Arriving in Narita, Japan in the late afternoon of the 24th of January, the Philippine delegates were the first country delegates to arrive for the program. On the next day, the morning of the 25th, the country delegates had a tour around the Meiji Jingu Shrine, a shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken located in Shibuya City, Tokyo, Japan. In the afternoon, they then went to the Shinjuku NS Building near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to meet the other countries’ delegates and their assigned groups who were accompanied to their own assigned prefectures.
On Day 2, still with their own country’s group, they went to the ASEAN-Japan Center where they had a seminar and a group discussion about the “ASEAN-Japan Youth Dialogue on Sustainable Blue Ocean”. It was opened by Dr. Hirabayashi Kunihiko, the Secretary General of ASEAN-Japan Center, Ms. Miyauchi Tomoko, the Public Relations/ Communication of ASEAN-Japan Center, and Dr. Katrina Navallo, the Program Manager for the Research and Policy Advocacy of Sustainable Green Development and Sustainable Blue Ocean, one of the programs initiated by the ASEAN-Japan Center. There, the 12 country groups were given time to discuss and present their ideas on “Youth Initiatives on Sustainable Blue Seas in ASEAN and Japan”. In the afternoon, with their new assigned groups, Groups A-E, they visited the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Global Plaza in Tokyo where they learned more about the United Nation’s 17 SDGs in an interactive display and a seminar on how the JICA works and what it means to become a volunteer helping different countries partnered with JICA and Japan.
On Day 3, Ms. Labrador, with her Group E, visited LaLaport in Funabashi Tokyo-Bay in Chiba, Japan. Her group spent the morning and lunched in there to buy whatever they might need for their next itinerary in the north of Japan, Fukushima. In the afternoon, they visited Chiba University, Nishi-Chiba Campus led by Dr. Koji Tsuji, the head of the Faculty of Education. He then introduced Chiba University and the Twincle (Twin College Envoys Program) Program- an education program initiated by Chiba University that hopes for a good relationship between Chiba University and other ASEAN universities. There, Group E was divided into 4, along with the Japanese student and an International Student from an ASEAN country-both studying in Chiba University- to have a brief brainstorming, to come up with an “Attractive Education Model” and then presented it to the delegates and the deans of different faculties of Chiba University. In Group 4, Ms. Labrador presented a model focusing on “Universities Cross-checking Financial Assistance for University Students.” They then headed to Ueno Station to ride in a Shinkansen (Japan’s famed bullet train) to go to Koriyama Station in Fukushima Prefecture.
After arriving in Koriyama City, Fukushima, on the night of the 27th of January, day 4, they then rode a bus from Koriyama to Aizuwakamatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture in the morning of the 28th of January. Arriving in Aizuwakamatsu, they had a lecture at Shibukawa Donya on how the commerce guild was able to revitalize the tourism and culture of one of the oldest shopping streets in Aizuwakamatsu. The delegates also experienced the local production of Aizu Momen (weaving and cotton) and got to know the artisanal and years long art of lacquerware at Suzuzen in the Nanokamachidori Commerce Street. In the afternoon, they experienced The Art of Tea Ceremony (Chanoyu) with a tea master as they participated in a tea ceremony and experienced making the tea themselves.
On Day 5, the delegates were toured around Aizuwakamatsu’s famous spots, the Tsuruga Castle (Tsurugajo), a concrete replica of a traditional Japanese castle in northern Japan, at the center of the city of Aizuwakamatsu, in Fukushima Prefecture with its famous red-tile roofs that weren’t visible because of the thick layer of snow during the Fukushima winter. The group also went to the Aizu Bukeyashiki- the Aizu Samurai Residence- a residential complex of a top-ranking Edo period Aizu retainer, Tonomo Saigo, featured as a museum park. In the evening, the delegates came back to their Koriyama hotel where they had a workshop, a group discussion, and a plan for the reporting session the next day in Tokyo.
On Day 6, Group E had an early day leaving Koriyama Station to Tokyo Station by riding on a Shinkansen back for the reporting session later that afternoon. Some of the countries’ representatives went on a Courtesy Call in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Japan, while the rest of the delegates stayed in the Shinjuku NS Building preparing for their orientation in the Reporting Session. It was started by the Ambassadors and Representatives of Japan, Timor-Leste, and ASEAN Member states, who came inside the NS Function Room. Ms. Labrador, the leader of the subgroup E-2 presented second out of 15 subgroups, with their Action Plan and reported their three-month post-program as a JENESYS2022 participant and a Philippine Delegate. They then ended Day 6 with a dinner with the rest of the delegates from the 12 countries.
On Day 7, their last day, each country left early to the Narita Airport to depart for their own home countries, Ms. Labrador, to the Philippines where she arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on the afternoon of January 31st, 2023.
Their Action Plan, as a JENESYS Alumni and Ms. Labrador, as a Philippine Delegate is to hold seminars to each delegates’ home countries’ (Japan, Timor-Leste, and the ASEAN Member States) universities and local communities to spread information to what JICE and the JENESYS Program is all about and to help their target groups (Academic Peers and local communities) to become future delegates too.
