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June 19, 2000
VISITING JAPAN -- A TRIP OF A LIFETIME
Traveling to any foreign country is one of the surest ways to break down barriers between people -- just seeing other cultures expands your world view, and makes you appreciate where you come from and respect where others live. But if you're a Nikkei, or someone of Japanese descent, a trip to Japan can be an eye-opener for many reasons.For young Nikkei who are fourth or fifth generation removed from their roots, visiting Japan might be a life-changing experience.
| Then there's the angst of buying "omiyage," or small gifts for everyone you can think of in advance. |
I trust when they return, they'll think differently, and savor the memories of more than a week spent visiting Nagoya, Toyohashi, Kyoto and Hiroshima.
For a trip like this, however, it's the parents who work the hardest in advance, getting everything including their kids ready for the journey.
There are so many details to think about when you entrust your children to the fates for more than a week. Least of all is the language barrier, which is somewhat addressed by the fact that the kids are all attending Japanese language classes together, and they've received some introductions to common phrases and greetings. The problem, of course, is that some of the kids -- especially the teenagers -- may not take the class very seriously, choosing instead to think of it as another chore to get out of the way so they can enjoy their weekends, or a chance to socialize with each other while the sensei (teacher) tries to impart her knowledge. So they may arrive in Japan just as green an unprepared as any American tourist, despite their roots.
Parents have to scramble to make sure the travelers have the essentials: passport, spending money in yen (my guess is every kid got on the plane with much more money than he or she needed for occasional meals and souvenirs for 10 days), and some knowledge about Japan. For this the teenagers' response was "Why should I watch a video about Japan when I'm going to be there in person next week?" Like with Japanese language classes, it's sometimes difficult to make a youngster understand the importance of taking something seriously. When I go someplace, here or abroad, I study up like crazy so I can at least try to be as much of a native as possible instead of sticking out like a crass, classless tourist. Plus, my experience is enhanced and made that much more enjoyable if I know as much as possible about the history, culture, politics and food where I'm about to visit.
Then there's the angst of buying "omiyage," or small gifts for everyone you can think of in advance. For sure, each child on the trip had to buy gifts for each member of their homestay host families. In Jared's case, he needed gifts for the parents, two girls and a boy. Luckily, he had an advance idea of what the family is like because the boy wrote a letter in Japanese introducing himself and his family -- explaining that he didn't speak and English so he was looking forward to communicating face-to-face in Japanese -- and written on LA Dodgers stationery. He also included a "purikura," or tiny "Print Club" snapshot of the family at the end of the letter, so we could see the family before the trip.
The Japanese tradition of giving omiyage is a beautiful one, though the protocol can be frustrating. You need to buy something that is of a little value but not too much because it would put too much pressure on the recipient to reciprocate; for travelers, the gift should ideally reflect home (in our case, anything from Colorado from a gold-plated aspen leaf to a picture book of the Rocky Mountains) but NOT be manufactured or printed anywhere such as Japan, Taiwan or China. Don't laugh -- I bought some Colorado souvenir keychains which had "Made in China" stamped on them. It's clearly rude to take anything made in Asia as a gift from the U.S. Aside from Colorado souvenirs, Jared took packets of gourmet coffee for the adults, a Colorado Rockies baseball team magazine for the boy and two different teen celebrity magazines for the girls -- American pop culture is always a winner with young Japanese.
Once in country, the trip should be fantastic for the kids -- they arrive in Nagoya and move on to Toyohashi, a small city inland, for their homestays. There, the kids will meet with the city's mayor and spend a day at a middle school, getting to see how their peers in Japan spend their school days (they'll be most shocked at the required school uniforms instead of the American students' casual, baggy-shorts and layered Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt attire).
Those striking differences and the surprising similarities are what should impress the kids the most, if they're paying attention. As with traveling anywhere outside of the U.S., American culture can be omnipresent, but in Japan, it's sometimes there in mutated forms. Sure, English words are everywhere on signs and clothes and products, but often the phrases are nonsensical and the meanings mangled. Food and music and other entertainment can have an American spin, but with a Japanese twist.
The kids may find some of the trip boring. But I expect they'll come back with a profound appreciation for Japan. Their connection to Japan won't be just rice with dinner and some familiar dishes such as teriyaki anymore. They'll have places and faces in their minds when they think of the country of their heritage.
And, hopefully, they won't think of themselves as merely American, and they'll understand that the world is a big place, with a lot of different people and cultures on the planet.