Day 9: Presentation of report, Imperial Palace and Zojo-ji temple

After 8 days of fun-filled learning experiences in Tokyo and Nagoya, and we’re now winding down.

Everyone woke up early as 8am and had their breakfast in our host hotel, Hotel Lumiere. And for our last day, the group decided to honor our roots and take pride of us being a filipino by dressing in traditional barongs, filipinianas, ternos and baro’t sayas. We head straight to Kasumigaseki building at the JTB office. There, all pumped up with our learnings and gratefulness, we reported our action plan to further promote the JENESYS program of Japan’s government and the magnificent country itself. As media professionals and scholars, the group came up with different ideas like seminars, online articles, websites, social media accounts and even news items in some media outfits that we’re in. The report was led by Amele Alcantara and Nadyne Gozar.

We ended the reporting with a compressed 7-minute video of our 9 days trip in Japan and a sing and dance performance of a classic filipino pop song “Pinoy Ako” or “I’m a Filipino”. It brought mixed emotions among the participants and the representatives of JTB that were there in the presentation.

Right after the presentation, we just had our lunch and visited the Imperial Palace. Thanks to our guide, Keiko-san, we learned more about the rich history of Japan’s Imperial family. That adds up to the beautiful façade of the palace that we took advantage of to have our gorgeous group photo. That moment also helped us to appreciate Japanese people even more for without those 2 Japanese ladies who were very much willing, we wouldn’t have that incredible memoir.

It was both sunny and cold, and since our flight was cancelled due to a typhoon in the Philippines, our coordinator, Saito-san and our guide Keiko-san decided to tour us in the famous Bhuddist temple in Tokyo, the Zojo-ji temple. At the back of it, you’ll see the amazing Tokyo Tower, a perfect sight to embody what is Japan as a country—A land where history, culture and modernization meets. That short tour was a silver lining indeed amidst our delay to go back home. After an hour, we went back to our hotel to change, then come 6pm we had our last supper together. There, we first bid good bye to Keiko-San. We only had her for our last two days but she’s been kind and patient with us. Most especially in every time that we have to stop in our trips to take selfies, portraits and videos. If you think that day couldn’t get any fuller, some of us decided to still spend the last remaining hours of the day to shop and stroll around, making the most of one of our most memorable trips of our lives.

Overwhelming is an understatement to sum up our JENESYS trip. We’re just too full of amazement and admiration for the land of the rising sun. From their disciplined people, to their modern technology, down to their rich culture and history, Japan has cemented their credibility for being one of the best countries to live in. Learning and experiencing those first hand is indeed a privilege, yet more than those, this trip has given us the opportunity to learn more about ourselves and our identity as filipinos. Above those also is the gift of new found friends and family through the 20 young media professionals in this trip.

That, along with our growing love for Japan will surely be treasured for.