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The 2005 award was made to Cathy Mizutani, who travelled to Japan in September 2005. Cathy spent her time in Japan continuing her language studies on a one-week course at Hokkaido University and a number of short work placements. Cathy then spent time touring the country. Cathy's reports are summarised below and those of previous winners can be read by clicking on the right-hand links.
22 September
I’ve arrived!! After a gruelling 3 flights, a train and then a taxi ride! I’m trying to stave off the jetlag with coffee, but I don’t think the coffee here contains much caffeine, if any! I’ve spoken no English since arriving and am already feeling a lot more confident to speak Japanese. The people are all so kind and helpful. To be honest it still hasn’t quite sunk in that I am actually here, it is all quite overwhelming but I’m having a fantastic time so far. I’m off to meet my first host family this afternoon and will keep you updated and write a proper report at the end of the week.
29 September
Well I have been here a week and a half now and time seems to be flying by. Before arriving in Japan I was very apprehensive about everything, worried about correct etiquette, worried about navigating my way around alone on the public transport and worried about not being able to understand or to make myself understood.
Upon arrival at Sapporo Chitose airport, I collected my luggage and nervously made me way to the train station. I needn’t have worried; there are people on hand to assist you buying tickets and with where to catch the correct train. The level of Japanese learnt as SOAS is easily enough to not only get by in day to day situations, but also chat and converse about many different topics. It all seems to flood back at the right moment when you need it!
I caught the train to Sapporo, and attracted many inquisitive glances from people as I was the only foreign face on the train. I was very pleased that I had decided to go for a more toned down appearance to come to Japan. Once at Sapporo I caught a taxi to the Nakamuraya ryokan. The staff were very kind and helpful and helped me to my room. I was so exhausted I had a bath and went to sleep as I had been awake and on the move for roughly 24 hours by this point. Later the same evening 2 other students from SOAS arrived to stay at the same Ryokan so we went together into Sapporo and had a look around and a bite to eat at an izakaya. The food is very tasty and incredibly cheap compared to the UK.
The next day we all caught the train together to the Hokkaido Kyoiku Daigaku to meet our first host families. We were all pretty nervous, I was especially nervous as not only have I never participated in a homestay before but I am also fairly shy around people I don’t know. My host family are the Sawamuras, a husband and wife whose children have already grown up and left home. They have been taking students in for homestays for the last 14 years and the previous 2 years they have taken students from SOAS, including a former Hagio prize winner. They have been incredibly welcoming and kind and I feel very relaxed staying with them. They live in a development called Sweden Hills where all of the houses are modelled on Swedish ones. My host family told me that people aren’t allowed to paint their houses different colours to maintain the look of the village. It is very beautiful, and from the top of the hill you can see Sapporo at night all lit up.
I am gluten intolerant so was worried about food but we drove to a supermarket and they checked the ingredients of everything to make sure no wheat was inside. At the weekend we drove in the car all along the coast, through Otaru up to a place called Kamoenai, which is a picturesque fishing village in the mountains right by the sea. We stayed the night in a campsite made up of little wooden cottages, and had a barbeque outdoors. I have never been camping before and I enjoyed it very much. Early the next morning we went to a Matsuri for seafood caught from that region, where I tried some new foods including uni (sea urchin) and hotategi (clam) for the first time.
This week I have been attending classes at the university ready for the work placement next week. Yesterday I wore a suit and went to visit the company I will be doing my placement at for the first time. I was nervous but the boss was very friendly. They have a special programme for overseas students so they are used to having foreign faces around. He showed me some photos on his computer from other student’s placements and it looks like a lot of fun, you can see that they are really enjoying themselves. As part of the placement I will get to take classes, as well as helping with the preparation of food (and then tasting it afterwards!), gift wrapping, helping on the shop floor - even dressing up in kimono and obi in another branch of the shop. As well as this the Arcs Group participate a lot in community activities so I will also be visiting a middle school with the boss and helping the students answer questions in English, and visiting a zoo and perhaps a hot springs too. I’m really looking forward to starting work there.
14 October
I will be moving to the weekly mansion tomorrow so here is my second report from Hokkaido!
Well to be honest, so much has happened in the last 2 weeks I’m unsure of where to start! I settled in immediately with my second host family, the Kimuras. On the first Saturday I was there I had mentioned that I wanted to buy some Japanese sweets to send to my husband. So in the morning they took me to a nearby supermarket and helped me choose things which were tasty. They helped me find a box and then phoned around to Post Offices to help me find the cheapest mailing price and then drove me there in the car, so I managed to do everything the same day!
The next day we drove to a place called Hitsujigaoka, which is a sheep observation hill. There was a field of very serious-looking sheep, probably because they knew that their fate was to be made into Jingiskan, a local lamb delicacy served at this same place! At the same site is a famous statue of Dr. William Smith Clarke, the man who founded what was originally the Hokkaido Agricultural College and is today Hokkaido University. And we also visited the Sapporo Snow Festival Museum at the same site and had a picnic lunch.
I have to admit that I felt very nervous and apprehensive about the next day, which was my first day at my work placement at the Head Office of the ARCS group, a company who run the largest supermarket chain in Hokkaido as well as an onsen hotel and numerous other subsidiary companies. I needn’t have worried because the people there are fantastic, really friendly and helpful; they have been incredibly accommodating and kind. I feel more like a guest than a research student! The only slightly nerve-wracking moment was on my very first morning having to climb onto a little stand with a microphone in front of approximately 200 or so besuited businessmen and give my self introduction speech in Japanese. But it went smoothly and after I’d done it I felt pretty invincible!
In my first week there alone I have attended some lectures, all in Japanese, had a tour of the factory where meat and fish is packed for sale, visited several shop sites including a new one that only opened the week before last, been to a famous rose garden, and to a museum that traces Hokkaido`s heritage back to the Ainu people and even previously when it was still joined by land to what is now known as Sakhalin, Russia. I’ve been incredibly busy there!
The following weekend I drove with Naomi-san and Hiroki-san in the car to Shintoku, which is Naomi-san`s home-town, about a three and a half hour drive into the mountains of central Hokkaido. There we stayed one night with her parents and younger sister who are living there. I ate a raw squid for the first time, and Naomi-san`s mother taught me how to cook some Japanese dishes which I will try to make again when I return to England. We drove to a field in the early morning and picked maitake, an edible fungus which doesn’t grow in the UK.
This week, I had a day off on Monday as it was a National Holiday. I went shopping for groceries with Naomi-san and Hiroki-san and when we returned to the house I taught Naomi-san how to make a traditional roast dinner. They said they hadn’t eaten it since their honeymoon in London which was about 13 years ago! This week at work on Tuesday and Wednesday I spent two days working in a supermarket called Big House, helping with filling the shelves and rotating the stock, it was really good fun. The next day I helped Satou-Manager, who has been supervising me at work. We went to a high school and I helped him take 2 separated classes of 16 year olds for an English lesson. I was nervous but when I got there I saw that all of the students were more nervous than I was! I helped them to introduce themselves in English, and then they asked me questions and I answered them. I really enjoyed it a lot. After that lesson I was thinking that perhaps only a matter of weeks previously I would never have imagined that I would have the self confidence to participate in some of the activities I have been doing at the work placement. The thought of even flying here alone had terrified me! But I have realised that I can achieve so much more than I allow myself to believe. This trip so far has been such an amazing and positive experience for me.
Today I went with Satou-Manager and Asari-san from the same company, and we spent the day looking around Hokkaido University. The campus is enormous and spans 3 stations length on the subway system. It is mostly for agriculture, sciences, etc. We saw a building that was exhibiting fossils and dinosaur bones, and a walkway of trees which were planted over 100 years ago when the university was first being built. We also saw information about the colonisation of Hokkaido, which took place from the mid to late 1800`s, and visited the government offices. Tomorrow I will be moving to the weekly mansion. I am looking forward to seeing my classmates but I will be sad to be leaving the Kimura`s, who are incredibly kind and have been fantastic.
27 October
Am having a truly fantastic time here - this is my next report as I’m not sure how much time I will have tomorrow as it’s the leaving party and then flying to Tokyo early next day.
Well, where have I been in the last 2 weeks? Where haven’t I been is perhaps more apt. The weekend before last I moved to the weekly mansion, I was sad to be leaving the Kimuras and when Naomi-san dropped me off at the Weekly Mansion building I had to try hard not to get upset! They are such a lovely couple, I missed them a lot after I moved out! The weekly mansion is nice though, neutral colours and a decent sized room, for some reason I am staying alone on the 10th floor while the other 3 students are staying on the 5th, but I don’t mind because I have a panoramic view from my window and can see the mountains at the edge of the city!
On the Monday I spent a day at the Arcs head office, where I took part in a cookery lesson and learned how to make 2 new dishes which I’ll practice on my husband when I get back, and after that I took part in a shodo (Japanese calligraphy) lesson. I enjoyed it a lot and wished that I could have spent more time taking part. I was taught about the inks and how to hold the brush, and practised 4 basic characters.
The next day I was up bright and early to meet Mr.Satou at Sapporo JR Station as we were going on a 4-day trip around Hokkaido for study purposes, although I did a lot of sightseeing too! We caught a train, changed at Shintoku on to a bus, and then drove up into the mountains to a place called Shikaribetsu, where the company own an onsen hotel at the edge of a beautiful lake. On the way there in the bus, I found myself getting teary-eyed at the scenery, it was breathtaking. Having spent the last 10 years living in the city it is easy to forget how beautiful the world can be. We got on a little boat and toured around the circumference of the lake. On each side there is steep mountain covered in untouched forest, trees with the leaves turning many different hues of red. I was told that these forests have been untouched forever. It was easy to imagine things like dinosaurs roaming about!
I stayed in a very nice traditional room with a futon on a tatami mat, and in the evening I ate some very lovely food, including tsubu, a snail-like shellfish which I had previously seen raw in the supermarket and grimaced at! It was tasty! After that I decided I wanted to try the onsen as I have never been in one before. I went in there in the yukata but was unsure of where to put the clothes and where to take a shower before entering the bathhouse. There was nobody around so I kind of stood there looking confused and eventually I had to flag down a naked elderly lady who’d just come out of the water, explain to her that I was unsure of how to use the onsen, and she explained everything for me. I have to admit I was initially a little embarrassed as we don’t have anything like that in the UK but once I’d gotten the robe off and gotten into the water it was actually quite liberating. I went in the rotemburo which is an outside hotspring pool heated by sulphur. All around there is a rock garden with little lanterns and you can look up at the moon and starts. Blissful!
The next day we travelled to Obihiro where I visited Ryuugetsu, a traditional Japanese confectionery factory for a whirlwind tour, and then went to the Head Office of Fukuhara Company to meet the president and ask him a few questions in Japanese. I was nervous but Mr.Satou helped me and the President was very kind. That afternoon we took a 4 hour train journey to Abashiri, a fishing town on the North Coast of Hokkaido facing the Okhotsk sea. When we arrived it was cold and dark and there weren’t many people around, the place ha d a bit of a lonely feel to it, but the next day the sun was shining, and I visited a shop and spent an hour there looking at the kimono, and after that visited the Abashiri Prison Museum. The same afternoon we caught the train to Asahigawa, where the next day I met the president of Fuji SuperChain, and then went to the zoo! I haven’t been to a zoo since I was about 5, and I was so excited to see the animals, especially the penguins! And then it was back to Sapporo. A round trip of Hokkaido in one week, tiring but fantastic!!
This week has been my final week at the work placement. On Monday I went to the Ralse Plaza Sapporo department store, where I worked this week, to make an introduction. The next day I started work there, on a floor with underwear tidying the stock, and the next day I worked in ladies' wear. Today though, on my last day of work there, was like a dream come true for me. I worked in the kimono department. I was so happy when I was told I could work there that I almost burst into tears!! In the morning I was shown all around the different products, the special clothes for coming of age ceremonies and how the colours differ, different fabrics for kimonos for different occasions, and many different pairs of zori, ones for the winter with a special clear toe-guard to stop the tabi getting dirty in the rain, fur-lines ones for the cold. After lunch I got to dress up in a kimono and the shop staff helped me with it and with the obi, and we took some pictures.
After that I was taught how to fold and store kimono and uchikake (this is good, as mine are stored in a carrier bag under my bed!!) and how to tie an obi on myself in a style called `butterfly` which looks like a large ribbon. It was fantastic; I had the time of my life there, and was presented with a bag of kaki (persimmons) by one of the staff when I left. I was really sad to have left there; it has been the most fantastic month. Tomorrow I will go to the Head Office to thank them and say my goodbyes, I hope I don’t cry!
This time has been such an amazing experience for me; I have improved in leaps and bounds, not just in spoken Japanese but also in self-confidence.
It’s hard for me to believe some of the things I have achieved while I have been here. Everybody has been fantastic and so supportive, and I’ll never forget the kindness of the people who took me into their homes and cared for me, and Mr.Satou who has kindly and patiently looked after me every day and arranged for me to take part in such amazing activities. The work placement has been truly great, I have learnt not only about the company and the way it works, but also about Japanese history and culture. The best experience of my life.
16 November
Now that I’ve finally managed to sleep off the jetlag and get my sleeping patterns resembling those of normal people, here is my final report about my last two weeks in Japan.
I woke early on the Saturday and caught a taxi with 2 of my classmates to Sapporo Station, and from there we caught separate flights to Tokyo. When I arrived at Haneda I was worried about how I would find my way to my friend’s house where I was due to stay, but I managed to meet up with another classmate at the airport, and we caught the limousine bus together.
Arriving in Shibuya I was immediately daunted by how busy it seemed, all the little winding backstreets, so easy to get lost in, and masses upon masses of people swarming everywhere, which makes you feel like London is just a tiny little village. I managed to make it in a taxi to my friend’s house. She studied the diploma course 3 years previously and now lives in Tokyo with her Japanese husband, where they run their own business.
In the evening we went together to a club, and I was surprised that 50% of the people there were foreigners, having hardly seen any in Hokkaido it was a shock. During the next week I caught a terrible cold, but it didn’t put me off exploring and I would go out every day armed with bundles of the free tissues that you get handed in the streets, and energy drinks from the vending machines at the station. My friend’s house is about a 5 minute walk from laforet and Takeshita Doori in harajuku, so we went out and investigated the area, and saw some people dressed in really interesting fashions. Over the next couple of days I also explored Shibuya and Shinjuku alone, I was terrified of going to Shinjuku by myself after hearing that 4 million people use the station daily - I had visions of being trapped underground in there forever having to survive off of food from the kiosks downstairs, but it wasn’t so bad and I made my way up to daylight again fairly easily!
At the end of the week I travelled to the Sakura House youth hostel in jimbocho, Kanda, which is an area where there are mostly offices and businesses, but also a large amount of used books shops, which was interesting. The staff at the hostel spoke both English and Japanese, but by this point I had found it easier to converse in Japanese to everybody.
On the Sunday I travelled to Hibiya, to the Imperial Hotel, where I met Mrs. Hagio and her niece in the lobby, and we went for some tempura lunch at a restaurant there and later to Toroya, a famous Japanese sweets shop, to eat anmitsu, a traditional sweet consisting of pieces of jelly called Kanten, which are made from seaweed, and fruits, and bean paste jam. It was really nice to sit and chat with the lady who had given me this wonderful opportunity.
During the following week I caught a shinkansen to Nagoya, and then a local train to a place called Asahi in the countryside, and I stayed for 3 nights at my husband’s parents' house. We did a variety of things together but most rewarding for me was just too finally be able to sit and chat with them about day to day life. To be able to converse with them was my main reason for doing the course, and to finally have managed to realise my goal made me incredibly happy.
Overall this has been such a wonderful experience. I’ve learnt so many things, not just about Japan and it’s culture and people, but also about myself, and gained so much more self confidence, and that has been one of the best rewards of all.
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