Back from Retirement

(Kyoto Tower. It's kind of like the Space Needle. That is, if the Space Needle was universally hated by every Seattleite.)

First, I should apologize for my blogging hiatus for the two months. Do you remember when Dave Chappelle went crazy with his fame and fled to Africa without telling anyone for a year? Well, it was like that for me. Except I'm not famous, I didn't actually go anywhere, and it was only for October and November. Actually, a Japanese celebrity did this recently, too. Asashoryu, a sumo champion, apparently went crazy with the pressure and returned to his native Mongolia. He was supposed to be convalescing, but he injured himself playing soccer (the Japanese media caught it on tape). He is coming back to compete again, but his honor is forever tarnished.

Since I don't really have any one thing worth talking about, I will just continue to ramble aimlessly on a variety of topics until you run out of patience.

Point Cards:

Yeah, that's right, point cards are at the top of the list. Of all the inscrutable aspects of Japanese culture (Hello Kitty, Maid Cafes, Hostess Bars, seasonal KitKats, and pizza with mayonnaise on it come to mind), point cards top the list for me. For some reason, Japanese people don't think they are getting a good deal unless they are receiving points for it, or at least a stamp on their card. Frustratingly, though, they are never worth the trouble / plastic they are made from. My first experience with this custom took place at the Kyoto Station's Subway (sandwich restaurant, not the underground transportation system). I was with several other JETs, and one of them was very excited. She only was able to come to Subway rarely, and this time she would finally fill out her punch card of ten sandwiches. God knows how long it took her to buy ten Subway sandwiches given the fact that there is only the one Subway in the whole prefecture. And considering that each sandwich is probably about 5-6 dollars, she was looking at a 50-60 dollar investment. After eating her tenth sandwich, she excitedly went back in line to redeem her bonus sandwich. Turns out, however, that ten sandwiches don't buy you a free sandwich, but rather 10% off your next purchase. In summary, she spent on the order of 60 dollars in receive a one time 60 cent discount. Living as a foreigner in Japan is all about the small victories, and to see this JET's victory turn into her Waterloo was heartbreaking.

I can relate. I have a dry-cleaning point card (dry cleaning is everywhere in Japan, so I chose the one with best sounding name: "Carnival." It's like the circus is always in town, and they also clean your shirts). This point card has a complicated system, so do the math with me. Every time I spend 100 yen (about a dollar) I receive 1 point. When I get 150 points, I can redeem them for a 500 yen discount off my next purchase. 150 X 100 yen = 15,000 yen (150 dollars) = 500 yen discount. So basically, after I spend 150 dollars at this particular dry cleaning establishment, I get five dollars back. Hell yeah! That's like 3% off all my dry cleaning. But wait, it gets better. I get 10%(!) off all my dry cleaning on my birthday. Screw the bars and parties, I know where I am going when June 22 rolls around.

I have one more point card (I could easily have fifteen if I had a mind to apply for them). It is for the supermarket, Kitano, that I frequent. I get 1 point for every 100 yen I spend (exclusive of tax). Every point I accumulate counts as 1 yen towards a future purchase. I have currently about 650 or so points in the bank (enough to buy a cheap six-pack). 650 X 100 yen= 65,000 total yen spent. For a 1% discount, is it even worth me getting the card out of my wallet? Japan says "yes," and so do I.

Edinburgh:

Promptly following my adventure in the great state of Oklahoma (boomer sooner), I returned to find that preparations were frantic for the arrival of a delegation from Edinburgh, including the Lord Provost (Mayor) and his wife. We were celebrating the anniversary of the friendship relationship between Edinburgh and Kyoto with a museum gallery exhibition related to Scotland and Edinburgh, as well as taking the Lord Provost around the prefecture to see the sights. I am not a interpreter, let me point that out right away. However, there was a ton of stuff going on at the time with the Edinburgh delegation, the museum exhibition, and random other stuff that was occurring at the same time, so I ended up interpreting. Worst moment: I was part of an incident that involved the Lord Provost cutting the ribbon during the ceremony to open the museum exhibit a full second or so before the other two ribbon-cutters (the governor and the head of the prefectural legislature). Technically my interpretation wasn't incorrect, but let's just say it led to a misunderstanding. Actually, I don't really want to talk about it.

Best moment: I ended up interpreting for a tour guide at the Kyoto Guest House. The Kyoto Guest House is on the same grounds as the old Imperial Palace in the center of Kyoto, but was only built something like ten years ago. It's a huge complex built with modern techniques in order to make it look like it was done in an old style (Howard Roark would hate it). Germany's Prime Minister Merkel was recently there, and so was George W. a few years ago. You can see it on Google Earth at (35° 1'29.68"N 135°45'55.01"E). If you do look at it on Google Earth you will notice that it is still under construction in the satellite image. Also, you will notice that in contrast to the Imperial Palace slightly to the left, there are no photographs of the Guest House. That is because the public is not allowed in, and photographs are forbidden. We had to go through security before being allowed inside. I wish I could have taken pictures because it was absolutely beautiful. The attention to detail was remarkable in such a huge complex. There were people from the Edinburgh College of Art there as well, and their expert opinion was pretty much "wow."

While I have Google Earth open, my workplace is (35° 1'15.56"N 135°45'17.73"E).

Tokyo:

A few weeks ago I went to Tokyo for the CIR mid-year training seminar. That was for two days, but I spent the whole week there, staying with my old host family. It was weird to see all the same sights that I used to see every day, but haven't seen in several years. I forgot how much I like Tokyo. Kyoto is a great city with a load of culture and a good amount of sightseeing as well as city life amenities (bars), but Tokyo is like something out of this world. The scope of the city is just beyond imagining. Kyoto is organized on an orderly grid-like pattern based on Chinese notions of geomancy, and also has a restriction on buildings over a certain height so as to preserve its old-world charms. Tokyo on the other hand is enormous in all three dimensions, and seems to have expanded haphazardly without any kind of plan at all. The narrow streets are all at odd angles to each other, tall buildings limit your view to that which is immediately surrounding you, and even the system by which addresses are assigned is erratic. Rather than assign street and house numbers by geography (starting with low numbers in the south, for example, and going up as you go north), Tokyo assigns them by chronology, i.e. the newest buildings have the highest numbers. Therefore finding anything, even if you have the address, involves walking into the general area, and wandering from map to map (Tokyo has maps placed on its streets to help those who are lost) until you are close. Then you find a police box, which is a mini police station (more like a kiosk), and ask the cops to give you directions. That seems to be the main function of the police in Tokyo. I used to like Tokyo the best, then I found an appreciation for Kyoto, but now I couldn't tell you which is better.

(Taken from the Tokyo government office building. The view is similar no matter which direction you look. That, my friends, is a big city. )

Books:

I have read a lot of English books since arriving in Kyoto. My predecessor left some for me, and I have been utilizing Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) to get free books whose copyrights have run out. I also, uh, don't have a TV (which I get a ton of flak for, coincidentally, people in this country just don't trust you unless you have a TV). Also, due to their prohibitive price and all-around scarcity, foreigners in Japan don't really choose the books they read so much as those books fall into their laps.

Books read since coming to Kyoto:

"Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis - Very funny book, in a very (very) dry British way. Lots of cigarettes, pints of beer, and jokes about stuffy intellectuals.

"Shooting History" by Jon Snow - Apparently Jon Snow is like a big name in British journalism, or something. I have never heard of him (although I also have never heard of the jewelry company Cartier, which I guess is a capital crime). This book is an autobiography of this journalist, tracing his career through the major events to shake the world since the 60's. Interesting to read about recent history through the lens of another country.

"Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson - In Oklahoma we stayed at a Country Inn and Suites. They have a promotion wherein guests can take books from the lobby collection with the promise that they will return them to another Country Inn the next time they stay at one. The theory is that if each Country Inn has a different set of books, then soon there will be a wide variety of literature at each location. I wonder how many of these "Country Inn presents" books are in Japan. Probably just two.

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte - Ditto. But don't worry, I will return them the next time I stay at a Country Inn and Suites.

"The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman - A pretty stunning defense of globalization. Thomas Friedman always writes my favorite articles in the NY times and I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject. When I was taking the Edinburgh delegation to the airport on their way back (I had to wake up at like 4:30 on a Saturday to do it), one of the members was complaining about the outsourcing of Scottish services to Indian call centers. I recommended this book. So if you see a spate of globalizing measures from Scotland in the near future, you'll know who to thank (blame).

"Harry Potter" numbers six and seven by J.K. Rowling - I don't know what to say, I am weak. I read these books like an alcoholic falls off the wagon. I try to stay away from them for as long as I can on principle, but in the end I have to admit I am powerless against them. When my kids find out that I liked the series, though, I can't decide if they will be horrified that I fell victim to the fad (like finding old pictures of your parents in bell bottoms, or that your older brother liked Vanilla Ice), or if they will be impressed that I was able to read them as soon as they came out (like finding out that your parents saw the Beatles in concert).

"Flatland" by Edwin Abbot - Some of the oldest science fiction I have ever read (1884). But unlike the Jules Verne adventures I think this is book holds up better. It's about a entity that lives in a universe with only two dimensions. The narrator explains all of the social and political implications that arise from having only two-dimensions. An entity from a universe of three-dimensions then tries to explain how limited his world is, and then shows him the universes of one-dimensionality and zero-dimensionality. It doesn't have the pizazz of dinosaurs and giant squid that Verne had, but it still remains an undated and interesting read (not to mention a good take on culture shock).

"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky - I was talking to my fellow JET friend, and he mentioned that he, too, read this after coming to Japan. Not the best of decisions, we both decided. The book is about a young Russian student who leaves school, lives in a tiny cupboard of an apartment, feels alienated and unable to communicate with the society around him, becomes irritable with even his own family, lives increasingly in his own head, and ends up killing an old pawnbroker. Um... moving right along....

Work:

Work has certainly slowed down since Edinburgh ended. I was supposed to spend all of my Fridays at the Prefectural International Center, but because everything was so busy, I have only been there a handful of times. I have been told I will be writing a blog from their website as well. So if you want all the hot blogging action, you are going to have to check that one out too. (Actually, if it is possible, my International Center blog is even more boring than this one, though thankfully it is much more brief). If the fancy strikes you, go to http://kpic.or.jp/CIR/index.html and click the link at the top of the page right next to the word "CIR."

I will also be teaching a class about the Seattle sports scene starting in February. Here's a preview:

Mariners: A terrible team since their inception, the Mariners pulled it together behind a mix of ridiculously talented superstars (Griffey, Rodriguez, Johnson) in 1995, then went on to lose all of those players to other teams. We won 116 games in one season, then couldn't even go to the World Series. Now we are terrible again. But we have Ichiro, so that's something.

Seahawks: You don't care about American football, I know, but the Seahawks were another terrible team that recently pulled it together. They almost won something called the Superbowl, but had it stolen by poor officiating. Now they are doomed to eternal mediocrity.

Sonics: Used to be good, but after suffering a series of tough losses in the 90's, they went on to range between terrible and mediocre. Finally, they are lucky enough to land the player with the highest ceiling the sport has ever seen. Oh, but the team is probably moving to Oklahoma, so they won't be on the final exam.

On second thought, maybe I should do a class about coffee or something.

Unrelated pictures:

(I was walking to a well-known temple, and of course because I am no good at directions, I got lost. On the plus side, instead of going to the tourist infested tourist spot, I took this side path into a forest that turned out to be the best decision of the day. There were only like three people, and I got to watch the sunset from the top of this hill.)

(Kyoto is in a basin surrounded by mountains. Apparently it is a very auspicious position. It certainly is nice to be able to see nature so close to the huge city.)

(A different kind of Japanese beauty. I say we bring this guy over, give that man a contract. It says, "The happiness of a lot of cheese." Oh, take away my pain, Cheesy Elvis!)

Back in One Piece

First, let me start by saying that Oklahoma is a pretty sweet place. There, I said it. Whatever preconceptions I might have had before going there have been replaced by good memories. Sure it's a bit flat (Don't dare tell anyone there that you think Oklahoma is flat; they will flip. But seriously, did you see the picture above? I rest my case.), and sure there are twice as many cows as people (6 million to 3 million), and trying to find a vegetable at dinner is a lost cause, but Oklahoma seems to be a pretty up-and-coming state. It's almost as though Oklahoma still hasn't grown into itself yet. Oklahoma City recently spent a ton of money making a river out of the ditch that runs through downtown, there is a great looking baseball stadium right downtown that is used by the minor-league team, and in all directions there is space to grow. One day, when we were receiving a tour of an Oklahoma City skyscraper, the guide told us that for as far as we could see in all directions was Oklahoma City limits. Even though there aren't any buildings or people out there, it is still technically Oklahoma City and they are planning on filling out that space. (I think we were supposed to be impressed by the notion of city in all directions, but I had just been to Tokyo where I looked out the 65th floor of the Tokyo Tower, and there, too, it was city in all directions, but it was actually full of buildings and what-not).

I am getting ahead of myself, I think. If you recall, the reason we went to Oklahoma is the sister region agreement between the prefecture of Kyoto and the state of Oklahoma. Because of this, every year Oklahoma was sending university students to see Kyoto, who by all accounts had a first-class experience. (By the way, you can just tell Oklahoma is STOKED to have Kyoto as a sister region; I just spent ten minutes trying to come up with a good analogy before giving up. Suffice it to say that Kyoto became the capital of Japan in around 800 AD, more than 1100 years before Oklahoma became a state.) This year was Oklahoma's turn to show its hospitality, and they came through with flying colors. There were eight Kyoto university students, the assistant director of the International Affairs Division, and little old me. In ten days we changed place of residence every day except one, for a total of six different hotels. For about 10-12 hours every day it was my job to "interpret," but because everyone seemed to be able to get along pretty well in English, I just jumped in the trouble spots. They soon realized my incompetence, however, and in the important situations got more qualified translators. Other than that, I tried to keep track of the students so we didn't leave any behind and generally acted as a liaison. For example, if someone asked my boss a question that wasn't important in English that was too fast, I would jump in and answer. "Did you guys get a chance to hop on over to the museum?" Instead of translating, which I found made the person who spoke immediately lose interest in the conversation, I would simply say "Yeah, we had a great time." The other important function I served was to teach the students stuff like "Don't eat the apples put out for breakfast by the hotel; they will be gross," or how to make waffles on the hotel waffle maker, or how to eat oatmeal, or how to check out of a hotel, or any of a hundred things that requires cultural fluency to navigate.

The highlight of the trip was probably the football game where Oklahoma University trounced Utah State 54-3. There were 84,000 people at the game; a number I can't even contemplate. It took place in the height of the afternoon for like three hours. The left side of my face, unaccustomed to such brutal treatment, began to hurt at halftime. The rest of the trip saw the top layer of skin from my face and nose peeling off; it's cool, I didn't need that layer anyway.

Oh! I almost forgot. I am an honorary mayor of Oklahoma City. Bet you didn't think I had a future in politics, did you?

I became an honorary mayor of Oklahoma City last week, what did you do?

The wide scope of the stuff we did was pretty mind-boggling. Breakfast with the Secretary of State of Oklahoma, a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor, tours of four universities (OSU, OU, NSU, and UCO), lunch with the Honorary Consul-General of Japan, a tour of the national weather center, cowboy hall of fame, Oklahoma City bombing memorial, and a tour of Sonic headquarters (the fast-food chain popular in gas-guzzling meat-loving middle America). It was funny because despite all the money the state was shoveling to pay for our visits to all these places, they couldn't hire a driver for our van. The passenger van was driven by the chief protocol officer for the secretary of state while the baggage van was piloted by the personal assistant to the Lieutenant Governor. (Both of whom were instrumental to our great experience).

Because Kyoto is the birthplace of the Kyoto Protocol (a phrase that I have to translate ad nauseum), at each of the three universities where we were received, there was a round table discussion regarding global-warming. I don't know who decided this was a good idea, but if I was running the show, we wouldn't do this again. Just because these students are from Kyoto doesn't mean they are experts on global warming; they didn't even seem to have a particular interest in it. Most of them were western-literature majors. The students at the round table discussions were interested in global-warming, but there was nary a earth science major to be found. Also, in discussing ways of combating global-warming, it was like the Americans and Japanese were speaking different languages. It's hard to explain, but because I know a little about Japanese culture and a lot about American culture I could see the misunderstandings that were taking place. There was a lack of cultural context on both sides. For example, one Japanese student tried to explain cool-biz, a policy I mentioned in a previous post wherein dress codes are relaxed during summer as a matter of policy. She explained it well enough, but didn't get across the point that it was a government mandated measure and not just a comfort thing. The American students, for their part, didn't get that it was a big deal in Japan. The discussions were full of these little misunderstandings.

Worst moment of the round table discussions for me. After the discussion was over at NSU, the floor was opened up for questions. Of course the global-warming unbeliever of the audience had to ask a "question" of the Kyoto students.

"To what extent does the Kyoto Protocol take into account the cyclical nature of climate change?"

Frantic looks and uncomprehending faces among the students, my boss looks to me for a translation. I stammer a response along the lines of "over long periods of time global climate goes up and down..." but before I could finish, my boss looked away, convinced of my disutility.

I could have killed whoever asked that question. It wasn't even a question. Nor was it meaningful. It was simply a polemic not in the spirit of the discussion. There is a general scientific consensus that recent global temperature changes are largely due to greenhouse gas emissions, but that wasn't the nature of our discussion. I spent the rest of the question and answer session translating that question into Japanese. Later, I put the question to the students; they thought it was a stupid question too.

Luckily for all involved, the discussions were few and far between.

After all of the formal tours we weren't prepared for the strangest visit we made. We drove like 45 minutes from the city into the wrong side of a small town in order to see a local science magnet high school. After going through the school's metal detectors, we went to the shop to see what the Aerospace Science class was working on (it turned out to be a far cry from the Physical Science classroom in EHS where I Elmer's glued sheets of tissue paper together to make hot-air balloons when I was 16.) The students (though I have the feeling that the teacher was doing all the heavy lifting) were making a solar powered car. After a brief talk, and a not so brief trouble-shooting session, the teacher took some of the Japanese students for a ride. It was surprisingly exhilarating that this backwater high school in rural Oklahoma had put together a car that could run for like 50 miles on solar power. At first we were a little impatient, but in the end, everyone was cheering this portly high school science teacher and his silent, ugly, but very driveable Honda Civic.

All in all, it was a whirlwind tour. It was unlike any trip I had ever been on. It was like an enormous, very sincere, PR voyage. Everywhere we went we gave gifts to the hosts (which I had to lug around everywhere. That was my other job: souvenir Sherpa.) and we received gifts in return. I thought I would come back with less stuff than I came with considering that my suitcase going there was about 30-40% gifts, but I returned even more heavily laden. Rosemary jam, mango salsa, brochures, music cd's, calendars, certificates, t-shirts, a dvd, pancake mix, a backpack, tote bags, etc. The only thing I have used so far has been the rosemary jam; it makes excellent PB&J sandwiches.

Well, I think I will round this blog out with some random photographs from the trip.

P.S. I have a cellphone now. Number and address available upon request.

The state capital government building. The inside and outside were both very lovely. I became very distressed, though, when I realized that while this building is the equivalent to where I work in Kyoto, the Kyoto building is more akin to a Costco warehouses than it is to this. Nor does the Kyoto government complex have an oil derrick on its grounds.

Here's my loot from the trip. I couldn't get it all in one picture. After I finally took the picture and repacked everything i realized I still had another bag full of stuff I forgot to lay out.

All My Dreams Come True

Ian! You have just been selected from a long list of alternates to become a CIR on the JET program. You will live and work in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto. What are you going to do next?


I'm going to.... Oklahoma? Seriously?


That's right ladies and gentlemen, for a week and a half I will be removed from the heart of cultural Japan, and relocated to the heartland of the US of A. We are going to hit all the big names: Tulsa, Stillwater,and Norman.


Half of me wishes I was joking, but the other half realizes that it's much more funny as truth.


Let me explain: Kyoto prefecture has sister-city relations with many regions around the world. Part of the job of the International Affairs Division where I work is to coordinate activities with those regions. For example, the Edinburgh exhibition in October that I mentioned last post. The sister regions are: Shaanxi province in China, Yogyakarta in Indonesia, Leningrad Oblast in Russia, Edinburgh in Scotland, and, of course, Oklahoma, USA. Every year a delegation of college students visits the other's region, alternating between countries. This year, it is a group of Kyoto students that is visiting Oklahoma. Going with them were my supervisor and my section chief. The latter was going as coordinator of the whole exhibition while the former was to be the interpreter if things got rough (all of the students speak at least a little English, and some are pretty fluent, apparently). However, my supervisor has been sick recently, and they needed another English speaker. I don't know whether I was chosen because I am directly below my supervisor or if I am just the least necessary English speaker in the office. Either way, on Tuesday the 11th (flying on September 11th, security should be fun), nearly three weeks into my Japanese adventure, I am flying to Oklahoma through Detroit. I have never interpreted before, but it should mostly be ok because I will be dealing with students and day to day concerns. What does worry me, however, is that there will be a conference at OSU where the Japanese students will participate in a round table discussion with American students regarding global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto protocol, and cross-cultural understanding. (The Kyoto government is battling global warming like crazy. There is a wide scale campaign to prohibit drivers from idling for too long, and it is not uncommon to see signs on elevators that say the elevator has been disabled in order to stop global warming). It will be an open discussion, so anyone in the entire campus and surrounding community will be invited. If there are communication difficulties, I will be the one smoothing them out. I am apprehensive. I am, however, looking forward to seeing how the Japanese students interact with American students in a discussion on what is such a hot-button issue in America.


Besides the impending Oklahoma trip, everything else has been proceeding smoothly. The office had a welcome party for Sara, the other CIR, and me last week. I got to see a different side of the people in my office. For example, I couldn't for the life of me place this one character who was excitedly talking to me about anime and cosplay while pouring me beer. Then I realized that he is the guy who sits literally four feet away at the office, but rarely speaks. After drinks and dinner ten or so of us went to karaoke. Madness. After coming home, though, I didn't feel so good. I could tell it wasn't the alcohol I had imbibed because I hadn't had that much, and it wasn't just nausea, but chills and a general feeling of unwell-ness. I just did a translation that day for the International Center's website regarding food poisoning, and I tend to think it was that. I had bought a pretty shady lunch from a street vendor earlier in the day, and as I learned from doing my translation, food poisoning strikes about ten hours after eating (actually translation is my main source of information. Nobody really tells me what events etc. are going on in the prefecture, but I can get an idea from translating and native-checking letters and documents). Regardless, after a rough night, I awoke lethargic and nauseous. I had a meeting to go to at work so I couldn't call in sick (I also don't have a phone to call in sick with). I felt like passing out a couple times during the day, including the middle of the meeting, but with the help of a nap during my lunch hour I made it through the day. Everybody thought I was merely hungover, and didn't seem to believe me when I told them I wasn't. Ironically, however, my poor performance that day maybe more likely to be forgiven if alcohol is believed to be the culprit. (Japan is remarkably tolerant of drunken behavior. I heard that until relatively recently, Japan was extremely lax on prosecuting drunk driving, even to the point where alcohol could be used as grounds for leniency. Now, Japan has some of the toughest drunk driving laws in the world.)


In continuing my pattern of posting pictures completely unrelated to the rest of my post, here are some pictures of Nijo Castle; about a 30 minute walk from my apartment. On my first day in Kyoto I was walking around the neighorhood looking for an electronics store, when all of a sudden I was standing next to a four-hundred year-old castle. Today I finally paid admission and went inside.



Anyway, I should start studying vocabulary related to global warming and the Kyoto Protocol.

My Life as a Sarari-man (or more properly, an intern pretending to be a koumuin)*

This last week has been an intense one for work. It's been a crash course in how things are done around here, and I have still only had one full day at the office. During CIR training in Tokyo, our trainers told us that we shouldn't be surprised if we don't do anything for the first month or so. Because training in Japan for new workers often involves tacit understanding rather than explicit instructions, workers in new schools and offices are expected to spend the first couple of months just getting a feel for the flow of the office. We were told that they have seen new teachers at a school spend a month behind an empty desk without any clear understanding of what to do. (Coincidentally, just before my stay in the zen temple last year, my teacher gave the group an article about how one is expected to learn in a Zen temple, and how that differs from western styles. In a Zen temple, also, learning is done completely tacitly. Nobody teaches you how to cook; you have to watch the others when it was their turn, and hope for the best when it is yours.) My job, on the other hand, has been anything but.

Monday was the first time I sat at my desk. I was there for about 10 minutes before heading off to new JET training. Before leaving, though, I was given a letter to translate due first thing the next morning. More on that later. Once at the training, rather than being in the audience, as might be expected, I was placed with the organizers at the front. I delivered a short talk on my duties as a Prefectural Advisor, and what they could expect from me. Thankfully, due to the constant guidance from the senior CIR, and the senior PA, I was prepared to give such a talk. After hearing from everyone, and after having a Q&A session, we all left to go on a walking tour of Kyoto. (Everybody was advised to bring casual clothing because of the three hour walk and the blistering heat. I, however, because I had to go to the office that morning, was wearing slacks, belt, undershirt, dress shirt, and tie. An hour into the walk my sleeves were rolled up, my shirts untucked, and my tie nowhere to be seen. (My supervisor made a joke about me being very ku-ru bizu, or "cool biz," which was the former Prime Minister Koizumi's attempt to save electricity by dressing down business attire to lessen air conditioning. She told me it was fine because there were no bosses around. I didn't remind her that she was my boss.)

By design, the tour ended at 5 in front of a building which had a beer garden on its roof. So, it being after hours and all, we went from work-work to work-play. 3500 yen bought us all you can eat food and all you can drink beer until nine. I rationalize that I needed to stay in order to meet all the JETs that I advise. Lot's of work in Japan gets done after work is over. Also, I had to get my money's worth. Luckily, at the end of the night I had stayed sober enough to make my way home on the subway. Many of the others went on to karaoke, but since I had that translation to do, I thought it would be better to get to work early.

I got to work about 45 minutes early, but my translation was no longer on my desk. As I searched for it, one of my coworkers mentioned that they had already done it for me. So now I was there 45 minutes early with nothing to do. Thanks... I guess?

Luckily, I wasn't there long before I was off to another training session, this one for new JET AETs (Assistant English Teachers). Once again, the opening ceremonies had me sitting in the front with the representatives from the various Japanese ministries who have a hand in the JET program. Names were announced in order of importance. I was second to last. I wasn't last only because I was the only one from the International Division of the Prefectural Office present, and that made my position (not my personage) worthy of mention. After observing the training until four, I made my back to the office and tried to acquaint myself with the job until 530.

Wednesday was my only full day at the office. In the morning I met my predecessor, a very capable and personable guy from England. He showed me which way was up at the office and how to access my computer. After he left, I furiously tried to write the report I was expected to turn in that day regarding Monday's orientation. I used Tom's old ones as templates (read: wholesale plagiarism), and got it done in a few hours. I also had to translate into English a Japanese synopsis of an English radio transcript. (It was posted to the internet later that day, check it out here http://www.kpic.or.jp/english/fmcocolo/070822.htm).

The prefecture is also organizing an event to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Kyoto and Edinburgh. Because Edinburgh is famous for J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, the prefecture wants there to be a Harry Potter connection to the event. Accordingly, my first translation started along the lines of, "I am writing this letter in regards to Harry Potter." Hope they like it.

Thursday and Friday saw me in Tokyo for a PA conference. We did some basic counseling training and a lot of role-playing. It was worthwhile, but very tiring. After training it was dinner (and drinking) with the other Kyoto PA's. After that came some more drinking as I met my friends from Tokyo in Shibuya. Then sleep, and more training in the morning. The next day we took the bullet-train back to Kyoto where I met my predecessor again, this time for some drinks, and some talk about how the office REALLY runs. Or at least that's what I think we talked about because my memory gets a little hazy after the third or fourth pint.

This has already turned into a long post, but I have a story to tell unrelated to everything else. Bear with me.

When entering an office for the first time from another country, it is customary to bring gifts. I brought along a pound of Cutter's Point coffee because 1) it's pretty delicious 2) it's from Seattle and 3) it's not available in Japan (unlike Starbucks coffee). In order to save its flavor, I brought it in bean form with the plan to grind it when I got here. Tomorrow is the first chance I have to really give it to the office, so I went out today to get it ground somewhere. First, I couldn't find a place that actually grinds their coffee. Most coffee shops don't use fresh beans, I guess. I finally found a Starbucks, which for sure grinds their coffee, and would probably grind mine. It was so crowded I had to wait outside for 5-10 minutes for a seat to open. I ordered my coffee and pastry, and then tried to make it known to the barista that I wanted some coffee ground. I was told it was fine until I brought up the bag, and it was found out that it was not, in fact, official Starbucks coffee. They couldn't do it, they told me, because it would end up mixing with Starbucks coffee; presumably this is bad. I drank my coffee and tried to problem solve. I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. I would buy Starbucks beans, get them to grind it, throw out the Cutter's Point beans, and replace them with the ground Starbucks coffee. Seriously, who is gonna know the difference. It was the package that was the most important part of this gift, and this way the office gets good coffee, and I get to give them something from my hometown. Win-win. I was trying to find my way out of the problem that my bag was one-pound, but the Starbucks bags were only 8.8 ounces, forcing me to buy two if I wanted to carry out my plan, when Starbucks Service came to the rescue.

First, a barista came to ask if I needed help choosing coffee. I somehow explained my situation to her, and she went off to find her manager (or shift supervisor for all I know). They both came out, and the barista explained the situation to her boss. In classic Japanese fashion, everyone put on their best thinking faces and waited for the situation to resolve itself. It finally did when the boss suggested that there was another coffee place that sold beans in the same area. This was a win-win-win plan. (For "The Office" fans: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wMWuMIbL2FM). I went to the new place, which was called "Jupiter," and took the plan to them. The clerk wouldn't do it because they couldn't just grind coffee beans unless it was coffee beans that I bought from them. So I offered to buy two bags of coffee beans if she would grind my Cutter's Point coffee. After consulting with her superior, it was agreed (Although she ground the other two bags as well, so I don't really know what the problem was in the first place). Two points for Japanese customer service which holds onto its rank as best in the world, two points for me for being able to manage the whole process in Japanese, and two points for Starbucks customer service for pulling through in the clutch.

And now for unrelated pictures having to do with food. First, a before picture of one of the last meals I ate in America at the King County Fair: notice the whole turkey legs and fourteen-inch hot dogs.

Now, a picture of my dinner last night. It cost me 500yen (about $4.50).

What happens when you mix the two together? Chaos. In this case, Chaos has a name: McDonald's.

*note regarding the title. A sarari-man is a businessman while a koumuin is a civil servant. Both live a similar lifestyle. But becauses to be either you have to be Japanese, I am a intern. One that is salaried and works full-time.

Auspicious Beginnings or Too Much Stuff

The long promised blog from Japan is here. Some backtracking is in order, though, if I want to tell the whole story. It's a long story, so read what you want to, or just look at the pictures, really, it's all probably boring anyway.

I left America on the 21st of August with a grand sendoff at the airport from a whole crowd of people. Thank you guys for making the trip. They thought they had seen me safely through to the next step of my voyage, but no. If anti-terrorism measures can be measured in inconvenience, then security at SeaTac proved its worth that day. The other person I was travelling with held up the entire line for about 5-10 minutes as her bag was too big to fit through the x-ray machine. The skilled and well-trained Transit Authority workers tried to solve the problem by pushing the bag from one side with another bag, which proved fruitless until the culprit, a stray strap, was found. Probably because of this, the security team overlooked my set of shaving razors. (Also, I found out later that the people in front of us tried to bring a hammer and ice pick on the plane; I guess the threat of my razor just didn't frighten anyone after that).


On the plane, I sat next to a Japanese woman who had been living in Georgia. She kindly corrected my Japanese at every turn. Everything I said was apparently wrong, but she pointed me in the right semantic direction. I must have made a good impression on her, though, because she told me that I would be fine in Japan because I wasn't pushy or loud. Also, at the end of the flight she gave me her email address and told me that if I wanted to complain about work or anything to her, she would be glad to hear from me. Also, because her husband worked at a big company with ties to the northwest, she mentioned something about there always being positions for bilingual people. That, as my old art teacher Zaixin Hong would say, "is an auspicious beginning."


The other Seattle JET turned out to be an exemplary travel companion. She had never left the states before (except for trips to Niagara Falls), and Narita airport in Tokyo pretty much overwhelmed her. She had a good attitude, though, and a good sense of humor. I pretty much tried to stick with her because the rest of the JETs were hit-or-miss. Not bad, necessarily, but not those you would want to get stuck next to at a cocktail party. Coincidentally, on the last day of orientation, there was a cocktail party. I tried to skip out, but none of my Tokyo contacts were available. Luckily there was beer to help smooth things out.


After a day of orientation, we all left for our host prefectures (think of them like states, Japan has something like 47 prefectures). Five of us left for Kyoto together with three representatives from the prefectural government. The eight of us walked from the hotel to Shinjuku station (the busiest station in the world) in the sweltering humidity. In suits. With luggage. After making to Shinjuku we took off to Tokyo station where we bought lunch boxes, and then got on the bullet train (a nozomi, the fastest), to Kyoto. The train ride was relaxing and air-conditioned, the rest of the day was not.


Because it was Friday, I had to get a head start on my Alien Registration Card. For that I needed a picture. My supervisor, about whom I have only nice things to say, decided that a regular passport picture, which I had brought, was not sufficient for my Alien Registration Card. (There is a difference in the required size of the face in the picture; a few millimeters or so.) We had to hurry because government offices in Japan close early. We ended up going to the nearest place, which was a professional photo place. My ID photo looks better than my high school graduation photos.


Then we rushed into a taxi to go apply for my registration card, or so I thought. We went to the prefectural government building, but it turns out we were actually picking up my luggage and meeting the whole office. I was completely unprepared as I received my letter of employment in front of all my future co-workers and gave a stammering and inadequate self-introduction while they stood and applauded. If that wasn't enough, I then went to the next floor up and did the same thing to another group of people, this time people I would probably never work with. After that I met the leader of the whole office. He talked to me about everything: school, my major, Seattle, and my future plans. After I told him I was thinking about a career in international economics (the first thing to pop into my head), he lectured me for about ten minutes on America's sub-prime interest problem and how it related to the world economy. I understood about 10%, but nodded along to 100%. He told me told study Japanese and work hard; I probably will never see this man again.


My luggage had been delivered to the office, so the plan was to take it to the place where we would apply for my registration card before taking it to my apartment. Everyone was shocked about how much stuff I had brought. Apparently two suitcases and one carry-on is excessive. They actually wouldn't stop talking about it. I tried to tell them that they were carrying just about all my possessions (that is, those not being graciously stored by my family), and one joked that I had brought my washer and dryer along. I felt bad for my supervisor because I couldn't carry the bags by myself, but she is only probably five foot three and a 110 pounds. She was also wearing heels. We taxied to the building, submitted my paperwork, then went to my apartment.


My supervisor stayed with me as the apartment manager explained everything to me. I do mean she explained everything. How to separate my garbage, why we separate the garbage, how to use my keys, how to use the intercom, how to open my mailbox, where to park bicycles and cars, the copy machine, the coin laundry, the coin showers (luckily I don't have to use these), ad infinitum. The whole while she was talking, though, she was looking at my supervisor, who nodded along as if she were the one living there. I spectated, trying to keep up with the breakneck Japanese.


I thought everything was over, but it turned out my supervisor was also responsible for taking me shopping for the things I needed. We walked fifteen minutes to the store, bought sheets and toiletries, and came back. I thought this last part was a bit unnecessary, but I guess she is my mother now as well as my supervisor. After this ordeal, I was jet-lagged and exhausted. (I was in suit and tie for this entire episode). And hot. It's like mid-nineties with full humidity here, which wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to hurry everywhere. She was about to pass out after the day was done. But still, she very politely asked her leave of me before she finally went home. I took a cold shower to cool off and bought dinner and a beer at the convenience store. One beer later I was passed out on my newly bought sheets.


Today I spent something like three hours walking around looking for a store that sold a LAN cable so I could access the internet. I couldn't tell you exactly how long it was because I declined to bring a watch with me to Japan. I woke up this morning thinking it was 1030 or so. It turned out to be 8. I woke up to the sound of children doing calisthenics in the adjacent schoolyard. Here's a picture taken from the veranda.

My apartment is pretty small. I estimate about 150 square feet. I took some pictures of it, but it's hard to get a good idea of the size of place from the.

It doesn't feel like home yet, but it will.

I haven't spent any time working at the office yet, but that will start on Monday. It is going to be a busy week. I have to go to four training seminars. One for new JETs, two for JETs who are going to be teaching English (I am their advisor so I need to understand their job), and one in Tokyo regarding my job as Prefectural Advisor. It might be awhile until my next report.