Sayonara, Japan
After 2 1/2 short weeks, I'm back in Canada. Overall, my Japanese adventure was one of the most interesting travel experiences I've had, due mostly to the great people I met during the Youth Encounter on Sustainability course, the intensity of Tokyo, and the endless parade of foods either delicious, bizarre, or both.
The last 3 days of the course were an exhausting mix of non-stop work (on a social business plan case study thing), partying (I somehow managed to squeeze two birthday parties in), and exploring Tokyo. Lots of fun, little sleep.
Here's a picture of most of my case study team. The team consisted of (from left) Georgina (South Africa), Yasu (Japan), Ashik (Nepal), Annelore (Belgium), Kaspar (Switzerland, not pictured) and me (Canada, behind camera). Believe it or not, this picture was not staged. They were actually working like that.
Here's that Mt. Fuji picture I promised.
Now, I'll wrap up the travel writing with some quick observations.
For starters - most people know about Japan's shinkansen, or "bullet trains". Fewer people know about its impressive road-based counterpart, the gun bus.
To my unsophisticated western palate, the Japanese cuisine I was exposed to was either supremely delicious, or barely recognizable as food. One thing it always was, however, was tiny. Most of our meals consisted of no fewer than 7 or 8 separate dishes, each just a bite or two big.
Side note: I ate horse. I only found out it was horse after trying it, but my initial reaction was "delicious". I'm not sure how this reaction would have changed had I known what I was eating beforehand.
I got pretty good with chopsticks.
We spent the last night in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn with paper walls, giant wood columns, and enough sake to drown a horse (insert horse-for-dinner joke here).
Eventually, we hit the road and went our respective ways, which for me meant a 14 hour plane ride, and a 38-hour long Sunday, before arriving safe and sound back in Kingston.
I'm now back home, which means it's time to stop procrastinating by writing long travel blog posts, and get back to work!
Regular procrastinating blog posts will resume shortly.
The last 3 days of the course were an exhausting mix of non-stop work (on a social business plan case study thing), partying (I somehow managed to squeeze two birthday parties in), and exploring Tokyo. Lots of fun, little sleep.
Here's a picture of most of my case study team. The team consisted of (from left) Georgina (South Africa), Yasu (Japan), Ashik (Nepal), Annelore (Belgium), Kaspar (Switzerland, not pictured) and me (Canada, behind camera). Believe it or not, this picture was not staged. They were actually working like that.
Here's that Mt. Fuji picture I promised.
Now, I'll wrap up the travel writing with some quick observations.
For starters - most people know about Japan's shinkansen, or "bullet trains". Fewer people know about its impressive road-based counterpart, the gun bus.
To my unsophisticated western palate, the Japanese cuisine I was exposed to was either supremely delicious, or barely recognizable as food. One thing it always was, however, was tiny. Most of our meals consisted of no fewer than 7 or 8 separate dishes, each just a bite or two big.
Side note: I ate horse. I only found out it was horse after trying it, but my initial reaction was "delicious". I'm not sure how this reaction would have changed had I known what I was eating beforehand.
I got pretty good with chopsticks.
We spent the last night in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn with paper walls, giant wood columns, and enough sake to drown a horse (insert horse-for-dinner joke here).
Eventually, we hit the road and went our respective ways, which for me meant a 14 hour plane ride, and a 38-hour long Sunday, before arriving safe and sound back in Kingston.
I'm now back home, which means it's time to stop procrastinating by writing long travel blog posts, and get back to work!
Regular procrastinating blog posts will resume shortly.
posted by Bryce at
10:52 AM
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