsorship of all the counties and towns located in RIBI-1030. "Beamish" is the name of the region. The museum has been built on land that used to be coal-slag heaps and pastureland. At a glance, it kind of looks like Disneyland. But it is much different. Here, the "procedure and process" of making this "open air museum" is also part of the "display" featured at the museum, and from the very beginning of the project, it was intended that it would be one of the "items on display" here.

From the beginning, the concept was one of building it together, collecting anything and everything (as it was), and working to return things to their original state. The time period covered at the museum is the 19th and early 20th centuries. The goal is to restore everything to the way it was back then in daily life, just like the people lived and worked, with the idea that it is possible to live this way even in today's modern society. And, I must say, they have succeeded wonderfully in attaining their original goals.

Nature's World is a project that has been carried out by volunteer organizations with the goal of reclaiming and returning a huge, closed coal mining property to its original, natural state.

Anyone can do whatever they want to do to achieve this goal. People bring their leftover building materials, trees, seeds, fertilizer, etc. and together everyone plants and raises a variety of plants and trees, harvests vegetables, and works to create a natural environment. They have put together a revolutionary and free-wheeling framework, and everyone is working hard to help carry out the goals.

There are a handful of workers who are paid to work at Nature's World, but most of those who come to help out are local citizens who are coming to do what they want in their free time.

The name, Nature's World (as opposed to Natural World or something similar), was chosen deliberately to help express more assertively the idea that they are working with "nature" in mind.

This is a newly-built glass museum, located near the River Wear and next to the University of Sunderland. The land was probably reclaimed from the coal-slag heaps. On Thursday, September 16, the Sunderland R.C. took us to see this museum. It appears that this area was chosen to be the place where the stained glass windows for St. Peter's Abbey were to be made, and, in 674 A.D., some French glass workers arrived to help initiate glass production in England. In other words, glass making in England has a long history, reaching back over 1,300 years.

While I was in England, one thing I noticed is that the British have a special affinity for glassware. Wherever I went, I found glassware on display in the homes I visited, and the topic of conversation often turned to glassware. It appears that many people give glassware as gifts, and, actually, during my trip I received three souvenirs made of glass. The Sutherings gave me Edinburgh wine glasses, the Consett R.C. gave me a glass paperweight with my name engraved on it, and at the District Conference, the governor presented me with a glass serving tray.

At the National Glass Center, they do not have just glassware on display. They also have a theater-like hall where they introduce visitors to the glass making process. It is a truly spacious and modern museum, but there were not many visitors there, and I couldn't help but think that they must be having some problems meeting their operating budget.

I went to see this abbey on Wednesday, September 22 with my hosts, Jeff and Anne Mawer.

The Rievaulx Abbey is located between Newcastle and York, in a lush, green valley with few farms. There in that quiet valley, it seems as if the graceful, sprawling abbey has been forgotten by the rest of the world. The grassy property is about 500 meters square and flat, and the buildings typical British gothic-style architecture. The old, stucco walls were, I think, perfectly beautiful just as they were, despite the fact that the old abbey is just lying there in ruins. There, with nothing to obstruct our view, the whiteness of the stone walls stood out sharply in contrast with the surrounding green grass and trees. The splendor and beauty of the creative sculpturing, the color scheme, and everything else about the place got a "perfect score" from me. One might say that now, after more than 1,000 years of lying in ruins, the abbey has once again taken on a grandeur and splendor all its own. It made me wonder if this old abbey may have been the starting point or cause of the popularity of the hobby many have, these days, of visiting old Western-European style gardens. Here at this place there exists a perfect combination of "splendor" and "old ruins." In order to preserve the beauty of the spot, people are not allowed to touch the ruins, and a small administrative building has been built in a grove of trees several hundred meters from the site for tourists. Right now, because the place is in such a remote area, there are not many tourists. And, because it is so perfectly isolated, of course, there is no noise from cars, and no annoying residential construction.

The land there consists of gently rolling hills, and there is a small stream flowing at the bottom of the gently sloping lowlands. "Rievaulx" means "rye valley." The pamphlet I received there said, "At one time, this abbey was the largest abbey in the British Isles." It goes without saying. I don't think you could find ruins anywhere else in England (and maybe in the world) that are this large, this elegant, and this tranquil. Although it may be smaller size than the temple ruins of Ephesus from the standpoint of size and scale, it is superior as far as elegance and tranquility are concerned. What's more, the beauty of the lush, green Rye Valley is at least as beautiful as (if not more so than) the wine-colored Aegean Sea.

The RIBI-1030 Rotarians entertained our GSE team and showed us hospitality in many ways. I'd like to share just one example here.

On Monday, September 13, PGD Joe Thompson invited us for green bowling in the afternoon at the green club where he serves as a trustee. The game itself is simple: rolling balls on a green yard with the goal of getting them as close as possible to a pin that has been set up on the green. The winner is the one whose ball stops closest to the pin.

Mr. Thomson is a fine gentleman. Maybe it's the magnificent moustache he has that makes him appear like such a British gentleman. He has an air about him that makes one think that it wouldn't seem odd or shocking if he were to become prime minister of U.K.,or president of the Rotary International. Despite this, he was always doing things to help us, like picking us up and taking us places, and as far as the green bowling was concerned, he took care of everything for us. He prepared lockers for our things, and made all the arrangements for everything, such as bowling shoes and balls. I'm sure he is over 80 years old, and possibly even close to 90. But thanks to him, we were able to spend a very enjoyable afternoon, and after the exercise we got that day, we attended the Washington Forge R.C. LYRA presentation in the evening.

On Tuesday, September 7, the Ashington R.C. invited our team to a clay pigeon shoot. After a little thought, I realized that it was only natural that the clay, plate-shaped disks people shoot at are mechanically propelled into the air. It was the first time I had ever done anything like this in my life, but the shotgun pellets disperse in a way that makes it relatively easy to hit the clay pigeons. I am very thankful to the Ashington R.C. for giving us the chance to experience what is very rare for us Japanese. I am sure that, for me, this was the first and last time that I will have such an experience in my life.

On Thursday, September 16, we took part in a beer party on the River Wear, while we were in Durham at the invitation of the Sunderland R.C. When we got on the boat, however, we discovered that the Sunderland R.C. was above deck, and the Stokesley R.C. was below deck. The two clubs had chartered the boat for the evening, and there were about 50 people above and 50 people below deck. It was a beautiful, picturebook evening with the moonlit Durham Cathedral on the hill and the reflection of the green riverbanks in the dark waters of the River Wear. But even though it was so beautiful, it was SO COLD! I don't know why, but that night was exceptionally cold. Our team spent the evening shivering as we drank beer, gathered around the charcoal fire to keep our hands warm, but we enjoyed a wonderful barbecue. The amazing thing was that the British people were not the least bit cold! They stood there in their short-sleeve sports shirts, nonchalantly emptying their big beer mugs. It seems to me that we Japanese have different bodies. This surprising and amazing beer party went until about 11:30 at night. The RIBI-1030 Rotarians were very concerned to make sure that our team enjoyed ourselves every day. We were treated so well during our month in England that I'm not sure if I should express my thanks or feel embarrassed for how much people did for us. I wonder why it is so hard in Japan to find people who are willing to become GSE team leaders with GSE trips like this. As far as I'm concerned, I'd be happy to be a team leader many times.

The GSE program has, basically, two main purposes. One is the vocational study of the team members, and the other is to serve as a goodwill mission. As far as my own vocational study, there really wasn't anything for me to study, since I have no job, being retired and living on a pension. So, I decided to make my goal to study "what retired Rotarians do every day to kill the time." This topic met with the approval of the British Rotarians, who said, "Hmm, that's a good topic. We should do some research along those lines too." A number of the British Rotarians don't wait until they were 65 to retire. Some of them start to get fidgety as they near the age of 60, and the majority of them retire between the ages of 58 and 62. The reason for this is that the work they were doing was rather hard, and they felt they would be able to live well enough receiving their monthly pension. (It seems to me that the work responsibilities, etc. borne by those in England are greater than here in Japan, which surprised me.) However, the question of how we should spend our retirement years is something I would like the British Rotarians to teach the older people of Great Britain, and, if possible, to teach the Japanese people at the Leisure Development Center (yoka-kaihatsu-center) here in Japan. The majority of Rotarians we met during our time in RIBI-1030 were retired. I thought they were still quite young, but many of them were retired, and they were really enjoying their Rotary activities day in and day out. In other words, the most convenient and most important "recreation place" to them is their local Rotary Club.

"Ken, tomorrow is a vocational study day for the other team members. What are planning to do?" asked my host.

"I don't know. I'll do whatever you decided to do," I said.

"Well, let's sleep late. Then, we'll decide what to do tomorrow after we wake up."

(The next morning ...) "Well, Ken, it's morning. Stay in bed as long as you like."

(Then, a few minutes later ...) "But, it's tiring to lie around all day, too. Let's go somewhere."

"Where?"

"Hmm. I've been considering one place since yesterday. It's a museum. I told them I might bring a Rotarian from Japan, and asked them if we could get a special tour."

"A museum? I'm kind of tired of seeing museums."

"Oh, don't say that. I already got them to agree to the special tour ... since we are Rotarians."

And with that, I headed out for yet another day of sightseeing.

It was interesting to see how the Rotary name is used in England. Special treatment, such as we received, is one of the perks of being in Rotary International in Great Britain. So, when the RIBI-1030 Rotarians took us around to all those different places and invited us to all those fun events, their acts of service toward us were an opportunity for these retired Rotarians to exploit their free time in an enjoyable way. I felt that we were all companions in recreation.

On Saturday, September 11, the Alnwick R.C. invited us to take a day-trip to Edinburgh. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, England's mortal enemy for 1,000 years, but today one can travel to Edinburgh by car in two or three hours from northern England (I'm glad there is now peace between the two nations!).

Our drivers were John and Gillian Gray, and others from the Alnwick R.C. Our guide, also from the Alnwick R.C., was Mr. Carnegie, a tall, light-skinned gentleman who had worked as regional director of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). He also serves as chairman of the local historical society, so he was the perfect man for the job of guiding us to Edinburgh. On the way, he told us all about the history of Edinburgh, and the old battlefields of Scotland. Two of those who were going along with us were born in Edinburgh, and I realized that there are many Rotarians in RIBI-1030 whose homeland is Scotland.

The whole trip took the entire day. We went shopping in downtown Edinburgh and ate twice at cafeterias. Maybe it is because the city is a university town, but the people we saw walking along the street all seemed to be refined and decent. The old cathedrals that lie along the 1,200-year-old main street were of typical hammer-and-beam construction with wooden shingled roofs. I'm not much of a shopper, but I did manage to buy a bright red sweater. After all, I was in world-famous wool center, the Scotland. I still have no idea if I got a good deal on the sweater or not, though.

This town lies on the border between England and Scotland, at the mouth of the River Tweed, and it faces out on the North Sea.

On Friday, September 10, Rotarians John Gray, Ian Walker, and George Stokoe took us on a long drive north along the coast of the North Sea to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and our guide for this trip also was Mr. Carnegie. We were met there by Jim, president of the Berwick R.C., and four others. The city lies on the border at the northernmost part of RIBI-1030. The town straddles both countries, and I felt like the city was such that, if I had been told it was in England, I would have believed it, and if I had been told it was in Scotland, I would have just as easily believed it. The town, located at the mouth of the River Tweed, has a good harbor, and in the past it prospered as a port that centered upon trade with the nations of Scandinavia. However, both Scotland and England fought continuously over who would control this wealthy town, and during those years of fighting control of the town changed hands thirteen times. We visited the Town Hall, Council Office, the former customs office (which is now a museum) and the double-walled barricade that runs along the River Tweed. But it appeared that the whole town is filled with artifacts and places that are more than 1,000 years old. At the Town Hall, I noticed a silver-colored suit of armor on display. The mayor said, "Go ahead and try it on. It's the mayoral formal wear." I put it on and had my picture taken.

At the old customs house museum, there was an old document displayed in a frame on the wall on the second floor. It appeared to be some official, hand-written document. It read:

Court of Buckingham Palace Present The Queen's most excellent Majesty in Councel ---- And it is hereby further ordered that Her Majesty's printer do forthwith print a competent number of copies --- ---- and read in the several Churches and Chapels of England and Wales, and of the toun of Berwick - on tweed. (Note: toun = town)

I don't really understand what it is saying, but it is an old message from Buckingham Palace, and at the end it mentions "England and Wales, and of the toun of Berwick." It seems that this town was once esteemed on par with the countries of England and Wales.

The following excerpt is from a brochure I received about Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Berwick-Upon-Tweed -- its independent status left it inadvertently at war with Russia from 1856 until 1966! The town was included on the official declaration of the Crimean War, but not the peace treaty. A goodwill visit by Soviet officials ended the problem!

In this part of England, the topic of the "Anglo-Russian War" often comes up in conversation. In Japan, we refer to it as the Crimean War. In 1856, when the war broke out, "Berwick- on tweed" was considered a country, along with England and Wales, in the Russian declaration of war. After the war, England and Wales signed a peace treaty with Russia, but an error resulted in Berwick- on tweed's not being included in the treaty. So, the state of war with Russia continued until the Soviet Union sent a goodwill delegation to Berwick-upon-Tweed to officially end the state of war. It was certainly a long war, but the city is proud of the fact that this event is evidence that they were once an independent nation. The towns in this region all have similar interesting stories to tell.

For more information, I recommend the following Internet site:

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~nyoka/tms/htmlfiles/index.htm

Harrogate is in RIBI-1040 and not in RIBI-1030, I think. It is located about 100 km south of Newcastle, and 20 km west of the famous city of York. When I heard that the annual District Conference was going to be held in this town with a hot spring, I imagined that, although I wouldn't see people walking around in typical Japanese hot spring resort apparel, I would at least see the steam rising into the air. But I was completely wrong. All they had, there in the middle of the city, was a classic-style building with a large sign which said "THE ROYAL BATH." That's all. It was completely different than the hot spring resorts in Japan.

Still, even if calling it "The Royal Bath" is an exaggeration, I imagine that long ago the queen did come there to enjoy the hot spring. So, I decided to ask if I could take a bath there. But the entrance to the place was like the entrance to a city hall, and since it was so quiet and uninviting, it made it very hard for me to feel free to go inside. In the end, I just walked away. Harrogate is just another rural town. But, it does look a little bit like a high-class residential town.

On the evening of Friday, September 24, we went to the Moat House Hotel, which is located in the center of Harrogate. RIBI-1030 had rented the hotel's large meeting hall for the District Conference. It seems that people in charge decided to put up our GSE team at the same hotel where the conference was being held because they didn't want us, as foreign visitors, to be somewhere where we might wander around not knowing where we were and get into trouble. When I paged for someone from RIBI-1030 to come and meet us, I found out that it was Ian Walker who was in charge of taking care of us all the time we were in Harrogate.

At 6:30 that evening, the wine bar opened, and at 7:00, the dinner party began. The guest of honor was an Italian gentleman, who was there in place of the chairman of Rotary International.

The actual conference started the next morning. A number of people took the stage and spoke, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. Right after lunch, our D-2660 GSE team had its presentation. It lasted about 25 minutes, and was over too soon.

Ian told us that we did not have to attend the main meeting, which was scheduled to begin at 2:00, so we bid him farewell and headed outside to do some sight-seeing along the streets of Harrogate. Even though our presentation had been so short, since it had just finished a short time earlier, other people who had decided not to attend the main meeting still remembered my face and called out, "Hi, Ken!" when they saw us on the street.

Because there is no location suitable for hosting the district conference in RIBI-1030, they cross the Rotary border and host their conference in Harrogate every year. Out of the 2,000 to 2,200 Rotarians in the district, at a glance, it seemed to me that there were about 300 or so members at the conference. If you add up the officers and officials from each of the clubs (along with their wives), and all the district officers and their wives, the total for this year's conference comes to about 250 to 300 people. The hall had a seating capacity of about 700 to 1,000, so the number of empty seats was quite noticeable.

That evening, Saturday evening, we were to ware "formal"dress, according to the invitation. All the men were decked out in tuxedos or "tails." Such attire is often referred to as "penguin suits," but fine clothes make the man, and the men certainly did look splendid. All the women wore long evening dresses, and no one wore anything gaudy like robe decollete. The evening began with wine, and dinner was served after 9:00. After dinner people danced, but I was exhausted and didn't dance. I excused myself, went to my room, took some sleeping pills and slept straight through to the morning.

On Sunday morning, there was a church service. It was a fine sermon, I think, but I couldn't understand at all was being said. After church, there was a speech by some politician who lived in the area, who was there in place of Prime Minister Blair or some other leader. The conference ended at noon, and we all headed back to RIBI-1030, where we were hosted by members of the Consett R.C.

The day of our departure finally arrived. On the morning of October 3, we were taken to Newcastle Airport. There were many, many Rotarian couples there to see us off. It was a very sad and emotional farewell. Just as I thought that someone would probably start crying, one of the female members of our team burst into tears. If she hadn't started to cry, it would have been difficult for me to "direct" our farewell performance. I guess women are able to cry when it is most appropriate and necessary.

Our plane took off from Newcastle Airport at 11:30 on October 3, 1999. The tears had already been replaced with smiling faces. I wanted to say, "Well, now we head straight home to Kansai Airport," but our itinerary called for a 3-day bonus stay in London before returning to Japan. It was fun.

Thanks much all of our RIBI 1030 rotarians, and the Rotary Foundation also.