JICA FRIENDSHIP PROGRAM SCIENCE STUDENTS 1987: PART 10: KAMAKURA!

From Kyoto, we are going back to Tokyo via Shinkansen, again! How lucky we were! The Shinkansen ride seems to be an ordinary ride.

We were again booked in the Hotel Metropolitan in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

If you notice, we had lots of free days before the Evaluation and the Farewell Party. I remember, we were told we had an extra day after the Farewell Party because there was no flight for us yet, and that day we had our Finale, Tokyo Disneyland!

For our free days, we already lined up our schedules with our friends from Kanagawa University. In the morning, we were going to Kamakura and then, an unofficial visit to Kanagawa University and hanging out in  their apartments, plus an overnight stay! I don't know if everyone was given a chance such as this...

Here we are now in Kamakura!
From Wikipedia: Kamakura (鎌倉市 Kamakura-shi^?) is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called Renpu (鎌府^?) (short for Kamakura Bakufu (鎌倉幕府 or Kamakura Shogunate^?)).

Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of theRegency during the Kamakura Period.

Our friends from KU were members of the English Speaking Society (ESS) and one of their activities include being tourist guides in Kamakura, as part of their practice in English.
Our first stop is the Kotoku-in Temple which is a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo-shū sect with the Daibutsu, the monumental outdoor bronze statue of Amitābha Buddha.

We are posing in front of the Goddess of Love, Marriage and Fertility and in other parts of Kamakura! It was so great we all met again!

The Great Buddha (Daibutsu) is not the largest bronze Buddha but is the more original one, which has withstood weather and time remarkably. I remember they were sharing with us the background about the Daibutsu and we were sharing with them how to express this to the tourists.
From Wikipedia: Kamakura has many historically significant Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, some of them, like Sugimoto-dera, over 1,200 years old. Kōtoku-in, with its monumental outdoor bronze statue of Amida Buddha, is the most famous. A 15th century tsunami destroyed the temple that once housed the Great Buddha, but the statue survived and has remained outdoors ever since. This iconic Daibutsu is arguably amongst the few images which have come to represent Japan in the world's collective imagination. Kamakura also hosts the so-called Five Great Zen Temples (the Kamakura Gozan).

Since almost the whole Philippine and Japanese students gathered, it seemed like an official part of the Friendship Program.

From the Kōtoku-in Temple, we went to another part of Kamakura, the Kamakura beach. The beach together with its temples and proximity to Tokyo, makes Kamakura a popular tourist destination, especially for surfers.

Then, some of us gathered in Junko's apartment. The four famous Kanagawa singers were singing and this song must be a Japanese pop song, "Miss Brand New Day"... "Yumemiru sugata no yosato "bekeiyo" blue jeans"...(I am not sure if this is right!) Thanks to Gretch I.B. for linking this song to our site.

When I heard the song again, I could easily remember Yoshi-san and Taka-san!
Here is the link to the song from You Tube and the lyrics from another site:

サザンオールスターズ　ミス・ブランニュー・デイ（MISS BRAND-NEW DAY
www.youtube.com

サザンオールスターズ　20th Single：1984年06月25日 リリース

from: http://www.karajapan.com/~nijiiro/englishsouthernmissbrandnewday.html

MISS BRAND-NEW DAY English lyrics: Kalapana

<MISS BRAND-NEW DAY> With a figure that I’m dreaming, way down inside your blue jeans Loneliness is following your walk of rhapsody Oh Oh miss brand new day Everyone acts the same with her Oh Oh miss brand new way She seems like everybody’s girl The words are all a fashion of her vain and high illusion She’s coming off elated with reactions by someone else Oh Oh miss brand new day She loves to show her coming on Oh Oh miss brand new way Why can’t she stop her running around How I’d love to spend the night with you my love You have to let me know that I’m your only man Yes I know she’s right on time Tonight I’ll stay with you You should know You’re playing with my heart You are the one and only one that I love so Interlude; The way you are has got me running round following rainbows My love for you is something that I just can’t hide inside Yes I know she’s right on time Tonight I’ll stay with you Oh Oh miss brand new day Everyone acts the same with her Oh Oh miss brand new way She seems like everybody’s girl Oh Oh miss brand new day She loves to show her coming on Oh Oh miss brand new way Why can’t she stop her running around Oh Oh miss brand new day Oh Oh miss brand new way

＜ミス・ブランニュー・デイ (MISS BRAND-NEW DAY)＞ 夢に見る姿の良さと美形の Blue Jean 身体と欲でエリ好みのラプソディー * Oh Oh Miss Brand-New Day 皆同じそぶﾘ Oh Miss Brand-New Way 誰かと似た身なり * 意味の無い流行の言葉と見栄の Illusion 教えられたままのしぐさに酔ってる Oh Oh Miss Brand-New Day 月並を愛し Oh Miss Brand-New Way お出かけの前に 終わらない彼と寝てる Night Time 濡れたムードを買い占めて Yss,l know. She's right on time. 今宵 With you You should know she's breaking up my heart 割とよくあるタイプの君よ ありのまま着ままの君で心は Rainbow 人目をはばかるにゃ美し過ぎる (* くり返し) 誰の為本当の君を捨てるの Crazy しなやかと軽さをはき違えてる 慣れない場所で背伸ひ All right 粋な努力をただで売る Yes, I know. She's right on me 今宵 With You You should know she's breaking up my heart 街でよく見るタイプの君よ

Kampai!!!

the night is almost done!

It was a really fun day!
We stayed over at Junko's apartment and the next day before going back to the hotel, I tried their "pay shower". I had to prepare several ten yen because after a few minutes, the water would close. That was a unique experience!

This is the group picture in Hakone where we first met.

The Friendship Program was not in vain because even in unofficial circumstances, the delegates and the counterparts met and continued their friendship.
Some of our friends also went to the Philippines for a visit.


At the time, when internet, e-mails and Facebook were not yet available, it was not exactly easy to continue to the communication.


I was just amazed when Emil T. opened our Science Students 1987 group that it was easier to find our groupmates and even some of our Japanese friends. After 24 years, the memories come flooding back in and I hope the others feel the same. 


Part 11 will be on the Farewell Party!

JICA FRIENDSHIP PROGRAM SCIENCE STUDENTS 1987: PART 5: YOKOHAMA AND KANAGAWA PREFECTURE

From beautiful Hakone , we now went back by bus to Yokohama for our activities in Kanagawa Prefecture. Our Japanese counterparts are from Kanagawa University.

Here are our activities in Kanagawa Prefecture.

We stayed in Holiday Inn Yokohama near Chinatown.

Holiday Inn Yokohama. I really remembered its location so when I passed by the same hotel in 2004,
I saw it was now Rose Hotel  Yokohama, near the Yamashita Harbourfront Park.

Courtesy Call to the Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture

Kanagawa University

The university was founded in 1928 by Yoshimori Yoneda (米田吉盛^?) as Yokohama Academy (横浜学院 Yokohama gakuin^?). It was an evening school for the working youth. In 1929 the school was renamed Yokohama College (横浜専門学校 Yokohama semmon gakkō^?), which had both day and evening schools (Day school: Department of Commerce / evening school: Departments of Commerce and Law). On 15 May 1930 the college moved to present-day Rokkakubashi Campus. In 1939 it added the technical departments (Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Industrial Administration). In 1949 the college was developed into Kanagawa University, under Japan's new educational system.

Kanagawa Prefecture

during the orientation at the Kanagawa University

in their computer labs... they were very advanced then!... see how large the computer was!!!

For recreation, we went bowling at the Yomoto Fujiya Hotel Bowling Center.

with team mates Yuri, Len and Sam

Rikkyo University Nuclear Energy Institute

Kanagawa Technological High School

We visited a technological high school and visited their chemistry laboratory.

NHK 

From Wikipedia: NHK (日本放送協会, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai; official English name: Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan's national public broadcasting organization.^[1] NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials,^[2] is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.

NHK operates two terrestrial television services (NHK General TV and NHK Educational TV), two satellite television services (NHK BS-1 and NHK BS Premium, both now a High-definition television service), and three radio networks (NHK Radio 1, NHK Radio 2, and NHK FM).

with actors in NHK

in one of the cameras in NHK circa 1987... do they still use this?

the actors and actresses in NHK 

as we were oriented in NHK

Sankeien Garden

I love this garden and was lucky to visit it again in 2004. Here we were able to experience the Tea Ceremony and our first encounter with traditional Japanese ceremonies.

From Wikipedia: Sankeien is a spacious Japanese style garden in southern Yokohama which exhibits a number of historic buildings from across Japan. There is a pond, small rivers, flowers and wonderful scrolling trails that make you think you are in Kyoto rather than Yokohama.
The garden was built by Hara Sankei and opened to the public in 1904. Among the historic buildings exhibited in the park are an elegant daimyo (feudal lord) residence, several tea houses and the main hall and three storied pagoda of Kyoto's old Tomyoji Temple.
from:http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3205.html

Tea Ceremony in Sankei-en

Kitasato University Hospital and Kitasato University Higashi Hospital

I think we were given extra exposure to the hospitals to cater to our group, which is composed mostly of medical students. 

It was wonderful to be exposed to the hospital and also to meet medical students.

The Kitasato University Hospital is the main hospital of Kitasato University. It has 941 beds and 1899 staffs including 462 medical doctors. The Kitasato University Hospital is one of Japan’s leading hospitals as indicating the following statistics; total numbers of inpatients and outpatients 303,042/yr and 640,431/yr respectively.

from: http://www.khp.kitasato-u.ac.jp/

Since its foundation as the second hospital of Kitasato University in 1986, the Kitasato University East Hospital has played a regional core hospital. Especially it is evaluated as the unique hospital corresponding to wide medical treatment from the acute stage to the chronic phase with three centers of "Center of Digestive Diseases”, “Center of Neurological Disease” and “Center of Mental Disease”.

from: http://www.kitasatoclinicaltrials.org/k-u-eh/index.html

walking just outside the hospital

nice hospital with wide corridors

Farewell Party

After Party party. We went around the vicinity of the hotel then proceeded to a Disco.

as we were lazing in the park outside the hotel...

We enjoyed our Disco...we paid (or they paid?) the entrance fee and after that, you can eat all you can and drink all you can. If I am right, it cost ¥2000.00.

I remember we ate fried chicken at the disco among other short orders as well as overflowing drinks. 
I got attracted to the Fizz drinks which really tasted like fruit juice, so I drank the Melon Fizz, the Pineapple Fizz and the Banana Fizz and more Fizz! 
I found out later that these contained gin! I am allergic to gin! Good, I was ready with my antihistamines! I had the discomfort for a few days.


After the disco, we continued on to the Hotel and everyone was packed into one room!

with Vic-san so comfortable in his Yukata...this must have been his room...

and the dancing, and singing and chatting continued...

I guess our stay in Kanagawa really achieved its purpose of friendship and cultural exchange.

In Part 6, we are on our way by air to a farther prefecture down south, Yamaguchi Prefecture!