Im in the city of Toyota, and as you might have guessed, its named after the car company toyota motors, which I was privileged enough to visit today! I had a great day! We visited the factory and actually saw how they make the cars (interesting facts: toyota produces 1800 cars per day and each car needs about 20 hours to be produced). It was fun to see the car door pass by and then being placed in the actual car. then we saw the Toyota museum and learned a bit of the history of the company.. Its really one of the best organized companies in the world (of course it would be, its japanese!). We met the chairman (the founder's grandson) Soichiro Toyoda, who gave a speech and answered all of our questions. He is an honorary member of the board of up with people and really supports us with donations (he gave us free toyota vans and $250.000 this year). The fact that such a powerful man supports up with people makes me feel even more proud to be a part of this programme. We had lunch and discussions and we departed with a toyota key ring as a gift (we were hoping to get keys with the actual car, but oh well!). Toyota is involved with many environmental and international projects, and they claim to care more about the community than for the money.. Knowing the japanese culture of collectivism, and how much money they spend on projects, I believe it!
After the Toyota company I went with a group of people in a forest (project of the toyota company). It was fun and very educational. I enjoy being out in the nature and learning about the environment and the bugs and the trees! When we went back to the facility I had to do CI Wrap up (short note: any cast member can do an internship with a staff member, and I have an internship in education, with Deann, who happens to be my roommate this week. So I have responsibilities that include CI preparation and CI wrap up, and the educational part of the programme.) Its not that its a lot of work, but Im not as carefree as I was in America and I discovered my fear for public speaking, which really got me down. I was kind of negative about the whole internship thing and today I really had to push myself to do CI wrap up and I was so happy cause it went great! I feel that I made a big step today overcoming my fear for public speaking. Maybe I can do it afterall! My internship finishes as soon as we go to Europe and I want to do something important before that. I have some projects in mind but in the meantime me and the other ed.interns (Erik and Jeremy from the U.S., amazing guys, very intelligent) need to prepare the wrap up for japan and prep. for europe. Im excited for that, I ll do my best to make it good!
Im kind of bubbling today cause its late and I cant sleep, and my roomate Deann is sleeping on a futon right next to me.. I really wish I could talk to my parents or my friends or anyone and tell them everything, I havent talked to or emailed anyone for a long time, whenever I have internet and some free time I try to update my blog so everyone can read it, instead of sending emails (so dont complain that I forgot about you, I didnt, I happen to have an extremely good memory- unfortunately!).
I ll tell you about last week, it was one of my best in the whole tour (even though I say that every week). I was in a small village up on the mountains in the area of Nara. My host parents were great, Kenichi and Tomoko, around 70 years old, and my roomate was Madoka, shes japanese so she translated, which made communication sooo much easier! I really got to know my host parents this time and I got to know Madoka and her exciting life that I could never have imagined.. There are so many people around us, whose story we dont really know and sometimes it just surprises you to find out all the things they have done that you would never have guessed! It was a great week! I drunk beer and sake every day and went to bed more than tipsy (japanese people drink a lot! I dont think I ever drunk more in a week in my entire life!). Ken and Tomoko took us to the best restaurants and provided the most expensive food. (I had raw lobster, and it was still moving!!). I also had jellyfish (not that bad really), and a really expensive kind of japanese mushroom, $100 a piece! (nothing special if u ask me). I went to the On Seng (hot springs) for the first time, which was amazing, even if I had to get naked with all the skinny japanese ladies. (there was a woman who must have been over 90, her body all wrinkly). I visited japan's biggest Buddha statue in Nara city, and got biten by deer who were just hanging out around the temple waiting to be fed by ignorant tourists. (if u are ever there, do not buy cookies, they will attack you and then they ll baw and say arigato gozaimasu- they actually do that! baw I mean, they dont really speak). Apart from the host family I had lots of fun with the cast too! We had the home-team olympics (home teams are our smaller groups that we have to discuss things). It was competitive, we each had a cheer (ours was the best) and we played games like 3-legged race, rice ating contest, stick-ur-head-in-flour-and-get the-candy and other silly games, and we had a tournament of dodgeball which was sooo much fun! CI was also perfect, I went to a school (did I mention I love japanese kids? they are so cute!) and the next day we hiked in the mountains and went to a famous buddhist temple and had a lecture on buddhism by a monk (quite an interesting religion, I have to admit).
Oups, I think I woke up Deann! Ive been writing for hours and there are still so many things to write about. I hope u manage to read all of it, drop a comment if u can (thanx marilyn, I know that at least u r reading this!). Next week I go to Tokyo and then its goodbye Japan-hello Europe. Last phase of the journey.. I dont want it to end.. But nothing lasts for ever, I just have to keep living I guess
No comments:
Post a Comment