Embaixada do Japão em Portugal
在ポルトガル日本国大使館

My favourite workshop was Ikebana, and I’m almost sure it’s the same for many others. The surprise of trying something and-made right after a short lesson and getting to a final result (almost) beautiful is fulfilling and relaxing as I can never imagine it would be.    

One of the best things about this program is the food - at least that was my impression. I already knew Japanese food and I loved to try the real one. The picture show how everyone keeps taking photos on the dishes, witch caused wonder by their aesthetic.

Other important point is the possibility to go on our own initiative to some spots of tourist interest, as long the time to do it didn’t compromise the collective schedule. And that’s easy to do in the early morning or at night. I invest one of those mornings on the fish market to see the tuna being sold to the best price. This real-live experience on the market is something to remain in my memory for a long time.     

At the xinto shrines sometimes it’s possible to see marriages and that’s also very impressive. The cultural manifestations expand my attention completely and probably because of that anthropological inclination of mine some of the things that I treasured the most were about small things: the movement of the cleaning rites before entering the shrine, the way all the pine trees are artistically altered to some balanced harmony effect, the sound of running water and the smell of green tea that gets even into the clothes.

In the free time of the program the guides sometimes go with us or at least explain everything in order to get there safe and easily. Of course I was almost flying in face of visiting the National Art Museum and about to see the treasures of Japanese and oriental art.  

But other kind of visits, like the one to Panasonic Centre, presents us the unlimited imagination of technological advances and entertainment possibilities. The area around the centre continues the spirit of science-fiction getting real.

This is a program so complete that each day seems to last for many days, in the sense of having a lot of different high moments. In the morning, when going to central Tokyo to MOFA (taking lectures), I can see myself surrounded by the traffic and people, the children going to school and business-man entering the tallest buildings I could imagine and I thought “This is real, I’m in Tokyo”. But after lunch we often get the chance to assist more traditional occupations: tea ceremony, origami, painting glass bells, etc, and that’s the kind of feeling of being five centuries ago in some silent zen garden.

Other activities were full of energy, like the show from one local community that devote themselves to play the japanese traditional drums. Besides being really good performers they are also the best humoured people and put together a wonderful evening.

Hiroshima was entirely different. The home-stay program itself surrounds us with the great hospitality of Japanese people. In my case the host family was a lady that lived alone and speaks English very well, so there were no communication problems. She prepared one day tour to the mountain shine near the city, I tasted the local hoister dish, and slept in a futon in the tatami floor.

Visiting the Peace Memorial was emotive and a little throbbing, witch is to be expected in such a place. But that’s exactly what is important, although is seems a paradox, learning about painful events and this kind of human tragedy makes us more aware of today issues and force us to thing about how important peace, freedom and safety are.

Once in Kyoto, an as a art historian, I had the time of my live seeing all those temples, shrines, old streets and even real geishas. The program didn’t change because of the rain and wind and fortunately we have the time to do this part of the tour before the typhoon arrives. Gardens captured my attention, not just because they are so beautifully kept from centuries ago till now but because they seem as natural harmonious as the Nature itself could never be.  

We were all sad to leave when the time to say goodbye came. I could definitely live in Japan, that’s how much I liked it!  Right from the departure gate in the airport in the way to Portugal I taught about what to do with all the things I’ve learn and the aspiration to continue connected to Japan. The first thing that came to my mind was to start some sort of association, a independent and volunteer one, that allow people who liked Japan to talk to each other, promote courses about some of the traditional hobbies I’ve tried (like ikebana, origami, drums), language, etiquette, an others, and also to be a space to discuss about the relation between Portugal and Japan at a population and not-institutional level. This idea is essentially supported by the fact of Portuguese traditional mentality not being that different from the Japanese one in some matters as family, work, respect the elders and so. It will be useful too for the ones wanting to get more information and change data about recent Japan and its technology or cultural products (such as karaoke, manga, animé, etc). Its not something that I could do alone, of course, and not right now, but I’ll try to now more about the possibilities to create, support and implant this type of cultural associations.