The visitors were two cheerful and friendly American couples who had applied to the KSGG’s guide service over 6 months ago, expressing their long-standing desire to visit Japan.
Michael had started planning their itinerary with their guide, Chieko two months before their visit, but his interests grew and grew while exchanging emails, from simply visiting Enoshima Island to trying zazen (Buddhist meditation), Japanese calligraphy, the tea ceremony, and so on, while visiting Kamakura as well.
Nini, Michael’s wife, is very interested in Japanese culture, and she has been attending a zazen class taught by an American instructor for many years. So, they all wanted to try zazen meditation. So, the guide recommended a zazen class to be held at Kenchoji Temple, which they accepted, and their tour plan was finally set.
But, when Chiyoko went to the temple two weeks before the tour to check on the zazen class, it turned out that the session they were supposed to attend would not be open on that day. So, the plan had to be changed from zazen class to shakyo, the practice of copying a Buddhist sutra class.
Michael made an additional request to eat shojin-ryori, the traditional Japanese temple vegetarian meal. So, she looked for a couple of shojin-ryori restaurants in advance of the tour and managed to be able to book one of them.
On the day of the tour, the temple was expected to be crowded due to the special prayer session. However, the visitors started early in the morning when the temples were quiet, so they were able to explore Kenchoji Temple and northern Kamakura, in a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere.
The visitors then had a shojin dish lunch at the “Hachi No Ki” restaurant. The lunch they were looking forward to was beautifully displayed and the graceful taste was excellent. The guide explained the ingredients and contents of the dishes while the visitors enjoyed the dishes.
Then, they took the Enoden tram packed with people to Hase Temple where the shakyo class was to be held. But to their disappointment, the class had already closed at 1 p.m., even though the guidebook said it would be open until 3 p.m. Chiyoko was afraid that they would be disappointed again. But they taught her their old saying: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
Chiyoko was very grateful for the generosity of the visitors, whose conversation and company over the past five hours since they had met had led to a more relaxed relationship with her than she could have known from just exchanging emails. The visitors had time to visit the other fun sights of the temple, namely, the caves, the lookout observatory, etc. at the Temple.
The visitors seemed getting tired and sleepy. Nevertheless, the guide was keen to show them the Dai-Butsu (Big Buddha), so she took them to Kotokuin Temple. Nini and Jean seemed to be more impressed by the sight of the statue than by Chiyoko’s explanation, and they walked through the crowd, getting closer and closer to the statue with their smartphones in their hands, as if being sucked in, until they were standing right under the statue.
After that, they all took the bus directly back to Kamakura train Station. and Chiyoko escorted them to the Minatomirai Line at the Yokohama Station because the visitors were so worried about the transferring from the JR Line to the Minatomirai Line at the Yokohama Station.
At the end of the tour, the visitors were surprised by the souvenir the guide gave them—Japanese paper dolls made by the KSGG origami group. Nini and Jean looked as if they really liked them very much. They said they knew how to do origami, but they couldn’t make them as beautiful as these!

The visitors are going to Tokyo and Kyoto, so they chose Yokohama in order to enjoy different atmosphere. I arranged to meet the visitors in front of Central Exit of Minatomirai Station of Minatomirai Line. First, we went to a shop selling backpacks (for school children). I simply explained “Elementary school children use them.” Then they asked, “Do only elementary school children use them?” They seemed to have researched Yokohama beforehand. By an anime “Crayon Shin-chan,” they knew the daily lives of Japanese typical households. They also loved Pokemon, and took pictures with Pokemon on the mailbox near the Yokohama City Hall.
We stopped by Japanese Oversea Migration Museum in *JICA Yokohama. Daily commodities and food samples are displayed in order to understand the atmosphere of the days when Japanese emigrated overseas. As the situation of Japanese emigration is explained in Spanish, as well as English, Vincent and Yoel could understand easily. At Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal, I explained that one ship was going to leave at the moment the **Great Kanto Earthquake occurred. In China Town they seemed to like vividly colored buildings. Above all, they were surprised by the number of fortune-telling stores.
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*JICA: Japan International Cooperation Agency
**Great Kanto Earthquake: 1923, Magnitude 7.9

Our first destination was Kenchoji Temple. I explained to Roxanne that the temple is ranked the first among the five major Zen temples in Kamakura. She asked me, “Why is this temple placed the first rank?*1” Starting with this question, she questioned me one after another. When she found a bride and groom being photographed near Mushiduka*2, she asked, “Where is a priest?” When she found a green torii that was placed in front of the little shrine in the temple site, she asked, “Why is that torii not red*3?”

When she had visited Sensoji Temple in Tokyo on the first day in Japan, she was frustrated because nobody helped her find the answers for the questions about the shrine she got. Then, she decided to put questions to the KSGG guide as much as possible.

When Roxanne and I were walking in Kenchoji Temple, a group of junior high school students, who were on a school outing in Kamakura, approached her and started to talk to her. They seemed to want to speak in English they had just learned. They put her lots of questions in simple English and enjoyed chatting with her.

It was cold in the morning, so I gave her disposable hand warmer that I bought at a drugstore. She, who came to Japan with her husband on a business trip, has been researching on Japan and knows a lot about Japan. However, she didn’t know it. She was astonished to see the small bag of powder mainly made of iron and activated carbon, and said, “There are cold places in America, but I’ve never seen anything like this!”
“Your husband can sell and spread the disposable warmer in your country. It could be a big business!”, I said to her. Roxanne and I laughed loud, sitting on a bench in a quiet Zen-style garden at the back of Kenchoji Temple.
Since she came to Japan, she talked to her friends and husband every night about the events of the day. After the tour Roxanne sent me a WhatsApp message and wrote they enjoyed the story on her Kamakura journey.

*1 Originally, Indian Buddhism stipulated a top five ranking system of temples. In Japan, this system was adopted from around 1300, and the shogun decided the rank.
*2 Memorial tower for insects
*3 Originally, torii was not red in Japan. While, in Buddhism, red color has a power to avoid evil things. After the Buddhism is introduced to Japan, some shrines which adopted this idea colored the torii red. But other shrines didn’t color the ones.

Sowou is an international student from Togo in western Africa. She originally came from a farming village and finished a college in Lomé, the capital of the country. She majors in agricultural economics at the graduate school of the University of Tokyo on a scholarship from JICA**. Sowou speaks English frequently as well as French and her mother tongue. She is a brilliant girl. Most of the land in Togo is flat Savanna. Today she goes on a hike in high mountains for the first time in her life.

The trail from the bus stop to the Onna-zaka entrance slopes up gradually. On the way, a KSGG guide told her that the two religions, domestic Shinto and foreign Buddhism, had been co-existing peacefully for long time in Japan. Since the eighteenth century, a lot of commoners came from Edo (current Tokyo) to Mt. Oyama to visit the shrine and temple. In old days, mountain priests climbed up the steep ridges and peaks in Mt. Oyama in order to strengthen themselves physically and mentally, and chanted prayers. On the trail Sowou saw a number of remnants of the old history of Mt. Oyama such as water falls where visitors purified themselves, stone statues of deities, wooden temple buildings, and seven wonders of Mt. Oyama.

After warm-up exercise, Sowou walked up the Onna-zaka (female) slope. She took off her jacket as she got sweaty. Though the Onna-zaka was not so arduous as the Otoko-zaka (male) slope, another path, the female route was still quite steep and had a lot of steps. Most of the guides were in the generation of the parents of the students. The hiking party was an interesting mix of young and old people. The guides energetically led the student hikers. Sowou walked upward the hilly path, taking a rest from time to time. At the end of Onna-zaka slope, the hikers finally take a lunch break. Sowou ate a lunch box of beef, potatoes, and green peppers that she cooked, while others had sandwiches or onigiri rice balls that they bought.

Mt. Oyama is famous for its autumn leaves. The students said they’d never seen such beautiful colors, as most of them were from the tropical countries that don’t have four-seasons. The color of leaves in Europe, which is located in higher latitude, may turn yellow, but never become red, said a German student. From the Oyama shrine at the halfway up of the mountain, the hikers enjoyed the Michelin-2-stars view of the Pacific Ocean, its coast line, and Enoshima island on top of the autumn leaves. It was a fine day and the weather was perfect for outing. The mountain should record the greatest number of visitors on the day in the season. As she felt exhausted a bit, Sowou wondered about if she should take a cable car to go down on the way back. She decided to continue walking. At the end of the day, she said, “I think it will be good for my health!”

*Students are from Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Togo, and Vietnam.
**Japan International Cooperation Agency

The 8th Asian Congress of Dietetics (ACD 2022) was held from 19 Aug to 21 Aug. During the breaktime of the congress, KSGG members demonstrated Japanese tea ceremony and served powdered green tea called “matcha” to the delegates during 30 minutes break. At the exhibition hall, a portable tea room was installed. The portable room utilizes the Miya-daiku (carpentry) techniques that is registered as a UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in the field of carpentry. The Miya-daiku techniques are especially used for the building of shrines and temples. The space of two tatami mats (3.24 square meters) made from thinned wood is an attractive space with a lattice-shaped round window. The portable tea room fascinates all visitors. The purpose of the portable tea room is to pass on the Miya-daiku techniques to future generation and to spread the tradition of Japanese culture around the world. So a team of Miya-daiku carpenters built a Japanese-style room that effectively uses thinned wood from the local Kanagawa prefecture.
The tea ceremonies began on time. The hostess of the tea ceremony started to prepare for powdered green tea and explained the procedure of tea serving. All the participants listened to her explanation. The hostess sat in Temaeza (servers’ seat), and served tea in ceramic bowls to the first and second guests, then “the portable tea room” was introduced in English and Japanese. Other guests had tea that was served from Mizuya (backyard kitchen）.
The tea ceremony is organized thoroughly to prevent COVID-19. Disposable cooking gloves were used for preparation and serving tea sets. Also, all of the hostesses always disinfected their hands at the tea-room entrance, before sitting the Temaeza.
During this three-time event, a total of 64 guests including nine ACD delegates joined in the tea ceremony. All of the delegates enjoyed themselves talking and taking photos with KSGG members afterwards. Some of them have already experienced tea ceremony and wanted to learn its element: harmony, respect, purity and tranquility in Japan. The other delegates were very pleased with the first try of the green tea.
Many people participated, from Japanese people familiar with the tea ceremony to foreigners visiting Japan for the first time, joined the tea ceremony, so it ended with great success.

Report by Fusako

First of all, I introduced what is KSGG and what kind of activities the lecturers are engaged in using Power Point. I immediately received response regarding Japanese language support, farm visit experience, and furoshiki wrapping. Then Keiko made a mini lecture about Ukiyoe, which is the theme of this meeting. In a short time, she explained efficiently the diverse area from the meaning of Ukiyoe to its influence on European paintings. Her lecture was very well received. Most of Ukiyoe works were made of wood block prints in the Edo period, which lasted from 1603 to1867. Commoners in the Edo period were able to buy Ukiyoe works at low price because they were mass-produced and not regarded as the artistic prints. Many participants thought Ukiyoe must to be expensive as they are great art. They seemed to be surprised with her explanation.
After that, Kajumi asked the participants some questions such as “where do you want to go in Japan?” or “what kind of food do you like?” and so on. Their answers were taken as topics in the next chat session.
At the end of the first session, all 38 participants were divided into three groups using a breakout function of Zoom and they enjoyed the chat session.
It was impressive that all of them in my group wanted to go to Hokkaido, not Kyoto, because most of them wanted to see snow for they are stranger to it. It felt fresh that some of them wanted to experience agriculture work. Their favorite Japanese food was not sushi or tempura but ramen this time again. Ramen built up an unshakable position. As we had a lot of participants, the member of each chat group became more than 10, making it to many for free discussion.
I have some lessons learned. For example, in spite of a lot of participants, 15 minutes were too short for a chat meeting. I appreciate a lot of comments from the participants, such as “While the COVID-19 still lingers, I enjoyed chatting with a lot of people via Zoom safely.”

In autumn every year, KSGG holds a real guiding tour mainly open for the international students of the universities which have campuses in Kanagawa Prefecture. However because of this pandemic, just as last year the tour was held using online system.
Thanks to the advantage of online, we are glad that a lot of international students, most of whom have already admitted to enter universities and yet are prohibited from entering Japan, could participate in our online guiding.
We did online guiding in Chinese, basic Japanese, and English by dividing all of the 30 participants into five groups according to the languages each students hoped to use.
In each group, the KSGG members made a three-part remote tour program, which was different from the program of the actual onsite guiding, so that the students could understand about Kamakura and enjoy the tour: In　Part 1, KSGG members explained about where Kamakura is located and what kind of place it is; in Part 2, we introduced the spots in which the anime films such as Slam Dunk, I Want to Deliver Your Voice Trailer, and TARI TARI are set; in Part 3, we introduced the guides’ recommended sightseeing spots in Kamakura.
Each KSGG member did ingenious guiding.
It seems that the students were most attracted with the introduction of Kamakura from the viewpoints of anime.
Quizzes and Q&A (Questions and Answers) made it possible for the students and KSGG guides could communicate interactively. The online guiding tour was received well.

Today’s tour was the second online tour for Sasha, the participant, after her first Kamakura tour. The tour was the first virtual guide experience for me, so Mami, another KSGG member, joined the tour for technical support in case of trouble. Sasha and I had a great conversation, because she had lived in Yokosuka and knew Yokohama very well. San Diego and Yokohama are the sister cities where we all live. We talked over the relationship of two cities. She was very interested in the statue of “The Guardian of Water*1” and the statue of “The Girl Wearing Red Shoes *2”. She also liked the video of “Yokohama Air Cabin*3” that I added to our material. She said she definitely wanted to try it. Three women’s tour went lively and ended in the blink of an eye. I learned a lot from the first on-line guiding, and it was an impressive tour.

*1 The original statue was erected in San Diego. In 1960, San Diego presented Yokohama with its replica.
*2 The original statue was made by a Japanese artist. It was designed with a motif of a famous children’s song about a sad story of an orphan girl. In 2010, the replica was erected in San Diego representing the friendship between San Diego and Yokohama.
See below as your information for “The Guardian of Water” and “The Girl Wearing Red Shoes.”
https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/kurashi/machizukuri-kankyo/midori-koen/koen/koen/daihyoteki/kouen008.html
*3 Japan’s first and world’s newest urban-type circular ropeway that connects the front of JR Sakuragicho Station to Unga Park in the Shinko District, and overlooks the city.
Home | YOKOHAMA AIR CABIN (yokohama-air-cabin.jp)

For the first one hour, the participants were divided into two groups and talked freely.
Their main topics were about things they felt strange, inconvenient, and good in the life in Japan. Non-Japanese participants also raised questions to the Japanese participants. Then they introduced their home countries and compared the prices of fruits. In the second half of the meeting, they were split into four groups. They used English during the conversation, so they could share their own feelings without hesitation. They thanked KSGG for hosting the online meeting, as they had had few chances to communicate with other people due to COVID-19.

A participant pointed out: “Japanese people often do not answer my question when I ask something in English.” Other people agreed and followed: “Many people do not sit next to me, even though the train is so crowded with people.” Some foreign residents expressed kind understanding: “Such behavior is not racial discrimination. Just because many Japanese people have difficulty in speaking English.” “Japanese people tend to be shy and they are not used to get in touch with strangers. Especially, those people from the northeastern region in Japan seem so.” Also, some participants wondered: “Why are Japanese people so quiet? Why don’t Japanese people hug each other? ” To these questions, a German woman who has been living in Japan for a long time explained her answers: “Japanese people highly respect an interpersonal distance. They greet one another with bowing. They neither refuse nor avoid you.” In spite of the short meeting, the event was so much successful. All the participants enjoyed the exchange of opinions about Japan and its people.

The international students of Tokyo Institute of Technology made a virtual trip to Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum in Kawasaki City. Over Zoom, the participants visited several old Japanese folk-houses, a Japanese-style inn for horse traders, and a waterwheel. They also watched traditional indigo-dyeing demonstration at a workshop building. The KSGG guide explained the old folk-houses and the culture related to them.
During the tour, the guides asked some questions and the participants answered them, such as “What do you think is the material of Tatami?”, “Have you ever drunk matcha, powdered green tea?” “What is the meaning of the word written in Hiragana letters on the signboard?”, “Do you have moon- viewing custom in China?”
They could not only get explanations but deepen friendship through two-way communication.
After the tour, the students said, “I really want to go to Japan ASAP!”, “I am looking forward to visiting Japan.”