The international organization known as Rotary promotes travel each year, that all men aged between 26 and 40, male and female, and from all backgrounds know - - because it is a Rotary-funded study, six weeks on board, and everyone can apply, should a part of this important life experience. If you are in that age group - you could enjoy the kind of experience that is described in my notes in this article, too. They want to know more about the program according to http://www.Rotary.org and the searchGSE - Group Study Exchange - and contact your local Rotary Club for more information.
Our adventure continues:
22. April - Friday:
The best part about going, so many Rotary clubs is traveling around the prefecture (as our "State") and to see so much from place to place - and today we are headed - Antonio, Harry and I with Kenji in his Land Rover - to Buzen West Rotary Club - which is an hour's drive brings and is located about 1 (if the island is a clock) tothe coast. We are located in the beautiful vast country, as we have to drive there - lakes and mountains, and not as I thought that Japan would be urged. But Japanese think that America looks like LA - and I'm afraid that before this trip, I thought that looked like Tokyo, Japan (Harry said that too). Buzen The club reminds me of the old Japanese landscape, and we are serving a very traditional (but spicer) rice and curry lunch (yumm - let's say). I spoke - and show the questions that people are curiousabout women in Rotary - someone asked what to make of our Supreme Court decision, women in Rotary.
Was very close to the Tsuiki Japan Air Self Defense Force Base - and Antonio was very excited to be a privilege, what we saw there. We stepped in the Base (ghost of the Japanese air raids think) - and received a briefing on the history of the base (ie it was taken from the United States for a period of time and then again the Japanese) and the types of operations and types of airplaneswere based. We went outside on the tarmac, where they had pulled three fighters for us to see - an F-1, F-2 and F-16 (first time I had ever seen a fighter aircraft in the vicinity and was interested to hear that Japanese and Americans together the most technologically advanced aircraft). A pilot for each of these planes was very nice to explain to us his plane and his skills - a pilot said that he had a wife and two children, and the airplane, his "girlfriend" was - theywas fun to hear, let him know this. Antonio was surprised that the F could pull 16-9, g - sounded like a wild ride for me. The pilots were young and thin - as Antonio said that helped them withstand the g-forces - and that they wore special suits the pilot's blood "pumping, while they keep rising in the sky. We were (at the beginning of the control tower appears to be a invited a rare opportunity) and we could see, over the entire base - including many of the three types of aircraft that we hadwas introduced earlier. There were series of layers - like a movie when, if they were all ready to take off. I enjoyed the expansive lushes coast and mountains, we could see - and hope that these planes will never be used. We stopped at the PX - and then said goodbye to our kind hosts. Kenji from a bar-b-que for us later at his home in the evening (Japanese style - and I mean everything is sliced very thin) - and invited a few friends fun - and I hateduntil the late night of fun missing, but went to bed early.
23. April - Saturday:
Hurray - we are now headed for Yufuin - I read about this knowledge come from before we go to Japan and am delighted that our hosts contain this "away" - it is the "Lake-Tahoe-Wonderul spot" as we would to enjoy in California - and it is amazing that a visit here, I think we are at the same time, "are so different and so much the same" in what we like and what we do. It turns out that the people we met,many of the various Rotary Clubs have second (usually larger) homes in Yufuin. We sold the house Kenji - and the Tanaka's because they have a house there too. It feels like always in my SUV and called for a withdrawal Tahoe - only it is the famous hot springs in Japan.
But first - we stop at the wine shop - Kenji is a certified wine instructor, we learn - and he wants us to serve California wines for the party tonight (lots of parties with ourHosts) - and he says, ask him not to serve one party, when he comes to America (he likes California wines much better) - he is happy joke. Ridge and Opus One are favorites of him - and we leave the store with wine, chocolate, champagne - and away you go, because the other team members are waiting for us on the road. Yufuin Buzen is over, along the coast and then a steady increase in quality in the mountains. There are big mountains here - and three hours later, when the islandis a clock - we are at 3 on the dial. We arrive at the crest of the hill and overlooks the beautiful city Yufuin - where everyone wants to come, says Kenji. It's bigger than I thought - and so we continue on the main street - it is the Carmel / Aspen from Japan - fun little shops that you would like to dead with Japanese artifacts. Kenji is a popular lunch spot in the eye - the restaurant, Sadonoya - and the rest of the team is there. We sit at a long table on the floor - and theyput hot charcoal pots for us, fried chicken and sprouts on - with Blackberry wine that is produced in Yufuin (and beer). I offered to the America that "buys lunch" - but the five GSE hosts would not hear of it - I have $ 100 so far been spent on this trip. It's a good feeling in Yufuin - stepped back and relaxed - very Japanese - I see the Japanese forms in the trees and flowers, so characteristic of Japanese art. A great deal here. We walk through the narrow marketsEnjoy streets, surrounded by beautiful mountains, and stop at Nurukawa Hot Springs for an afternoon - the hot springs are all different and that is a small, where you can spend the night if you are visiting. I'm happy because Teiko and Hiroshi joined us too.
Kenji is the house up the hill - and is a beautiful house in the mountains, as one that we know. It is a white box, stone, with a porch on the front - and if you step out onto the porch, there is a magnificent view of the mountain chain. TheGirls are here to stay - and the boys down in a house. Kenji has dinner reservations at 6pm in the not-easy-to-get-in restaurant in the city of Kame-no-i, and it's beautiful in a back room in a garden, with about twenty of us. Hyoguchi Mika (Mika) - Grading, Finishing School owners, Ryoichi Hanechi - classification, insurance, Masayuki Sugino - Senior Living Management, Tomoi Kondou - Real Estate and bakery - and Takayuki Fujimoto, architect - the GSE Inbound Committee are allthere. The conversation is lively - dinner is very Japanese, with plates, which I do not know (including a small fish) - and it amazes me that champagne, beer, red wine, white wine - all served the same dinner.
Here, too - you might think that the evening over here - but more came. Seiho Ryu us for dinner - a "father," Kenji - and he is a very famous artist in Japan - try $ 100,000 for one of his paintings - and wonderful work. We went back to his house - andHe signed a book of his paintings for all of us - and visit his house was a pleasure all to themselves. She went into the house (took the shoes, of course) and in a large room (kitchen and living room) with a large, heavy Japanese tables and benches filled on one side and his studio, on the other - but spanning the entire back of the house length windows that look you gave a gasp views of the city scape of grand mountains, foliage of the mountain side - and delicate bamboo trees onfar left - as if you were sitting on the flight. It was easy to understand, has been postponed as Mr Dou, to paint - I would - with the magnificence of this majestic place on earth. He is known for his representation of the delicate cherry blossoms and the trees known - in the color and stroke, the Japanese said. I would like to have some of his works - only a small cost of $ 10,000. We went downstairs, where three of his large paintings hang if - an intense cherry blossoms, one of the vistaFrom his living room view (this was the $ 100,000 in one), and one of the MT. Fuji - all with a radical paint and gold leaf. Kimiyoshi, Kenji friend, played the piano for us as well as we handle all types of songs and we were singing. It was 1PM, before we headed home, bowed several times, and thank Mr. Ryu.
This article is a series - so read on - and for many days to follow in our wonderful adventure!
