I just finished another group tour with my current company 80 Days Japan. These intense two-week tours cover much of the country in a short 14-day period. It’s exciting and fun, but also exhausting for the tourists, but also the tour guides. During tours, it’s hard to find time to sit with my thoughts, and hobbies. It’s even more of a challenge let alone enjoy any solitary, peaceful, quiet time. Introverts usually stray away from any power and responsibility, yet I find myself a leader. Who do I lead? Various 16-person troops of travelers.
I’ve read that introverts often make excellent leaders. While I, like anyone, have my own biases, I hope I’ve grown into a great leader myself. When working at an international school in Japan, UWC ISAK, they often asked a question that is hard for us adults to answer.
What Makes a Leader?
What is a leader?
Sadly I never got to answer that question there. They let me go “because of COVID”, an answer I saw through at the time as they hired someone who was there before I even left. My manager at the time tried to phrase it in a positive light.
“This position was a growth opportunity to help you build your skills after a couple years, you will probably find a better job, unfortunately, Covid…” all the typical dribble that people will say to paint the organization in a better light, but you can’t bullshit a bullshitter. I was raised in the 253, we put up with a lot of BS there.
The best thing you can do when you have organizations or people that “let you go” is go out and shine brighter afterward. I’ve grown a lot since that period three years ago. I’ve seen growth in maturity, mindset, and technical skills in every area. Not that I was bad at photography then, I still see some of my photos circulating on a certain international school’s website. . . I guess it’s hard to find someone with a combination of all my skills. I’m not usually an egotistical maniac, but to that organization I say.
How I Lead
The way I lead comes down to a variety of experiences I have. From my home life to the classroom, even my competitive gaming experience helps me to keep a level head when dealing with the chaos of guiding 17 foreigners in Japan. As a leader, I try to guide with empathy, and not take things too personally when people seem aggravated or make snide remarks. If anything I try to see the humor in situations and take things lightly, my study of Zen through the works of Alan Watts helps me to see the enjoyment of difficult situations. Last of all, I believe my high-functioning autism helps me to lead the tours.
A Unique Strength
What some people might see as a disadvantage, I see as one of my main strengths. Having a guided itinerary and schedule is helpful for me. When people are irritated, I know that usually their frustration isn’t directed towards me, also sometimes I can’t distinguish when people have undertones with ill intentions. At the beginning of my tour, I always tell my groups that I have high-functioning autism. I try to be as honest and transparent as possible when guiding my groups around and I find that to be the best policy.
Varied Interests
I fall into the Jack of all trades, master of none category. Although generally in life it’s good to specialize, during my tours it helps me keep conversations. I find that on tour my life as both an athlete, artist, musician and computer nerd is enough to stay engaged with almost everyone. When I do meet a specialist I often know enough any given topic to learn from the person. They get to talk about something they’re passionate about and I get to learn from them.
Self Critic
While at times I’ve taken my self-criticism a little too far, being able to look at areas where you come up short or need to improve can make future experiences better. Perhaps it’s a collection of little things, navigating through little shortcuts, little tips and pointers for every location, and suggestions for things to do in the area. One of the skills I need to improve is my Japanese, which is a constant learning experience for every foreigner in Japan. If you’ve been reading my blog you’re probably tired of me saying that I’m trying to Learn in Public, but yes I need to study Japanese.
Japanese I’m Learning Currently
As a tour guide, I feel I should know all the regions in Japan. I’ve lived in three of them, but you think I should know all of them right? Before this tour I didn’t, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn Region Names. Additionally, it would be smart to learn where the region is, facts about the region, and the meaning of the Region’s Kanji characters.
Regions of Japan
- Hokkaido 北海道 – Northern Japanese Island
- Tohoku 東北地方 – North East Region
- Kanto 関東 – East of the border
- Chubu 中部 – Central Japan
- Kinki/Kansai 関西 – Westo of the border
- Chugoku 中国 – Central Country
- Shikoku 四国 – Four Countries
- Kyushu 九州 – Nine Provinces
- Okinawa 沖縄 – Open Sea
One of the reasons Japanese is so hard is because you have to remember so many aspects of the language. The characters meanings themselves, the sounds the characters make, and how a combination of kanji can change their readings and meanings.
How Am I Supposed to Remember All This?
I’ve talked about struggling with information overload before, and one of the things that bothers me is I feel like I study inefficiently. There’s a host of books, videos, and written guides that teach you how to study more effectively. The problem is if you spend time learning how to study wouldn’t you have less time to retain information? Yes. . . so instead of working out how to remember stuff I went to an old favorite.
Quizlet is a site where you can make flash cards. Following Tim Ferris’s advice to Standardize before I optimize I figured using flashcards was a way I could regularly get this information into my head.
I made this set to help me member the Regions and the Kanji. It’s amazing how trying to learn 9 regions in Japanese exploded into 48 Terms. This perfectly illustrates how difficult learning Japanese can be.
Tour Experiences
These two-week tours are intense, you can imagine as an introvert I’m pretty tired at the end of the day managing 16 people from 0700 to 1900. This is coupled with what is called “interpreter fatigue”, while my job isn’t as intense as a live translation, it’s a well-known fact that switching between languages is tiring. Despite all the rapid movement around the country, I still found some moments where I lay in the eye of the storm. I always bring my camera along for my tours. There’s always something new to see or experience in locations you’ve visited more than once.
Asakusa Area
I’m beginning to get familiar with the area not just around the temple, but some of the adjacent areas as well. There is a beautiful little shopping street close to Asakusa called Hoppy Street where I love taking guests. At night, there isn’t a tourist in sight, not that I hate tourists because my livelihood depends on them. But I always love to share “the real Japan” with my groups.
Antenna America
One of my favorite places to go in Japan when I’m feeling homesick. I’m not much of a beer drinker, but if I drink beer I want to drink a good beer. One of my guests forgot their passport the previous day so we had to get their JR pass today. I was a little worried about showing one of the travelers an American Restaurant when they were supposed to be enjoying Japanese cuisine, but the jolly Australian guy was happy to eat Tacos and listen to Latin music.
Following the quick stay at Antenna America, I needed to go to my Doctor to renew my prescription and get another injection of Michiga. Michiga is a Japanese biologic not approved in the US. The name of the medicine is called Nemolizumab and I’m finding that it’s helped with my skin. My problematic skin is almost clear with the injections with the side effect that it also clears my wallet as it’s pretty expensive.
Meeting Friends in Matsumoto
When I first moved to Japan I lived in the small town of Matsumoto. One of my first friends in Japan was named Chris. Chris owns the Storyhouse Cafe, which was a friendly location in the city. I bumped into Chris and his family on Nawate Street during the tour. It was nice to see him after what felt so long and it always felt nice to catch up and see how things were going.
At the Matsumoto Yokocho, I had a friendly conversation with a local man. I was surprised to learn that he also lived in Matsumoto. It was nice to see that my Japanese had come far enough that I could enjoy friendly conversations with the locals.
Nagano
Sometimes things get buried in your head. I always forget that when I was a kid one of the reasons that I wanted to go to Japan was the snow monkeys. Just as in that wonderful documentary, it’s great to be able to watch the monkeys go about their life. Because it was summer I was able to take some photos of baby monkeys. It’s interesting to see how calm and relaxed wild animals can be around people. Some other wild animals I saw along the way were little lizards.
Although there were was a host of wild life one of my favorite animals are cats. Despite being allergic to cats I love to pet them. Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs, but I consider myself a cat person. I was happy to pet the two city cats in Nagano, I made sure to wash my hands before eating or scratching to aggravate my skin.
One of the restaurants where I’m now a regular is called 山帰来 つた弥, it’s owned by a lovely Japanese family and I even help them serve the meals. My customer service experience as a server at my friend’s restaurant after college helped me immensely.
Takayama
Takayama is a small city with a lot to offer. This time around, while Hida No Sato isn’t as large as Shirakawago the open-air museum helps you to imagine what life was like in Japan 200 years ago. Takayama is also the site of one of my favorite anime, Hyoka. One of the things that make me feel at home in Takayama is the Showa museum which features technology from 50 years ago all the way up to the early 90s.
Time Makes you bolder even childern get older I’m getting older too.
Kanazawa
One time when I was drawing in the park I met two Taiwanese girls because I was drawing. Nothing really came out of that other than a night of drinking at Torikizoku. But that was the only thing exciting that has happened in the little city so far. I did find a new place to feed myself and drink a single beer.
Hiroshima
In Hiroshima, we usually bring guests to an Okonomiyaki restaurant. Specifically, we bring people to okonomirua. I was having a hard time booking a reservation anywhere. With that in mind, I went to the same restaurant I always go to. Okonomiyaki Ron is once again owned by a singular family, I walked into the restaurant and the owner was happy to see me. She informed me that taking large reservations was pretty stressful and she’d probably stop taking them. I felt honored that my next meal with the guest would be the last large group reservation she took.
Kyoto
I enjoy being in Kyoto. The old city has so many shrines, temples, and gardens, but also my favorite animation studio and the college I wanted to go to . . maybe in a future life. Anyway, it’s no secret to anyone that despite my life going pretty mid, I’m feeling pretty jaded about existing in life. Despite trying to “find the good in life”, I’m struggling to feel joy. It feels like it doesn’t matter how hard, I try because I stay just barely struggling to survive. I always wonder what’s the point of staying alive. Whatever the meaning of life is I try my best to play my role in the stageplay of life. I forgot that one of the roles I had in life was being an English teacher.
The Consequences of Our Actions
Being an ALT was difficult, the pay sucks, the career advancement is nonexistent, and it’s hard to feel like you have any peers in the workplace. You’re often shipped around from school to school, at some schools I got my own office or desk which was nice. Despite the difficulties, the kids really make you feel like a superhero. Maybe if I disappeared the little munchkins would notice. A little boy in Kyoto station made me remember all the happy times I had in school.
All he wanted to do was to use the English he had learned out in the world. He introduced himself in English and “knowing the script” I introduced myself in English. He gave me a high five which was expected as often ALTs will give the children a high five after a successful demonstration. What surprised me was that he ran up and hugged me before he ran away. In my head, I often think I am a piece of shit that doesn’t matter, but that feeling faded a little bit as the boy smiled and ran off.
I had a conversation with one of the older members of the tour. You know what’s sad is that we often influence the lives of others, but we won’t have the ability to see if our kind actions or words will influence anything else. Like ripples in the wake of a ship, we have no idea how our acts of kindness or knowledge will change the world in small ways.
Artist?
On my free day I took some guests to the International Manga Museum. The world of Japanese comics seems larger than life today, but it’s fun to trace the history and how it started. I doubted I would ever be good enough at art or drawing to make a comic, but it was always fun to close my eyes and imagine. While browsing the works of real artists, a middle schooler and her mom asked me for time. Her mom asked me if I had a couple of minutes to fill out a survey.
Where are you from?
I’m from Seattle Washington
What’s your favorite manga?
I really like Initial D and works from Kyoto Animation.
What makes you excited about manga?
I love how expressive manga can be. I also like very cute things so I draw cute stuff.
After answering her questions Yui handed me a folded paper crane and origami paper. I chatted with her mom. They were from Tokushima prefecture, I had just learned about Shikoku earlier this trip. I thought about something nice I could do in return. Fishing for my backpack I gave her a drawing I had made in Hiroshima.
To Yui from Marco, I wrote before signing my name. It wasn’t the best drawing but I’m glad it gave someone some joy.
Osaka
Osaka our tour ended, but after the tour ended it gave me an opportunity to meet my friend Tinshi. He was part of my Apex Legends friend group so every time I went to Osaka I went to meet him for lunch.
Thanks for Reading
I feel bad because I always forget to thank my readers who actually made it to the end of the long winded posts that are my life. If you’re interested in reading more of my posts feel free to click here.
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Much Love
LBMarco
