Host Community Tour: Lizzie's travel journal (Day 2)

[Lizzie]

Location: Tokyo

Duration of visit: April 2nd-4th

Distance travelled (so far): 5956 miles / 9583 kilometers

Weather: 13 c / 55 f (still)

April 3rd

Hello Hello,

We have now been here for a day and a half, and I feel that we have been here for months. What a city!

As I mentioned in my overview yesterday, I’m staying in a lovely listing in the west of Tokyo, in a quiet area of the city.

Breakfast

My host, Yagi made me a beautiful breakfast, including tea, miso soup, pickled vegetables and a rice parcel (surrounded in seaweed). It looks wonderful, and although my bodyclock was questioning, why I was eating Japanese food at essentially 1 o’clock in the morning, it was a real treat.:)  

Take a look for yourself:

It was also a great opportunity to speak a bit more and I had a great time getting to know him in his own Community Spotlight. There is some lovely responses, so do take a look and get to know my host a little more.

In addition, he also shared a few of his hidden gems about his local area. One of these hidden gems includes (at this time of year), the wonderful sakura or cherry blossom to you and me. He suggested, I walk along the river near his home and so I did just that, and made a slight detour on my way to the train station.

There are some of my findings:

Beautiful cherry blossom

FISH! Wow, they were whoppers! Yagi, mentioned to me beforehand that I will see some fish (I was picturing a few small ones…)!

What do you think? Have you ever seen the famous cherry blossom? Or alternatively, what do you think the fish are eating to make them so large?

Mastering the underground

You will be pleased to hear I have got the hang of the underground system now (well, just about) and I managed to get to the Airbnb office is quick time. The nearest station is called Shinjuku and it is basically a maze to get out of. I now know you go up the escalator, around to the green exit, through the barriers, right, left and left at the burger restaurant...so, no more getting lost for me...simple! 🙂 If you are planning on going to Japan, let me know and I will draw you a map!

Shinjuku is an amazing place to visit, filled with shops and an array of colour, I’m sure it would be quite a sight for anyone.

Host Events

Yesterday there were two host events in central Tokyo, with nearly 200 people in total. It was amazing to meet so many Japanese hosts and hear their enjoyment and reasons for hosting, feedback on things they would like help with and ideas on what they think we as a community can do more of.

One thing, I thought you might be interested in knowing, (mainly because I thought it was fascinating and I hoped you would too), is how the event is managed from a translation point of view. The majority of the event was in Japanese. The team built a special listening booth in the room, with several translators translating the talks as they were happening. This was then conveyed through ear pieces to the audience. This was great for me, as I was able to hear the whole thing in English. I’m rather in awe of people who have this ability with language and it's really not an easy thing to do live.

I will be sharing a specific overview of the event shortly, including talking points, so keep an eye out for this.

• Remember to take a look at our latest Community Spotlight, with Yagi
• Coming soon, an overview of the Tokyo events

I hope you enjoy this read. Thank you for the suggestions I read today on what you would like to see, I will include some of the things I’ve found, on my day 3 topic. 🙂

Feel free to share you ideas on what you would like to see in Sydney.

Thank you,

Lizzie

[Sehyun0]

Wonderful!

Now you have had a great time with close foreign friends who may be engaged in the business of accommodation. Also you enjoy a plenty of experiences in Japan to make everybody be informed.

I do hope to join the meetup but it's held away from my place, Korea. Anyway, please make an every effort to tell us something useful.

Then our(my) business will enjoy its results. Thank you very for the message you sent. Take care, please.

Sorry for my poor English. Bye!

[Helen427]

@Lizzie

Good to see you are adapting to when in Japan, do as Japanese do 🕐 🍜

About those fish, perhaps they eat seaweed & miso soup 🍴

It's good to see the Japanese people hosts supporting the Airbnb tour as they to have faced challenges with local government issues.

I hope they have all joined together to network and overcome any barriers put before them.

Did you speak at the conference?

All the best for Sydney and hope to see you in Auckland, New Zealand in summer time 2019...

Places to visit, Art Gallery, Paddington Markets and ex pat Kiwi Lisa's clothing shop Freez!!!

[Ria16]

@Lizzie  crikey  I’ve just realized those are pigeons along side the fish.  Those fush are massive and must be very old maybe? 

The blossom looks wonderful .

Sydney looks exciting might be too late for migrating  whales but there are dolphin boats. 😉 and the Blue mountains are not that far by train. Or the Outback come to think of it 😉  Enjoy it all 😉 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Lizzie 

I couldn't help but smile when reading what you wrote about the interpretation.  It's what I do for a living.... Korean instead of Japanese, or course 🙂 

I don't have a booth, so I just sit near the speaker to hear them well and talk softly into the microphone. I also don't have a partner..... so even for simultaneous (or in my case "whispering" to be accurate), I'm on my own 😞

The type of interpretation that you experienced at your event is called "simultaneous interpretation" which requires extreme concentration. So for simultaneous, in priniciple it ALWAYS has to be 2 interpreters working as 1 team, alternating every 15~20 minutes. And it is recommended that 1 team of interpreters do not work for more than 2~3 hrs straight. Interpreters need guaranteed breaks or back up interpreter(s) to take over occasionally. 

Fyi, interpretation is for the spoken language while translation is for the written language. 

https://www.languagescientific.com/what-is-the-difference-between-translation-and-interpreting/

It is cherry blossom season in Korea too. Cherry blossoms in Changwon