Mount Aso Research

Greetings from Mount Aso, Kumamoto. I am staying in a lovely cottage near Aso Town until tomorrow, 3/30. It's in a beautiful location, with a beautiful view, although it's a little cloudy today. My reason for coming to Aso is to conduct research in tourism in Aso. My research entails interviewing tourism employees in English regarding their background information including years of schooling, years of English education, hours of English education, present English study, and also to obtain each person's English communication ability level by using an assessment test. Once the interviews are completed, I take this information, put it on excel, and statistically examine variables using certain statistical measures to see relationships. These relationships can help determine the effect of such things as education, English education in school, present English education, and English communication ability on income and also employment. I have found through similar research in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Nepal that English background education and communication ability can help young labor force get jobs and have better lifestyles in developing countries.

While Japan is far from a developing country, tourism is still important. My question is: will the same findings hold true? Will young labor force be able to have more stability with English education? Will background schooling and English education in employees help them get better jobs? Will heightened English ability help create better, more lively, and more unique destinations for Western tourists?

Westerners do come to Japan of course. They are able to have grand experiences in locations such as Tokyo, Nara, Kyoto, and Okinawa. Well-trained and informative tourism employees can be provided who work for tour agencies. However, what about in smaller, less known locations such as Kumamoto? Perhaps many locals feel that Kumamoto is not an interesting destination. However, upon speaking to many international travelers, I have found this is not the case. In fact, many people who visit Kumamoto expect more. Some are disappointed when they cannot find or accomplish things they want to do. Some of the reasons people include are: lack of access by public transportation or inconvenient transportation, lack of available English speaking guides, and lack of adequate information in English.

Can these aspects be changed to accommodate more Western travelers? I  believe they can, and this is what I want to do with my research - investigate these aspects further and be able to train and provide more communicative guides in order to offer a more rich and worthwhile experience for international travelers.

Kathmandu

In Nepal finally - the farthest towards the West from Japan I've been. Just a stone's throw north from Delhi. Someday I'll make it there. Kathmandu though is a bustling, vivacious space, reminiscent of other developing cities I've seen - Phnom Penh, Vientiane, yet it is somehow different. Haven't put my finger on just how it's different...

Right now there is a wedding down in the yard of the hotel and I'm listening to the most interesting music...people are playing Nepalese bagpipes and percussion. It's a great treat for me seeing as how I have nothing to do with the wedding. Can't eat the buffet food though! I got already to search around the hotel...Hotel Himalaya - really nice at a really nice price. Will probably have food and drinks in the restaurant lobby tonight. Tomorrow my connection from Randall, Matrika, will come in the AM and we will begin the survey process. I'm getting ready for lots of walking around and interviewing people as usual. We'll see how it goes this time!