Tokyo Part Deuce and District Conference

Friday, April 9^th started early for our team with a 3:00 am wake up time for our 3:45 departure.  We headed by van to Tokyo to see the world famous Tsukiji Fish Market.  It was a frantic scene when we arrived with carts, fish, and styrofoam boxes everywhere.  One of theTokyo Ginza- New Rotary members got us special passes so we were able to see the tuna sell up close.  Foreigners are not normally able to see the sale without these passes, so it was a special treat for us to be there.  The tuna that was sold that day was caught around South Africa and Ireland in June ’09.  It was considered fresh, although it was frozen, because the boats recently came to port from being out to sea for so long.  The actual fish market building was said to be 26 hectares in sizes or around 65 acres.  It was a wild place to be as carts were being driven everywhere and we had to watch every step we took so we didn’t step on the fish or get run over by someone passing by.  After seeing the fish market we took a short walk to a famous fish market sushi restaurant.  Yes, you heard me right…sushi for breakfast.

From the restaurant we headed over to the famous Tokyo Tower.  We went straight to the top observation deck at 250 meters high to see the city view.    Next we traveled to the Tokyo Ginza-New Rotary club meeting.  We were treated to a curried rice lunch and listed to a speaker who has traveled to 43 countries on his bike to raise money for the needy.  We weren’t able to understand everything, but we got the main points.

Kayla was able to make a brief tour of the Tokyo Junior Achievement office while the rest of us went on a tour at a glass museum.  We came together as a group and took a guided walking tour of Toyko Midtown Building Complex.  It was interesting to see what the inspiration was for the building and how they incorporated it into their design.  For example, a wicker basket was incorporated into the side of the building making it slightly rounded with the look of a weave.  Our guide spoke English well so the tour was a big hit with the group.

We concluded our Tokyo experience at the National Art Center for a delightful dinner at a very special French Restaurant called Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musee.  The atmosphere was out of this world.  The food was scrumptious and definitely hit the spot after a long day.  Our trip back to Ryugasaki was long and we were ready for bed when we arrived at 9:00 pm.

 On Saturday, April 10^th we left Ryugasaki for the District Rotary Conference in Tsuchiura.  We were met by the Japanese Rotary GSE Team that traveled to South Dakota in the summer ’09.  They took us on a pleasant boat ride down a canal that was lined with sakura.  Besides the beauty of the ride, we most enjoyed the local little girl who looked to be 3 yr old.  She and Luke became attached and she was pointing out everything to him.  We don’t know what language she was speaking, but we knew what she meant.  She especially enjoyed the cameras.  After the boat ride we were treated to a nice lunch of tempura.  We took a short nap and got ready for our presentation.

The district conference was held in an auditorium.  We did our presentation on the stage complete with the country line dance.  It seemed to be a big hit and they loved the fact that we took the time to learn it in Japanese.  Surprisingly, no other GSE team has done that.  When the conference was over we went to the official conference dinner party.  We had a delicious meal and were greeted again by many new friends including the past weeks host families, the Ibaraki Prefecture Governor, and many others.  We were happy to see the dinner end at a reasonable time.  We received an invitation to go to karaoke and we accepted.  Luke and Andrew had a delightful duet and we all think it should be the next remake of Kid Rock and Cheryl Crow’s song “Picture”.  I won’t say who played who, but it was a hit.  We called it a night around 10:30 so we could rest up for the next days activities.  We appreciate the kindness that everyone has shown us.