I also noticed in the article that, prior to starting her business, upon her return to America, she experienced considerable difficulties from what is known as "reverse culture-shock". To help her feel comfortable back home again she explored some groups she might be able to join that would allow her to speak with people and force her to gain more confidence. She joined an organization known as Toastmasters (wiki), a public speaking club that encourages its members to learn by doing and think on their feet. While I was reading about this woman's experience to join this club, and gaining the sense of leadership to start her own business, I remembered a friend of mine here in Tokyo who was part of this same organization. Indeed, the international branches of Toastmasters rival their American counterparts (I counted 80 clubs in Japan alone).
Soon after reading the article, I contacted my friend to get the details about Tokyo Toastmasters with the intention to join myself. I have often thought about the reverse culture-shock I'll face upon returning to America someday. I've been in Japan almost continuously since 1998 and, even though I try to keep up on the news and trends, inevitably there will be an infinite number of things I'm unfamiliar with.
The ability to deal with unknowns is something we all possess and do daily, however the fluidity and confidence we express when up against the numerous challenges in life will differ from person to person, and this is largely due to how well we've prepared ourselves for these situations through training, or simply learning by doing. Wanting to take advantage of any opportunity in advance, I thought the idea of Toastmasters was on the mark. I figure everyone experiences stage fright at some point in their lives, and it's not much different from culture-shock. The audience members are all representative of unknowns and your ability to communicate and convey a clear message is imperative to your success.
In any case, I had just moved to Tokyo a few months before and wanted to get involved regularly with a group here. So, last Thusday, after attending a mandatory three sessions before becoming a member to familiarize myself with the club, and then a few more meetings to be inducted and get a place on the main speaker roster, I finally made my icebreaker speech. There are over 50 active members of this division and many of them were in attendance, so it was quite a large audience, made up of mostly Japanese fluent in english and a percentage of foreign residents in Japan, not to mention that this time there were about five guests attending. The time limit for the speech was 4 to 6 minutes +/- 30 seconds, and I clocked in at 6:24 with the speech below. Enjoy!
In the old days, train conductors used to lean out from the train before it would depart and shout to those remaining on the platform, "All aboard!" Here in Tokyo, it is reported that some 7 million people commute on the trains every day, and sometimes I think every single last one of them is riding on my train. I've seen reports that say the rush hour target capacity ratio is 150%, which means that 5 people "stand" in one square meter of floor space. Just to give you a comparison, that's like holding a dinner party on a tatami mat. I've even heard of capacity ratios upwards of 250%, which would mean that if you have size 25 shoes, someone is probably standing on your feet. Some days it's so crowded that I'm convinced we are breaking a world record, or at least a bone or two.
Every morning I commute for approximately 54 minutes, which includes three transfers, the majority of which is on the Chuo (Central) Line. I'm lucky though because I travel away from Tokyo, so most days I can get a seat for the majority of the ride. It's really not a bad commute at all. Actually, 54 minutes on a train is nothing compared to the flight between Tokyo and Chicago, my hometown. It takes 12 hours, and I usually sit in economy class. Believe it or not, until a few years ago, the flight used to take 15 hours, but then someone figured out you could fly a bit further north and save 3 hours. We were all kicking ourselves that they didn't make that discovery earlier, and in economy class we were literally kicking ourselves.
But as much as I like to travel, interestingly enough, the first 18 years of my life, I didn't travel much further than a few hours from home. Chicago is near the Great Lakes, between America and Canada, but pretty much in the middle of the continent and at least a day on the freeway to any ocean. So I didn't even see the ocean until I was in my twenties.
At the age of 18, the furthest I had traveled was a trip to Colorado. That was with my family when I was about 5 years old and all I really remember is being in the car for about 2 days, singing a lot of songs with my sisters, and, yes, I did ask "are we there yet" about a million times.
Yet, when I was in sixth grade, I dreamed of traveling thousands of miles from home, or if you prefer kilometers, 384,399 of them to be exact. I wanted to become an astronaut and go to the moon. At the age of 12 I first flew on an airplane by myself for just over 1,000 kilometers to attend a week at space camp. A couple years earlier, there had been a popular movie, Space Camp about some young attendees of the camp who found themselves in space for real when their shuttle was accidentally launched into orbit. Well, real space camp was nothing like that, but I did get a really nice ball-pen that I could supposedly write underwater. The problem was that the paper always dissolved too fast.
Anyway, it probably took no one by surprise that I wanted to study overseas when I was in university. One of my professors at that time had been encouraging me to participate in a study abroad program in India. I had been studying Asian history and culture for a few years, and was quite interested in Eastern philosophy. So for two months I lived in the small town of Bodh Gaya in one of the poorest regions of India, where I meditated for college credit. I got an A+ in "walking slowly and listening to the sounds of nature". It was an interesting two months to say the least.
Almost as soon as I got back from India, another professor started telling me to look into going to Japan for a semester. So the following year studied for 4 months in the city of Hikone in Shiga Prefecture. Many people said, "Oh, Hikone. There is a wonderful hot spring there. You'll love it!" Only after I arrived in Hikone did I realize that they were talking about the town Hakone, and all I would see for the next four months was an old castle... although, to tell you the truth, as a lover of history, I was quite happy with the outcome. In fact, after I graduated university, I immediately returned to Japan. This time I was hired by the Ministry of Education to teach english in a Japanese high school. I was placed in Kusatsu, to which once again people promised a wonderful hot spring. And again I was to find out that there were at least two towns called Kusatsu in Japan and I was in the one withOUT the hot spring spa resort.
When I was almost 22 years old, I finally had the chance to see the ocean for the first time. That was in Enoshima near Tokyo and I had flown over the ocean 5 times already at that point, but had never gotten close enough to the ocean shore before. Ironically, within five minutes of stepping foot into the Pacific Ocean, I was stung by a jellyfish - No kidding!
I've been living in Japan for about 9 years now, but if you consider the 108 minutes I spend on a train every day, then I guess I can still say I travel a lot.
To prepare for this Icebreaker speech, I had to act as a train conductor in a sense. All of these memories that I have were like passengers on the platform waiting to get on. I yelled "All aboard!", but because the target speech capacity time is six minutes, it looks like some of the memories will have to wait for the next one.
Thank you.
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