Category: Technos and Post Technos–Japan 2000

While Carolyn joined me at the end of the Technos trip, it was to explore old Japan and old Korea.

By old Japan, I had in mind Kyoto and Nara, where World War II had not flattened the buildings or firebombed them, partly because Secretary of War Henry Stimson had honeymooned there.  Tourists ought to sing his praises.

While Nintendo claims Kyoto as its headquarters, it is better known for having been the capital of Japan from 794 until 1869.  Known as Heian, it exudes charm, with the Kyoto palace buttressed by several buddhist shrines.  It has an older section of the city which was where “Memories of a Geisha” was filmed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where we stayed.  Talk about “customer service”.  With kimonos in our room we were transported back in time to greater luxury and ambience.  One evening, three meals, two treasures the cost, and worth it. Ryokan is the category.

If the city resembles a Tang dynasty capital–Chang’an (Xi’an) or Luoyang, it’s no accident. the “peaceful capital” (Heian) was modeled after those imperial cities.  Isn’t that what it meant to be an emperor in Asia, even in the land where the sun comes up? (Nihon).

Nara was an 80 year prelude as the first capital of Japan, which later moved to Kyoto where it remained for a thousand years.  Again, I felt we were in Tang China, which provided the feng shui for the layout of the city. It still houses 8 UNESCO heritage sites, but one of the unusual features is the protected deer park, which ecompasses the temples and shrines.  The Todaji temple is the world’s largest wooden building. Fittingly, its sister cities include Xi’an and Kyongju.

As part of our tour of Tang China’s imitators, I wanted to take Carolyn to Kyongju, at one time the fourth largest city in the world, It was the capital of the Shilla Kingdom from 57 BC until 935 AD.  I’d been to the “museum without walls,” but couldn’t get enough of the ancient splendor.  The peak was the 7-9th century when the Shilla ruled most of the Korean peninsula.  Today, historic buildings such as the Bulguksa (Buddhist) temple, the observatory, the bell, and the mostly un-excavated mounds evoke a splendid past.  The buddha in the cave (Seokguram) is the most beautiful buddha I have ever seen.

The one disappointment I had was that when I had been in Korea in 1997, it was during the cherry blossom time. Gumi, our base then, was resplendent white.  When Carolyn and I went through it on the train to Kyongju, all we saw was a naked industrial city.

 

 

 

 

 

On of the strongest connections of IWU withs Asia was with the Technos Institute of Tokyo.  Minor Myers hit it off with the head of Technos,

Kenji Tanaka, who founded a basically vocational college (mostly tourism), and shared some of Minor’s quirkiness.  As I understand it, Tanaka funded five universities (one in New Zealand) to send faculty and students for a cultural exchange in Tokyo. Minor came in at Hobart and Smith, one of the other colleges, and brought that with him.

As a member of, and sometimes head of the Asian Studies Committee at IWU, I was positioned to lead the trip.  I was also in a position to choose the candidates among the sophomore students, and my goal was to ensure that one of them would be from Business Administration.  That had never happened before at IWU. One of the other faculty pushed a student who when she saw fish, went, “Ew, fish.”  She found being a vegetarian avoided that potential cultural conflict, and thus missed some of the best foods on the trip.

The format was that we would be flown to Tokyo and all our expenses would be covered (given how expensive Japan was, that was useful.  We had a $50 voucher one night and it bought a hamburger and a coke).  We stayed in different neighborhoods, which gave us a sense of the size if not diversity of Tokyo.  As I recall, early on, we had a tremor, learning what the “rim of fire” was about.

Technos was a school focusing mostly on tourism, and one of the real treats was a resort maintained in the mountains, with a hot pool in the mornings watching the sun come up.  It provided training to the Technos students, and joy to the guests.

Three other memories remain in my mind:  the first was the Tuna Market (I think it moved in 2018), where ginormous Tuna were bought and sold.  The most expensive went for $3 million.   Charlie the Tuna would have been as astonished as I was to see the activity in the wee hours of the morning.

The second was Japanese baseball.  I did not realize the teams were corporate.  That is, the Tokyo Giants were part of the Yomiuri newspaper and television empire.  Equivalent to the Yankees, the Giants are the oldest professional team and one of the most successful (22 championships).  Their games were in the Tokyo Dome, starting at 6 pm.  I did not realize until then that the start allowed the salarymen to come straight from work in their suits with briefcases.  As you might expect from a Japanese crowd, the cheering was orchestrated and the audience followed the cheerleaders.  Food was exceptional: bento instead of hot dog, with beer distributed via something like a fire extinguisher.  It was great fun.

The third was a stay in a small town that looked like (and probably was) a locale for pictures of early Japan.  Small shops, small buildings.

I should note that not only did faculty choose students, but many activities split faculty and students.  It wasn’t like May Term–babysitting, guide, guardian, warden, whatever was required.

Mrs. Hoyt joined me afterwards for Kyoto and Nara to be reported later.