[Date and Time] Sunday, February 13, at 10:00~15:50
[Spots] Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Hasedera Temple, and Kotokuin Temple (Great Buddha)
[Visitors] 37 AOTS trainees from 4 countries, with 11 from Indonesia, 9 each from the Philippines and Viet Nam, Cambodia, and 8 from Thailand
[Attendants] 12 KSGG members and 2 observers
[Languages] English, Japanese, Thai, and Bahasa Indonesia
Most of the trainees came to Japan for the first time and thus everything seemed to be new to them. When I said to a trainee who was by the Great Buddha, “How do the Great Buddha’s eyes look?” she said, “They are closed.” I took her to the front of the Great Buddha and said, “They are open and staring at you.” We realized that the Great Buddha used to be housed and was gazing upon the people praying in front of him.
The trainees who are from different religion and culture were taken on a tour of temples and shrines in Kamakura. At the end of their tour, everyone expressed thanks in Japanese or in his or her native language.
Guiding a Group of Vietnamese
Since all the nine members of Vietnamese I guided study Japanese, they asked various questions in Japanese. The most impressive one from a male trainee was quite simple. When we went to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, he said, “Which is more in number in Japan, a shrine or a temple?” Quite simple as it was, I was stuck by his question. I said, “The number of temples is overwhelmingly more than that of shrines in Kamakura, but on a country-wide basis, it might be about the same from the religious viewpoint of the Japanese,” which could satisfy him. When a lot of people in the world choose to study English, the group of Vietnamese I guided has dared to study Japanese. I guided them today hoping that, for that matter, my effort will help them study Japanese a little as it may.
[Spots] Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Hasedera Temple, and Kotokuin Temple (Great Buddha)
[Visitors] 37 AOTS trainees from 4 countries, with 11 from Indonesia, 9 each from the Philippines and Viet Nam, Cambodia, and 8 from Thailand
[Attendants] 12 KSGG members and 2 observers
[Languages] English, Japanese, Thai, and Bahasa Indonesia
Most of the trainees came to Japan for the first time and thus everything seemed to be new to them. When I said to a trainee who was by the Great Buddha, “How do the Great Buddha’s eyes look?” she said, “They are closed.” I took her to the front of the Great Buddha and said, “They are open and staring at you.” We realized that the Great Buddha used to be housed and was gazing upon the people praying in front of him.
The trainees who are from different religion and culture were taken on a tour of temples and shrines in Kamakura. At the end of their tour, everyone expressed thanks in Japanese or in his or her native language.
Guiding a Group of Vietnamese
Since all the nine members of Vietnamese I guided study Japanese, they asked various questions in Japanese. The most impressive one from a male trainee was quite simple. When we went to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, he said, “Which is more in number in Japan, a shrine or a temple?” Quite simple as it was, I was stuck by his question. I said, “The number of temples is overwhelmingly more than that of shrines in Kamakura, but on a country-wide basis, it might be about the same from the religious viewpoint of the Japanese,” which could satisfy him. When a lot of people in the world choose to study English, the group of Vietnamese I guided has dared to study Japanese. I guided them today hoping that, for that matter, my effort will help them study Japanese a little as it may.