KF뉴스레터-Ten-Day Exploration of Japan

Ten-Day Exploration of Japan

On January 23 at 9:00 a.m., I boarded a plane for Narita, Japan, full of anticipation of being on my first trip since joining the Korea Foundation. I was headed to Japan with 17 university students selected from the Honam region for a ten-day visit with a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade as the head of the team.

This Korea-Japan university student exchange program was initiated in 1972 under an agreement between the foreign ministers of Korea and Japan. Since 1992, the Foundation has been working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on this exchange program. Last fall, I had the experience of welcoming a team of Japanese students to Korea, but now finding myself in the role of ?dministrator?for our trip to Japan naturally made me a little nervous. This was coupled with my curiosity to find out how the Japanese would operate their side of the program.

Upon arrival in Japan, we were greeted at the airport by staff members of the Japan-Korea Cultural Foundation and the International Hospitality & Conference Service Association. All of them had either studied in or visited Korea and they had an impressive command of Korean. The first stop on our itinerary was the National Museum of Japanese History. Called "Rekihaku" for short, this museum res the history of the Japanese people from prehistoric times to the present and as such allows visitors to acquire an overall view of Japanese history. This was followed up the next day by a lecture on ?omparison of the society and culture of Japan and Korea,?which, along with our museum visit, was an excellent introductory course for our visit.
The vast city of Tokyo, which is similar to Seoul in many ways, is a place where you can feel that the past, present and future all coexist.

In a corner of the busy commercial district of Shinjuku, the past is still alive in tiny old- fashioned restaurants stuck close together, while in the coastal city sub-center d on reclaimed land, there is an automated subway system in operation. The thing that most impressed me during our stay in Tokyo was our visit to the disaster prevention center (Honjo Bonsaikan) at the Tokyo Fire Department. Experiencing a simulated earthquake of a scale of 6.0-7.0, using a fire extinguisher, doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and struggling through smoke to escape a fire, gave me an insight into the Japanese people? determination and attitude to life in a country where earthquakes are so frequent.

The first meeting between the Korean students and Japanese students, who had already visited Korea, took place over a lunch hosted by the Japan-Korea Cultural Foundation.

"What will we do? We don't speak any Japanese. Do you think it will be alright?" the Korean students pleaded, unable to hide their apprehensions. But as I watched them search for the words they wanted, using their hands and spelling out words in English, I couldn? help smiling and admiring ?he adaptability of youth.?By the time we had visited the Edo Tokyo Museum and Sensoji Temple at Asakusa together, they had drawn much closer as friends.
Next we were scheduled to leave Tokyo for the Kansai region and were filled with expectations as we boarded the Shinkansen for Kyoto. If Tokyo has been the political center of Japan since the Tokugawa period, then the Kansai region is home to the 1,000-year-old city of Kyoto, where local residents take great pride in their culture and history.

The city of Otsu, where our team had the experience of staying with local families, was the capital city of Japan 1,300 years ago. It is situated beside Japan's largest freshwater lake Biwako and is a transportation center as well as Buddhist center based around Enryakuji Temple.

The citizens of this small city welcomed us warmly. The members of an exchange association, consisting of people who had studied in the United States, demonstrated for us hanetsuki and other traditional art forms, which we all enjoyed. Afterward, somewhat nervous and a little curious, we met with the families who would be the hosts of our homestay visit. Despite our short stay of three days and two nights, the students and their host families parted with much sadness. This made me wish for more active exchange of this kind in Korea.

The final stop on our official itinerary was the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, which was our most meaningful visit. We were welcomed by the university president and various professors before touring the campus and holding an exchange meeting with local students. The Korean students, now "veterans" at making the first move, courageously started the ball rolling while the shyness and awkwardness soon disappeared. Then, when the Japanese students started singing a well-known Korean pop song, this made for an even friendlier atmosphere.

The last two days were spent touring historical sites in Nara and Kyoto. The temples we visited in Nara, including Todaiji Temple and Horyuji Temple, and Kinkakuji Temple, Nijojo Castle and Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto, were all representative historical sites of Japan. But by far the most impressive was Horyuji Temple. Modeled after a Baekje Buddhist temple, this large temple conveyed such a majesty that it made you feel as if you were really standing in the land of Buddha.

During our visit there was the tragic incident of a Korean student jumping onto the rails at Shinjuku Station in an attempt to save someone who had fallen. One of the professors we met in Kyoto told us how much he had been moved by the sacrifice of this student and we were able to feel for ourselves just how much the Japanese had been affected by the incident. The students on the trip all said that this was an instance that made them reflect again about Japan and the Japanese people. For everyone who took part in this exchange program, designed to build the foundation for future-oriented relations between Korea and Japan, it is these small changes in the Korean and Japanese people? perceptions of each other that makes it all worthwhile. The day of our departure came. Sorry to leave and with minds filled with so many thoughts, our team headed for Kansai International Airport.

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Ten-Day Exploration of Japan

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