Pacific Culture Club

On Tuesday, we had a full day of class (six hours of lecture) which was laborious to say the least! It makes for a long time, and by the time I walk back to the hostel it's almost dinner time. At least it makes the days go by quickly (in retrospect, not in reality).

Wednesday morning we met up in the morning to go to JETRO. Japanese External Trade Organization. We had a debriefing with them on some activities to promote FDI in Japan and the success stories of companies they have helped bring to Japan. After our corporate visit, we had a few minutes to change before heading to the Pacific Culture Club.

Thanks to my aptitude for public transportation systems, I was able to find a quicker route to get to the Pacific Culture Club and was able to direct our guide there. We arrived and met with our Sensei (teacher) for the afternoon. We walked to her home and was welcomed with open arms. We spent the afternoon listening to the koto (a Japanese harp), practicing caligraphy, partaking in a tea ceremony, and wearing kimonos. They were very hospitable and it was fascinating to have some further insight into traditional Japanese culture! I even got to keep one of my caligraphy attempts for "flower" as well as Sensei's much better caligraphy representation of beauty... "snow" "moon" and "flower." I'll be getting that framed!

We managed to weave our way back to the metro station afterwards (she lead us through twists and turns to get to her home) and I had a quiet evening in, I made up some fried noodles (with brocolli!) for dinner and watched "The Pianist" (very touching).

After another sleepless night... including being woken up by an EARTHQUAKE (I'm okay)... I woke up this morning and made the trek to campus, although it was extra strenuous this morning, I think my body is shuting down from being overworked (but no fears, I will, hopefully, climb Mt.Fuji next week... yep, you heard me right, more to come on that).