RENKEI life!

Apologies for the lack of updates! RENKEI Kyoto has been packed full or workshops and activities so far, and we are trying to make the most of our free time by exploring Kyoto.

All four groups produced exciting presentations on Tuesday; it was really interesting to see how each group's ideas had developed over the break. The audience consisted of our RENKEI colleagues and local Japanese businessmen, and in the afternoon each group was given the opportunity to receive feedback from each business representative, which was immensely useful, as their experience led to us receiving some fantastic advice.

On Wednesday we received a tour of Kyoto University and a lecture on its history, which lead to very interesting debates on student movements and the effectiveness of university education in both Japan and the UK. In the afternoon we received a lecture on Japanese traditional literature, particularly certain forms of poetry, which really helped to give some background on Japanese traditions and culture. This was further strengthened on Thursday, with lectures and demonstrations on Japanese dance and traditional flower arranging. It was really interesting to discovered the shared importance of certain details between different cultural activities, such as the role of the seasons in Japan.

Friday's program involved discovering more about the traditional Japanese town house, or machiya. The importance of preservation of existing machiya was discussed, and after a lecture briefing us on the basic design, we got to visit a preserved machiya in Kyoto. This led to some interesting questions regarding how to integrate traditional aesthetics with a modern life.

In the afternoon, we took part in a social discovery program called 100ninMap. This involved participants breaking into groups and then setting out to record our own experiences of Kyoto using smartphones. We then reflected on our observations,and seen how technology can help to discover and collate individual feelings and experiences.

The weekend was full of sightseeing, shopping, and maybe a little rest before commencement on RENKEI week 2! Also, each team was busy preparing a second presentation on both our team projects and our general RENKEI experiences.

On Monday we gave our presentations to representatives from each participating university. This gave us the opportunity to try and demonstrate the positive effects of RENKEI not only in developing collaboration between cultures and universities, but also for personal skills and development. I think every team done really well, and I hope the university representatives got a good feel of the program.

In the evening we went to a beautiful restaurant in the center of Kyoto, with an innovative method of staff rotation and customer satisfaction. We had the opportunity to further  discuss the RENKEI program with the university representatives over an amazing traditional Japanese dinner.

Today we took part in a second world cafe to create new projects regarding urban sustainability and resilience, especially concerning Japanese issues. Additionally, in the evening we got to experience wearing Japanese traditional dress, or kimono! However I have already written a lot for this post, so I will leave further explanation of today for the next post.

I will leave you with some pictures and some short explanations, and I'll try and update with some of Robin's official (better) photos soon, as well as photos of kimono wearing!

Breakfast at the ryokan

Good times at an izakaya!

Historical model of Kyoto University

Beautiful scenery for reflection and conversation on the Philosopher's Path

Demonstration of traditional Japanese dance

Lesson in traditional Japanese dance! I conveniently forgot to ask someone to take a picture of the girls!

My attempt at Japanese flower arranging, or ikebana

Serene pond at Fushimi Inari shrine

Me between Torii gates at Fushimi Inari shrine

Desert both myself and Katie are partial to at a local eating/drinking place

Tucking into desert and drinks!

Commence RENKEI Mark 2

After arriving in Tokyo, seeing some sights, and trying to get over jet lag, we have arrived safely in Kyoto and have recommenced the RENKEI experience. Last night we were treated to an amazing buffet dinner in a hotel, where we had the chance to reconnect with the other participants and organisers. Then this morning we awoke bright and early, in order to enough a traditional breakfast in the ryokan. In addition, we had the opportunity to experience a traditional hot springs bath in the ryokan, which soothed away all the stress and pains from travel.

Today was spent at Kyoto university, where we received very interesting and informative presentations on disaster resilience and on the traditional machi-ya housing of Kyoto. The afternoon was spent reconnecting with our small groups and preparation for tomorrow's group presentation on the development of our projects to industry. This evening we were again treated to an amazing buffet dinner at Kyoto university, while tonight was spent tuning up individual presentations. Being a RENKEI participant is hard work; but it's all worth it!

I will leave you with some pictures before trying out the bath again before we check out of the ryokan tomorrow!

Me blinking outside Senso-ji temple in Tokyo

Autumn leaves at Koishikawa Korakuen in Tokyo

Example of the food in Kyoto, I will try and remember to take my camera to breakfast tomorrow!

Japan here we come!

Katie and myself are currently in Heathrow Airport eagerly awaiting our flight to Japan! We have met up with fellow RENKEI-ite Giovanni, and we're looking forward to meeting up with everyone else soon. We're planning on spending a couple on days in Tokyo getting over our jet lag and preparing for continuing our journey to Kyoto, so we'll try and keep the blog updated on our journeys.

See you!
Katie and Caroline

Midpoint: RENKEI weekend

The weekend provided a great time where each of the participants could explore the city (or the country!) to their hearts content. Many of the Japanese students spent some of the weekend in London or at Stone Henge. I (Caroline) met up with Jasmine and Giovanni to have a quick exploration of the St. Paul's festival. It was amazing, there were so many people in the streets and squares, drinking, dancing, and generally having a great time together. People must have came from all around Bristol to attend, it really shows what life and soul the city has!

Giovanni and Jasmine relaxing in a square at St. Paul's festival.

One of the many outside parties/clubs.

On Sunday, my boyfriend James visited from Southampton (urged by my claims of "Bristol is amazing! You have to visit and meet all of the awesome RENKEI people!"), and so James, Ruth, Taka, Jasmine and myself headed to the beautiful historic city of Bath. There we bumped into Toshi, and met up with Jill for a bite to eat in a shaded garden of a cafe. We then went to explore the famous Roman baths, next to the cathedral. Everything was so interesting and impressive, and combining the ancient history with the amazing weather and the "holiday spirit", it felt more like Rome or Athens than anywhere in the UK. However the UK it was, so I can add Bath to one of my favourite cities, along with Bristol.

Bath Abbey - one of my favourite pictures, but it could be improved by adding any of our very-good-looking RENKEI people!

Ruth, Taka, myself, and Jasmine at the Roman Baths.

We all met back up on Sunday evening for a reunion buffet at the hotel, where we could share our tales of adventure (and celebrate the tennis scores, go Andy!). However, a lot of people headed to bed early, to recover from our action-packed weekend, and prepare for our even-more-action-packed week ahead!

Fun and games and hard work too!

The latest 3 days of the RENKEI program have been crazy! We have covered so much in such a short period of time. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with VOX Coaching's Pete and Matt, who guided us through teamworking, spontaneity, networking with others (especially those of a higher "status") and generally presenting oneself. I think everyone in the program, participants, organisers and guests alike agree than Matt and Pete done a fantastic job of relaxing everyone and really bringing joy and fun into some really challenging concepts.

We have been trying to capture the experience as much as we can, but most of the time we are too busy having fun and get too involved in the moment and forget about pictures! However we have made a special effort as we want to be able to show everyone what RENKEI is all about, so here are some pictures!

Pete talks us though the VOX workshop, on a rare occasion when we are sitting, as most of our time was spent on out feet, being active, and using our bodies for communication.

A freeze-frame of a short scenario, built up person-by-person without any prior communication. Can you guess what this one is? Answer: The prodigal son returning, of course! (with the added welcome by the family dog!)

Can you guess this one? Answer: A bank robbery! You can see Dom being a keen getaway driver, prematurely making his exit (to a tip for RENKEI people, we know who not to take on a bank robbery!)

A lovely meal in Goldbrick House hotel!

Workshops on presentations skills and entrepreneurship were held in Bristol University.

Katie as part of a presentation on poster presentation skills!

One team were very enthusiastic about poster presentation aesthetics! You can see the VOX training had a large effect on our confidence in using our bodies in presentations! 

A few people after a midnight walk across the river from out hotel, and a spontaneous RENKEI picture.

RENKEI Commences!

Today was the first official start of the RENKEI Program! Katie and myself (and all the other participants and organisers) have been waiting for this day for months and it has finally arrived!

Yesterday all of the participants arrived from all over the UK and Japan. We met for an informal introduction and reception in the hotel, however most of the Japanese students were suffering from extreme jet lag, and everyone wanted to be refreshed for the next day, so we all had an early night (after a quick trip to the pub, of course!).

This morning we met in the hotel and walked to the beautiful Bristol University campus together, taking in the sights and sounds of the city as we went. The day consisted of many introductions and interesting discussions, including overviews of Bristol city, Kyoto city, the concept of sustainability, and working together across interdisciplinary (and international) fields. And of course, we had the opportunity to have many personal introductions with people involved with the RENKEI programs as organisers, guest speakers, and the participants (which included a quick-fire "speed networking" session, which was exhausting, but helped showcase the vast diversity across the participants. There seems to be students from almost every field across academia, in addition to people of many different nationalities from across the world. So there are so many new exciting views and opinions in this program.

Participation in encouraged through using post-it notes to share ideas and questions.

Professional relationships and the diverse experience and input are not the only promising factors, as already the group has started to form keen friendships. The UK students are trying to be as accommodating as possible, by introducing as many features of British culture as possible (including pubs!), and the Japan students are taking the chance to explore and absorb as much as they can in their time here. Tonight we had an exchange of Japanese and British drinking games, which is cultural co-operation at its finest if you ask me!

Anyway tomorrow will be another busy day, so I am going to try to get to sleep, and hopefully we will update again soon! おやすみ!!

Two weeks to go...

How is it already mid-June?! As the longest day looms depressingly closer, the Bristol leg of the RENKEI program is due to kick off in two weeks. When we got the acceptance notification back in April, July seemed so far away. With a couple of weeks to go we thought we’d update you with the program schedule and our thoughts and feelings at this stage.

Program schedule

The provisional program has been released and it looks like it will be a busy two weeks in Bristol. The program is due to start on the evening of Sunday 30^th June with a buffet and drinks reception. Monday morning then gives another opportunity to get to know the other participants during the introduction sessions. Throughout the first week various topics will be covered, including cross-cultural differences, developing presentation skills and creative thinking. The evenings are mixed between informal group dinners and free evenings. Hotel accommodation is kindly provided over the weekend and the formal program resumes at dinner on Sunday 7^th July. Monday the 8^th looks like an interesting day, the session is titled ‘working with industry’ and the formal dinner in the evening presents a networking opportunity. On Tuesday the participants form teams and the remainder of week two involves various team activities including exploring personality types and the preparation of team presentations. The program culminates on Friday with presentations by each team and a formal dinner. By this point a well-earned rest will probably be needed!

Our thoughts so far: Katie

I’m thoroughly looking forward to the two weeks in Bristol, if a little apprehensive, which I think is natural for anything outside of your normal comfort zone. This week we were asked to provide some additional information to the program organisers, this inadvertently led to finding out a little more about some of the participants from those (and there are always some!) that ‘replied all’ to the email. What struck me was the diversity of the research areas the participants covered. So far, research areas include: the relationship between French philosophical thought and experimental Japanese music, cross-cultural technology transfer and, something of great interest to me, the role of cognition in the design process. So it looks set to be a diverse couple of weeks with interesting people.

I was pleased to receive the program schedule to see what topics would be covered. I am most looking forward to the session on ‘creative thinking and entrepreneurial mind set’ as this is an area I’ve previously identified for professional development and is something I have not had much exposure to in the past. My most pressing concern was the expected dress code, so when the program organisers emailed to see if anyone had any questions I didn’t hesitate to ask. It would appear that a little bit of everything is needed, which sounds like a perfect excuse to go shopping!

Our thoughts so far: Caroline

It’s already mid-June, but I don’t think anyone is complaining! PhD life is busy, but I think many students (including myself) have been taking advantage of the amazing weather, and the air has been full of the smell of barbeques and sun cream. I hope the visiting student can experience the sunshine, as it seems to bring the whole country to life; however the British weather tends to be unpredictable!

The schedule for the Bristol program looks absolutely packed! It looks like the program organisers have been busy arranging a great range of activities, from improving out professional skills through group work and exploring cultural differences, to providing social time, with structured dinners and free time for exploring our host city. I think I’m most looking forward to meeting all of the other participants. As Katie said, we have been asked to provide some background information, in order to create a participant booklet with introductions to everyone. The few profiles that have been shared look great, and there will be a large spectrum of skills and knowledge present, and I’m sure everyone will be able to contribute unique solutions to any of the challenges we might be presented with.

Southampton University campus in the sun