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Matsuyama Rotary Conference

Oh yeah so anyway this weekend I went to Matsuyama for the district 2670 Rotary Conference. I have to admit that I managed to have an amazing time even if every situation I found myself in was... interesting. Just for some background Rotary is a wealthy club made up of prominent busines owners in Japan (only men!) Rotary is also the organization that is sponsoring me to be on this exchange and I am more than grateful. Anyway Rotary basically raises money and donates to a specific cause. Each district varies, for example my home district in America does many local charities, while my host district in Japan builds wells in Bangladesh. So Saturday morning I woke up early packed quickly and headed to the Kochi Convention Center for the bus. I was told I would be traveling with Sakioka-san so I wasn't too worried. He is one of my manin counselors and I have traveled with him before. He's a bit crazy actually. He is a dentist that loves to do magic tricks for you. He helps out at the American Naval base alot, so his English is really good. When I arrived I was told Sakiokia would come later but that I would go on the bus with the Rotary CLub of West Kochi. That was the more boring club meeting... or so I thought. So we piled into the bus and headed out for the 2 and 1/2 ride to Matsuyama in the Ehime-ken. I got the front seat all to myself, but all the men sat in the back and laughed in there burly voices the whole ride there. Each and every one of them smoked and needed to use the bathroom more times than little girls on long car rides. So we stretched out our journey for smoking stops and bathroom visits. It's a wonder we even made it Matsuyama. But during our stops, the spoiling began. Everyone bought me a waterbottle and kept asking me what kind of snacks I wanted. Finally we arrived in Matsuyama and had lunch at a Tempura place. I actually ate all the raw fish and tempura and the Rotarians were pretty impressed. Picture me surronded by a bunch of old Japanese men who are drinking and smoking. And yet I laughed so hard it was hard not to have a good time. I mean when the one guy who speaks pretty good English points to the most ancient looking fossil in the room and says, "You better watch out he goes for younger woman," how could you not crack up? Back in the bus, the spoiling continued with some of the Rotarians giving me cakes and sweet bread. I stowed in my bag. So when we got to the Convention Center, I met up with Mary Beth (from NY to Kagawa) and Althea (from Townsville, Australia to Ehime). We took 300 pictures for various groups and then scurried into the convention. They introduced everyone and then droned on and on about some stuff that we couldn't understand. But it didn't matter cause the 3 of us were sitting there discussing Japanese culture and feasting on my sweet bread and various cakes. Finally we quieted down and started reading. Everyone around us seemed to have fallen asleep. Is it more rude to read or sleep? During a brief break we met an Australian woman that was speaking at the meeting. She was an exchange student to Shikoku in 1996 and was pretty fluent in Japanese. It was interesting to talk to her. It seemed like our exchange paralled alot, both attending an all girl school, both on the track team, both having to be perfect because of last years mistakes. Back in the Convention they showed a movie of some Japanese Rotarians building the Bangladesh wells. We couldn't quite figure out why they were playing Christmas music, But that's the Japanese for you. After what seemed like another 2 weeks, the meeting finally ended and we met up with our counselors. In the lobby they had a famous Ehime show where little kids were standing on each other shoulders and parrading around. It was pretty cool. It was followed by a loud Japanese drum section and then dinner. Lots of raw fish... but to tell you the truth I have taken a bit of liking to sashimi as long it is covered in say sauce. I still can't stomach sushi... yuck. Althea, Mary Beth, and Me covered our plates and pretty much pigged out. It was pretty tasty, what can I say? We were also the only 3 in the whole place not drinking beer. hehe. After a delicious dinner, we decided to do something very Matsuyama like. First we hopped on the Densha, which is like a trolley train that took us all thru Matsuyama. And then Julie Garner made her third trip to the onsen. And if you haven't read my earlier onsen posts, well it's a public bath. Everyone is butt naked and in the same bath. Usually it is a hot spring which is incredibly good for your health. Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama is a famous onsen because it is the oldest onsen in all of Japan and housed many emperors of the past. It's also incredibly traditional, and thus steriotypical Japanese. We walked in thru a huge mall, got Yukatas, and then headed below to the onsen. Althea pretty much was naked within a minute and didn't act shy at all. It took Mary Beth some time to do it. As for me, I was still fully clothed when they were all naked. At least when you go to an onsen with Japanese people they can critisize you and you wouldn't be able to understand it (although my Japanese is good enough know that I probably could understand it for the most part.) But I was with English speakers, and understanding is not a problem in that language. Boy was it hard. Plus to top it off a group of Japanese teenagers were laughing at me while I sat there screaming about taking my pants off. Then when I was done, embarrassed and hiding behind a towel, they realized we were gaijin and stared. As if this isn't awkward enough! The onsen was really small but very old and hot. Althea was pretty much doing cart wheels while me and Mary Beth were snug tightly wrapped in our arms in the corner. We relaxed and enjoyed the springs, until we had to meet our counselors. We got dressed and headed upstairs for tea and then explored the Dogo Onsen museum. It was pretty cool to see the enperors throne and original onsen. Outside we met with the counselors in a bar and ordered Orange Juices. Later we got back on the Densha and said goodnight at different hotels. At one point, I asked Althea, who speaks amazing Japanese (having studied for 8 years before coming and being here for 9 months already) when she felt conversational. She claimed she still didn't, but said that her 2nd month was all about frustration of what she couldn"t say. She knew the basics but not the conversation stuff. I honestly think I am at that point now because I continually find myself frustrated when carrying on with tough conversations with my friends. At the hotel, Sakioka-san gave me my room key and I was off to my room. Sure I didn't really sleep though. On Sunday I woke up and quickly got dressed in my brightest clothes. I was in the mood for standing out because I know the everyone would be in black and grey. I headed down for breakfast with Sakioka-san. We talked about how busy my October has been. He made a great point in saying that early October I saw Nothern Japan and next week I get to see Southern Japan. He said he had never been to Hokkaido or Okinawa and that I was lucky to get to do so much traveling. I asked him what he thought about my Japanese and he said it was great. After breakfast we met up with Althea and MAry Beth to some exploring. Sakioka returned to Kochi so I was the only exchange student without a babysitter, or uh... chaperone. Our first stop was Matsuyamajo, or Matsuyama Castle. To get on top of the hill you sit in this one man chair lift with no safety bar. It's pretty fun. Mary Beth's chaperone, Okuda-san, the Youth exchange chairman as well as our tour guide for next weeks Okinawa trip kept talking to Althea is Japanese. He then would rave about how well she knew the language, making me and Mary Beth a little shy. Then he suprisingly turned to me and asked me to read something that was in Kanji... very difficult Kanji. But I knew most of it and he started wowing me as well. He kept saying he was shocked that I could read that and was so impressed. Anyway the castle sat atop a hill in the middle of the city and looking out, well Matsuyama is probably the nicest city on Shikoku. And the great part about the place is that because it is on Shikoku, which is pretty much the middle of nowhere, the city is clean and not so crowded like Osaka or Tokyo. We stayed looking out at the city for a long time. Same as with Kochi, the city os surronded by lush green unspoiled mountains. It seems like because Japan is covered in mountains that the very flat area they get are crowded with home and dwellings. And did you know there are 30,000 rivers and streams in Japan, and yet only 3 are undamned and still wild. We then headed to the castle museum. There we saw a bunch of old samurai uniforms. They are mad cool there is no doubt about that. And if you ever wondered where George Lucas got the idea for Darth Vader in Star Wars, well just look at some of these Samurai stuff. After we took the chairlift back down, the chaperones decided to head back to the hotel and give us some freetime. We first went Vintage shopping, and then gave into lunch. At a little restaurant in Matsuyama we ordered Shrimp rice which was pretty good. Afterwards we got Starbucks. I was so happy so have something from home. But of course they didn't have my favorite drink so I settled for Vanilla Mocha instead. In the coffee shop we talked about how exciting Okinawa was going to be, until we realized we had run out of town. Back on the densha, we headed back to the convention center. Althea finally expalined to me the whole Omiyagi thing (act of giving presents. In simplest terms, one should buy the family a food from the host city.) There we all said goodbye and gave each other hugs. And trust me hugging is really rare so you take it when you can. The Kochi Rotary Club West was waiting for me on the bus and I was welcomed back cheerfully. 10 minutes in to the trip we made our first of many stops, where I was spoiled with Pockey and Tea. Later I was bought Ice Cream and various chocolate bars and my favorite type of gum. I faked sleeping at our last stop so they would stop buying stuff for me. When I arrived home, my host counselor picked my up.