PW_3_2025

Professional Development

After five days I joined the IPA friendship week where Jane picks up the story. Jane writes: My husband David (also Rtd Met) and I arrived one week early and hired a car to visit Wakayama, the Koyasan Mountains, and the original Capital of ancient Japan, Nara, where wild deer bow to you and you find yourself bowing back! We ended our week in Osaka and met up with Liz the night before the friendship week started. IPA Japan travel organiser, Ryoji Suzuki would have a busy week keeping us all in check, and on time. Punctuality is very important in Japan - especially with a 90 second boarding ‘window’ on the Bullet trains for a group of 46 and luggage - it was tense at times !! The first night we took a coach from the Hotel Granvia Osaka to KKR Hotel for the first of many wonderful banquet meals. This one hosted by IPA Osaka. We began the evening with the ‘Kampi’ toast and invited to briefly introduce ourselves (in one sentence). Some forgot the brief of being brief !

IPA Japan hosts in their yellow gilets - you could see them everywhere making it easier to keep with the group

Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice’. Sadly we didn’t have time to explore inside the winding wooden corridors of the castle before another Shinkansen journey to Kyoto. Early morning we headed to the Kiyomizudera Buddhist Temple halfway up Mount Otowa. It was a steep walk past shops up to the temple founded in 778CE. The stage area is built into the steep hillside supported by 13 metres of wooden beams and no nails! The complex has a stunning three tier Pagoda and wonderful views over Kyoto. Onward we went to Nijo Castle, palace residence of the first Shogun of the Edo period, built in feudal Japan in 1603. It is famed for its decorative rooms, adorned with gold paint and figures of flowers, birds and even tigers that no one had seen but only heard about. The wooden corridors chirruped like nightingales singing as you stepped along them - an anti-intruder device by design. The day also included a walk around the Golden Temple set in beautiful Japanese gardens. Beautiful views from every angle when the sun came out and gold reflections of the temple resonated on the surface of the lake. Last stop of the day was Toei Kyoto Park. It is a purpose-built film set for Edo period Japanese films and TV programmes. It puts on shows and children pretend to be ninjas around the play areas and sets. I spotted two Sumo wrestlers walking around, on a day out like us.

A beautifully presented lunch - snail and pickles bottom right

The banquet style meals at both lunch and dinner consisted of healthy fresh and delicately prepared vegetables, thinly sliced raw fish, seafood, cooked fish, cooked meats like chicken or duck, sometimes snail, always pickles and seaweed. All beautifully presented in highly decorated pretty porcelain dishes. Some of the stranger things were savoury custards with Oysters, oolong tea, wine, beer and generously flowing sake. IPA Japan members entertained us with demonstrations of traditional skills with a kendo sword display and the playing of Japanese pipes. At 8.30 we all had to shout ‘Yoh’ with a single wide armed clap - signalling the end of the party. In the morning after a huge buffet breakfast we left the hotel pushing our suitcases in file through the enormous 5-floored Osaka station (which was the size of a small town) marshalled by our yellow gilet’d IPA hosts to the Shinkansen (Bullet train) to Hiroshima. We had 90 seconds to get the whole group on the train and cases up overhead. We caught the tram to Hiroshima Peace Park. We got off the tram and fell silent at seeing the iconic Genbaku Dome and what it represented. This World Heritage site includes the very moving Peace Memorial Park and Peace Museum. In the Museum, we read accounts and looked at the harrowing photographs and exhibits. Silence is requested while doing so. In the park, we saw a memorial to the children called the Tower of a Thousand Cranes. It features a statue of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died of leukaemia after the bombing. She made 1000 origami paper cranes to make a wish to get better. This led to her friends starting the Children’s Movement. It was a very moving visit in many ways. From there it was back to the Hotel and another lovely banquet hosted by IPA Hiroshima. During the meal we all learnt how to make a paper crane. The next day we took a regular train ride to the Miyajima Coral Hotel for lunch before catching the ferry to Miyajima, Setonaikai National Park - one of the top three scenic spots in Japan, famous for its red ‘floating’ Tori gate and Itsukushima Shrine. Onward by Shinkansen train, we headed to another World Heritage Site - the imposing 14th Century Himeji Castle, as used in the

Our group with IPA members from Estonia, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Sweden, Australia, Canada, USA, Belgium to name but a few and of course UK

POLICE WORLD Vol 70 No.3, 2025

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