April 1 is the beginning of a new fiscal year for Japan. April is the month school starts for all students. Today stories about gas prices were all over the news – I finally figured out it had to do with the removal of a gas tax – which then dropped gas prices about 20 cents a liter. Gas now is about 120 yen per liter – approximately $4.50 a gallon in US prices.
Today I got dropped off at the hotel in Utsunomiya around 9:30 and we were off to the Utsunomiya Prefectorial Museum. The museum featured a Nikko exhibit showing the flora and fauna at all the different parts of the National Park. We also wandered around the Japanese Garden outside the museum. I am definitely going to visit the Japanese Garden in San Francisco more often!
Our next stop was the Shimotsuke Newspaper. We spent about 15 minutes in a boardroom talking to the publisher and editor in chief before heading to the newsroom. Sheila was in heaven! She was running around checking out their cameras and archival systems and talking with everyone who could speak English. She was so unhappy when it was time to leave. Due to our schedule, we only had a little over an hour at the newspaper and had to drag her out of the building kicking and screaming.
(On a side note – they had a little blub in the paper about us the next day with a picture of Sheila and I – check it out on the photo sidebar!)
After lunch, it was all about me (and really, when isn’t it about me????) We visited the NHK Utsunomiya Bureau, Radio Berry … and later I got a personal tour of Tochigi TV! I really expected the Japanese TV stations to be very high tech – they really weren’t. Both had some of the same equipment and in some cases even older equipment than we have at KRON. NHK is a bureau, so they only produce about 30 minutes of news a day in addition to sending some pieces to Tokyo to be rebroadcast from NHK headquarters. It was hard to get some of my questions answered since there was only one employee who spoke English and the translator had a difficult time with some of the technical questions I was asking – even though they weren’t that technical I guess I was using some TV lingo!
Both Tochigi TV and NHK had the large cameras and still ran tape. I did get to speak to one reporter at Tochigi TV who told me they used the VJ format there. However, I was surprised to see how many employees were at both stations. I was able to watch part of the 6pm news at Tochigi TV and was shocked to see nearly 20 people in the control room. I was told they were training, so there were more than usual – but even if you halved that number – it’s still twice as many as we have on any given day!
I don’t think I learned anything really specific that I can bring home to the US from my time at the stations in Japan, however, I have tried to catch a lot of news and feel there area some ideas I’ll take back to work when I return on April 14th!
As I mentioned, the Tochigi TV visit was something special just for me. The Utsunomiya West Rotary club planned several special tours for me. My host father was busy with work, so he asked several of his club members to take care of me in the evenings. I was so touched by all that they did for me this week. Today, they took me to visit Tochigi TV then had a special dinner for me at a local restaurant. (Have I mentioned how well I’m being fed these days!)
It was so much fun. They had the translator come with us and she helped the evening run smoothly. They expected me to drink a lot – apparently one of the members was told that the GSE team REALLY like to drink. Apparently rumors spread like wildfire in Japan! I told them I drink, but not a lot. However, I did end up drinking a big bottle of beer and half a bottle of wine – so maybe the rumors weren’t unfounded!
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