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28 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Wed. October 10, 1904 {)} 1) 2 } { '18 { RA \ j | \ \ R\ Wy \ \ «a teacher told me when | was 17 that | should go on a program like this. And he was right," says 25 year old David Redman, a world traveller who has just returned from a year-long exchange trip to Japan. Above, he poses with a gift from a Japanese friend, a samurai sword straight o details. ut of the pages of Shogun. See story for Filled up with pie Utica & Area News by Vera Brown Happy Thanksgiving! I trust by the time everyone reads this they will have had their fill of turkey and pumpkin pie. This Sunday at Utica there will be Bible Study at 10:00 a.m. Church and Sunday School at 11:15 a.m. There will be a service of Holy Communion and the dedication of Bibles in memory of Mrs. Delia Harper, Mrs. Vera Taylor and Mr. Alex Sutcliffe. The Board of Stewards are having a beef supper on Thurs- day, October 25th from 6 to 7 p.m. in Utica Hall. For tickets call Elva Kerry at 852-6798 or Gerald Hill at 985-2719. | also have a few to sell. For more information there will be a detailed ad in next week's papers. Starting at 3 p.m. the same day the UCW will hold a bazaar and bake sale in Utica Hall. Donations would be appreciated. Lil Lindsay and Irene Fielding are in charge of this project. There will be a euchre this Friday at 8 p.m. in Utica Hall. On Saturday evening there will be a dance to the music of the Country Ramblers. Birthday greetings to Miss Laura Carre who will be 7 years old on the 12th, that's this Friday. Miss Lisa Taylor had a Thanksgiving that she will long remember. Lisa had the misfortune to break her collar bone on Sunday afternoon. Hope you're soon feeling better Lisa. Holiday visiting: Mrs. Mildred Thompson entertained Mr. and Mrs. William Kirton and Mrs. Miller of Mount Albert on Friday. Mildred spent Sunday at Mount Albert. Lorne and Eileen Slute spent a few days with an uncle Mr. Art Lang at St. Thomas. On Monday Bill and family, Brian and family and the Larry Ross family were guests of the Slutes. [A (At the Causeway) Hwy. 7A - Port Perry FOR RESERVATIONS. CALL: 985-2486 Bill and Vera Brown were Monday supper guests with the dennis Gerrow family in Ponty- pool. Earl and Irene Field- ing had the Frank Fieldings of Port Perry and Bill Fielding and Donna Wakeford of Oshawa with them on Monday. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Hinchcliffe of Toronto and Mr. and Mrs. John Carre of Bridgenorth with the Eric Carre family. On Saturday Eric, Denise, Kevin, Laura and their friends visited the Chuck E. Cheese in Toronto to celebrate Kevin and Laura's birthdays. Mrs. Crosier spent the past week with her daughter Jean and Wally Scott in London. It's 9:30 or so on a foggy Thanksgiving Monday and even though his visitor is aching for a cup of coffee to chase away the morning chill, David Redman comes into his parents' farmhouse liv- ing room bearing an elaborate Japanese tea set. "It's Ocha", he says, with a grin. "Honour- able tea". In Japan, where the 25 year old Scugog Island native spent the better part of a year, people have Ocha the way Canadians take coffee breaks. The ornate tea set was a gift from Japanese friends, who insisted that David take it - even though the set is an expensive one and David's friends are relatively poor. "They're just so over- whelmingly kind', he shrugs. Which is how he found most of the Japanese people he met during an agricultural exchange program, funded in part by Canadian and Japanese governments. By the time May of 1983 had rolled around, David had already travelled extensively, to California and Europe, "then this came up and I thought it would be great'. All he had to do was apply, which he did, and be accepted, which he was. Ang before he knew it, David was off to Japan with a few other Canadians, five Ger- mans, three Danes and a Dutch native. They had all embark- ed on the program, in theory, to learn about Japanese agriculture, but they were also there to experience a whole new way of life --- a culture as different and exotic to David as black is to white. Each traveller was supplied with food and lodging and paid $50 a week as well. "I mean, we weren't there to get rich', he points out. "And $50 a week isn't bad, when you consider you're being paid for study- ing'. He spent four months SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13th BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Dance to the Music of ... Port Perry's Own Finger Foods available after 9:00 P.M. farming and liked the country so much he spent the rest of a year travelling and teaching English. David stayed at one farm for three months, growing tomatoes and melons ("Everyone always smiles when I say melons", he says). In Japan, melons are an expensive luxury, par- ticularly around Christmastime when they can sell for as much as $50. Even in season, the average melon price tag is $15. And not just any melon will do. Like everything else in Japan, a melon has to be aesthetically pleasing, or it won't sell. '""The Japanese buy with their eyes", he explains. Because land is scarce, the Japanese farmer must use what he has to the fullest, with no waste. To help conserve space, all equipment and machines are in min- iature. "They have combines about the size of a small Toyota', he laughs. And David says they work harder than most Canadians he has come up against, up at 5:30 a.m. and 'working until 9:30 p.m. with a midday break, or siesta, to eat and break away from the noon sun. Which doesn't mean Japan has a tropical climate. It doesn't. Although summers car be hot, David says it does snow in the winter (not as much as in Port Perry) and when it came time for him to come home, David was snowed in at the airport. Work is important to the Japanese farmer, and to make a living, he must concentrate his efforts on each plant, instead of the field as a whole. It's a tough job, with a lot of bending and straightening. "Sore back was one of the first words I learned Japanese kids thought David Redman was E.T. in Japanese", David jokes. He didn't know a word of Japanese when he arrived, but by the time David left, he had a fairly good grasp of the language and is now studying it at a univer- sity in Montreal. But when he arrived in Japan he was a genuine tourist , fair- skinned, light-haired and completely loveable in the eyes of the Japanese. "They really respect and love foreigners. Just being a foreigner, you're thought of as a very interesting person', he says. He recalls one instance where, surrounded by a group of children who couldn't get over his sunbleached hair, he became an instant movie hero. "They thought I was E.T.!"" he laughs. "Because they'd never seen anything like me. They kept touching my hair...it was embarrass- ing, but funny." At one point during his travels he toured a Japanese zoo where other zoo visitors insist- ed on taking his picture. "You go to the zoo and you're the one on dis- play." And would he go back, on display and all? "I would like to go back," he says firmly, but won't elaborate on future plans. "When I travelled to Europe I was a tourist. I was in Japan for 10 months. People get a misconcep- tion about these pro- grams, that you're on a vacation. This is com- pletely different. It's work. It's learning. "And the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know what's going on." Chris & Mike Allen ALUMINUM "RAINBOW ROOMS" Prices start under $3,000. 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