The Kagoshima Trip

It was not to be just a paper presentation in a scientific meeting. It was also a sightseeing trip, a reunion of some sort, and an experience of using almost all the means of transportation available in Japan.

My adviser asked me to present a short paper on hybrid rice (based on the ADB presentation and the book article) at the scientific meeting of the Society of Farm Management held at the Kagoshima University. Although only few persons attended our session, I received six questions, which made me feel many people listened anyway. Thank you for your prayers.

It was also a sightseeing trip because my adviser (knowing I wouldn’t understand the Japanese presentations anyway) booked me to a one-day tour of Kagoshima. We went to Mt. Kaimon (similar to Mt. Mayon), to some art and historical museums, and to what they say are some old Samurai houses. Although it would have been better if I understood what the tour guide was saying, the tour was omoshiroii (fun and interesting) anyway. Nothing can beat the endurance of that tour guide. He was talking almost incessantly while on the bus and at the tour sites. If he was not talking or bowing, he was singing. After an hour of trying hard to pick up some Nihongo nouns, verbs and adjectives for my Nihongo study, I gave up. I understood only the conjunctions and the ‘post’positions.

It was also a reunion of some sort because I met several old friends during the conference. There was Humnath Bhandari, a Nepalese who was all of a classmate, neighbor, friend and sensei while I was taking my MS at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at JIRCAS. He also presented a paper at the conference. I also met Kumi-san, Matsushita-san, and Sawada-san- old friends who helped me survive Japan back when I was in Tsukuba city for JICA training. Matsushita-san is now an associate professor at the Tsukuba University, and Sawada-san is in the NARC Tohoku region. Of course there was Kumi-san, who was our session chair. She was, at one time, a short-term expert of JICA at PhilRice. A quick re-un-yu-n desu ne.

Finally, funny how the trip allowed me the experience of using almost all the means of transportation here: by bus (from Asakura to Kochi airport), by hikooki (from Kochi to Fukouka), by shinkansen and local train (from Fukouka to Kagoshima), and street car and taxi (around Kagoshima). I left Asakura at 9:30 am and arrived in Kagoshima at around 4:00 pm. On the way back to Kochi, we used the efficient train all the way. What can I say? According to my adviser, the average speed of the shinkansen and the local train is 200 and 150 km per hour, respectively. I wish we have more trains in the Philippines. But I should not be wishing every time I write here, should I?

The ‘developing’ Japan

So was how my adviser refers to Kochi. He loves Kochi anyway, just as he loves the Philippines.

Kochi prefecture is located in the Shikoku Island, southwest of Japan, along with Kagawa, Ehime, and Tokushima prefectures. According to my adviser, its population is around 300,000. I have yet to know what Kochi is really like, but on first impression: a quiet, organized, and safe city, rural in some sense compared with the bigger cities of Japan.

One amazing fact to me is that the website http://www.baobab.or.jp/~stranger/mypage/church.htm records 50 churches in Kochi. Our God be praised! I don’t know about all these churches, but what can be more wonderful than 50 churches in a single prefecture speaking about Christ’s grace.

Coincidentally ("By God's sovereignity,..." as Marlon would put it), Kochi prefecture, by way of a memorandum of agreement, is a sister province of the Benguet province in the Philippines (according to an officer at the prefecture office whom I met in the welcome party for foreign students). Around 60 Cordillerans are all around Kochi learning Japanese farming technology cum helping produce vegetables for Japan. One might say it's accidental and that "it’s a small world after all." I say, God destined it to be for reasons I have yet to find out.

"Practical " Heights

Ando-san, a Universtiy Cooperative staff, was kind enough to prepare the maps and all the information about vacant apartments within a kilometer radius from the University. So, together with him, and Noguchi-san and Eri-san, undergraduate students of Kochi University, I set out to scout for a place i can stay around Asakura campus. We went to Akebono heights, Sakura heights, and other heights - posh areas, and clean new units. Yet true to my being a Filipino, 'practical heights' was what i desired. So after Ando-san skillfully did another computer search and handed me 3 more options, we walked to Merry Heights. The basement of the apartment building is a Christian chapel, and although I didn't have any idea about what chapel it was, it was one factor I decided for this apartment. My unit is a single room, but it can serve the purpose for the meantime. I found out later that it was just 100 meters away from where I will be having my daily Nihongo class, 5 minutes walk from the street car station, and around 10 minutes walk from the Asakura JR train station. By God's grace, I found my Practical Heights.

Polvoron and chocnut!

Thank you for your prayers. After an overnight stay at a hotel in Osaka, I arrived in good shape at the Kochi Ryoma airport around 12:00 noon on Oct. 3, 2006. By God’s grace, I arrived fine with my more than 30 kg baggage (including my hand carry baggage) . Too bad that the pack of goldilocks polvoron and chocnut just had to go at the NAIA airport because they won’t allow any more than 10 kg hand carry baggage. :)

Expectedly, I was met by my adviser Dr. Yoshinori Morooka. After almost an hour drive, we arrived at Kochi University Asakura campus, which is to be my home for some six months or so. For the record, my first activity was to seat-in in my adviser’s “Development Economics” undergraduate class. I knew my adviser was introducing himself and explaining the course curriculum to his students, but I only understood a word or two. A single fact dawned on me: I am going to be a student in Japan, and my first mission is to learn Nihongo.

In Kochi,
Che