Miguel Ángel Echeverría Tager
（2019/10/19）

The last day has arrived. Today is Friday, October 18, and today is the day we present our projects. The projects are ready; we are ready; we are all dressed-up in our formal suits; women are wearing their most elegant attire; we are wearing a tie and shoes that will give us a hard time later, when we try to walk out and stroll around this city for the last time; we rehearsed the presentations; we double-checked every sentence; we discussed every word with our translator. We are ready, but some of us are just about to get restless. We are once again in the Social Sciences and Humanities building where we were welcomed and familiar faces are beginning to show up. We exchanged presentation cards with these people. It seems to all of us that we met them such a long time ago, but barely two weeks have gone by.

Five minutes before the scheduled time, we begin our presentations. Representing the International Center for the Research of Cultural Resources, Dr. Seiichi Nakamura is present Mr. Masahiro Ogawa and Mr. Alejandro Falla is also here. Mr. Tetsuhiro Ike from JICA Hokuriku is also present, but there is one reserved seat that is empty. We all wonder who is missing, but that does not distract any of us while we were addressing the audience. All the presentations received and applause, few questions were posed at the end of each one. We are all satisfied with the results. We worked hard to do our best and it shows. Everyone seems pleased with the proposals.

Mr. Carlos González during his presentation. Mr. Toru Taki translating from Spanish to Japanese

The presentations are over and the furnishings of the room are distributed in a different way for the closing ceremony. Besides the persons present before, high-ranking personnel from the Office of Social Sciences and Humanities of Kanazawa University arrive: Mr. Toshiaki Yonebayashi, Mr. Shoji Koromoya, and Mr. Ryuichiro Mimuro. Mr. Kazuhiko Kikuchi, director of JICA Hokuriko now joins his colleague, Mr. Tetsuhiro Ike, and Professor Yoichi Nishimoto, head of the International Center of Cultural Resources Research, is now present. On behalf of Guatemala, Mr. Carlos González addresses the attendants to express our gratitude. Mr. Cristian Aguilar does the same on behalf of Honduras. We receive a gift and a diploma that certifies we completed the workshop as part of the Project for the Development of Human Resources and Support of Self-Organization in the Tikal National Park Tourist Corridor from the hands of Mr. Kazuhiko Kikuchi and of Prof. Yoichi Nishimoto. After the photo shoot, we correspond with the gifts and present them with a pound of Guatemalan and a pound of Honduran coffee.

This workshop is over; our stay in Japan is coming to an end. Tomorrow we will board again the shinkanzen to Tokyo on a different route from the one we took when we came due to damage in the direct line connecting Kanazawa. In these two weeks we have been through so many new experiences that it seems a lifetime has passed. For some of the trainees this was the very first time they traveled abroad; for most of us it was our very first time in Japan. For all of us it is going to be an unforgettable experience.

• Japanese