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Rotary District 6110 Youth Exchange

Richard
Eureka Springs, AR to Japan

	Nickname	Richard

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Students: To add a message to your travelogue, email the entry to vicki; she will put all entries online.

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Date	Travelogue Entry

2/28/04	You Know the thing about being here is that as hard as one might try to contemplate how bizzare the setting is you cant help but feel at home. Im not sure why that is maybe it is the friendly nature of the people or the clean warm city streets dotted with their well-maintained grey buildings. Either way I am finding it increasingly difficult to observe from the objective perspective I had in the earileir warmer months. Its funny because when I first arrived I almost enjoyed being special because of the shape of my eyes and the tone of my sickly pinkish red skin but now it eats at me that I can never be part of the croud and everytime someone past me on the street they still turn and stare as if I were one of the sleezy austrailian business men whom dot the buiser streets and stay for only a few weeks at a time. They look at me and I know they think only good things but it still bothers me that they assume that I don`t speak japanese and I hate sushi. Know matter how much I learn or how many customs I assume on the streets I am just the same as I was when I first arrived...foriegn. When I first arrived I was excited about being in a large city where noone knew me as apposed to the small town I lived in arkansas. But I was wrong here I carry just as much of a reputation as I did in eureka but now I have lost what little control I had over it in arkansas...oh well. Well thats about it for my complaints I cant think of anything else that I don`t like here and have no power to change. During christmas I went to tokyo and visited my good friend devon tucker who was their on vacation from his second exchange to russia(the sort of place you need a vaction from) and had a really good time thanks to the very ambiable parents of some good firends of his. We visited neko (the place where they buried tokigowa!) and managed to tour some of the more famous commercial ends of the city....ginza, the jetty etc... as I said fantastic trip. Shortly after my return I moved to my second host family(where I am staying now) which was hard because I had become somewhat attatched to what I have now relized to be history`s best host family. That is of course not to belittle what a fantastic job my current host family has done to make me feel at home. They have 2 little boys and a third my age...the little boys took some time to get use to but are really quite sweet and make sure that I get at the very least more than my fare share of fried ramen and video games. I don`t see much of the third as he is working hard on his college examinations and sleeping till noon but everytime I have had the chance to be around him he has been alot of fun. Mom is amazing and bursting at the seems with energy and dad is a prestigous lawyer whom is working with the prosecution against the man who perpetrated the sirin gas attacks a few years ago in tokyo!! I go to a japanese cram school now which I feel to be paying off as I have mastered both of the kana langauges and I have learned quite a few chinese characters....I know that I probably wont be fluent in speaking and definatly not in writing by the time I leave here but from what I hear no one is..so all I can do is to work as I can to learn what I can. In a couple of weeks is the rotary ski trip which I am quite excited about as well as a 3week vacation from that place I go to sleep....ooppps I mean school (i try really hard to stay awake...ohnestly but the teachers don`t care and I understand very little so after 4 or 5 hours everyday I need the ocasional nap). geuss thats it and sorry if everyone is a little miffed that I don`t write more often but I really have had very little computer access up until now. love, Richard
12/1/03	hey, school is boring to and now they try to wake me up in class. So I have taken up reading and for the first time I really enjoy it. Today I went down to nagoya station(a.k.a. the twin towers...creepy right) and rumaged through the meger english section of the book store on the 12th floor. After a few minutes I found a copy of "a brief history of time" by steven hawkings. It was paperback and in small print bound poorly together between two unattractive grey covers. It took about 5 minutes to decide to cough up the twenty dollars they wanted for it . Still muttering I took it down to an incredibly over priced coffee shop on the 11th floor with a view overlooking the commercial end of the city. I sat down as the sun began to set and started to read...the music was lound and obnoxious...they were playing that stupid song from a few years ago about girls who wear abercrombie and fitch and I could hear the female waitress standing behind me whispering "foriegner! come look...I think he is an american" but none of this seemed to matter as I imersed myself in my new book. It was at this moment that I relized that I liked to read. Uh-oh expensive habit to pick up in this countrty. Oh well I am just delighted that I have something new and intresting to do with some of my free time. Next week I travel to kyoto via shinkansen with rotary...Im not sure what we are doing there but I really like the other exchanges here and Im sure it will be lots of fun. I geuss that brings everyone up to date. love, Richard I will pay shipping for anyone who wants to send me their use books and upon request return them once I return to america. I need: steven hawkings sequil to a brief history of time, oscar wilde,micheal moore, "ellegant universe" by brian green...really anything on the super string theory, anything by that physist.. fineman(sp?), anything on the modern transformation of japan,books on how the samuri discipline themselves, books on french philosophy and (out of pure morbid curiosity) "mine compf"
CLINTON Monday, November 24, 2003 7:12 AM	Hello again, So I met the former president Mr. Bill Clinton last week and I was inspired to wash my hands of any aspirations of a political carrer. Let me back up a little... about 2 months ago it was announced that Mr.Clinton was to appear at the 50th aniversery party for the university associated with my high school. At this period in my stay I was still convinced that politics was my calling and gleefully informed anyone who asked me about my plans for the future. Im not real sure as too why but the story of bill clinton meeting president kennedy (sp?) when he was my age is very famous and thus it was decided that I should meet mr.clinton. The ceremony was long and elaborate with several security check points,there was a 15 minute speech from 2 japanese business men who (I suspect) paid their way on to the stageafter which clinton gave a very well spoken 2hr speech. He talked about the japanese economy, north korea, and what a moron our president select is after which he placed all those who voted for ralph nader in the same (and I quote) "breathing people with out a brain" boat. Now you might think that I would be a little offended with this aggregis offense to my political beliefs but the man had done something quite incredible...he had managed to completly disarm me of my welll informed argument and go along with his own for almost a full 2hr period. I think this is why he was president. After his speech I was one out of 60 who met mr.clinton (number 59 actually) and I suspect that I was one out of maybe 5 who never paid a dime to do so. He shook my hand and we talked about the university of arkansas a few minutes after which I heard him yell at some poor intern on his staff " I told you to put all the people who are going to talk at the front of the line" . I have now been in 2 newspapers and tommorrow I will be interviewed by a reporter from a national news program. The newspaper articles included really huge photos so now I get recognized on the subway. This might sound a little ungreatful torwards all the people who worked so hard to get me in that room with the former president but I want to make it clear that I am very greatful because they have done me a great service as I can now with a great deal of confidence strike politics off the long list of occupations that I am considering. Yet antoher great learning experince thanks to the very hard work of some very kind rotarians. Love, Richard
Wednesday, October 22, 2003 7:38 AM	alas photos http://community.webshots.com/user/mammal109
Tuesday, October 07, 2003 9:05 AM	I get up around 7:00 am eat a quick breakfast of miso soup and rice grab my bento box (lunch box filled with rice, fried meat and vegitables) from my host mother and head out the door. Next is the ride to my subway terrminal...this is probably the scariest part of my day as I have to ride the a rusty rickety bike through several busy intersections where no matter how careful I am I usually have a close call with a yacuza member driving a lexus. The subway ride to my bus terminal takes about 30 minutes where upon arrival I grab a cup of iced coffee and wait for the last bus so that I can sit. This bus ride is a comfortable 15 minute ride. From there I walk a city block and arrive at the edge of my school`s baseball field. I usually go to school 5 days a week except for days I have rotary meetings or on a specail week when I have to go on saturday (very rare). I take six classes everyday and because my school has this strange rotating schedual I actually go to about ten differant classes. The word "go" however is a little bit misleading as I actually stay in the same room all day and differant teachers come in every hour. I have made many friends in the school but however I can only rember the names of 2 or 3 since the sounds are so foriegn. Most can speak some english and will not allow me to speak japanese to them. I like these boys alot as they are not shy and seem to be endleslly intrested with me as I with them. I don`t however spend much time with them after school as they all participate in club activitys and I am far to busy directly after school to do so. However I have managed to make friends that I see after school hours even though I have never made any effort to do so. The last two friends I have made have been college aged and approached me in a coffee shop because they had spent the last 3 years in new zeland and wanted to speak some english. Now it may sound as If I am learning little japanese but I will have you know that much to the delight of my japnese tutor I can write fluently in the first of the three japanese alphabets. Also sense I am not picking up as much of the language as one my hope from my family and friends I have begun on a two hour regument of teaching it to myself during school hours. Because the japanese have such an obscession with learning english they have developed many great tools for learning a foriegn language that I take advantage of. For example I am currently using special flash cards that come on a metal ring and are cut down small enough that they might fit in your pocket..these are very usefull and have helped me to learn in excess of 40 new words on good days. After learning words I usally try to use them that day on my host family especially my mother as she speaks little english and is delighted when I speak to her in her native tounge. The other night I told my host father that I aspired to be a politician so after a few "rotary calls" it had been arranged so that I will meet Bill Clinton next month. My host father told me that in order to be an effective politician I should probably do some networking...so who better to network with than the president of the united states right? Rotary is the Mafia. Well I suppose that is all for now. Love, Richard

	The infamous chubby pink women ninjas. Photo taken at a real ninja house filled with real ninjas...sorta