With a nod to the Toyota jingle and a link to the movie
Flashdance. Both are relevant on our
last official day in Toyota. Later today
we are visiting the Toyota factory to see where my new car was born. Then, this evening at the Farewell Party,
Matt will be dancing as a part of the entertainment. And because Jeremy, Brianna and Sarah wanted
a shout out, here you go #shout out.
Brianna’s performance on the bus today with her plastic trumpet was
sublime. #Not really.
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| The 'shout out' crowd |
First stop today, after Toyota Otani, was the Toyota factory – well,
one of them, there are many. We had a
guided tour and saw the production of the Estima, Crown and MarkX. It was absolutely amazing, an incredible mix
of automated and human production. Interestingly, there were no photos allowed
and we couldn’t take cameras, phones or any electronic devices into the
factory.
From there we went to the Toyota museum, although it wasn’t a museum
as we would expect. There was only one
old model car, the rest were current production models of Toyota and
Lexus. The 86 was there in boring white
and a stunning yellow 2-door Lexus sports car worth around $375,000. There was also a Lexus bike, carbon, of
course, Di2 dura ace with dura ace wheels.
No price tag that I could see, but it’s higher speced (bike talk for
specifications) than my bike, so I’d think around the $10,000 mark. The gift shop had a limited edition model 86
GT for ¥155,000. I was not permitted to
purchase it L. I did buy a smaller cheaper
version that cost about $6 and picked up some red, glow-in-the-dark-red, Toyota
branded golf balls for dad.
Random fact: you are never far from a hair dresser, there seems to
be one on every second corner – and on the other corner there is a 7-Eleven or
a Family mart.
Onto the bus to head for the traditional Japanese village. *sigh* It
is going to take about an hour. An hour
of Brianna’s trumpet, Sarah’s ukulele and Jeremy’s singing.
The village we visited was called Asuke, it was like the former Old
Sydney Town. There were houses where
artisans practised the traditional way of doing things, from paper making to
weaving, blacksmithing, wood-carving and umbrella making. While our entry was being negotiated we
gathered around the token cow of the village and watched as Claudia and Jeremy
tried to pat it. Every time they got
close the cow moved its head and its apparently sharp horns towards them,
resulting in a lot of screaming. Activity
time, and the students either made paper or a wooden toy. Then it was free time to explore the village
while our hosts took us to lunch. After
everything had been explored, including the souvenir shop and vending machine ,
it was back to the bus for the journey back to Toyota Otani, the Farewell party
and my last official duty, the farewell speech.
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| A black butterfly |
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| Making postcards |
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| The postcard |
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| Crafting a toy |
The party commenced close to 5pm with the usual round of speeches. Mr Kato delivered his speech in English in response to me giving my opening speeches in Japanese. I spoke in English this time with Kayo translating because my Japanese is so woeful. Mr Kato presented me with the gift for the school, a beautiful decorated and lacquered box.
Following this the Otani students performed some musical pieces, a choir followed by the band with the finale bringing the two together. Then, the return of the dancers that we saw at the Welcome party. All very talented students, it has certainly put the pressure on Gilroy and what we will be doing next year.
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| The singers in traditional costume |
The Gilroy students responded very well, first with a dance piece by Matt. Then he backed up to sing a duet with Emily with Jasmine accompanying them - Hallelujah - one of my favourite songs. They did brilliantly. To conclude we had the comedy trio of Ryan, Pat and Brett doing that Wiggles classic, Fruit Salad. And then, food. Lots of food. It was a veritable feast.
The final formalities went to the PTA president who bestowed more presents on all of us. Then Mr Ito, the resident Marty Brannan (photographer) gave us all a personalised CD with copies of all the photographs that he took while we were here. There was many hours of work in this present and the Gilroy students clearly appreciated his contribution. Then we were presented with gifts from the teachers who had chaperoned us during our visits - Christmas is not so bountiful as this...
Lots of goodbyes, lots of photographs and the night was over around 7:30. All that remained was to go home and try to pack. I had been hopeful we'd have more room in our bags on the way home because we had all the presents for our hosts on the way over, but we have received more presents than we have given out. As I write this, I have just finished re-organising the bags. Everything fits, just.
Tomorrow is Nagoya, shopping, the Shinkansen to Tokyo, a train to Narita and home with the flying kangaroo. A few prayers to keep the typhoons at bay would be appreciated. The next blog will be Wednesday or Thursday from Sydney.
Arigatou gozaimashita and sayonara.
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