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 becaus
e 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 o
ver 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!!!”
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 becaus
e 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 o
ver 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!!!”
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