{"id":3495,"date":"2023-12-21T14:15:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T19:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2023-12-21T14:15:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T19:15:27","slug":"culture-exchange-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/?p=3495","title":{"rendered":"Culture Exchange Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had another jam packed day for my first full day in Aichi. Since it was easier to meet up with friends on the weekend, I was booked solid the entire day. It also meant I had to carry a load of souvenirs and presents with me from the moment I left the hotel in the morning (popularity has its downfalls lol).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it was still early, I started my morning off browsing through some of the shops at Meieki. It was impossible to do any shopping as I had way too much to carry, but I made a mental note of which shops to revisit when I had more time later in the week. At 11:20am I made my way over to the Gold Clock to meet up with my sempai and our mutual friend for lunch at the Marriott. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my time working at the Marriott I had never once eaten inside any of the restaurants. However I always had really decent meals at their staff cafeteria and tried a lot of the dishes that were served inside the concierge lounge, so I had high hopes for eating at Pergola. I\u2019m happy to say I wasn\u2019t disappointed eating at their lunch buffet. They had a really wide selection of foods and everything tasted amazing. The best part was probably their custom-made Mont Blanc machine. Their weekend lunch buffet cost \u00a56,000, but with my sempai\u2019s employee discount we saved 20% on our meal. =)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It was really nice being able to chat and catch up with both of them over lunch. When we finished, we went upstairs to visit the concierge lounge where I worked about 7 years ago. Aside from some of the furniture being rearranged, it was still pretty much the same. We later went to a newer concierge lounge they opened up on the main floor and that one is way more premium than the one upstairs. I was so happy to run into Yasui-san who was working that day. I still remember the party we had at her house and it was one of the rare times I was invited to someone\u2019s home in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After our lunch and tour of the hotel it was time to bid farewell to both of them. I headed over to join the delegation in Kariya to participate in the cultural exchange day. The event was already in full swing by the time I arrived, but it was nice seeing many familiar faces!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the event ended, I stayed at the KIFA office with Naito-san and the rest of the staff members until it was time to head over for the evening reception. Since everyone was busy helping set up, I took my time to get dressed in my formal attire, then promptly found a spot in the lobby to take a nap lol. I had been out the majority of the day and it was starting to catch up with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 7pm most of the delegates, host families and guests had arrived. I had completely forgotten how prestigious the event was \u2013 the Mayor was in attendance, as was the President of KIFA and many city staff, including city councillors. I was seated at a table with my mom, her host family and members of the city council. It was a struggle trying to converse and translate in three languages. =P<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the initial greetings, everyone helped themselves to the buffet dinner. I had already eaten so much during lunch I took it easy in the evening. Once dinner was done, there was an official gift exchange ceremony, then they invited all the delegates on stage to say a few words. I thought I spared until the MCs specifically cued me to go up on stage with everyone. (T__T) Thankfully I had prepared a short speech in advance, so I didn\u2019t have to come up with something on the spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a really long day by the time the reception ended. I didn\u2019t want to bother Naito-san to give me a ride back to the station, so I walked with Ram and his host family and got to enjoy the illumination along the way. Even though I was fully exhausted by the time I got back, I was grateful I got to spend time with so many friends that day and relive the delegation experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had another jam packed day for my first full day in Aichi. Since it was easier to meet up with friends on the weekend, I was booked solid the entire day. It also meant I had to carry a load of souvenirs and presents with me from the moment I left the hotel in the morning (popularity has its downfalls lol). As it was still early, I started my morning off browsing through some of the shops at Meieki….<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3,10,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3502,"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions\/3502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jenny-chan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}