Japan Travel Rotary Group Study Goes to Japan, Article Seven The international organization recognized as Rotary promotes

s yearly travel that all people in between the ages of 26 and 40, male and female, and of all backgrounds ought to know about because it is a Rotary-funded six week study aboard and anybody can apply to be a component of this significant life encounter. If you're this age group you can enjoy the kind of experience that is described in my notes in this article. To discover out more concerning the program go to http://www.Rotary.org and search for GSE Group Study Exchange and get in touch with your nearby Rotary Club for much more information. Our adventures continued: April 22nd Friday: The very best component about going to so many Rotary Clubs is traveling about the Prefecture (like our state)and seeing so a lot from location to place and we're headed today Antonio, Harry and I with Kenji in his Land Rover to Buzen West Rotary Club which takes an hour drive and is located at about 1 o'clock (if the island is a clock) on the coast. We're in stunning wide open land as we drive there lakes and mountains and not crowded like I thought that Japan could be. But Japanese think that America looks like LA and I'm afraid that prior to this trip I believed that Japan all looked like Tokyo (Harry stated that too). The Buzen Club reminds me of becoming in old Japanese countryside, and we're served a extremely conventional (but spicer) rice and curry lunch (yumm we say). I spoke and also the questions show that the men are curious about women in Rotary somebody asked what happened following our Supreme Court choice to let women into Rotary. Close by was the Tsuiki Japan Air Force Self Defense Base and Antonio was very enthused to be privileged to what we saw there. We entered the base (spooky to believe of Japanese air attacks) and got a briefing of the history with the base (that it was occupied by the U.S. for a time period and then returned towards the Japanese) and the types of operations and kinds of planes that had been on the base. We walked out on to the tarmac where they had pulled out 3 fighter planes for us to see an F-1, F-2 and an F-16 (initial time that I'd ever noticed a fighter plane up close, and was interested to hear that Japanese and Americans collaborated on probably the most technologically advanced planes). 1 pilot for every of these planes was very nice about explaining his plane to us and its capabilities 1 pilot said that he had a wife and two children, and the plane was his girlfriend it was funny to hear him tell this. Antonio was surprised that the F-16 could pull 9 gs sounded like a wild ride to me. The pilots were young and thin because Antonio said that helped them to withstand the g-force and that they wore special suits to keep the pilots' blood pumping while they had been soaring within the sky. We had been invited to the leading of the control tower (apparently a rare opportunity) and we could see out over the entire base including plenty of the 3 kinds of planes that we had been introduced to earlier. There had been rows

and rows of planes like a movie set exactly where they were all ready to take off. I enjoyed the expansive coast line and lushes mountains that we could see and hoped that these planes would never be utilized. We stopped within the PX and then stated goodbye to our gracious hosts. Kenji created a bar-b-que for us at his house later in the evening (Japanese style which I now understand is everything extremely thinly sliced) and invited some enjoyable friends and I hated to miss the late night enjoyable but went to bed early. April 23rd Saturday: Hooray today we're headed for Yufuin I read about this before we came to Japan and am delighted that our hosts included this get away its the lake-tahoe-wonderul-spot like we would go off to enjoy in California and it is incredible that visiting here I believe that we're at the same time so different, and so a lot the same in what we like and what we do. It turns out that individuals that we have met in many with the different Rotary Clubs have second (generally larger) houses in Yufuin. We're headed to Kenjis house and the Tanakas will probably be up because they have a house there too. It feels like getting into my SUV and heading for a Tahoe retreat only its probably the most well-known hot springs in Japan. Initial although we quit in the wine shop Kenji is really a certified wine instructor we learn and he desires to serve us California wines for the party tonight (lots of parties with our hosts) and he says, please dont serve him a sake party when he comes to America (he likes California wines much much better) hes happily joking. Ridge and Opus One are favorites of his and we leave the store with wine, chocolate, champagne and off we go simply because the other team members are waiting for us on the road. Yufuin is past Buzen, along the coast and then a steady boost in grade into the mountains. There are large mountains here and three hours later, if the island is really a clock we're at three on the dial. We come about the ridge of the mountain and look down on the beautiful town of Yufuin where everyone desires to come, Kenji says. It is larger than I thought and as we drive down the primary street it is the Carmel/Aspen of Japan enjoyable small shops that you'd adore to poke into with Japanese artifacts. Kenji has a favorite lunch spot in mind the restaurant, Sadonoya and the rest with the team is there. We sit at a lengthy table on the floor and they bring hot charcoal pots for us to roast chicken and sprouts on with blackberry wine thats made in Yufuin (and beer). I provided to create this the America buys lunch but the 5 GSE hosts would not hear of it I've spent $100 so far on this trip. There is a great really feel in Yufuin kicked back and relaxed extremely Japanese I see the Japanese shapes in trees and flowers that are so characteristic in Japanese works of art. A lot to discover here. We walk via the narrow markets streets, surrounded by magnificent mountains, and quit at Nurukawa Hot Springs for an afternoon soak the hot springs are all various and this really is a little one, where you can also stay if you're visiting. I'm happy because Teiko and Hiroshi have joined us too. Kenjis home is up the hill and is really a beautiful mountain house, like 1 that we know. It is a white field stone, with a porch on the front and when you step out onto the porch, theres a fantastic view of the

mountain range. The girls are staying here and also the boys in a home below. Kenji has dinner reservations at 6PM at a not-easy-toget-into restaurant in the town called Kame-no-i- and its lovely, in a back room, in a garden setting, with about twenty of us. Mika Hyoguchi (Mika) classification, Finishing School Owner, Ryoichi Hanechi classification, Insurance, Masayuki Sugino Management Senior Living, Tomoi Kondou Real Estate and Bakery and Takayuki Fujimoto, Architect the GSE inbound committee are all there. The conversation is lively dinner is very Japanese, with plates that I dont know (including a little fish) and it amazes me that champagne, beer, red wine, white wine are all served in the exact same dinner. Once more you might believe that the evening ended here but much more was coming. Seiho Ryu joined us for dinner a father to Kenji and he is really a very well-known artist in Japan try $100,000 for 1 of his paintings and gorgeous function. We went back to his home and he signed a book of his painting for every of us and visiting his house was a treat all on its own. You walked into the house (took off your shoes, obviously) and into 1 big room (kitchen and living) having a large heavy Japanese table and benches on one side and his artist studio on the other but spanning the entire backside of the home were full length windows that gave you a gasping view with the town below, grand scape of mountains, foliage of the mountain side and delicate bamboo trees on the far left as if you had been perched for flight. It was easy to comprehend how Mr. Dou was moved to paint I would be too using the magnificence of this majestic spot on earth. Hes nicely recognized for his delicate portrayal of cherry blossoms and their trees within the color and stroke that says Japanese. I would adore to have some of his function only even a small one costs $10,000. We went downstairs exactly where three of his large paintings where hanging 1 of intense cherry blossoms, 1 with the vista from his living room view (this was the $100,000 1), and 1 of Mt. Fuji all with radical color and gold leaf. Kimiyoshi, Kenjis friend, played the piano for us with all kinds of songs, and we sang as best we could. It was 1PM before we headed home, bowing numerous times and thanking Mr. Ryu. This article is a series so read on and many days follow in our splendid adventure! By on Japan's economy