Rotary International Group Study Exchange
Osaka JAPAN 4th May - 3rd June 2000

Report of Andrew Birks

The thought of 4 weeks away in another county, sponsored by Rotary would appeal to anyone - especially when you are given the opportunity to visit Japan.

I was approached by a Rotarian who introduced me to the program and offered me the chance to visit Newcastle Central Rotary Club and meet with the people who would be sponsoring me with my application. My application was completed and then I had to attend an interview. The interview was probably the most testing interview that I had had! There were 7 people including my club representative and myself in this very small room. The interview was fairly relaxed and the questions were all team building related. Two days after the interview I was told that I had been successful and they would like me to accept the offer - as if anyone needed to ask!!

Our first meeting was very informal and simply introductory. We seemed to get along together very well and enjoy each others company, however, this was early days and there was still another 7 months of preparatory work to challenge us first never mind the month away in Japan!

We worked well and quickly agreed on the format which we should take and the subject which each member of the team would cover. Our aim was simple - we wanted to tell people about ourselves and the area from which we would travel - the area, it's history, development and culture - the same items we would be looking at when visiting Osaka. We worked over the next 7 months at script writing, research, being photographed for slides and our leaflet's and business cards, photographing the area, making costumes and designing the choreography of our presentation. In addition we also had to start preparing ourselves for the month away in Japan.

We had to think about learning Japanese - if thinking was all we had to do, then this would have been easy - but no, we had to actually go and learn Japanese at Tynemouth College, plus some extra lessons and cultural thought via Marilyn Potts' translation agency. We learnt as much as we could given the time, zero knowledge prior to learning and the complexity of the language. Emma was our star translator during the classes and therefore I think that we agreed we would all get by - as long as Emma was near to hand! This was not to be the case as on our arrival in Japan it was obvious immediately that the English speaking skills of the Japanese people that we met were excellent.

All this preparation led us very quickly to the time of our departure - suddenly it was April and we were thinking - "We've only got 4 weeks left". The final four weeks of April were very busy for me. We had 3 presentations to do, meetings to attend, preparing my work at both Woolworth's and Northumbria Police to hand over to people looking after my desks whilst away. However, eventually the 4th May arrived and I found myself being transported to the airport at Newcastle to meet the others and board our flight to Holland.

At the airport we said our goodbyes to the families and went through to the departure lounge where we bought our inflight reading -which nearly cost us our flight - we nearly missed the plane ! We received many looks of disapproval and disgust for keeping everyone waiting but soon we were air borne and we were heading for the windmills and colourful fields of Holland and Schipol Airport arriving in this vast and impressive airport some one and a half hours later. We had a two hour wait before our next aeroplane would depart. The time soon passed and we were boarding the Boeing 747-400 for Kansai Airport near Osaka, Japan. The flight was eleven and a half hours long.

I slept for most of the journey, however I was awake when we saw sunrise over the Gobi Desert at 6 am Japanese time. It was appropriate that we should see the sun rise whilst flying toward the land of the rising sun! We descended into the Kansai region of Japan just after 8.30am on Friday 5th May 2000 (local time). We could see many examples of industry below us and the sea was scattered with ships of various sizes and purpose. On arrival at the airport we went towards the arrivals desk, stopping at the toilets to change into our uniform - much to the bewilderment of awaiting customs officials who began to usher us out of the toilets and toward the immigration desk. Once through customs etc., we went through to meet our welcome party. They were faces who we would get to know very well over the next 4 weeks during our visit. They welcomed us to their country and then transported us to our luxurious hotel - The New Otani Hotel situated in the business sector of Osaka.

On our first Saturday we were taken by members of the previous GSE team to England and Canada into the centre of Osaka and to the famous 'Electric Town' where there were hundreds of stores selling electrical goods - this area was called Den-Den. We toured the shops - which proved very interesting for me - my first experience of retail in Japan. I was very impressed by the customer service aspect of the shops within this street - certainly a lesson that many retailers could learn back in England. After our visit to Den-Den, we moved to another area called Dotombori where we enjoyed our first use of chopsticks in Japan - and indeed our first 'real' Japanese meal. The meal was a series of various dishes. Captain Katoh (team leader to Japan) showed me how to use chopsticks properly (eventually he gave up!). Captain Katoh then decided to have a competition to pick up a piece of sweetcorn with chopsticks using the left hand - unfortunately Captain was the only one who couldn't meet the challenge.

Our home stays were all excellent and I thank all of my hosts for their kind hospitality and friendship. We stayed in some very nice homes. I was very surprised to see so many Western styles inside houses - although all houses contain at least one Japanese style room. I stayed in a Japanese room on my first two weeks, sleeping on a futon in the Japanese style rooms. This was very comfortable and I was surprised how I adapted to the Japanese styles of living and food! (I cannot admit to adapting to raw squid or octopus though!). The futon on my second week must have been very comfortable as I slept through two earthquakes which apparently shook the house quite strongly!

Over the next four weeks we visited many places of interest. To describe and list all of them accurately would require many pages - therefore I have listed below a small variety of the places we visited.

A boat trip along the river in Osaka was an excellent way to see the city, and from a different angle- sailing from Osaka Pier to Temmabashi Pier and Yodoyabashi Pier and back to Osaka Pier. The boat itself was very unusual in that when the bridge was too narrow for the boat to go under, the roof of the boat lowered to allow us to pass under.

We visited Osaka Castle to see how the Castle had been renovated and received magnificent views from the top of the Castle. We were very fortunate to receive a private viewing of Japanese dance in a building in the grounds of Osaka Castle.

We visited Osaka City Hall where we had a reception with the City's Mayor who asked us more about our visit and also took questions from us. We were then shown around the building including the local debating chamber for the City's elected representatives.

Temmangu - a Shinto shrine showed us how the traditional style of the shrine could mix with the more modern style of design which is displayed here. The Shrine itself was very traditional, but the reception area was modern but not to the detriment of each other. At the shrine we saw the area where people were married and also saw a 'service' before being led out into the baking sun for green tea and music from the shrine's own musicians. During our time in Japan we visited many temples and shrines - all of which were very impressive by the skill of workmanship and creativity in these beautiful buildings - especially the Sanjusangendo with over 1000 statues guarding over the shrine lined up inside the building. We also visited Osaka City Hospital, The World Trade Centre, Kaiyukan Aquarium, a Ferris Wheel, Department Stores, Aoi-matsuri Festival in Kyoto, Sanyo Electric's, Panasonic Electric's, Morinaga confectionery, National Museum of Ethnology.

Obviously we were also in Japan to study our own vocations. I had to look at two areas. My work with Woolworth's was explored in Japan by many visits to the Department stores - most of the department stores in Osaka that I visited were on the same standard as those of the John Lewis Partnership, as an example. The Hanshin Department Store was a good example of how the community becomes involved with the Store. Hanshin had an excellent public relations strategy which involved them owning a railway line which stopped directly underneath the store, they also owned their own baseball team - The Hanshin Tigers, where merchandise was sold exclusively by the store, but they also owned the stadium which is the home of the team. The community fully respect the store because of it's community involvement and the store wins by the fact that it is very famous and people shop there to support their favourite team.

In my capacity as a Special's Area Manager, within the Northumbria Police Special Constabulary, I also looked at the Police system within the Kansai region by visiting the traffic control centre, the 110 (999) control room, and a Police Station, all of which were operated by the Osaka Prefectural Police. The vocational visits were very well planned and I felt that this was indeed very beneficial to me and I enjoyed simply to opportunity of being able to relate the work which I do to the procedures and processes in Japan. Although the Police in Japan do not have a volunteer police service - they were very interested in what Special's do and how they are structured etc. - perhaps they may even look towards providing a similar service in Japan now!

I believe that this has been one of the best experienced of my life and I will never forget the opportunities that Rotary International have provided me with. I am sure that I will never forget the time I had in Japan and I would like to thank all those in England and Japan who have worked so hard to develop this trip for the team.

On a final note: on Wednesday the 31st May we boarded a Bullet Train (Shinkansen) where we travelled to Hiroshima. Hiroshima is a City made famous by the first atomic bomb. The bomb exploded about the city on 6th August 1945 at 8:15am causing widespread and long lasting disruption to the city below. Almost everything was reduced to ash and rubble and many were killed and many suffered severely from the effect for years to come. It was a very humbling experience to visit the city and the museum - which laid no blame, it simply produced the facts as they were. I was told of a story from a Rotarian in Japan who said that he was at school only a few months before the end of the War. On one day he was in the school yard receiving a Physical Education lesson when the class noticed a senior army official watching them work out. After the class the soldier entered the class room to speak with the children. He told them that they should realise that education was very important. There were soldiers fighting for their county and that the war would soon be over. (the opinion of the Japanese people was that they were winning) The soldier continued to say that they must continue to study and when they leave education, they should further study for world peace. I was struck by this story and of the fact that we were studying in Japan and we had the team message of 'Building Bridges'. I believe that as a team, and representing Rotary International, we had indeed built a bridge. A bridge that would never be destroyed because we had made so many new friends and contacts in Japan, and because we should never allow that bridge to be broken. We too should work towards an everlasting peace.