Journal

This is the journal that I kept while in Oita , Japan. This may interest you if you plan on living or working in Japan.

May 6th, 2001

It's Sunday now, which seems odd, because when I got up after sleeping last it was Friday. I guess that's what always happens when someone goes from the US to Japan and crosses the date line, but it still seems weird. So, I arrived around 2:00pm yesterday. I went to bed around 7:30pm because I was so tired, but I got a few hours to see a little of Japan. Actually, it started on the plane. Since it was a Japan Airlines flight out of Chicago, just about everyone onboard was Japanese, except for me, of course. As always is the case when a very non-Japanese-looking person begins speaking in their native tongue, the stewardess was very surprised when I asked in Japanese if they had Coca-Cola for me to drink. Also as always, she remarked that my Japanese was very good, and as always I said that was not the case. Japanese culture dictates that I would say this even if I felt my Japanese were good. However, in this case, it's not humility, but merely honesty. My Japanese may be pretty good for the less than two years I have been studying (about 20 months to be more precise), but it certainly isn't that good in a general sense. I can't really read a newspaper or a magazine since there are too many kanji (ideographic characters derived from Chinese) that I do not know, and my listening skills were insufficient to understand more than just bits and pieces of the in-flight announcements. Either way, it's nice to see people pleased when I try to speak the language, and I can usually muddle through well enough to get my point across.

Once I arrived and met up with Yuka's parents though, I really got to see some of the Japanese landscape. I knew that the Japanese drove on the left side of the road, so that was no surprise (though still an odd feeling). The unusual thing was the number of different cars there were. Most were brands that I knew like Honda and Toyota, but they were mainly models I had never heard of, like the Largo minivan, or the Scarpa sedan. Also, all the names of the cars were in English, and though a steering wheel on the right is the norm, I did see the occasional foreign import (usually a Mercedes) with the wheel on the left. I think the only time you would see a steering wheel on the right in the US is on a postal truck. It seemed that almost all the cars on the road were relatively new, and most all were pretty clean. There is seldom a trip on an American highway where I don't see a rusted-out Gremlin from the dawn of time, or something similar.

It was maybe an hour drive from the Narita airport to the Makioka 's house in Kawasaki . It was made a bit longer than normal due to traffic from the Golden Week holiday. The Makioka homestead appears to be a very typical house for a modern Japanese family. Lots of traditional touches, like tatami mats and sliding screens, but also plenty of modern things, like a TV in the main room. We watched game shows and the news as Yuka's mother prepared innumerable dishes for Mr. Makioka and I to consume. Though she did finally join us, at that point I was completely full, and starting to nod off due to my serious case of jetlag.

May 7th, 2001

Yesterday I went out with Yuka's sister and her friend Azusa. First we went to Akihabara and saw the Sony building. It's full of neat gadgets and stuff. I was more taken with the experience of being in a big city in a foreign country. I also got my first experience with the Japanese train and bus systems. I suppose they're really not that different from the US, but I don't really ever ride busses or trains back home anyway.

After the Sony building, we went and had lunch at McDonald's. I guess I was expecting it to be radically different or something, but it really wasn't. The biggest difference that I noticed was that the people behind the counter were up a few feet higher than the people ordering. I don't know why that is. It was somewhat strange. As far as food is concerned, I got a Big Mac Set (the Japanese seem to prefer the word "set" rather than combo or meal). It tasted pretty much exactly like a Big Mac in the US. Perhaps it was put together with more care though.

After lunch, we went to visit a shrine in Ginza . I made my first real faux pas in Japan by standing directly underneath the gate to the shrine. I'm not really sure why it's wrong, but I'll be sure not to do that again. While visiting the shrine, we ran into some students from U-M. I was wearing my drumline T-shirt, and they just came up to me and asked if I went to school there. It was so strange running into people who I had lived 5 minutes from for a whole year, but never met, on the completely other side of the world. What are the chances? Around the shrine, there is a sort of market. A bunch of little specialty shops set up in two big lines forming a corridor between the gate and the shrine proper. We stopped by an ice cream stand on our way back that had the flavors listed in English. Though the girls didn't seem to notice, I found the flavor "vanira" somewhat humorous.

After returning to Kawasaki , I met up with Yuka's parents again, and Miki left with Azusa. Yuka's dad and I watched a little parade for a festival that commemorates the historical journey made by the emperor long ago. I didn't really catch too many of the details, but that's true of all the Japanese I hear so far. After the procession, we walked home, and passed a number of middle and elementary schools. Several of the girls riding home from school noticed me and yelled out, "hello" in English (though with a heavy Japanese accent it sounds more like, "herrow").

That night, we ate temakizushi (hand-wrapped sushi). Yuka's parents were again surprised that I was familiar with the dish. They were even more surprised when I told them that I had actually prepared sushi myself on a few occasions.

Today is Monday, so I went to work with Yuka's Dad. On the way there, we stopped and ate lunch at Mos Burger, a Japanese fast food chain. I had a teriyaki burger. It was pretty tasty, but as is typical with Japanese fast food, pretty small. After lunch, we went to the community center where Mr. Makioka works. I didn't realize at first that we would be spending the whole day there, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. They have a part time employee who is 19 who helps out with the children. It seems to be similar to a latchkey program. There are about 25 children in total. If I had to guess, I'd say their ages range from around 5 years to 10. All of them were very surprised to see an American, especially one of my height. Some seemed downright frightened at first.

I spent the afternoon playing with the children, and they spent most of that time fighting over me. It was pretty cute having all these little kids climbing all over me and calling me "Jon-kun". They had so many questions to ask me, but I find that in Japanese, the speech of the very young is just as difficult for me to understand as that of the very old.

More and more I am discovering how little practical Japanese we learn in school. Though we learned the more formal word for the verb "to speak" (hanasu ), most everyone usually uses the more casual equivalent (shaberu ), which we did not learn. I also find that the kanji we learn is not terribly useful. Though I know approximately 600 characters, it is not even sufficient to read basic signs. All the Japanese I meet seem impressed that I can read any at all.

All the kids have gone home now, and I'm waiting until 6:00 to go home. I'm leaving for Oita tomorrow, and I have to say that I'm somewhat sad to be leaving. Staying in Kawasaki has been fun. I have no idea what Oita will be like. Hopefully there will be at least a few people who can speak English well. I have been surprised that I have not encountered any Japanese who are fluent in English yet. I suppose this is forcing my Japanese to improve, but it makes even the simplest thing, like ordering at a restaurant, difficult.

May 11th, 2001

The overwhelming nature of work, and adjusting to life here has prevented me from writing anything for the past few days. Though I had the desire, I find that by the time I get home at night, all I want to do is sleep.

The impression that I had before I came to Japan was that most educated people had a decent amount of facility with English. This assumption was predicated on the fact that all Japanese are required to study English for a total of six years through junior high and high school. I should have considered how much French I really knew after studying it for four years in high school. The point is, nobody at the office speaks fluent English. As best I can tell so far, the person who sits next to me, a woman named Kazuko Tanimoto , speaks relatively decent English, but seems reluctant to use it. I guess she fears embarrassment.

As a result of the severe language barrier, everything has become very difficult. The thing I'm best at understanding is small talk, which is rather useless. Things that may be somewhat tricky anyway, like figuring out what bus to take to work, and how to open a bank account become very difficult.

Surprisingly, today at work was quite a bit better. Maybe it's because it was Friday. I don't know. Tanimoto-san and I went out and did some errands today. Yesterday, Daisuke Kayahara , the developer I'm working with most closely, and I went and picked up my inkan , a stamp used for official documents that you must have if you want to open a bank account in Japan. Everyone here is always impressed by the fact that I have kanji for my name figured out (bouman jonasan ). It seems that Japanese typically express mild surprise through laughter. Maybe this isn't so unusual, but when I do surprising things, like demonstrate my familiarity with an uncommon word, they always seem to laugh rather than have a normal sort of surprised reaction that I'm used to.

Tanimoto-san and I went to the bank today to exchange my traveler's checks and open my bank account. I was glad that she came with, but also glad that she let me do the talking as much as I could. As It turned out, I was actually able to handle most of it. After the bank, we had lunch, and then went to buy a bus pass. I suppose "bus pass" is the wrong term because it's really a book of tickets that you can use to pay your bus fare. They're essentially cash, but you can use them only on the bus, and for that, you save some money.

Rather than walking into town for the errands as I had done with Kayahara-san , Tanimoto-san and I rode bikes. It was the first time I had ridden a bike in a really long time, but it turns out that saying is true. At first I was a little embarrassed because it seemed that I was given a woman's bike to ride. Then, I noticed that all the bikes I saw, including those being actively ridden by men, looked like bikes that would be called women's bikes in the US. Apparently they don't have that distinction in Japan. It makes a lot of sense though, I think. Men have just as much to lose by that precariously placed bar. Another strange thing is, bikes in general. They really don't look much like the bikes in the US, and they all look more or less the same. They're all a sort of 1970s-looking model, very modest looking. Reminds me of the old three speed bikes my parents used to ride. Compared to the super tiny, high-tech cell phones that everyone has, it's like the bikes are in some kind of time-warp.

Another thing I've been noticing recently is the relative lack of napkins in Japan. In the US, anywhere there is food, there are generally napkins nearby. This does not seem to be the case in Japan. Look as I might, I have yet to find any in the dorm's cafeteria. On the other hand, I haven't seen anyone else use them either. Nor have I seen a Japanese ever drop a speck of food. Maybe they just don't need any napkins.

After running all our errands, Tanimoto-san and I returned (grudgingly) to the office. Neither of us wanted to go back, since it was such a nice day. Work is starting to become a little bit easier. Today Tanimoto-san started speaking English to me as much as she could, and I would respond in Japanese to the best of my ability. I think this arrangement makes for the best understanding for everyone involved. If everyone could speak as well as her, there probably would really be no problem. Even so, I think I'm beginning to understand a little bit of what I'm supposed to be doing with my job. I'm thinking that by the end of the Summer I'll be getting on pretty well, and that my Japanese will improve a lot. However, those times when I just can't make myself understood, or when I just can't make out what someone else is trying to tell me (the far more common situation), are very frustrating. When it comes down to it though, the people here are very kind, and they are truly doing their best to take good care of me. I wish that my Japanese were better so that I could appropriately express my gratitude. I feel that I could write for hours, but I'm getting pretty tired, and I'm really looking forward to the first day that I can sleep in since I've been here.

May 13th, 2001

I just noticed another weird thing about Japan. Some vending dispense hot drinks as well as cold ones. I guess we have coffee vending machines in the US, but they're never combined with cold drinks that I've seen. The really weird thing though, is that both the hot and cold drinks are in cans. It's a strange feeling, drinking hot coffee out of a can, but it's still pretty good I think.

I did laundry for the first time yesterday. I was pretty pleased that it seemed to turn out okay. Not being able to really read the instructions on the washer and dryer made me a little nervous. Something else I noticed was that the washers and dryers here are very small in comparison to their American counterparts. The dryer looks like an oversized microwave, I think. The washer has no agitator in the middle though, so even though it is small, it fits a reasonably large load. I actually wasn't so anxious about washing my clothes as I was about buying the detergent. I had a tough time finding the word for laundry detergent in my dictionary. In the end, it turned out that the word that I found wasn't actually the common one, but the lady at the store still knew what I meant. One problem that I run into is that the things I really need to read, like the labels on the TV, or air conditioner, are not really standard Japanese, and therefore, aren't in the dictionary. I suppose this is true of American appliances as well, since companies like to make up new words to describe features.

May 14th, 2001

Yesterday I went to a mini-soccer tournament with Hajime Ikebe , who sits on my right at work. I didn't really have any intention of playing myself, but the others insisted. The second game we played a team that was mostly kids, but they were beating us pretty badly, and I guess my competitive spirit got the better of me. I ended up slide-tackling this little girl, and she had to leave the game. To be completely honest, it wasn't my intention to slide at all, but I don't have cleats here and the field had a somewhat gravel-like consistency. However, if I hadn't been running quite so hard, it probably never would have happened, so I should take some responsibility.

After the tournament, Ikebe-san took me to a ramen shop for lunch. It was pretty good. One weird thing about restaurants and cafeterias in Japan is that they often have a sink just inside the entrance for people to wash their hands before they eat. It just looks really odd to have a sink sitting in the middle of a restaurant. Yet another oddity, rather than order our food, then pay for it, we purchased tickets for food from a vending machine before sitting down, then gave the tickets to the waitress who brought us our order. It's pretty efficient I guess, and the Japanese love their vending machines.

After lunch, we stopped by a hospital so that Ikebe-san could drop of some carnations for his mother (this being Mothers day in Japan as well). In Japanese hospitals you can buy flowers from vending machines. Weird. Following the hospital, we went to a computer store. It was Ikebe-san 's idea. I guess he thought it would be interesting for me. To tell the truth, it was pretty much like a computer store in the US at first. Of course, there was some nonsensical English on various products, but that's all over Japan. I actually thought about buying the mouse pad that read, "I am mouse pad". However, towards the end of our visit, I did notice one big difference from American computer stores. There were two whole aisles devoted to naughty anime (hentai) software, and another aisle for software featuring pictures of real women. You definitely don't see that sort of thing at CompUSA, I don't think.

Today at work, we had the first meeting of our whole developer group since I arrived. I was pretty tired, and the fact that I couldn't really understand anything being said really had me fighting to stay awake. Oh, I almost forgot. Today was my solo bus debut. It actually went off without a hitch, but for awhile there I was truly nervous. It all turned out okay though. After work, I went with Yasuhiro Araki , my other "mentor", and some others from the company to go play baseball. Even though I don't have my cleats or glove here, it was still a lot of fun. Doing something as familiar as playing baseball made me forget that I am halfway around the world from home. It really reminded me of my childhood playing little league. After the game, Araki-san , two others, and myself went out to eat at a family restaurant called Gusto. It's always nice to go out to eat, and Araki-san seems like a pretty good guy. I think we'll probably end up hanging out some more this summer, but I don't really know yet.

May 16th, 2001

There is only time for a short entry as I wait for the bus. The past two days at work have been pretty good. I've been given a task that I understand quite well. It's really not too different from what I did at my last job, except that I'm using Java Servlets rather than ASP. That fact, however, makes it much nicer. The only really notable thing that happened yesterday was that I got on the wrong bus to go to work. All this really meant was that it took a lot longer, and I had to pay a much higher fare. Since my stop for work is in the middle of the city, just about all the buses go there eventually. Mainly, I felt like a moron when we reached the end of the line and everyone but me got off. I suppose the problem is that besides not understanding the bus signage (I'm not familiar with the names of places around Oita ), I don't really understand the schedule either. They don't have any sort of simple route map. However, I think I am beginning to understand the timetable that I do have. I guess I'll see today if I get on the right bus.

A weird thing about Japan that I have been meaning to write about: In Japan, TV commercials seem to be an important vehicle for promoting new music. Almost all commercials seem to use brand new songs (whereas in the US, it's generally older hits that get sold and remade into brand-oriented songs, ZZ-Top's "Legs" is a good example). Also, essentially all commercials have a little music credit pop up in the corner of the screen. I think that it's pretty neat. They do it with some foreign commercials though too. The other day, I saw a Volkswagen commercial that I had seen in the US before, but the Japanese version added a music credit. I never knew the music for the commercial was by The Orb.

Everyone I was talking to who had been to Japan was telling me that living in Oita , I would feel as if I were out in the country. I really don't know where they got that. Downtown Oita feels just as big as I thought a city of 500,000 would. It's certainly a larger city than I have ever lived in. I can see that it's not a sprawling metropolis like New York or Tokyo, but I think that it's nice to be able to look out the window and see mountains and ocean. The city is actually very nice. Learning my way around, however, has been somewhat of a challenge.

May 18th, 2001

The other day, Zenjirou Ouba , the branch manager, said something to Kayahara-san and me about going to Tokyo. I remembered that Araki-san had also mentioned it, and said something about my position being envious. However, I didn't really understand well enough to know why we're going. I asked Kayahara-san when we were going, and he said that he didn't know yet, but that it would be after we were done with our current project.

Today is the day of the new staff welcome party at work. I think it should be fun. There's also a similar party at the dorm, but I can stand to miss it I think. Nobody in the dorm seems all that friendly. Unlike college, where people are thrown into the dorms without necessarily knowing other people, everyone here seems to be on a sports team or something, and already has a group of friends. I'm not all that outgoing socially anyway, and the language barrier makes things more difficult.

May 20th, 2001

All of a sudden, there is a lot to write about, but I feel that I don't have much time at the moment. I'm going to a festival in the city with Ikebe-san and his family. I don't really know what sort of festival it will be, but I'm sure it will be better than sitting around the dorm.

Two nights ago was the work welcome party. It was a lot of fun, but I always feel bad when I meet a lot of people because I can never remember their names. The fact that the names are Japanese probably makes them even harder to remember. I met a couple of new people from work though, and they all seem very nice. The party started at a restaurant downtown. I don't know what kind of cuisine to call it, but the sign said it was a "grill and beer". I thought that was somewhat humorous. After the restaurant, Kayahara-san , a few others, and myself went to a little sake-ya (traditional Japanese bar) in Takemachi district. That was the first time I had sake in Japan. It was a good time, but I forgot the names of everyone I met that night, save one.

I had originally thought that the work party and the dorm party were on the same night, and therefore thought I would miss the dorm party. I was okay with that since it didn't seem as though the people in the dorm were very sociable. However, the work party was Friday, and the dorm party was Saturday. I ended up going, almost accidentally. At first, it was very awkward, but in the end it turned out to be pretty enjoyable. I got to do a solo-self introduction in front of all the assembled people. (I wasn't really surprised by this, as it is pretty standard in Japanese culture.)

After the party that took place in the dorm, most everyone went out to a karaoke bar. I didn't drink too much, but I actually sang quite a bit. I should write down the songs, so that I don't forget. I sang, in this order (as best I remember), "Depend on You", by Hamasaki Ayumi, "Tell Me Why", by Penpals, "Zankoku na Tenshi no Teizie" (the Neon Genesis Evangelion theme), "Love Me Tender", "Take on Me", by Aha, and "My Sharona", by The Knack. I was duly impressed by everyone else's singing ability. At times I thought they were just playing real songs.

After the karaoke bar, some of us went to a nearby izakaya , a kind of place that doesn't really exist in the US, a sort of gathering place for parties to eat and drink, but neither a restaurant, nor a bar (Here's a good explanation). The food menu is too snack-oriented to be a restaurant, and it's not really a bar since all the seating is in the form of large tables in semi-private rooms. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it, and actually drank quite a bit when I was there. However, I again forgot all but two or three of the names I learned that evening. At least I got to know some people in my dorm. Hopefully, I'll hang out with them more in the future. As always, there is more to write, but I'm getting tired, so I'll write about my day with the Ikebe family next time.

May 22nd, 2001

I just realized that today is two months from my birthday exactly, whoopee.

On Sunday, I spent the whole day with the Ikebe family. It was a lot of fun. (I'm trying to think of better words, since I say that everything I do was "pretty fun", or "a lot of fun", but, that's just what they are.) The Ikebe's have 3 children, but I'm not really sure about the ages, so I'm going to guess a little bit. Two boys, Kengo (6) and Ryusuke (11), and a girl Ayana (13) (I forget all the kanji for their names). First we played some playstation at their house, and then we went to the festival. It was actually a pretty small festival, but it was the first one of the summer, so I guess that counts for something. It was basically just some temporary shops set up along the street, sort of like a carnival. I got to eat some takoyaki (fried dumplings with octopus bits), and had ika (squid) for the first time. Not technically for the first time, since I've had calamari before, but this was pretty different.

After the festival, we went back to the house and played a little baseball in the park. It reminded me of playing in the neighbor's backyard when I was younger. Afterwards, we went back, played some more playstation, and had dinner. Dinner was really delicious, and it seems that most Japanese families eat dinner with the TV on, which was fine with me. I would enjoy it even more if I could understand the TV. It's surprising how little my relative lack of understanding diminishes my desire to watch TV. I suppose I can write it off as good study at least, right?

Recently, something I've noticed is that Japanese tend not to correct me when I speak. I really wish they would, because it's the only way I'll get any better. (Okay, maybe not the only way, but certainly the faster way.) The other night, I had dinner with some of the people I met at the dorm welcome party. One of the girls did correct me, and I was somewhat glad for that. It was the first time since I've come to Japan that I really felt I was learning. Maybe I should ask the people at work to correct me too. Well, I think I'm going to try to go to the post office today if the bus isn't too late. Should be an adventure.

May 24th, 2001

The more I settle into the routine of work, the more boring the weekdays become. I have to get up very early (for me, 6:00am is very early), take a reasonably long bus ride to work (though it's not geographically far, it sometimes takes as long as 45 minutes), walk an additional 10 or so minutes, work, have a really short lunch (I'm used to the very loose definition of a lunch "hour" that I've experienced at companies in the US), work some more, and then take the same long bus ride home. It's not that it's really so bad or anything, but I'm just not fluent enough, so work is really tiring. Also, since it takes a long time to get home, by the time I eat dinner, it's not much longer until I should go to bed. Driving one's own car definitely saves a lot of time. I guess the amount of time spent commuting is the biggest annoyance.

Today at work, I decided to get a drink from the vending machines on the first floor, instead of the seventh floor, where I work. I was really glad that I did; the drink was really tasty, but the interesting thing was the vending machine itself. It was similar to the food type vending machines in the US where chips and such are placed inside the coils of a spring shape. However, it was only drinks, and the mechanism for releasing the cans was very different. Instead of being dropped to the bottom and being accessed by a wide door, a sort of net rose to the height of the drink, then gently lowered it to a conveyer belt at the bottom of the machine which transported the drink over to a little door on the right front corner.

The whole vending machine culture in Japan is really interesting. There are so many, and they're all different, it seems. There are four on the seventh floor alone. I went to the sixth floor one time, and they have all different machines. I think that there are probably different machines on every floor. If that's the case, then there are 28 different vending machines in this one building alone. How odd.

I thought it rather curious that after living in Japan for two weeks, I had yet to see it rain. Well, that all changed this week. The first three days were nearly constant rain. It really sucked. Waiting for the bus for almost a half an hour in the rain is really annoying. I'm glad that my mom convinced me to buy a light waterproof jacket before I came. It's definitely been handy. On the other hand, I do wish I had some more clothes. Of course, if I bought more, I wouldn't be able to fit them all in my suitcases when I returned home, and it would probably be difficult to find things in my size anyway. I do, however, want to get some sandals and/or slippers. I wonder if I'll be able to find anything.

I decided to start studying for real. I think it helps a lot. Living here is great practice, but I honestly don't learn much if I don't study. I think my retention is better if I make the effort to use new words and grammar, but of course, I have to study them first to use them correctly. I am not too adept at just picking up random things in the course of my daily life. So, I have to stop writing now, so I can study.

June 14th, 2001

Well, I haven't written in the journal for quite a while, and I'm starting to feel bad about it. It's not that I write out of guilt or anything, I write these for my own sake as much as anyone. However, I do know that the people who read these enjoy them, so I feel bad partly for depriving them, and partly because if I don't write often, I'm liable to forget things. That said, the content of journal entries should not be focused on the journal itself.

Thursday is curry day. At least, I'm pretty sure it's been curry every Thursday for dinner since I've been here. I love curry; it's definitely my favorite dish that they make at the cafeteria. Which is not to say that the cafeteria food isn't good in general, but I still think it tastes like cafeteria food most of the time. I hope that's the reason, and not that I just don't like the dishes being served. I really like Japanese cuisine for the most part. I've enjoyed every time I've eaten out since I've been here, so I'm going to stick with my opinion that in general it's the cafeteria and not me. However, all that is moot on Thursdays.

I don't know whose idea it is to serve curry on Thursdays, but it's a great idea. Thursday can often be the most depressing day of the week. It's as far as one can be into the week without it being the last day. At least on Friday you know you have the weekend right ahead of you, and no obligation to get up early the next day. Real optimists like Thursday because they have Friday right in front of them, but you could extend that logic and make Monday seem favorable. The truth is, I often find Thursday to be the day that I'm most likely to be down. As a result, I find myself continually surprised at how much good food can affect my mood. Maybe it has something to do with the relative lack of meaningful communication I do on a daily basis, but whatever it is, curry always cheers me up. I could probably go on for a good while about food, but when I haven't written for so long, there are other, more interesting things to write about

Most notably, I should write about the time when my mother and sister visited. I must say that I was very relieved that they arrived safely in Oita to begin with. I was somewhat worried for them, given all the difficulties I've had, even though I have a little bit of facility with the language. Mom and Kirsten, aside from knowing the words for some Japanese cuisine, knew virtually nothing of Japanese before coming. However, I would say that a bigger potential problem is not knowing the culture, but I feel that they had a little bit of insight into that before coming. The only reason I mention it is that the culture is much easier to figure out on a basic level than the language, as it is so much more homogenous than the US. You can save yourself from many more social embarrassments with a little cultural knowledge than you can with a little linguistic knowledge. I would be a liar (or at least a writer of fiction) if I said that their visit was completely without stress. However, I'm certainly glad they came, and for the most part it was a lot of fun. I think I should probably place a lot of the responsibility for any stress incurred on myself. I felt responsible for the behavior of my family in a way that was probably inappropriate. However, in many contexts, the Japanese view family as an extension of one's self. In the same way that it is considered impolite to speak highly of yourself, it is considered natural to extend your humility to discussion of your family members. I suppose it is as much my fault for not really making the effort to educate them about Japanese culture, but the truth of the matter is, it's doubtful that anyone was really offended. Though this is a fascinating sociological discussion I'm having with myself, perhaps it would be more interesting to write about what we did.

My mother and sister arrived at the Oita train station in the late morning on a Saturday. My coworkers were nice enough to give me a ride to pick them up, as well as organizing activities for the rest of the day. I sometimes wonder if my coworkers can really be so nice, or if some of it is actually out of a sense of corporate responsibility (which tends to be stronger in Japan than the US). Either way, I really appreciate all that they do for me.

The first thing we did was go to eat lunch. We went to a little restaurant not far from the dorm, where we had gone to drop off the luggage. The restaurant was pretty traditional, low tables and all. As is always the case, my long legs gave me difficulty, but for once I was not alone. Following lunch, we went to Mt. Takasaki to see the wild monkeys. Aside from the intoxicating aroma, it was a nice experience. No place like this would fly in the US though. The monkeys are not in any way restrained, and will walk right up to you. It was truly an odd feeling to be so close to a wild animal that isn't a squirrel. I took many pictures, which I'm sure will find their way to the website some day in the future. Truly, the pictures can describe it much more skillfully than I ever could. Well, it's getting somewhat late, and I need rest, so the rest of the family visit will just have to wait until next time.

June 17th, 2001

I miss pizza. Specifically I miss Tombstone Pizza. It's not that they don't have pizza in Japan or anything, but considering I have meals in the dorm, and it's usually just me, it doesn't make sense to order out for pizza. I guess I'll just enjoy it that much more when I get back.

Back to the family visit. After going to see the monkeys, we went to an onsen (hot spring bath) in a hotel in Beppu . It was an outdoor bath, which was interesting. Actually, the whole concept of bathing with strangers was pretty different. It wasn't so bad though, very refreshing (the water, not the strangers). Boy, is that water hot! Personally, I don't quite understand the Japanese level of affinity for the activity, but it was fun.

After the onsen , we went out to dinner. It was nice, and the food was good, but nothing particularly noteworthy happened.

The next morning, after some much-needed (but nonetheless insufficient) rest, we left for Fukuoka . It is the largest city on the Island of Kyushu , and is about two hours from Oita by bus. We spent pretty much the whole day shopping. It wasn't so bad, but personally, I didn't think much of the stuff we saw was worth buying. Since much of our time was spent in malls and department stores, I didn't feel there was anything that I couldn't get in the US. Mom and Kirsten bought some yukatas. A yukata is a light cotton kimono, generally worn after bathing, or in the warm summer months. The girls actually got lots of different things, but I'm just not the shopping type like they are, I guess. The most interesting part of the day for me was when we had ramen for lunch. Fukuoka is apparently known for having good ramen, so that was the first thing we did. We went to a shop where customers sit at counters that are segmented such that each person has a kind of personal little booth. Furthermore, there were curtains that hung at eye level, so you couldn't see the people serving you or the people sitting across from you. An interesting experience, and the ramen was indeed delicious. Mom had a little difficulty finishing her bowl (it's considered an expression of dissatisfaction if you don't finish a bowl of ramen), since she selected a level of spiciness that was a little too much for her, but she finished it in the end.

The next two days, I had to work, so the girls rested up, and looked around the city. Then, on Wednesday morning, they headed back to Tokyo.

July 24th, 2001

Well, it's been quite a while since the last journal entry. I prefer to think that there was nothing particularly worth writing, rather than that I was slacking off. The intervening month has been very uneventful, and I just didn't think there was anything worth writing about, until now, of course.

There were actually two interesting things that happened. One was that the trip to Tokyo, which had been mentioned as early as the third week of my internship, finally happened, and the other was my birthday.

To be precise. The trip was actually to Yokohama , and not Tokyo, but we ended up spending time in Tokyo too, and since that's where we landed, I tend to think of it as a trip to Tokyo. Its purpose was to visit the research and development branch of our company. However, looking back on it, that's probably the part of the trip that I'll remember least. We left on Wednesday morning, the 18th. "We", for the course of the trip generally refers to myself, and my closest personal advisor at work, Yasuhiro Araki (23). The trip to the airport was reasonably uneventful. The thing that I was struck by was the level of conversation that took place. It was in stark contrast to the almost total silence that hung in the air when Araki-san had driven me to work one time during my first week of employment. In the course of the approximately 40 minute drive to the airport, we discussed many things, from music, to language and culture. Language is, of course, always a major topic, but I was just surprised at the level of complexity of our conversation. I think it was the first time I had a truly engaging discussion in Japanese. This probably has a lot to do with he fact that Araki-san is the person whom I deal with most frequently on a day-to-day basis, so I am relatively used to his speech patterns, and he is relatively used to my linguistic mistakes. Nonetheless, it was the first time I had felt a real sense of achievement with the language since I've been here.

After arriving at the airport, we realized that neither of us had eaten breakfast, and since we had plenty of extra time, we decided to get something to eat. We went to a restaurant called Skyline, which is somewhat of a coincidence, since the model of car that Araki-san drives is also called Skyline. It's not a model that is available in the US, even though it's manufactured by Nissan (I think). It's a reasonably sporty coupe, but with a functional back seat. Its appearance is somewhat similar to that of the Toyota Supra, though not as sporty as the recent ones. As a result of the curious names, I couldn't help myself from making lots of stupid jokes about it. I tend to be a fan of dry humor in English, but something about Japanese being a second language gives me a perspective that allows me to see many potential stupid jokes, much to Araki-san 's dismay.

The flight itself was short and uneventful. To a certain extent, I was a little disappointed that we didn't take the shinkansen (bullet train), since I have never ridden it, and the company was footing the bill for transportation. However, it just didn't make sense in terms of time or finance. One thing that was really stupid on my part, was not packing any smaller bags inside my two giant bags when I came to Japan. Continuing on my less-that-brilliant theme, I didn't even think to ask Araki-san if I could borrow a bag for the trip. So, as a result, I was stuck with my great, big bag to lug around. It obviously wasn't a problem once we had reached the hotel, but the first thing we did was go to the Wireless Japan expo in Tokyo before checking into our hotel in Yokohama . Fortunately, we were lucky enough to find some very big coin lockers in one of the stations along the way. Though, as big as they were, the bag just barely fit.

I can't really say how long we spent at Wireless Japan, but I will say that the lunch we had at McDonalds beforehand was more interesting. Maybe that wouldn't have been the case if the McDonalds in Japan didn't still fry their pies (yum!), but needless to say, the expo was kind of lame. Perhaps there were cooler things we could have seen, had we paid a bunch of money, but after a certain point, very small cell phones that can display so-so pictures, and play crappy music get kind of old. I'll admit that it's better than what we have in the US, but it just wasn't too special for over here. Araki-san felt the same way, and we were out of there as soon as he had picked up enough pamphlets to satisfy his corporate obligation.

After the expo, we headed on to Yokohama . After checking into the surprisingly nice hotel, and taking a brief break, we went to scout out some dinner. We actually spent a good while walking around Sakuragicho (the part of Yokohama our hotel was in) before settling on a place. I asked Araki-san what the reason behind high school girls in Japan wearing extra loose socks was, but as with the several other Japanese I have asked, he didn't seem to know a reason. As we walked around, I explained the concept of the pickup line, and told Araki-san some of my personal favorites. According to him, a similar thing exists in Japanese, but is much less common, and there is no one word to describe it analogous to the English "pickup line". Trying to explain the humor in some of the standard pickup lines was quite a task, as they're almost all based on double entendre, which is a pretty subtle concept to recognize in a foreign language. I don't think I have ever successfully communicated such a subtly complex concept as the humor behind the classic line, "If I told you, 'you have a beautiful body', would you hold it against me?", without the benefit of a dictionary.

Walking around was fun, but as we later admitted to each other, our choice of restaurants that night was pretty much hazure (failure). We ate at a place called Asian Fire, and though it wasn't terrible or anything, it was just really unexceptional. After returning to the hotel, I gave my friend Margaret a call. She is doing a similar internship with NTT (the Japanese equivalent of AT&T) in Yokosuka , which is close to Yokohama . Since we had previously planned to meet up when I visited, I was calling really to finalize plans, but we ended up talking on the phone for a very long time. It was just really nice to finally talk to someone who was in a similar situation to my own. I must say that I am jealous of her for several reasons though. Her location is definitely more interesting than mine, and she has several Japanese friends from school who live in the Tokyo area that she spends time with. Also, on the language front, she has studied for a year longer than I have, and has the added benefit of being a native speaker of Chinese, which means that she already knows the meaning and way to write many more than the 2,000 or so characters that the Japanese use in everyday life. We actually talked until her cell phone battery died, and then I went to bed.

Well, this entry is already very long, so the rest of the trip is going to have to wait until next time.

July 25th, 2001

I've concluded that it must be summer vacation for most schools now, since I no longer see the droves of uniformed kids on bikes riding past me in the morning as I wait for the bus. That, combined with the absurd humidity (usually around 80%), has made it really feel like summer all of the sudden. Well, anyway, back to the trip.

On Thursday morning, we met up with our coworker Watanabe-san and went to the sysken together. Sysken is short for System Kenyuu Kaihatsu Center . You gotta love the way the Japanese use English. The sysken visit was full of formality and procedure, so I think it probably goes without saying how much I enjoyed it. To make matters worse, I had to wear a suit (which I loathe, unless it's to match a certain pretty girl I know) on one of the hottest days since I've been here. I mentioned to Araki-san that I could never cut it as a salaryman since they have to wear suits everyday. Salaryman is not a translation, but the actual Japanese for the breed of businessmen who devote themselves to a company for life, often to the point of neglecting family, to earn what is considered only a moderate salary by American standards. The actual content of our visit involved listening to talks by various different people, describing some of the different products that have been developed at the sysken . It was the first time in a while that I was forced to pay close attention to formal Japanese for the better half of a day. It made my head ache.

After all the presentations, Araki-san caught up with some with some of his douki (a term for which there isn't really a corresponding word in English. It denotes people who enter a company at the same time, and seems to imply a relatively significant bond in Japan) and chatted for a bit. Araki-san told them that I am a big fan of Japanese anime (which always sounds redundant to me, because to Americans, "anime" means Japanese, but to Japanese, it just means animation) and so they introduced me to the strangest Japanese I have met so far. Our conversation went something like this (only in Japanese, of course):

"Nice to meet you, my name is Bauman"

"I'm Takeuchi "

"Do you have a favorite anime?"

"My name, is Takeuchi "

"Uh, yeah... have you ever heard of an anime called 'Vision of Escaflowne'?"

"I'm Takeuchi "

I don't know what was up with that guy. Maybe it was just shock from seeing a gaijin (foreigner) speak Japanese.

That night for dinner, I finally came up with an answer for what kind of food I wanted to eat, rather than my habitual, "anything is fine", which Araki-san says is the most troubling answer. I requested yakiniku , and so Araki-san and I found a place nearby our hotel. Watanabe-san had to leave directly after the sysken visit unfortunately. Yakiniku is a style of dining that doesn't really exist in the US, but I have to say that it is going to be one of the things that I will miss most about Japan. It's a pretty basic concept. You sit at a table with some sort of a grill in the center, and what you order are plates of raw meat, cut into thin strips and seasoned or marinated. Throw them on the grill as you like, and eat them hot off it. I must say that I'm surprised this doesn't exist in the US, because it's not very hard, and it's really delicious. Though the food by itself was great, Araki-san and I had a pretty interesting conversation during dinner, and I learned some more Japanese table manners. Apparently it's considered rude to suck on your chopsticks. Now, I wasn't treating, them like a candy cane or anything, but I guess the rule is that you should only put them in your mouth if you have just picked up a piece of food with them.

After dinner, we hung out in Araki-san 's hotel room for a while and watched TV. It's always interesting to watch Japanese TV with a native, because I can ask questions about all the crazy commercials. I finally came to understand the CM (Japanese love to use abbreviations of English words that we don't use in English) where Michelangelo's David is a spokesman for hair color. Now, this is not a person dressed up to look like the statue, but an immobile replica of the statue itself. It has to be seen to be believed. Later, Araki-san got in touch with another douki from Tokyo and made plans to get together the next day. After that, it had gotten pretty late, so we went to sleep.

July 26th, 2001

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, and took the train to Akasuka to check into our hotel for that night. When we arrived, the rooms weren't ready yet (somewhat to my surprise, we had separate rooms at both hotels) so we dropped off our luggage, and walked around the city for a little while. Akasuka is a pretty urban part of Tokyo, and Friday was a holiday. Umi no Hi (sea day) is a relatively new holiday, but it's still a nationally recognized one, so everyone is off work. Walking around the city, it became clear that this was the time of two major debuts: Final Fantasy X on the 19th, and the new Hayao Miyazaki film, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi on the 20th. It seemed that there was no store that wasn't selling the game, and the number of people in the street handing out promotional uchiwa (hand fans) for the movie was staggering. (At the time of this writing, one week after the release, it is indeed the number one movie in Japan.) The other thing that was noticeable was the pervasiveness of cell phone vendors on the street. You couldn't swing a cat without clobbering a skimpily clothed young female hocking the newest handset.

After a while walking around, we got hungry, and decided to get some lunch. We decided to get curry since we had both, quite coincidentally, had curry for lunch the two previous days. Some people would be sick of the same food for lunch by the third day, but we figured, why buck the trend? Well, it was our intention to get curry anyway. We went to a restaurant that didn't look to me as if it had curry, but Araki-san assured me that it was standard fare. For once, I was right. It was a sandwich shop, and they had sandwiches (and toast). Araki-san had a mikkusudo sandoitchi (mixed sandwich) which I found very humorous, because when I saw that vocabulary word in my first Japanese text book, I remember thinking it highly ridiculous to be teaching first year students such useless vocabulary. I had pizza toast, and a cream soda. I was sort of surprised when the drink I received was green, but according to Araki-san , all cream soda in Japan is green.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel, checked in, and took a short break. Araki-san had been lamenting that his cell phone battery was dead, so he went to a local convenience store, and bought one of the coolest gadgets I have seen since coming to Japan. It was a little adaptor that allowed him to recharge his cell phone by plugging it into a 9V battery. According to Araki-san , it cost 3,000 yen (about $25 at present). Why don't we have anything cool like this in the US?

After a little while, Araki-san 's douki met us at the hotel. We walked around the city for a while, and eventually made our way to Shibuya . It was the feeling of Araki-san and Maruta-san that this would be the best place to shop for omiyage . Omiyage is usually translated as "souvenir", but it is slightly different in that any time a Japanese travels someplace, they are expected to buy at least a little something for just about everyone they know. Now, I didn't feel that kind of an obligation, but being in a place as "exotic" as Japan, I feel a certain responsibility to get something for the people back home. It turned out that I didn't really find anything good though. It didn't seem worthwhile to spend twice what I would in America to buy an Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirt in Japan.

We eventually passed through Shibuya , and made our way to Ueno , which is significantly less urban-feeling. We spent some time in a nice little (well, actually, pretty big) park, and ran into some more of Araki-san 's douki (purely coincidental this time). We also went to a Buddhist temple. I don't think I can go anywhere in Japan without either going to a Buddhist temple or a Shinto shrine. Not that I mind, it's just kind of funny. By that time, it had gotten pretty late, so we decided to give up on shopping, and head back to Akasuka for dinner.

When the guys realized that I had never eaten shabu-shabu before, they decided that's what I must eat, and since there was a specialty restaurant right in our hotel, that's where we went. Somewhat reminiscent of yakiniku , shabu-shabu is another sort of "do it yourself" cuisine. In the center of the table, is a pot of boiling water. You're brought very thin slices (I'm talking Kraft singles thin) of raw (or maybe they're partially cooked, I don't know) meat. You put the slices in the water for a bit, swish them around, and eat them while still hot. The name shabu-shabu is onomatopoeia for the sound of the meat swishing around as it cooks. The flavor is very interesting, and I wouldn't mind doing it again sometime, but I know this sort of dining would never become popular in the US, because Americans would see it as too annoying to periodically remove the scum that forms at the surface of the water.

After dinner, which was, as always, huge, we all headed back to Araki-san 's room and watched some of the recent American-made Godzilla movie (the one with Matthew Broderick). Ironic, I thought, watching an American movie based on a classic (sort of) Japanese character, acted in English, but dubbed back into Japanese. Now the out of sync monster movie actors where actually speaking Japanese. Before long, Maruta-san was falling asleep, and I explained why that was so humorous to an American, considering that his name literally means, "log". At that point, I was pretty tired too, so I headed to bed after finalizing lunch plans with Margaret.

July 28th, 2001

After checking out of the hotel in Akasuka , Araki-san and I made our way Akihabara to wait for Margaret at Hachiko-mae . According to Margaret, it is a very popular place to meet, and after having been there, I would have to agree. It was packed with people just sitting around right outside the station. In fact, it was such a popular place to meet, it made finding Margaret a little difficult, but we eventually got together.

Before Margaret got there though, we had some time to kill, and had to find somewhere to put my freakishly huge bag. We had just about given up on finding a big enough locker when we asked at the koban by the station. (A koban is a police box. They can be found scattered around the city. Due to Japan's low crime rate, the officers who work them usually spend most of their time giving directions, and serving as a lost and found.) The officer there was able to tell us where some larger lockers were, and I was very relieved to not have to lug the thing around all day.

After ditching the luggage, it was still a while until Margaret was scheduled to arrive, so we went to some record stores in the area. I am continually disappointed with the inflated price of music in Japan, so all I bought was a Hitomi Yaida single (Look Back Again / Over the Distance). It was still a lot more than I ever would have spent for a single in the US, but recent cosmetics commercial had implanted the chorus of the song in my head, and I needed to hear the rest of it. I also figured that it was a pretty good deal, since it actually had two songs on the disc. They did turn out to be good songs, by the way. Unlike in the US, commercials in Japan often have good (or at least recent) music. The thing I've been most impressed with so far is a Toyota commercial with King Crimson background music.

After surrendering my hard-earned yen to the Japanese music industry, we headed back to wait for Margaret. She was a little late, but I was happy when she finally arrived. Since we were flying back to Oita that day, we only had time to have lunch. Margaret's first suggestion was a restaurant called "Asian Heat", but since we had just eaten is "Asian Fire" a few days earlier, I opted for her second choice T.G.I. Friday's, since I hadn't really eaten "American cuisine" since I've been here. We actually couldn't find the restaurant at first, so we made use of a koban for the second time that day.

Friday's was interesting. It's not my favorite restaurant by far, but at least it was familiar food for a change. Now, I know that there are quite a few Asians out there who resent Asians being lumped together as an ethnic group, or being mistaken for the wrong Asian nationality. I used to think that it was just because I'm not Asian that I couldn't tell the difference by looking. However, the thing I've realized is that Asians themselves often can't tell. According to Margaret, who is Chinese, she is often mistaken for Japanese. On occasion, she has even been mistaken for Japanese while in China. True to that fact. When we received our menus at Friday's, I received an English one, while both Araki-san and Margaret received Japanese ones. I think this was probably the first time that Araki-san had eaten at an American restaurant, so I was a little disappointed that it wasn't somewhere better, but I appreciated my greasy cheese sticks anyway.

During the whole meal, I was torn as to whether I should speak English or Japanese. On the one hand, it's definitely more considerate to Araki-san to speak Japanese, and Margaret seemed willing to do so. On the other hand, this was the first and last time in months that I would be able to have a face-to-face conversation in English with someone I knew (not that English conversations with strangers are common). In the end, it was some of each, and I think everyone was happy.

After leaving Friday's, we still had a few minutes, so we went around to some department stores with Margaret. I tried to get some advice about what would make good souvenirs for people back home, but she seemed to be just as much at a loss as me. Before we knew it, it was time for us to go to the Airport, so we bid Margaret farewell, retrieved the luggage, and boarded the train for Narita .

We once again arrived at the airport with plenty of extra time, so after buying some compulsory omiyage food for our coworkers back home, we got a small snack and waited for the plane. While we waited I read some of the manga (Japanese comic books, which, unlike in America, are popular among all ages) that I had brought along. I had several volumes, so Araki-san asked if he could borrow one, and I happily complied. Obviously, I read slower than a native speaker of Japanese, and I did expect Araki-san to finish the volume in the forty or so minutes before we were due to board, even though the volumes are around 200 pages each, and take me several hours to read. I was pretty surprised when he finished it in about fifteen minutes. Things like that really remind me just how far I have yet to go with my Japanese.

After a most ordinary return flight, and drive back to Oita , Araki-san invited me to go to dinner with him and some of his friends. The friends were actually both people I knew, (Miss) Sato-san , who also works at NS Solutions, and Otsuki-san , who lives in the same apartment building as Araki-san , and works for NS Solutions' parent company Nippon Steel. I had mentioned to Araki-san on our drive to the airport before the trip that I missed pizza, so we went to eat at an Italian place.

The dinner was a little different from what I expected, but it was still good. Apparently it is somewhat unusual for the Japanese to eat just pizza, so everyone ordered their own pasta in addition to the pizza, which we shared. The pizza was decent, but even though we ordered a large, I certainly could have eaten the whole thing myself. Seeing as there are no Dominos or Pizza Huts in Oita , I guess my craving for pizza won't really be sated until I return to the US.

Happily, but somewhat to my surprise, Araki-san remembered during dinner that the following day was my birthday, so the four of us decided to go out for bowling and a movie tomorrow to celebrate. I was very happy, and the whole meal was quite enjoyable. It was the first time I really felt like I understood most of the conversation that was taking place.

When they dropped me off back at the dorm, it was after 12:00, so it had technically become my birthday. I decided to take advantage of the fact, and opened my present from Michelle. As her presents always are, it was exceptionally thoughtful, and when she called me early the next morning to wish me a happy birthday, I think it was the happiest I've been since arriving in Japan.

July 29th, 2001

On my twenty-second birthday, I pondered the significance of being twenty-two years old. Ever since 16 (and actually before that even), most birthdays have had some sort of significance in term of new permissions. At sixteen, you can drive. At seventeen, you can see R-rated films (actually, I was asked for ID at the movie theater as recently as last year). At eighteen, you're technically an adult, and you can vote, and you can die for your country against your will, but you can't drink. At nineteen, you can drink in Canada, which is significant if you live near the border, as I do. At twenty, you're no longer a teenager, and you can express your age in terms of decades for the first time. You can also drink and smoke in Japan, which would matter if there weren't beer and cigarette vending machines everywhere, or if anyone in this country checked ID. Twenty-one is obviously a big one, as you can drink in the US. Now, as far as I can tell, twenty-two is just the beginning of a long string of numerically insignificant birthdays. Of course, you can rent a car at twenty-five, but you can usually do that at twenty-one anyway, you just need to pay a little more. After that, unless you want to run for political office, the only significance of the numbers is what insurance bracket you fall into. Of course, a long, long time after twenty-two, you become a senior citizen, and you get all those discounts you enjoyed as a child again. So I guess the significance of twenty-two is that it's time to stop looking forward to birthdays because someone else has decided they mean something, and to just make them meaningful for your self. That sounds like it belongs on a Hallmark card with Ziggy or something. And now back to the regular journal.

I have to say that as birthdays rank, twenty-two was pretty good. Due to circumstances beyond our control, I still haven't been able to spend a birthday with Michelle, and this one was away from all my friends and family, but was pretty good nonetheless (okay perhaps a little theless). The same group I went to dinner with the previous night offered to take me out for the day, and I gladly accepted, as the weekends in the dorm are usually pretty droll.

Araki-san and friends picked me up at noon, and we went to a soba (buckwheat noodles) place for lunch. Except for in the dorm's cafeteria (which isn't a fair way to judge a food), I had never had soba before. It turned out to be quite good (much better than the dorm's). During lunch, we had an interesting conversation about Araki-san 's hobby of telling harmless lies to strangers. I had previously thought that he only told lies to confuse foreigners. I have learned to take everything he tells me (especially about language, and what is "polite") with a handful of salt.

After lunch, we went to the movie theater with the intention of seeing the 3:00pm showing of the new Miyazaki film, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi . However, both the 3:00 and 5:00 shows were already sold out, so we bought tickets for the 7:00. Since we now had a fair amount of time on our hands, we decided to go bowling before the movie rather than after.

It was the fourth time I had been bowling since coming to Japan, and the third different alley I had been to. Without a doubt, it was the best time I have had bowling here. The other places I had been seemed to have more oil in front of the lanes than on them, and as a result, I had to be careful not to fall, and my ball hooked way too much. These lanes seemed to be more what I was used to, and I could finally bowl normally. At long last, I was bowling scores that I was used to, and to top it all off, I got a turkey (three strikes in a row). Now, a turkey is really not so spectacular, but during the winter, when I bowled weekly with the other members of the bassline, I don't think a week went by when I didn't bowl strike-strike-9, but I never got one turkey.

After bowling, and a bit of roaming around the shops in the mall, it was time to go to the movie. I don't know what I expected of the Japanese movie-going experience, but I was only really surprised by one thing. The tickets were actually reserved seats. Unheard of in the US, but apparently equally as common as free-seating in Japanese theaters. I don't think it's a bad idea though. It assures that you only have to show up early to the theater once, and you can make sure that your party stays together. I guess I was a little surprised that all the previews were for American films (Planet of the Apes, Jurrasic Park III, AI), but I was a little more surprised by how few previews there were.

The film itself was interesting, and the artwork was beautiful as usual (though I think the CG has been better integrated in previous Studio Ghibli films). The plot was a bit too complicated for me to follow with my limited understanding of Japanese, so I'll have to hold off on judgment until I can see a subtitled version. Nonetheless, I was glad I got to see the film in its original version, in the theater. If it ever makes it to a US theatrical release, it will almost certainly be with dubbed-over dialogue. God, I hope they don't get that annoying brat who played Claudia on Party of Five to be the voice of the main character. Thankfully, she's probably too old now, but that never seems to matter to Hollywood.

After the movie, we got a quick dinner (yes, as a matter of fact, it was curry), and then they dropped me back at the dorm. All in all, it was a really great day.

Epilogue

I'm writing this after rereading and revising my journal in the course of redesigning my webpage. It has been brought to my attention that my Journal ends abruptly and does not offer closure. After reading it myself, I tend to agree. The problem is, I didn't have much time to write in my journal after my birthday because I got so busy with finishing my project at work. Furthermore, there wasn't much interesting to write about, because it was just daily routine. However, right at the end of my stay there was some interesting stuff, but at that time, I was way too busy to write about it, and once I got home, I was in a hurry to move back to Ann Arbor and see Michelle, so I kind of forgot about it. So, for the sake of closure, I'll summarize the last the last 5 weeks of my stay to the best of my ability.

Most of my time at work was spent finishing up my project and documenting it. Writing documentation was a difficult task because I had no experience with writing technical Japanese. With a lot of help from my coworkers, it all turned out okay. My last challenge at work was giving a presentation about my project. Writing it was very stressful, and I really didn't want to give it. The problem was that I had too much work to do to spend much time memorizing a presentation, and I'm not very good ad-libbing formal/technical Japanese. In the end, I was allowed to read my speech off my notes, so it turned out okay. It was still pretty nerve-racking though. I stayed at the office until 11:30pm on my last night of work. (And then I went out for curry with Watanabe-san afterward.)

Outside of work, it was pretty much the same routine until the last week there. Just as people made a big deal of my arrival, they made a big deal of my departure. There were a number of get togethers for all the departing employees, and two for me specifically. The first was organized by my bosses. They meant well, but because they didn't know who my friends were, it ended up being a lot of people I hardly knew. I appreciated the sentiment, but I didn't want that to be my last time going out in Japan. Fortunately, Araki-san and Tanimoto-san organized another dinner for the next night (the evening after the presentation). We went to my favorite yakiniku place with all my favorite people and had a great time.

The final adventure in Japan was getting home. When I bought my tickets, I had gotten a special deal because there was a restriction on how long I could stay. In order to fly in a day earlier, I had to make my return flight from Fukuoka at 7:30am because there were no flights out of Oita which would allow me to connect in Tokyo. Since it's over an hour away, and busses don't run that early, I had planned to take a bus the previous night and stay in a hotel. This worried me for a number of reasons. I wasn't really familiar with Fukuoka ; I hadn't ever stayed at a hotel by myself; and I would have to figure out how to get to the airport on time by myself. I knew I would be totally screwed if I missed my flight. As luck would have it, without me even asking, Tanimoto-san agreed to drive me to Fukuoka in the middle of the night so that I wouldn't have to stay in a hotel. To my surprise, Araki-san came along too. It was a fun trip at 4:00am with nobody around.

We actually arrived at the airport before it was even open, so Tanimoto-san dropped us at the international terminal and we waited. After the terminal opened, we sat inside for a while and wondered why no ticket counters were being staffed yet. It was getting close to time for my flight, and we were getting a little concerned. Tanimoto-san decided to go find somebody and ask what was going on. It turned out that we were at the wrong terminal. Since I was flying back to the US, we all assumed we should go to the international terminal, but because I had a connection in Tokyo, my departure was considered domestic. To make matters worse, the two terminals are completely separate. It's about a mile between them and time was running short. I have never seen Tanimoto-san drive so fast. It reminded me of Araki-san 's driving.

Fortunately, we were just in time. I found my gate just as they were doing the final boarding. Unfortunately, I didn't really have time to say a proper thank-you and goodbye to Tanimoto-san and Araki-san . As I left I felt anxious, happy and sad all at the same time. It was like a microcosm of my entire trip.