Thanks for the Memorable Memory

He looks like a typical Japanese; and like a typical Japanese, he loves booze. He drives his van faster than fast; but then, that's rather normal in Hokkaido. He's saddened by the lack of motivation of the younger generation; and hopes to eradicate this so-called "心の病気" - the soul's illness. He's Mr Nakamura (中村さん), the organizer of the Rusutsu-mura (留寿都村) homestay programme! Uh, I mean, "homestay" programme.

The 52-year-old retiree who's managing a pension, met Miyagi sensei (the teacher in charge of arranging our homestay programmes) in a more-than-coincidental way - he mistakenly, uh, "gatecrashed" into a meeting of some sort among teachers, thinking that it was a garden party and that it'd be fun to join in. Somehow, he met Miyagi sensei and they chatted away. Like typical Japanese, they exchanged name cards. Upon learning that Mr Nakamura owns a pension and noting his enthusiasm, Miyagi sensei asked if he'd like to organize a homestay programme in Rusutsu-mura. With "やってみよう！" (Go ahead, try and see!) as his motto, Mr Nakamura agreed without any hesitation.

But, the problem was that he had just moved to the village a few months ago. Being new in the neighbourhood means it'd be more difficult for him to gain the support from the villagers. Besides, this was his first time organizing a homestay pogramme - he didn't know where to start. Anyway, he believed in providence, and that things would go well if he gave it a try.

And so, together with Miyagi sensei, he met Rusutsu-mura's chief of education and the village head, who both embraced the idea with élan and promised to give their full support. In fact, Mr Nakamura was asked to establish a 国際交流センター (kokusai kōryū sentā, literally, International Exchange Center).

Here's the newspaper cutting taken from Mr Nakamura's pension, Sky Be's website:

[Rusutsu] The opening ceremony of the International Exchange Center in the Community Center. The International Exchange Center will also play host to foreign students from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) during summer holiday. (Photo)

The center is based at Mr Nakamura's pension. According to TUFS, a total of 5 students from Bhutan, Romania, Columbia and Malaysia will be visiting Rusutsu during this summer holiday.

In the opening ceremony, Miyagi Toru from TUFS expressed his confidence in Rusutsu, which he believes will successfully open its doors to the world. In his speech entitled "Rusutsu - the village that will be the link to the world by encouraging international cultural exchange with foreign students", he called for the villagers' support.

That's more or less what the news report is about. I hope there isn't much distortion in the translation due to my feeble Japanese.

Anyway, there's no mention of a "homestay programme" in the report. But rather, "visit" was the term used. I guess that explains why our ten-day stay didn't feel like a homestay at all - it was like a vacation.

The small village, which is home to 2000 people who are mainly farmers, opened its doors to foreign students for the first time. Most of them have spent their life only in the village, or at least only in Hokkaido. So, we were kind of lucky that they gave us a warm welcome (Japanese normally shun away from foreigners because we're by default, scary). In fact, they were more hospitable than the self-centered Tokyo Japanese. For goodness sake, we chatted with the village chief (although he did the talking mainly), made soba with the chief of education, spent a night with a Japanese family (Japanese normally don't even invite friends to their houses), etc.

Of course, it was a refreshing experience after staying in Tokyo - one of the world's busiest cities for five months... The people there are warm; the weather is cool... There are green trees and farms everywhere, and hills instead of skyscrapers... Life's pace is slow. They play park golf for fun instead of going to pachinko's after work; they love Genghis Khan (!) instead having McD burgers as staple food...

Thanks, Mr Nakamura, for the splendid time we had in Rusutsu-mura; Miyagi sensei, for arranging the homestay; Mr Sakaniwa and family, for allowing me to "help" them with the raddish harvesting; Chee Siang's host family, for being kind enough to arrange the free paragliding session for us (although unfortunately, Laura and Deki didn't get to fly because of bad weather); the village head, Mr Sawa, for sparing his time to have coffee with us and telling stories about the village's history (which we didn't understand a thing); the chief of education, Mr Namikoshi, for guiding us around the village and spending an afternoon teaching us how to make soba; the manager of Rusutsu Resort, for giving us free passes to the resort's amusement park; Mr Tang Jun, also from Rusutsu Resort, for taking us around the hotel to have a look; the kids from the primary schools, for playing various games with us; the teachers and headmasters, for allowing us to "study" together with the kids; and last but not least, all the villagers who showed hospitality during our stay in the village.

Thank you, everyone, for the memorable memory!