a contact in Tokyo

[robertlavigne]

I am a Canadian teaching to adults History and French in a small Indian Cree village of North of Quebec (Canada) . On next May 2011 I will go with my wife to her native country (China) with our baby daughter. We would like to have a stop over in Tokyo for 10 days. For this project I would like to do the following exchange: in a group or more ..in a school, college or university of Tokyo..I can give some lectures in English or French about the life and the culture in this small Indian Cree village. In exchange the Japanese school should give us a round-lift from and to the Tokyo airport and housing to our family for those 10 days visiting Tokyo. Maybe someone can be interesting to this exchange.....or suggest a possible contact...

robertlavigne7@hotmail.com

now in Montreal Canada

[JTM]

That's a lot to ask from a local Japanese school or any person especially during these tough economic times. Perhaps during the "bubble kei" 90s, Japanese Schools would have the disposable income but not now.

Unless you have some sort of prior exchange program in place with a school in Japan, I'm not sure you will have any luck finding a school willing to pay for your airfare from Quebec, Canada to Tokyo (which starts from ¥102243/$1,148.80 USD/1,173.27 CAD per person) and host you, your wife and little baby girl for up to two weeks including room and food in exchange for a couple of hour long lecture/presentations on Indian Cree Culture.

You could try to contact the Canadian Consulate in Japan to make an offer (it might be worth inquiring) but I don't know if even they would be willing unless you are fairly renowned in the field or have published notable works on the subject matter.

Embassy of Canada to Japan

[robertlavigne]

YOU have good points ...first I should say that i was not clear in my explanations...for sure we will pay for the airplane tickets to Tokyo we do not ask to the school to do it...I meant the transportation from the airport to the school but in another demand I will forget this point..it can be confusing...next point is about asking to the Canadian Embassy ...I should say that I had many contacts during my teaching career with canadian government representatives in Beijing, Shanghai or Bangkok....but with no success...for the Canadian Embassies and consulates it is not very helpful to be a simple teacher with no political contacts and more to be a French speaking from Quebec ...this is a personal point of view coming from my experiences and those of some friends...but I will try again....
thank you
robert lavigne
montreal canada