Being a university external candidate researcher (what a long name) requires extensive time-management skills. Most candidates, like me, already have a university position and a full home life, and the research project is piled on top of this already crowded assemblage.

 

Taking on a research project that spans two continents, with four case studies and in languages I do not read, is quite the challenge. Most of the sources are available in English, and I can also access material in Dutch and French. To date, I’ve been further confronted with Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian and German, none in my repertoire of scholar level fluency. In today’s research world, access to materials via the internet is enormously advantageous, but not everything is (yet) converted for online viewing.

 

Trips to the countries relating to the case sources are required both for accessing material but also contacting scholars in the relevant fields. For the past year I’ve been researching Japan’s parliament building through online and library access. Now it was time to carry out the field work on location. But how to do this? Without an existing network in Japan, I’d unlikely be invited for a stay at a research facility. There were no suitable conferences there on the horizon. This trip was going to fall completely under my own planning and pocket. Flights were booked early on as this reduces the cost. A difficult moment arose when I discovered my name incorrectly entered in the system and almost lost the whole booking. Accommodation and food turned out to be much more affordable, and the yen dropped in value while there. I managed to arrange an apartment of 26m2 for one month for 2,100 euros, not too far from Shinjuku in Tokyo, the world’s busiest station.

 

Due to unexpected home circumstances my ‘spare’ time was severely curtailed in acquiring introductions, the most important element of the trip. My contacts book consisted of just a few professors in Japan, nowhere near enough. I was following courses on Political History and Advanced Academic Writing to support the process, whilst ensuring my work responsibilities at AMSIB as lecturer and Community Project Lead were up to date, and of course meetings with my supervisors. Together with my partner, we run a Bed and Breakfast which was completely full in April due to a popular Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum.

 

Networking in Asian countries is often through third party contacts, so I applied this approach by bothering as many relevant people in my home network as I could for their contacts in Japan. Before stepping onto the flight, I had accomplished 10 possible contacts with professors but only a few promises to meet. Additionally, I roped in my partner as travelling companion, photographer, IT and general support system, and at one point German translator!

 

I was corralled with advice on Japanese etiquette such as arriving early for meetings, responding very quickly to emails (at least in the first few contacts), adding ‘-san’ to the person’s name when addressing them in writing, bringing small gifts from your home base, and generally being very polite. Perhaps all of these helped, though I admit to only once achieving an early arrival. My hosts were graciously accepting of this, but I noted none of them were late.

 

Accessing professors whose work I’d been quoting in my papers was a very gratifying result of the trip. The 8 direct contacts made were all extremely helpful and fascinating, and gave generously of their time, sometimes more than once, and in one case 5,5 hours on one day! I also feel that some friendships have begun. They recommended a series of local books difficult to obtain even in the archives. It turned out, from their encouragement, that purchasing on Amazon.jp was a good option and surprisingly cheap, so I ordered many deliveries to my rented accommodation. It became a regular enjoyment returning at the end of the day and opening the post box to receive another important piece of material. Now I’ve returned with a translation assignment for the coming months!

 

Naturally I visited the parliament building, but also others from that era such as the old Ministry of Justice, the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, and the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architecture Museum. But I also wished to view the earlier architecture and city layouts, which intertwined nicely with being a tourist, visiting the royal palaces in Tokyo and Kyoto and ancient capitals such as Kamakura. An interesting side angle was the old prefectural buildings which brought me to Kanagawa in Yokohama, Yamaguchi City, as well as Kyoto.

 

Japan is an exceptionally convenient places to travel around. The Shinkansen high speed trains are a dream, floating you rapidly from one end of the country to the other. Within the Tokyo metropolis, you never have to wait long, usually only 2 to 5 minutes for the next train or metro to whisk you to your destination. Convenience stores open 24 hours and are never far from you. Restaurants are everywhere, and it’s both difficult to choose and hard to find food that is not delicious. Occasionally you get something from the menu (google translate copes well but is not always helpful) that you didn’t realise other humans were eating in meal form. Japan was just opening up from covid, and close to 80%, sometimes 90%, continued wearing their face masks in public and all shop assistants still do. The Japanese tradition is to treat customers somewhere close to royalty, such a joy. I experienced one bizarre moment in a supermarket when (Japan still prefers use of money before cards) a coin equivalent to 4 cents bounced off the receptacle onto the floor and scurried away under the counter. I could not retrieve from my side and was willing to leave it there, but the assistant was adamant she would recover it and following a series of unsuccessful attempts, moved the whole counter, engaged another assistant, both of them down on their hands and knees, until they’d salvaged the said coin, now covered in dirt which was ceremonially cleaned off, and returned to me so I could restart the whole process. I carefully placed it directly in the assistant’s hand this time. A true example of going above and beyond your job position, and both a humbling and amusing experience.

 

A special moment on the trip occurred when a professor invited us to his university library and organised the viewing, in a private room in the vaults, of a special item from the collection. Four ladies appeared with white gloves and gowns transporting a very large piece of cardboard. First they had a short discussion and left the room with the item, returned with more tables to enlarge the surface and covered with felt, then reappeared with the object. They gently laid it out on the tables and cautiously opened to reveal large original drawings of the first temporary parliament building which the professor himself had come across in a bookstore. These drawings from 1890 are stunning in their detail and even some colour, and are estimated to be worth 1 million euro, quite a moment!

 

I’d been reading a wonderful book by Anna Sherman called “The Bells of Old Tokyo” and was searching in Ueno Park where one supposedly survived. After a search that seemed lost, we eventually discovered, hidden in some undergrowth, a plaque which informed us it was after all in this place and is rung at 6am, 12 noon, and 6pm each day. In its earlier life it was rung every two hours. To our astonishment, it was 1 minute before noon, and shortly after, a robed man appeared above in the trees to swing a tree trunk against the side of this bell for a total of 12 strokes. It’s a very special sound and each drum has its own particular resonance. We moved around to obtain better views to record, and listened along with Tokyo’s monied elderly waiting their turn to enter the nearby restaurants. These eateries are relics of the Meiji period when they were then also popular with the local elite. This was a delightful way to end a thrilling and knowledge fulfilling four-week trip through wonderful Japan.

 

Back home, the task of translating, rereading the notes, perhaps following up on some points with the professors, and completing my case study await. This all needs to be juxtaposed with returning to work, family and friends visiting, and some B&B guests. Before completing this case, I’m presenting a paper at conferences in Padua and Leiden (June) and will visit Ghent (August) for another on Japanese Studies and attempt a writing retreat (July). If all goes well, I may complete by September. Later in the year it will be time to turn towards the next cases, and more trips to Asia beckon. My calendar is constantly monitored and updated and key to the whole time-management. But it is all very fulfilling. I feel a constant need to juggle the components and keep them all spinning. Maybe there’s something in the family, as my creative brother has a career as an actual juggler!