Successful presentation in Kyoto

Today, 24 July 2015, was the day of my presentation in Kyoto, which was organized by the Japan National Group of Mentally Disabled People (http://www.jngmdp.org/ ) in an independent building of the Ritsumeikan University, in cooperation with the Research centre for “Ars Vivendi: Forms of Human Life and Survival” , http://www.arsvi.com/a/index.htm .

In the morning I was supposed to be downstairs at the hotel lobby at 9 AM to go out for breakfast together with Yoshi, Ryugan, Kirihara, Yui and Kasumi. But I overslept again (!). It was because I had been working too late. So the others went out for breakfast without me, and I grabbed something from the supermarket and the coffee bar opposite to the hotel. Originally we had also agreed on sightseeing in the morning, but I had cancelled that, because I needed to prepare my Powerpoint presentation. So I took my breakfast to my hotel room and worked on my presentation. At 11.45 we were meeting in the lobby and walked to the independent building of the Ritsumeikan University, very close to the train station of Kyoto. There I met the interpreter Robert (originally from Canada), and together we walked through the presentation to see if there were any obstacles in translation. There appeared to be some confusion, because I had sent another presentation in the same email, and this hadn’t been really clear, so there were different papers on the table, but this was no big problem. The right version will be translated and put up on the website. Then the participants started to come in.

At 1300 my lecture started. There were about 60 people in the room, including Ohyong Kweon (WNUSP deputy Board member) who had come all the way from South Korea together with a professor to see my presentation. That was very special.
The lecture went very well (my presentation text will be uploaded in the next blog post). I spoke about my experiences and my advocacy in the Netherlands, with the aim to give some practical inspiration. It was received very well. After about 1,5 hours of speaking, which was translated sentence after sentence, Yoshikazu Ikehara gave a short summary and highlighted some parts and added some additional Japanese explanation to various topics, such as to the development of High and Intensive Care, prevention and de-escalation, and Family Group Conferencing. These concepts are rather hard to explain as a foreigner without exact knowledge of the Japanese context. So Yoshi did that, and that gave me and the interpreter a little break.
Then it was time for the questions. For about an hour the participants asked various questions, such as on my experiences, the Dutch context, the cooperation with care providers, various concepts of alternatives and good practices, and on my opinion of abolition of forced psychiatric interventions. This last topic did result in a very interesting debate, including on criminal sanctioning. I stated that detention isn’t good for anybody, and probably a restorative approach is better to generate a safer community and a crime-free future. It was a very interesting debate, and the participants were really engaged and active. After the session many participants wanted to be in a picture with me, which I surely took as a compliment. Many people came to thank me and said they were inspired. I felt great.

After emptying the conference room, we went with a group of about 15 people to have Japanese dinner in a place nearby. Most of them were users-survivors themselves, and we shared more experiences and opinions. It is always so inspiring to be amongst peers. I really loved it. My heart was filled with warmth. It is very precious to experience such togetherness.
After the dinner 9 of us went to have a drink in a bar, also close by, and around 11 PM I was dropped off at the hotel. Yoshi, Yui, Kasumi and Kirihara went out to go to a karaoke bar, but I really needed to get some rest, and do some blogging etcetera, and it would not work to go out till late. Tomorrow I have to checkout of the hotel at 10 AM and then after breakfast we will go to Tokyo again by the Shinkansen-train. At 6PM I will have the same lecture in Tokyo as today in Kyoto, so it will be a busy day as well. So tonight I will make sure I get an acceptable amount of sleep. I am feeling great, and there is a smile on my face. I love being in Kyoto!!
Good night!