Tuesday morning after my long weekend and well described cash crisis, I was scheduled to head to Tokyo for two days of meetings at my company's head office. My coworkers had already helped me buy the train tickets that I needed to get there... so I packed up my little rollaboard suitcase and walked to my bus stop to get the trip started. I'd be boarding a train in Osaka that would take me to Tokyo in just under three hours. If I'd been in a car, it would have been a trip of around 300 miles and would have taken over six hours. But with the magic of the Shinkansen, or "bullet train," three hours it was. I didn't take any photos of the train but here's a wiki link so you can check out the strange aerodynamic shape. Apparently it goes between 150 and 185 miles per hour. That's pretty fast.
The train only makes a few stops between Osaka and Tokyo and I had a seat by the window with a reclining chair and outlet. You can probably guess what happened next. Getting lots of work done on my laptop, right? Nope. Just a good nap. And a little bit of leisure reading for good measure.
I love taking photos of my hotel rooms in Japan because they're normally pretty different from the ones in the US. This one was actually larger than I expected... with a full sized bathroom and everything! The bed was even queen sized. I've NEVER seen a bed larger than a twin or full in a Japanese hotel before. And since you know what I'm dealing with in my apartment (it's really not so bad), seeing this bed was very exciting.
Anyway, I spent two pretty fun days in the Tokyo office with my colleagues asking a million questions about the Japanese protective apparel market and fire service industry. Did you know that Japan has professional and volunteer (or rather bolunteer as my colleagues say) fire departments like in the US but the volunteers are essentially just backup support for the pros. My colleagues were very surprised to hear that volunteer firemen in the US perform the same job as professionals and don't even get paid for it! "They even go into the fire??!!" Yep, they do.
Here's my lunch from the first day... I had a few hours on my own before meeting up at the office so I picked up a bento box at a local shop along with some yogurt and mochi. Remember when I tried mochi in Kyoto? Obviously, it made a good impression.
I'm pretty okay with trying new things, but do you see that little red wrinkly thing on top of the rice? I tasted it but still have no idea what it is. I can't really identify it from the shape... but it seems to be some kind of fruit/vegetable that has been soaked/pickled/salted. Really strong brine-y flavor that I didn't really love. I've also seen bags of these in the sushi section of the grocery store. No idea.
When I was ready to go to bed, I was yanking on the curtains trying to close them to shut the streetlights out. Well I was yanking to no avail and then I remembered something that I've learned in Japan. If at any point you're struggling to figure something out, whether it be open some type of package or close your hotel curtains, you're probably trying too hard. The Japanese generally make things that are very logical and easy to operate. This is a general statement. I might take this back later when I explain the intricacies of a Japanese toilet. But anyway, pretty much every type of packaging I've encountered or alarm clock or light switch is very intuitive to open or operate. You'll never see anyone struggling to open the ketchup packet at a Chick Fil A in Japan because each one will have a labeled, easy to find notch and will easily tear open. I wish there was a Chick Fil A in Japan. Really.
I didn't take many photos in Tokyo because I was busy all day with my colleagues at our office. They did take me out to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner and we had a really nice time sharing a bunch of dishes and drinking Italian wine. Yum. The photo above is from my train ride home. You can see a bit outside and a bit inside the train. There may or may not have been another nap that took place on the ride home. But mostly I actually worked on THIS blog and drafted my first entry.
Funniest moment of misunderstanding: My colleague asked me what I wanted for lunch on the second day and I said, "Ooh how about something really Japanese!" He laughed and said, "How about a small French restaurant?" Umm, okay? I think sometimes questions are asked just to be polite, not really to find out my opinion. Or maybe he doesn't like Japanese food.
New learning about Japan: My first day in Tokyo I heard someone yelling over a loudspeaker around the block, so naturally being an American I went to investigate the situation. It was some kind of demonstration or something, peaceful, just some people with a big banner and a megaphone. I asked my colleague about it and he said it was "Japanese mafia." He told me to "please ignore, don't touch them." I have no idea if this was really Japanese mafia or just a bad translation from "political group" or something like that. So if you ever encounter Japanese mafia, please don't touch.
Japanese pronunciations: I spent some time thinking about this because I think it's really interesting and could be helpful for speaking English with Japanese people. I often can't understand when a colleague says a particular word, when it turns out I just wasn't listening for the Japanese pronunciation. The English sounds of -CH-, -SH-, and -TH- tend to sound like -S-. -R- sounds like -L- and -V- sounds like -B-. This explains why my name is now Kas-a-leen Louse, and why I didn't know what a bolunteer was.
New Japanese words learned: Kore wa nandesu ka? What's this? Pronounced koh-reh wah nahn-dehs kah. Sumumasen is excuse me or I'm sorry. Pronounced soo-moo-mah-sehn. Wish I had known this one when I ran into that kid with my cart in the grocery store last week. Next time.
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