[In 1998, while I was with the Ministry, five of us were sent on a Friendship programme with the Japan International Cooperation Association - JICA. JICA has several programmes for the region, where citizens of the region (ASEAN members) are invited to visit Japan and learn from Japan. So participants from Social Welfare sector (like my organisation) would be invited to learn about Social Welfare in Japan. These trips were highly sought after, as it was all-expenses paid, and we even got some spending money! We were young, but even then we were (or at least I was) cynical bastards, and we suspected that this was also Japan trying to win friends and bribe South-East Asians into forgetting or forgiving them for the atrocities of WW II.
Anyway, when we got back, I was asked to write an article for our in-house magazine or newsletter (I forgot which). This (below) was what I submitted.]
Five Singaporeans recently went to Japan and made more than a few Japanese miserable... and the trip was part of a friendship programme.
We left on 26 May (1998) for Osaka, arriving at Kansai airport early in the morning. It was a cool day in Osaka when we arrived. We (Singaporeans) had the unaccustomed experience of stepping out into the sunshine and feeling cooler.
Osaka and the entire Kinki-Kansai area are prone to summer rains that last just about forever. We caught the last few days of sunshine, but then the rainy season began. However we were promised that Sapporo, our next stop, and the place where we will spent two weeks of our holiday would have better weather as they do not have the Kinki-Kansai rainy season.
I looked forward to Sapporo. I didn't know much about Sapporo except Sapporo Beer. Any place that has beer can't be all bad. Kobe has beef. Yokohama has tyres. Tokyo has Shinjuku. Hiroshima was bombed. Sapporo has beer. All I needed to know about Japan.
The good thing about domestic flights within Japan is that we can actually send our luggage ahead of our flight. On arrival at Shin-chitose airport, our guide brought us on a long scenic drive along the shores of a volcanic lake, followed by lunch. I later realised that the whole lake tour and lunch thing was a delaying tactic to allow the luggage we sent ahead to arrive at the hostel we were staying. It was at that point that I realised we were dealing with really sneaky professionals. This was something we could learn from. In that simple programme they were about to maintain the image of efficiency and consideration.
Anyway, they hosted a big welcome dinner for us that night, and my attention was immediately caught by the three large bottles of Sapporo beer. I immediately forgot about how devious they had been that afternoon.
Actually, come to think of it, they could just have brought us to the Sapporo brewery for the two hours. I wouldn't have minded if our luggage was late.
The next day, it rained. At the official welcome ceremony that morning, the director of the Sapporo International Communication Plaza Foundation apologised for the unseasonal weather and promised that the next day would be better.
The next day it was still raining, and our guide once again apologised for the bad weather. As a concession to the weather, our planned trip up the mountains was cancelled as we won't be able to see anything "just clouds and rain". So our guide instead suggested an afternoon of shopping. That proposal was greeted with a resounding roar of approval from us all... Singaporeans, Thais, Malaysians, Indonesians, Bruneians and Filipinos. Shopping... it's what brings people together.
However, there was one little formal obligation to discharge after that: meeting the deputy mayor of Sapporo.
The deputy mayor welcomed us and as expected, apologised for the bad weather that has marred our visit to Sapporo.
Not to be outdone, I said, "We apologise for bringing the rain from Osaka to Sapporo."
The programme for our first weekend at Sapporo was home stay. This is when ordinary everyday Japanese families decide that their normal peaceful lives were just not hectic enough and open it up to half-confused, ignorant foreigners who can't speak Japanese properly. Maybe they find it entertaining.
Anyway, the three girls in the Singapore delegation got nice proper families. Jin Yee, who doesnít drink or smoke, got fixed up with a family that runs a karaoke joint. His weekend was filled with bad singing, cigarette smoke, and alcohol fumes.
Me? I got stuck in a cat house. And I'm allergic to cats. My host mother has two cats and a dog that was shedding like crazy. Must be the ajinomoto in its diet. I spent the weekend trying to get white dog hair off my dark-blue pants, while sneezing and sniffling from the cat fur in the air.
It was a teary farewell when I said goodbye to my host mother -- whether from the parting or the allergy, I'll never say.
One of the last places on our itinerary in Sapporo was a sheltered workshop for the mentally handicapped. The workshop makes decorations or festoons for the New Year. We were supposed to participate in this part of the programme. So they provided a model for us, all the components for the festoon, and away we went. I wasn't too happy with my efforts, but at least everything was in more or less the correct place.
Anyway, after we made it, the representative from the sheltered workshop told us that they were giving us the festoon we had made as a souvenir. The other ASEAN participants cheered wildly. I was overwhelmed by their diplomacy and tact.
Consider: total amateurs with barely minutes of training, virtually no supervision, and complete ignorance of the significance of the various components just put together your product. Almost certainly, itís not going to pass quality control. You're going to have to throw it away. But why not give it to the ignorant foreigner with no idea of the significance or meaning? In one fell swoop you eliminate the waste, use it to buy goodwill, and do not risk your reputation by selling badly produced goods.
Ingenious.
Before we left Sapporo, we had one final free day to do whatever we wanted. We asked to see a juvenile home for delinquents.
We were overawed by the facility.
The facility had a garage with two huge bulldozers. I asked the Superintendent of the centre if the boys were allowed to drive those huge powerful machinery. He said they were supposed to as part of their training. I could not see that happening in Singapore. Get one of the boys from our Approved School behind the wheel of those machines, and we can be pretty sure that the Boys Home will have a new unplanned gateway.
The last day in Sapporo was a pensive one for me. However, we stopped for a tour of the Sapporo Brewery in Eniwa on the way to shin-chitose airport. There was of course free beer. So that cheered me up heaps. Or is that hops?
Our next stop was Hiroshima. The next day it rained. I prepared an apology to the mayor of Hiroshima, just in case.
Because of the rain, our tour of Miyajima island was wetter than expected. The island was infested with deer, and they looked rather miserable huddled in the rain. Maybe I should apologise to the deer.
Fortunately, the rain cleared up the next day. Unfortunately, we were leaving after lunch.
We returned to Osaka. The next day, it rained.
Two days later we returned to Singapore. I'll skip the teary farewell scenes, as there were no cats to blame.
The next day, it rained in Singapore.
-------------
After that year, 1998, Singapore was dropped from the JICA programme. I would like to take credit for so traumatising the Japanese that they swore NEVER to invite Singaporeans again. But I would be lying. The decision to drop Singapore from the programme was because Singapore by then, was already quite well-developed and wealthy and do not need or benefit as much from JICA's programmes. This is evidenced by the fact that on our return from this "educational tour", our management told us that the usual report and recommendations on what we learned on the trip was waived. Because, from previous trips by other participants, our management knew what would be in the recommendations. So Management was quite content to let us have a free, all-expense paid holiday.
But while there were no lessons to be learnt for our organisation, there was always personal takeaways.
Take-aways or lessons learnt (Personal).
1) Kuroneko, Ta-Q-Bin, or the Yamato Transport Company. So when I next returned to Japan (almost 20 years later), I looked up the luggage delivery service and found loads of articles and links to Ta-Q-Bin, a.k.a. Kuronekko, i.e. the Yamato Transport Company. This company allows you to send your luggage ahead to your next destination (or wherever you want), and this saves you the hassle of lugging your stuff onto trains, planes, etc. You just take a small carry on with you. In application, what we usually do, because we only stay for a day or two at any hotel, is that we would send the luggage to the second hotel, leapfrogging the first. Then at the second hotel, we would be reunited with our luggage and we refresh our clothes in our carry-on, wash our used clothes (if laundry facilities are available), and then send the luggage onto the second hotel down our itinerary.
2) Hiroshima. The Japanese were traumatised by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The visit to Hiroshima, as far as we could tell, was to convey to us the victimhood the Japanese felt being the first (and so far) the only people to have been bombed with atomic weapons. At Hiroshima, they had maintained the monument to that moment of horror.
I could write pages about how many people who lived through the horrors and atrocities of the Japanese Occupation had suffered and still bear anger against the Japanese, and cannot forgive the Japanese for what they had done. And then there are Japanese who lost friends and families in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the horrendous suffering from radioactive poisoning, burning, and sickness, and the death that ensued. One does not balances out the other. Atrocities and human sufferings cannot be balanced. Only accumulated. Our only response is to acknowledge it, respect the suffering that was endured, and acknowledge Man’s inhumanity to Man. The way forward is forgiveness. Not retribution. Here is a story/oral history of a Japanese woman who married a Singapore man, and moved to Singapore in the 1970s. I find her approach to life, very positive.
3) Tips for Sight-seeing. We loved Odori Park in Sapporo, as well as the Tanuki-Koji Pedestrian Mall, also in Sapporo. We also enjoyed Nakajima Park (also in Sapporo), and I would have a fondness for Sapporo. We had some lovely memories there. And years later when two of us returned to Sapporo, we re-visited these sites. Interestingly, we never returned to Hiroshima. Perhaps because it seemed rather morbid? The bombed out shell of a building still stands as a memorial to the moment of destruction. (In Singapore, we do not have enough space to preserve a disaster site as a memorial.) But I do recall, that when we were at Hiroshima, JICA provided us with very luxurious hotel rooms. Maybe we should return just for the hotel rooms?
No comments:
Post a Comment