Osaka City Office, General Affairs Bureau., Administrative Dept.
Introduction
First, I would like to give you a simple introduction of New Zealand ("Aotearoa" in the Maori language).
New Zealand was first inhabited in the 14th century by the Polynesian-blooded Maoris, but as a result of the treaty of Waitangi between the Maoris and the British Empire in 1840, New Zealand became a British colony. In 1908, it became a dominion, or self-governing country, and in 1947 an independent nation and a member of the British Commonwealth.
New Zealand is an island nation consisting of the North Island and the South Island, and it has a land area 72% that of Japan (the size of Japan minus Kyushu and Shikoku). It's population is about 3% that of Japan, or 3.5 million.
The first city we arrived in on our GSE tour was the city of Dunedin, the main city in R.I. D-9980. The population of Dunedin is 120,000, and it is the fifth largest city in New Zealand following Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton. It is located in the southern part of the South Island. According to guidebooks, the town gives an impression of a traditional, hilly Scottish college town (there are many immigrants from Scotland), but in reality it had a noble and dignified feel to it, similar to the calm, relaxed atmosphere we find in Kyoto. In the Octagon (the square in the center of the city) stands the magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral, which is reminiscent of the old European cathedrals.
Actually, I visited New Zealand ten years ago on my honeymoon, going to
the famous tourist cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown, and Rotorua,
but compared to these cities, Dunedin is completely "untouristized."
It gave me a profoundly amazing impression. I highly recommend a visit
to Dunedin to anyone who is planning to visit New Zealand.
Our GSE study
Starting in Dunedin, we visited every nook and cranny of D-9980, and also experienced 13 homestays. Of course, this was my first time to have a homestay. Because our schedule was so hurried (just 1 to 5 days per home), it was rather hard, but every day brought new, fresh and exciting discoveries. At first, I had a very difficult time with the New Zealand accent (particularly the way they pronounce "A" as "AI", and curling my tongue to say an "R"), but as the days passed, I was amazed at how my opposition disappeared.
My 13 host families were involved in completely different occupations, and I think this is one reason each day seemed fresh and new to me. Among my hosts, I had a farmer, bookstore owner, insurance salesman, jeweler, sundry goods store owner, architect, former medical school professor, craftshop owner, druggist, elementary school principal, and a technical school teacher. Among these, several were farmers in addition to their other work.
Wherever we went, we received a welcome far greater than we had imagined. We attended a total of 13 Rotary meetings (with lunch or dinner served), using a slide show and video presentation to introduce ourselves. At the end of each meeting, Aki, who is quite good at calligraphy, wrote "Arigato "(Thank you) with a brush and ink on colorful Japanese paper. All of these things were well received. We received the best possible hospitality at all the meetings we attended. (Before leaving Japan, at the recommendation of our team leader, we chose nicknames for use in New Zealand. Our nicknames were George (Nakajima), Aki (Sugai), Yoshi (Ninagawa), Ewe (Yamamoto) and Paul (Kawamura). I think this was one reason behind the great success of our GSE trip. As a result of these nicknames, we were able to begin talking easily with people we met for the first time.)
We were able to have a nostalgic reunion with the New Zealand GSE team members (their team had visited Japan before we left for New Zealand) when we attended the D-9980 District Conference in Dunedin at the end of our trip. And in front of the approximately 300 attendees, we were each given the opportunity to give a 3-minute speech.
As a bonus trip at the end of the GSE trip, through the arrangements made by a Rotarian, we were able to visit the national capital of Wellington, and go to the Parliament Building, where we looked around the building and met with several representatives.
My impressions of New Zealand society
(1) The Maori
When we visited the town of Temuka, we had the opportunity to go to a Maori meeting place called Malae In order for outsiders to enter the center of Malae, they must receive special permission from the person in charge after going through a kind of ceremony. Of course, we were forbidden to take photos. It was much bigger than we had thought it would be, and it had a sort of holy air about it. We were quite nervous, but after singing a song of some sort to help deepen friendship, the atmosphere became considerably more relaxed. Coincidentally, that day was the day before the southern regional Maori conference, and there were Maoris gathering there from all over the region. We even had some special Maori food. The Maori and Japanese languages are quite similar in pronunciation, and we were told that our pronunciation was good. "Hello" is "Tena Koe", and "Thank you" is "Ka Pai".
At the southernmost part of the South Island is the city of Invercargill, and the number of Maori living there is particularly high. My hosts in Invercargill are both elementary school teachers, so I was able to learn many things from them about the Maori. Classes in their school are divided into English-only classes, English and Maori classes, and Maori-only classes. I was very impressed by the way in which the culture of the original inhabitants is treated with importance and how people are working to preserve it.
In Japan, there is also a movement toward preserving the culture of the original inhabitants, the Ainu. A law was enacted in May which is aimed at promoting Ainu culture, and I was very interested to see how these attitudes in our two countries overlapped.
(2) New Zealand food
When one thinks of New Zealand, of course sheep come to mind. I'd thought that we would be eating lamb chops everyday, but the food in New Zealand was much more simple and frugal than I'd anticipated (potatoes are a staple food, along with chicken). There are few foods with spices added, and it is common for people to add salt and pepper as they like. Recently, low fat meat has become popular, and in our travels we came across several deer farms in addition to sheep farms.
(3) New Zealand beer
When it came to beer, the only brand I knew was the All Blacks' sponsor Stein lager, but in the southern region where we were, Speights beer and DB beer are famous. They have a very low alcohol content (4%), and I drank beer almost everyday. I am known for being a big drinker, so such beer was, to me, no different than drinking tea.
However, we noticed a Liquor License section in the city halls we visited, and a license is required in New Zealand to sell liquor. By the way, cigarettes are about 500 yen per pack there, and as a result the number of smokers is declining.
(4) Miscellaneous
Most of the places we visited during our trip in the southern region were in the country, and after 5:00 in the afternoon, most shops closed. There was almost no opportunity for us to go out at night, except to walk the dog, and it was quite difficult for me, having grown accustomed to neon lights and the night life. When I stayed with farm families, there were no other homes nearby, and it was pitch black outside at night. Most of my host families live healthy lives, going to bed early and getting up early. They said, "Unless we have something special to do, we go to bed at 10:00," but they liked to talk, and it was very hard for me to know the best timing for going to bed.
The other side of New Zealand's administrative reforms
The theme of our GSE study was New Zealand's administrative reforms. Detailed explanations of what we studied and researched during our time in New Zealand have been written up in other team members' reports, so please look at them if you are interested in such information. I would just like to add one thing to what the others have said. New Zealand is said to have succeeded in its administrative reforms, and people tend think that its future will be rosy, but this isn't necessarily so.
For example, there are quite a few serious problems such as juvenile delinquency, problems associated with the change to a highly educated society, the trend toward fewer children, the movement of more and more people to the cities of the North Island, the hollowing out of domestic industries (a lack of growth in domestic manufacturing and a dependence on imported goods), the problem of an increasingly aging society, and health care and welfare problems. The frank impression I received while in New Zealand was that as New Zealand enters the 21st century, there is no guarantee things are going to be happy and go smoothly.
At a 24-hour McDonald's on Friday nights, young people, and particularly teenagers, can be seen hanging out until late at night, and in the middle of the night you can see young people out cruising the streets in their cars. In New Zealand, you can get a license when you are 15 years old.
Conclusion
As I mentioned earlier, the theme of our GSE trip was New Zealand's administrative reforms, and during the time we were able to learn much about these reforms. Also during our 40 days in New Zealand, I think I was able to more or less gain an understanding of the New Zealand life-style, customs in daily life, way of thinking, and temperament. I would like to touch briefly on what I felt to be the New Zealand temperament.
I felt that the Kiwi attitude toward their life-style, including the things they eat, is basically simple, frugal, rationalistic and clear-cut. They are frank and open, faithful and true, and they tend to enjoy leisure. Also, they are proud of their national history and traditions, their ancestors and their families. In particular, they are quite proud of their children, even to the point where it came across as peculiar to us Japanese.
They take pride in their country, and the fact that they built their country up from nothing. They have a frontier spirit that makes them believe they can endure any adversity and overcome it. I was very impressed by one host who has changed jobs 5 times, and who said, "Life is a challenge."
The people of New Zealand look very severely on the destruction of the environment, and they show a very strong interest in government policies and political trends.
Their good points are the way in which they show off their family to their hearts content, and, in particular, the men, who are called "Kiwi husbands," are very much home- and family-oriented.
On the other hand, the other side of the coin is the fact that they are very much prone to focusing on their own local society and life-style base, and they do not take kindly to interference and meddling from outside. Also, I also felt that they don't have much contact with their neighbors in their daily lives.
Be that as it may, I think my participation in this GSE trip was the most
meaningful experience of my life. After it was over, I realized that those
5 weeks had passed by in the blink of an eye, but I am filled with gratitude
to my 13 host families, the many Rotarians I met, and all the GSE committee
members who put together our schedule. Thank you all very much!
