Guest Blog: A visit to Japan
In our first Guest Blog, Sarah Parsons of consulting business Japan in Perspective talks about her upcoming Satogaeri Project visit to Gunma as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme.
I am soon going out to Japan to take part in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Alumni’s Satogaeri Project, organised by the Council for Local Authorities and International Affairs (CLAIR) Tokyo. They have selected 12 ex-JETs from around the world to go back to their Japanese home towns with significant Japanese media coverage ahead of next year’s 30 year celebration of the JET Programme.
Sarah playing the Taiko drum in a town festival.
In my case, I am going out back to Ojima Town in Gunma Prefecture to meet old teachers and students, visit the school and Board of Education and also visit key tourist destinations in Gunma such as Ikaho Onsen and Tomioka Silk Mill to promote them not only on Japanese media but back here in the UK. Needless to say, I can’t wait. I have not been back to Gunma since I left there in 1998, wondering where my Japan experiences would take me.
Anyone familiar with the JET Programme will know it is more than teaching-it is all about Internationalisation and not just for the people of the somewhat rural towns and villages many of us found ourselves in. It was my first insight into how people from two very different cultures with very different communication styles can find ways to understand and respect each other and form life-long relationships. Being thrown head-first into a small town community (see the picture of me playing the Taiko drum only weeks after arriving), gave me the grass-roots understanding and experience of Japan that I use now in a business setting to support business development & understanding between Japan and the UK, with the addition of extra skills and knowledge that I have developed since.
Due to the hospitality of my hosts and my immersion in Japanese life, I was able to attend significant family ceremonies, visit so many Japanese places, holiday with my colleagues, stay in people’s homes, go to Japanese festivals, play in local orchestras, discover J Pop and Japanese authors and really get to know about Japanese life and culture. At times, it made me feel lonely and open to scrutiny and I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I struggled with various cultural differences especially regarding women, but with flexibility, resilience and quite a lot of humility, I learned so much about inter-cultural understanding. That has formed the basis of me being able to extend that important knowledge to businesses today.