Greetings from Vegas!

Greetings from Vegas! I just thought I would update my blog one last time before checking-in for the Miss Rodeo America pageant.

My mom and I departed Bozeman on Tuesday in my pickup pulling a 4X8 UHAUL trailer packed to the brim with mulitple pairs of boots, dozens of outfits and suitcases that weighed a ton! The drive ended up being around 14 hours but we took our time and stayed near Salt Lake City Tuesday night. We were blessed with good roads most of the way and arrived in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon.

The bell hops at the Orleans Hotel were helpful in unloading the UHAUL. Some of them have worked here many years so they were used to having to unload rodeo queens around this time of the year. I was relieved when one commented that I wasn't nearly as bad as some of the girls with the amount of boxes.

Once settled in Mom and I took some time to plan some activities I wanted to do before the pageant started. Last night we went to The Phantom of the Opera show. It was rated the best show in Vegas so we were pretty excited to be going. We both loved it! What a tragic story but the show was amazing. Today we are spending the day relaxing and catching up on rest for the long week ahead. We are both treating ourselves to a massage later!

My mom will be updating my blog throughout the week of competition so check back later to hear her perspective of how the pageant is going. You can also look at pictures from the website I listed on my last blog and of course send me emails if you want to say hi! I can't wait to update you all the next time, hopefully as Miss Rodeo America!!!!

Miss Rodeo America pageant!!!!

Well my preparations for Miss Rodeo America are coming to a close thanks to the Miss Rodeo Montana send-off to Vegas tour. I had 4 parties, Billings, Bozeman, Wolf Point, and Great Falls. They were all a success and a huge help in getting me prepared for MRA. A huge thanks goes out to all who attended and helped in setting the parties up. I was fired impromptu questions, modeled some of my Miss Rodeo America clothes, and talked about my year. I feel like I am ready to go now that I have all the kinks worked out! I will list the information you need to send me a good luck note, card or flowers in Vegas if you couldn’t make it to the send-off parties, or even if you did!

For Gifts or Cards:
c/o Jody Rempel For MRM Megan Hardy
1405 US Hwy 89 Fort Shaw MT 59443
By November 29, 2007
Jody will be taking all the gifts and cards to Las Vegas and distributing them to me during the week.

For Flowers: (must arrive between 12/1 - 12/7)
The Orleans Hotel
Megan Hardy, Miss Rodeo Montana Check out these websites during the week:
4500 W Tropicana Ave www.missrodeo.com or
Las Vegas, NV 89103 www.shooterenterprises.com for pics.

For Email: (You can send one everyday if you’d like from 11/30 - 12/6)
missrodeopageant@yahoo.com
Subject line: Megan Hardy, Montana

Country Gold, Japan

Sunday morning arrived pretty fast after a long night of sleeping on the floor…with no heat. Breakfast was another ceremony. I wasn’t prepared to be eating fish for breakfast but thankfully they had a fruit plate to munch from.

We departed for Mount Aso where Country Gold was taking place in the morning. The outdoor amphitheatre where it was held is said to be the largest outdoor theatre in the world. You would believe it if you saw it! Once the concert started we were informed that there would be between 20,000 – 25,000 people in attendance. I couldn’t believe that in just a few hours I would be talking to all those people! The entire delegation was looking forward to lunch because we were told lunch would be American beef BBQ. Beef has never tasted so good! Montana had a booth right across from the US beef booth where we gave out maps, pins, and other random souvenirs from Montana. People would also have an opportunity to get my autograph; I signed between 700-800 autographs that day and took probably twice that many pictures. The Japanese attending Country Gold were aware of the Montana booth and getting to meet Miss Rodeo Montana every year. It was neat signing cowboy hat’s that had Cassidy and Brooke Lyn’s autograph on them already. I couldn’t believe the enthusiasm over everything country and western. A person could make a pile of money just having a booth that sold cowboy hats because most everyone bought at least one when they got there. I never thought I could say that I was “underdressed” at a cowboy event!!!

Charlie Nagatani and the Cannonballs opened the show. They played some of the same old country classics as at the party the other night along with some Japanese style country music. I couldn’t believe most everyone knew the words to the songs even though they were in English. They could sing along to the songs but they had no idea what they were saying! At the front of stage there was a huge section blocked off for line dancing. The Japanese are heavily into line dancing rather than couples dancing because line dancing doesn’t leave someone without a partner out. The rest of the bands performed on the huge stage one after another. Meanwhile, I was signing autographs like crazy. There was a local dude ranch that brought in their horses for the Japanese to sit on. Of course everyone requested that Miss Rodeo Montana sit on a horse. I did and, although I felt kind of silly because they had to hold the horse and they didn’t even have a bridle on this horse, dozens of people came by to take pictures which promoted our booth even more. I had an unexpected radio interview at our booth and it served to be another interesting one. Mako translated for me and she told me that the first question would be, What do you think of Japan? I was used to this question by now and when it was time to air I responded with a nice response. “I love it here; the mountains remind me of the mountains in Montana. I am having a wonderful time…etc” I continued on but noticed the interviewer was getting a confused look on her face and Mako looked like she wanted me to stop so she could translate. I stopped and looked at Mako to translate and she smiled and said, “Actually, she was just saying hello.” That was the only communication problem I had with the translation during my entire stay. I thought that was pretty good!

Towards the middle of the concert I was whisked backstage. I mingled with the bands, sponsors, and Charlie while I waited to go on stage to speak. I felt just like I was one of the country stars. We were escorted up to the stage by the stage crew, Lt. Governor Bohlinger spoke first and Myuki translated for him. I was next on stage in front of 25,000 people (with my chaps on of course) I had to take a minute to soak it all in. I said “Hello everyone! My name is Megan Hardy, Miss Rodeo Montana. I would like to welcome you all to the Montana booth” ALL in Japanese!! I was so proud of myself for not even needing a translator. The crowd went wild at the sound of Miss Rodeo speaking in Japanese. It is a moment I will never forget! I spent the rest of the evening back stage talking with the bands and even Mark Chesnut. When our bus came to take us back to the hotel I was over stimulated and exhausted, but what a day!

Monday was the last day we would be spending in Japan. Everyone was showing their exhaustion but we still had a lot of things to see. We visited Mount Aso, an active volcano. It had been closed for 3 days prior to our visit because the toxic gas it was emitting was too dangerous for tourists. They opened it that morning but we had only been there about 10 minutes before they sounded alarms to evacuate the volcano because the gas started pouring out of the volcano again. It was chaos taking the shuttles back down from the mountain and I could tell that the gas was toxic. When you inhaled it felt as though your lungs were swelling. A cool experience but I wouldn’t do it twice!

We then went to the headwaters of the local river. It wasn’t the same as the headwaters around here. You can actually see the water boiling up from the earth. People are welcome to come and fill water bottles and use it as drinking water. I thought it would be cool to drink fresh Japanese water too! Next, we went to eat at a local restaurant and when leaving we saw a local farmer loading his bales on the tiniest hay truck I have ever seen. Of course the group of Montanan’s was fascinated and we all stopped to take pictures of this farmer. After lunch we went to a local market to see how beef was marketed locally and while there I noticed a very random, mean looking, goat atop of a hill on a golf course. Once again, I felt a picture was needed. As people stared we could always play the tourist card! The commute to Fukaoka airport, where we would be flying out of the next day, was about 2 hours but it was just more Japanese landscape to watch before having to leave the next day.

We flew out the next day and the flight home seemed longer but it gave me a chance to reflect on what I just took place in. What an opportunity for a 23 year-old college student to be involved in an international delegation. I will never forget my trip of a lifetime to Japan. I never could have experience Japan in the same way if I had just been a tourist. I recommend Japan for a vacation to anyone but I suggest you have a translator with you and “While in Japan do as the Japanese do!!!”

Japan still...

Friday morning the delegation and I took a street car to Sujenji Park, the place for tea and worship for the Japanese Lords. The street cars run on rails down the center of the main streets in Kumamoto which limits an already crowded street but is very nice for public transportation. The park was breathtaking and very peaceful. Walking through with the Montana delegation I attracted a lot of attention from Japanese tourists. I would see Japanese ladies in traditional Kimonos and want a picture with them but they would want a picture with a girl in traditional western wear!

Meanwhile, I was still adjusting to the Japanese every day way-of-life. I found myself constantly ducking when going into places to eat or to shop to avoid hitting my head on the ceilings and I was still trying to get in on the wrong side of the car. The toilets fascinated me for the entire 10 days I was there. A Japanese style toilet is basically a porcelain whole in the floor and the Western style toilets were the opposite – very high tech! Some of them would make a waterfall sound when you sat on them and others would have heated seats.

After the park I was whisked away for another TV interview. This was by far the most interesting of all my interviews. The reporter interviewing me was dressed up as a clown and wanted me to rope him. The interesting thing was not only that I had to rope this strangely dressed clown but the language barrier seemed to grow with this certain reporter. I am not sure if that is possible but he was very dramatic with his movements and talked so loud he was almost yelling. I kept thinking he was saying something very urgent because he was shouting but I couldn’t ever respond for several minutes because of the translation. Anyway, it was an interesting interview to say the least but I am proud to say that I roped him successfully in 2 rehearsals and on live TV!

I was very excited for Friday night. The delegation and I attended a private concert at Good Time Charlie’s bar in downtown Kumamoto. All of the bands that would be performing at Country Gold gave us a taste of what we would be hearing on Sunday. Charlie Nagatani is the owner of the bar and the creator of Country Gold. He is a Japanese country singing legend! It was really neat being in his bar and seeing pictures of him at the Grand ‘Ol Opry, with the President, and huge country singers like Garth Brooks and George Strait. He did his own rendition of country classics like “Tiger by the Tail”. I couldn’t believe how talented Charlie and the Cannonballs were. The last band to perform that night was headliner Mark Chesnutt. I sang along as he played his hits. He was going to quit before playing “Bubba Shot the Jukebox” but I requested it before he left the stage and he willingly sang it, just for me! After the bands were done playing we stayed awhile to chat and get to know them all. What an amazing experience to be that close to country superstars like Mark Chesnutt!

Saturday was the last day in Kumamoto before everyone headed to Mount Aso for Country Gold. My last TV interview was that morning and Myuki, my translator, and I were somewhat relieved to be on the last leg of interviews. The afternoon was spent shopping and commuting about 2 hours to Mount Aso. The entire delegation was anxiously awaiting the arrival at our Traditional Japanese hotel because we had heard so much about it. We all knew we would be experiencing some very new and different customs in the next two days.

The drive to the mountain was breathtaking. I would compare it to Western Montana landscape in some ways. It is very mountainous and green even in October. We passed small fields of rice but rarely saw a ranch with cattle or horses. The hotel was tucked away on the side of the mountain and because of the size everyone would be sharing rooms. I shared a room with Kristi Pettis from the Northern Ag Network. We had a great time experiencing the Japanese traditional style of living together! We were briefed on the way there the proper way to bathe and eat. Walking into the bedroom I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The bedroom had no beds; we were to sleep on Japanese style “sleeping bags” on the floor. The room was lacking a shower, or so we thought. Going out the back door you would find a handheld shower head and a stool to sit on while cleansing yourself before taking a bath in the natural hot springs bathtub. It was by far the coolest thing in Japan! Each room had their own personal hot spring bathtub or you could go to the community hot springs down the hall. I stuck with my personal one and never felt so clean and relaxed.

Dinner was a major production. We sat on the floor to eat all seven of our courses. I found that if you aren’t a small Asian you get pretty stiff sitting on the floor regardless of how young you are! Once again I was hesitant in trying anything because it all looked so raw, and it was. Because I didn’t want to offend the chef, I forced myself to try as much as I could. Thank goodness I had snacks back in the room accompanied with a Sprite to settle my stomach later. On the menu among other things was: raw horse meat, raw beef, and sea weed in many forms. They brought in the horse meat for the special occasion of us being there; horse meat is a rare delicacy. Special entertainment was also provided during dinner. Traditional Japanese dancers who usually only perform in Shrines came in to dance just for us. I love to see different styles of dance so that was pretty neat for me to see and hear. The next morning would be Country Gold. I couldn’t wait!

More Japan...

I continued on Thursday with multiple media interviews and other appearances. I met the rest of the Montana delegation before my day started. There were about 10 of them including Lt. Govenor John Bohlinger and state Senator Greg Barkas. I was very relieved to see some fellow Montanans on the trip! After brief introductions, Myuki and I left for the International Center that was host to the Montana Club. The Montana Club is basically a bunch of Japanese that work for the trade office and this year we were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the sister state relationship between Montana and Kumamoto City. I was pretty excited when I arrived because I found more people spoke English! I listened to a Japanese rendition of the Montana state song, watched Japanese line dancers and I even got to take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Myuki and I had some extra time so she took me to a traditional Japanese craft store. I saw a lot of really unique things so I made sure I brought some back home with me for gifts. After a little shopping, I attended a briefing on Montana-Japan trade. It was an incredible feeling being involved in such an important meeting about beef trade in Montana and the US. I couldn’t believe I was taking part in something like that! In September of 2001, the first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed in Japan. The following month, the entire nation of Japan implemented 100-percent blanket testing on all of its cattle slaughtered for beef. Naturally, this halted the export from the US to Japan. Now Japan’s beef consumption has not only been cut but the majority of the beef they consume is from Australia. If you haven’t tasted the difference in beef between different countries, you should. You would be surprised the difference and realize just how lucky we are to have delicious US beef! The agriculture on Kyushu Island (the island of Kumamoto) is extensive—ranking number one in all of Japan’s prefectures (equivalent to state government) in the production of many fruits and vegetables, as well and rice. Most of the rice harvest was completed just prior to our trip. However, we were able to see harvested fields and the making of rice straw bales. The fruit tasted amazing! After dinner one night they brought in a platter of fruit for us to eat. Before I realized it I had eaten almost an entire cantaloupe. When someone pointed out how much I had eaten Mako noted that one cantelope cost 4,000 yen, that is $40!!!

By Thursday afternoon after the meeting I was beginning to feel sick again. The combination of all the new things I was experiencing started to get to my delicate stomach. I had more interviews that afternoon so I barred my teeth and got through them. It was my first experience going to a TV station in Japan. It was not what I had expected at all. Up to that point I noticed everything in Japan was colors of grey and black. That changes when you get to a TV station I learned. The walls and floors are all brightly painted and the TV anchors often where costume-like outfits. This particular TV crew was very interested in my outfit. During the live taping I looked up at the monitor at one point and noticed they were filming my boots! They had a map of the US and I pointed to where Montana was and was able to say a few words in Japanese. The television interviews would prove to get even more interesting as the week went on.
That night I missed a small social engagement with the rest of the Montana group because I wasn’t feeling well. I drank Sprite to settle my stomach and a little vanilla ice cream made me feel slightly better to have something familiar. At this point in the week I was really struggling because it was nearly impossible to find relief, someone or something that I could relate with. The next morning I experienced the relief I was hoping for. I was joined by the rest of the Montana delegation who could speak English, felt the same about the food we were eating, and they were all just as excited to be in a different country!

Japan Continued...

I awoke on Wednesday morning feeling like myself again. The extra day to adjust to everything really helped. It was a good thing because my schedule started getting pretty intense with interviews and other visits around Kumamoto City. My very fist thing Wednesday was a visit at one of the local High Schools. I would have 30 minutes to present which ended up being 15 minutes because of the translation. I had prepared a 15 minute speech before I left Bozeman to send on to my interpreter, Myuki. The speech was a very simple overview of rodeo, how it was started and what is involved in a rodeo. Most Japanese have never seen a horse much less seen a rodeo so to remain simple was key. I arrived at the school and the first thing I was not prepared for was to take off my boots! Good thing I am always very particular about making sure my socks match with no holes! As soon as I entered the room where the 100+ students were waiting I was greeted with cameras, video cameras, and newspaper reporters. I felt like the President!

My speech went well although by the middle of it the principal stopped me because he and the rest of the class just wanted to look at the pictures I had brought. I was relieved because giving a 15 minute speech sounded pretty boring, even to me. The students loved the pictures of me riding in rodeos, and of the different events of rodeo. At the end of my presentation they opened the room to questions. As a culture, the Japanese are pretty shy so no one really wanted to ask questions. I can say that Japanese High School boys respond the same to a pretty girl as American High School boys, I had a few requests for boyfriends that morning! The class presented a huge bouquet of beautiful Japanese flowers for me. This was just one gesture that showed just how gracious they were for having me in their school.

Later that day I had 2 newspaper interviews and one radio interview. The interviews are conducted in much the same way as in the US but of course I had a translator with me at all times! The most frequent question I got asked was what do I think of Japan. My response was always, everything is so much smaller here! During my interviews I always tried to learn a new word or phrase in Japanese which they always really liked. The one newspaper article showed up the next day on the front page of the newspaper I got at my hotel! Although, I didn’t realize it was the front page because they fold their papers backwards, so instead of opening the newspaper to the left you open it to the right.

Wednesday I also got to visit Kumamoto castle. It is this enormous castle right in the center of Kumamoto City where a Japanese Lord used to live. Unfortunately, because of time, I didn’t get to have a real tour of the castle so I didn’t completely understand the history but it was pretty cool to visit anyway. I also found a Starbuck’s coffee, I was very excited to see something familiar to me. We ate at a Japanese style Chinese restaurant which isn’t quite the same as American Chinese food but it had fried rice and shrimp so I didn’t starve during that meal!

Thursday was another busy day but it didn’t start until later in the morning so I could catch up on some needed sleep. Although I was getting used to the language barrier and not being able to communicate, it was still hard sometimes. For instance, I was in the elevator going to the lobby to meet my translator and there was a nice Japanese lady in there with me. She was instantly distracted by my Miss Rodeo Montana outfit and wanted to talk to me and of course she didn’t speak English. She was talking 90 miles a minute in Japanese and gesturing, I really had no idea what she was saying so I just smiled. I finally figured out that she wanted a picture with me and we met her husband in the lobby. We took 6 or 7 pictures all in different locations in the hotel with them talking Japanese the whole way like I could understand every word. I have no explanation as to why we had to keep moving other than they wanted a different background for each picture. You can just imagine me with a smile plastered on my face being tugged around the hotel lobby by a Japanese couple so excited to meet Miss Rodeo Montana. After that, I told my translator maybe she should walk me all the way to my door!

Japan

My trip began on October 14th where I was scheduled to fly out of Bozeman to Seattle and into Tokyo. I was a nervous wreck for my first international flight. Did I have enough snacks? Did I have enough entertainment? Did I forget anything? Those were just a few of the thousands of thoughts that ran through my head as I checked into the airport. For a queen to be gone 10 days would require a lot of luggage! I had 2 very large, heavy bags, my hat can, purse and a medium sized bag. Looking back on that I wish I had packed a bit differently because we would be changing airports and hotels many, many times; packing all those bags around got old, fast. Anyway, as I checked in the counter at the Bozeman airport they immediately told me there were no planes landing or going out of Seattle. I thought it was going to be the beginning of a very long trip to Japan. It turned out the cause was fog which burned off within 20 minutes and our plane left without arriving too late. I made my connection and I was on my way to Tokyo!

The flight to Tokyo was about 9 hours and wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it would be. I entertained myself by reading, playing games and watching movies. Before I knew it we were in Tokyo. I met up with Marty Earnheart from the MT Dept. of Ag. She had just returned from another beef promotion trip in Russia. Marty and I spent the night in Tokyo and transferred airports to fly into Kumamoto City in the morning. There is a 15 hour difference from Montana to Japan. So Monday morning in Japan was Sunday night in Montana. The jet lag hit me as soon as I arrived in Japan. I wasn’t able to sleep so the mornings came pretty early. After breakfast Marty and I were on a plane to Kumamoto City where we met up with Mako. Mako is a Japanese lady that works for the Montana Dept of Commerce. She is the coolest lady!

I didn’t have to be in Japan long before I noticed the cultural difference. You must bow as a courtesy when you greet someone. The Japanese are very gracious people so there is generally quite a bit of bowing! I kept noticing things about the Japanese that seemed so strange to me but was very normal to them. Things like, the colors they wear are usually limited to greys and blacks, everything is smaller, people drive on the "wrong" side of the road, clocks on the walls and trash cans on the sidewalk are few and far between. I had to learn quickly to look right first before crossing the street or you will get flattened! The language barrier was more difficult to deal with than I imagined it would be. Not only because I can’t understand the spoken word but I can’t even sound out the written word. The Japanese characters used to spell are impossible to understand. As I walked down the sidewalk I would not know a bank from a restaurant. These are all things I learned to adapt to quickly. I soon realized I just had to be patient and my translator would tell me if she thought it was important otherwise, I asked questions when I saw something really outrageous!

Marty and I spent Tuesday with Mako and trying to get past our jet lag. I have never seen the ocean before and this was something the Japanese thought was pretty strange about me mainly because regardless of where you are in Japan it was 45 minutes at the most to the ocean. Mako was very excited to take us to the ocean where went for a hike in a national park that overlooked a city called Amaksa with a beautiful shoreline view. The ocean was everything I expected it to be!

By this time in my trip, Tuesday evening, I started getting pretty hungry; because the food was so different I hadn’t eaten a lot. The first thing they asked me when I got to Japan was “Are you a picky eater?” I refused to think I was but after my trip to Japan I can easily embrace the term! I don’t like a lot of fish and I don’t like a lot of pork; beef is not a common dish! The combination of the jet lag, which makes you feel like you have the flu, the lack of food, and just the adjustment of a new country resulted in me getting kind of sick, and it wouldn't be the last time during my trip that I didn't feel well. I was able to eat some of the snacks I brought with me and went to bed. In the morning I felt much better although I was still pretty tired. I had first wondered why Marty and I arrived a day earlier than the rest of the Montana delegation and I was informed that it is really nice to have that extra day to adjust to everything. Since I had such an intense schedule, I am really glad that it was scheduled that way! I will continue my trip, be sure to check back later!

MRM Update

First off, I apologize for not keeping you all up-to-date with my latest travels. It seems like things have been crazy busy since I have returned from Japan. I am currently preparing for my send-off party tour. This past weekend was the send-off to Vegas parties in Billings and Bozeman. I will be having one this coming weekend, the 10th, in Wolf Point at the Sherman and the following weekend, the 17th, in Great Falls at the Hampton. The parties are a preparation for the Miss Rodeo America pageant. I model some of the clothes I will be wearing in Vegas, giving my speech, and answering impromptu questions. The Billings and Bozeman parties went very well. Thank you to Sarah Capp and Linda Rest for putting them on. All are welcome to my last two parties in Wolf Point and Great Falls!

I am sure everyone is curious to hear about my trip to Japan. To say the very least, it was the trip of a lifetime. I have hundreds of pictures and dozens of stories from the 10 days I spent there. I could type for days all of the neat things I saw and the new things I experienced. Being able to travel to Japan with a delegation from Montana was an experience in itself. I will be posting a new blog with a better day-to-day recap of my trip. I welcome you all to check back frequently this week to hear all about Japan!