last official chiba-kun ambassadors event: second opinion exchange

Earlier this week was our last official event of the year for the Chiba-kun Ambassadors, and my last event ever. That's right, after two years and much deliberation, I've decided not to apply for the program again next year. The main reason is so that I can have more time to focus on myself and the future (I'll also be quitting my National AJET, API AJET, and block coordinator roles), but I'm very glad to have been chosen as an ambassador for these part two years, because it's been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot about Chiba Prefecture, which was my original motivation for applying.

Anyway, so on a Monday we had our second opinion exchange, which was a chance for us to present to various tourism related organizations about our recommendations for attracting tourists from our home countries, for them to ask us questions, and also an awards ceremony.

Unlike last year, this time we had a morning rehearsal and opinion exchanges with people from Narita Airport, which I was late to and almost missed because I thought it just started in the afternoon. Fail. Anyway, after going into work and asking to leave an hour later, I made it just after the opinion exchange began and all was well.

For lunch, we had bentos at a place called Plaza Nanohana, right by the prefectural office. Apparently it's just (re?)opened as a hotel, which also offers meals. The bento was entirely made of local products, as part of a "local production for local consumption" initiative, which I thought was pretty cool, and it was of course very tasty!

And then in the afternoon it was time for us to present. The America group chose to recommend Nokogiriyama, as a place we thought Americans would like for being close to Tokyo, with cultural aspects such as the largest stone Buddha in Japan and also hiking and great views. We also cautioned then about the accuracy of the English in their advertising, since we figured we might as well take the opportunity to say how we felt about it honestly. And apparently they liked it, because as a result of voting from both the attendees and ambassadors, our group won an award for Best Presentation! It was unexpected and great to win, but the best part was that for a prize, we each got giant Chiba-kun plushies! So now I have a big one and a little one, just like I have a big and a little ぴーにゃっつ plushie. :)

After the opinion exchange was over, we had a dinner together to celebrate, at a place called Bellini that I've been to before. It was very yummy and fun, though maybe a little bittersweet since I am still s little sad not to be doing another year. But it's time to move on to other things, so I'm glad to have ended our last event with good memories of the day. :)