kanazawa take 2

Okay, so I'm slowly catching up on posting about events of the past few months! As I mentioned in an early post, October was pretty busy after my business trip, with going back home for my friend Nicky's wedding (which was so so great as a mini-reunion with my Carleton friends, who I hadn't seen since graduation, but I won't go into too much detail here) and our big yosakoi festival, Chiba Yosakoi right after (which ended without any judging because crazy wind almost destroyed the event venue the night before the second day...O_O).

And then at the beginning of November my friends and I took a trip to Kanazawa/Ishikawa! My family and I went shortly after I first came to Japan, so I was interested to see how my impressions might change after living in Japan for three years instead of just three months.

I took a night bus there and arrived bright and early on Halloween morning, where I met up with my friend from Shizuoka to take the train to our friend's station in Tsubatacho, where we met up with everybody and had Mcdonald's breakfast while waiting for our last friend to arrive. Then we hopped on the train to Nanao, a city on the Japan Sea coast with a fish market that one friend wanted to visit and castle ruins for another. The market had lots of fresh fish but also restaurants, so we had lunch there first while admiring the view from the restaurant. As expected of a place right by the sea, the seafood was delicious (and the miso soup came out in a gigantic bowl)!

Then we took a bus to the ruins of a castle on the list of Japan's 100 castles (one of my friends' projects is to visit as many of them as she can), though as it turns out we greatly underestimated the time/effort it would take to get there, as it was 2 kilometers up a mountain with muddy trails, haha. We also didn't have much time to go up as the last bus back from where we were was at like 4:30, so after panting and hurrying up a trail (none of us in appropriate footwear), we only spent about 10-15 minutes at the top. But the view was absolutely gorgeous, and totally worth it!

After managing to catch the last bus, we headed to an onsen (apparently the 11st best in Japan?) and soaked for a bit before finally heading back to my friend's place for the night, where we had some drinks and chats and also for some reason started playing Hatoful Boyfriend, which is a dating game involving pigeons...?? Also since it was Halloween I had on my Pooh bear onesie and my friend also had on his (not Pooh bear) onesie, with various Halloweeny headgear as well. Good times.

The next morning we slept in and then had a (mostly) traditional Scottish breakfast! My friend had brought haggis/black pudding/bacon from Scotland and I provided dried hash browns, so after a grocery run we all cooked together a mess of scrambled eggs (with and without haggis), haggis, black pudding, sausages, bacon, and hash browns. I was a bit skeptical as to whether or not I would like haggis and black pudding, but they were both very tasty!

Then we got on a train and went into Kanazawa proper, to see all the touristy stuff. First we went to the Kanazawa Castle Park, which I hadn't been to, then Kenrokuen, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (where I finally got to see the pool exhibit that was closed last time we went). After some wandering, we then decided to get curry, at a store that would give people free curry if they managed to eat like 2 pounds of it in 30 minutes. Or something ridiculous like that - needless to say none of us did, but anyway it was tasty. And then we went to a local bathhouse before it was back to my friend's and more revelry in the form of a Pokemon drinking game where somehow everybody except me managed to skip half the board...

The next day we slept in (again) and maybe went to the bathhouse again? before making a very late start to tour the "ninja" temple (that I had been to before), wander around Kanazawa, have curry (of a different kind) again, stop by an Irish pub, and then hang out at an izakaya until the wee hours. On our final morning, we went to the Shinrin Park, apparently the largest forest park in mainland Japan. We had a very nice lunch and walked around outside, saw the most depressing free zoo ever, and then headed back to go on our respective ways. It was really nice to be out in (semi) nature, especially because Ishikawa has some really beautiful clouds.

All in all, it was a really fun trip and I'm definitely glad I went! Yet another successful CIRHP meetup. :)

quezon city

Well, as expected, October went by in a flash! Right off the bat was my business trip to Quezon City, Chiba City's sister city in the Philippines. The occasion was to celebrate the 75th founding anniversary of the city, as it had been over 20 years since a mayor of Chiba City had visited, to visit some places and learn about those studying to be nursing care workers (a very relevant issue for Japan), and also to encourage them to come to Chiba City in two years for our 45th sister-city anniversary.

I went as an interpreter, the only female and the youngest in an official delegation that included the mayor, the assembly chairperson, other city assembly members, and several division chiefs, and my boss/coworker. I think my coworker was pretty glad to have me along as somebody else who was just a (lowly) staff member without any particular titles or anything, since we could help each other prepare each night and also complain to each other, haha.

The trip was four days and three nights overall, and the first day was just traveling. After an early flight we arrived in the afternoon, took a bus to our hotel, had a meeting with the staff members from Quezon City Hall,  had dinner together at the hotel, and went to bed.

The next day we got up (very very) early to attend the flag-raising ceremony at City Hall, which apparently happens at 7AM every Monday morning, with all of the employees. This morning there were also Boy Scouts, teachers, and city council members, so it was quite a crowd that greeted us as the two mayors "walked the line" of policemen before coming to the stage. I definitely think this was the biggest crowd of people I've ever interpreted in front of (thank goodness the speech was scripted and the mayor stuck to it), and it was definitely pretty cool to be there.

Then we went in for a long meeting in which I did very little (there was a professional interpreter) and we had breakfast and listened to presentations about Chiba City and its sewerage system (something they asked to learn about). Next we got on a bus and went to see a housing project supported by the city and the Quezon Memorial (dedicated to the first president of the Philippines), had lunch at the former villa of the president, and then we went to observe the City Council. Apparently the day we went was one where they usually hold proceedings in Tagalog, but because we were there they voted to change to English, which was very nice, and also for some reason they gave us fried chicken? (I appreciated this later though when I didn't get to eat any of the delicious-looking food at the reception.)



After that we went back to the hotel to freshen up before the welcome reception hosted by Quezon City. There was a bit of a wait involved as the mayor of Quezon City got stuck in traffic, but overall it was a very nice reception, with a live band in the background, videos about Quezon City, and performances of traditional dance by high-schoolers. I was interpreting for the two mayors all through dinner so I didn't get to eat, but at the end of the night when our mayor threw out his prepared speech and just talked of the cuff I totally nailed the interpreting, which felt pretty great. Afterward I helped my coworker prep for the next day and then finally went to bed.

Day three in the Philippines also started bright and early. Our first stop was a Japanese language school, where we heard about students who hope to work in Japan and also observed a class for a bit. Then we went to the Japanese Embassy, where all but a few of us waited while the mayor and other VIPs met with (presumably) the ambassador, then we all listened to a presentation about encouraging nursing care workers and the like to come to Japan. We had a bento lunch on the bus before going to a school that trains nursing care workers, where we listened to some presentations and also sat in on a class.

Finally, we went back to our hotel, which was also where we would be holding our return reception. Which ended up being an utter disaster in many ways, which for the sake of my city and myself I won't elaborate on here. Definitely not the best night.  But after it was all over I helped my coworker write notes about our meeting time for the next day and do some other prep and I think being able to commiserate helped me feel at least a little better before going to bed.

The next day was just stopping at a mall to do some souvenir shopping before going to the airport, so I bought some things and tried Jollibee, a fried chicken fast food chain I had kept seeing from the bus. The staff from Quezon City actually treated me and my coworker, which was very kind of them. Then we went to the airport and got to spend the wait time in a fancy VIP lounge, which I've never done before. And then it was back on the plane and back to Japan!

So the return reception on our last full day kind of spoiled the memory of everything that went well before it, but overall I think my first overseas business trip went off all right. I'm definitely grateful to even have had an overseas business trip, as well as the chance to visit a new country and one of our sister cities. That's one down, four more to go!