Larry's Kobe Exchange Weblog

Students, Friends, Neighbors....

I've been having a fine time with my class.  It is more work than I expected: a new 90 minute lecture every week, plus prep work associated with the films we use.  I've tried to give them some insights into US management and business practices and concepts, plus discuss the downsides of many of these practices.  Last week we discussed business strategy and franchising....starting off with a visit to a nearby McDonald's.  They are everywhere here, though not universally popular.  (Most of my students don't go there often, if at all, and prefer Kentucky Fried Chicken if they want fast food).  After that we watched SuperSize Me.

About half of my students are from Japan, the other half from China. It is a fun group. They pay attention though often they are tired--most have part time jobs that keep them up late at night.  All work hard at their English, and I try to slow down my delivery enough that they can understand what I'm saying.  In-class discussions between students and faculty are rare here, so after the films I'll usually ask them to talk about it amongst themselves.  I've also had fun working with my student assistant, Akie Tanaka, who helps to translate my lecture notes and take care of things for me around campus.  She will be at TESC this fall.

This has been a great experience and working with these students has certainly helped me to become a better teacher.  I'll miss them.

In Kyoto and Osaka

Kyoto is such a delightful city that we zipped up there for another quick visit earlier this week. Our first stop was Nanzenji temple, tucked against the eastern hills of the city. It has a small Roman style aquaduct, and a number of delightful small gardens and temples on the grounds.  There is also a very unusual place to worship.  You walk up the hill, into the woods and there it is, a small waterfall.  You can discreetly take off your clothes and commune with nature as the water beats down. Alas, with the near drought conditions here ("rainy season" has been very dry) the creek was reduced to a trickle delivered by pipe.

The rest of the day was hot and uneventful, though we did have an outstanding Italian dinner and a fine walk through the city and over the Kamo river.  The poor river is in tough shape....not enough water and too much pollution.

Our first destination the next morning was Eigamura, or Movie Town, a theme park in west Kyoto that takes up part of the Toei movie and TV company complex; they actually film period dramas and comedies here. 

This is undoubtedly the cheesiest theme park I have ever seen, but we still had fun.  The first floor of the main building is almost completely devoted to gift shops; the second floor features a large room with costumes from the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" show and a New York City room. The recreation of a samurai period town was of mild interest.  If they wanted it to look dusty and run down for their shows, they did it right.  We attended a 20-minute recreation of a samurai-sword fight, which was campy but fun, and my stepson Nate had his picture taken with a samurai and a couple of geisha....Worst of all, the two attractions that did look like fun, a ride and haunted house, had a separate 500 yen entrance fee each (about $5).   

The highlight of the visit?  Taking the a charming streetcar back from the studio into central Kyoto.  Hard to believe that streetcars used to be ubiquitous in the US....

Osaka and the Umeda Sky Building

Yesterday we had to travel to Kansai Airport to pick up my stepson Josh, so we decided to make a stop or two in Osaka along the way. Our first destination was the Umeda Sky building, now an Osaka landmark.  It sits in the northern section of the city near the main train station.

The building is a wonder, two rectangular towers, 40 stories each, connected by a rooftop section called the Floating Garden Observatory.  You take a transparent outside elevator from the 3rd to the 35th floor, then an outside escalator up to the 40th floor that stretches across the vast atrium underneath the roof.  Acrophobics or agoraphobics can leave this off their Japan itinerary. I thought the escalator might get to me, but the elevator ride up was more nerve wracking--fortunately, it was fast!  The haze was very bad yesterday so the view was limited.

As it turned out, that was our only stop before the airport, but it was a memorable one.

On Kobe

Yesterday we ventured downtown to the museum dedicated to the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Technically it is not a museum, but the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution, which commemorates the Great Hanshin Earthquake on January 16, 1995 which killed 6,433 people (over four thousand in Kobe) and left 300,000 homeless.  The epicenter of the quake was in the water just north of Awaji Island south of Kobe, but the worst damage was in the city.  The tour starts with a movie/reenactment of damage from the earthquake with an incredibly loud soundtrack, shaking viewing platform and vivid visuals--which gives some sense of what it is like to live through one. 

One floor of the museum is dedicated to survivor recollections and memorabilia. Our delightful guide from nearby Tarumi shared her experience in the quake--although her home was quite close to the epicenter, it had only minor damage, but the city as a whole was severely stricken.  The video footage of destruction and fire following the quake are striking and the survivors clearly struggled with grief and disrupted lives for years afterward.  One of the unexpected results of the quake was a massive increase in volunteerism in the area, as people from all parts of Japan pitched in to assist with soup kitchens, shelters and other assistance. Now I am very curious about how that influenced the nonprofit organizations in the city afterward.

Though the physical damage from the quake is long gone, I suspect it may be many years yet before the more subtle damage to the people of the city is fully healed.

Here is a picture of the Disaster Reduction museum, from the west.  It is in the HAT (Happy Active Town) Kobe development near the waterfront.

Takarazuka

Last week our big outing was to a suburb outside of the city to see a Takarazuka production.   Several  of my Kobe Exchange predecessors told us this was a "don't miss" experience, and they were right.  All I knew about it was that all of the performers are women. 

From the outside, the theater complex looks quite ordinary.  On the inside, though, it is glitzy, and very pink.  About 90 percent of the people at our performance were women, and the gift shop was packed.  There is a huge fan base for many of the performers. 

There is more to this than meets the eye.  You take a Hankyu Corporation train to the Takarazuka station. The company also owns the Theater and the Takarazuka Review company.  Clearly they see a market in the thousands of women at home during the day with money to spend on entertainment.

The performance itself was...confusing. We thought we were going to see a song and dance review, but it turned out to be a samurai soap opera about a Shogun-era thief escaped from Tokyo to Nagasaki...which went on and on...the sets were fabulous, though.  Suddenly there was scant applause, the curtain came down, and people scurried out.  Intermission--for 33 minutes.  Then dame the song and dance review we expected, which was delightful, and which featured the wild costumes and staging that they are known for.  (Alas, no pictures allowed). 

The ending was curious.  A huge Las Vegas-style song and dance number with 50-plus dancers in wild red feathered costumes comes to a close...the curtain zips down, the audience claps for less than 2 seconds, and then they start streaming toward the exits. Not even a brief ovation or curtain call for the stars.  In ovation-mad America this would have earned several minutes of wild applause.

The People's Inn and Other Shikoku Treasures

During my previous trip to Japan, many of the people I met asked if I was planning to visit the island of Shikoku.  It was beautiful and isolated and the people there lived life at a slower pace, I was told. But my time in the country was short and I never made it.

Thanks to the construction of several mammoth bridges linking the island to the island of Honshu, including the Akashi bridge just down the hill from our apartment (the world's largest suspension bridge), Shikoku is no longer so isolated.  But we found in a short visit that it remains captivating.

We set out across the Akashi bridge, over Awaji Island, over another vast span and there we were on Shikoku--almost immediately crawling through the traffic of Tokushima, a surprisingly large city. Much of the island's  4.5 million population is  crammed into a few major cities on the coast.  Drive inland a few miles and the terrain becomes mountainous, lush, and sparsely populated.

We drove down the lovely eastern coast of the island to Hiwasa, where Rachel wanted to catch a glimpse of the loggerhead turtles that lay eggs on the beach between May and August.  These turtles live for 70-80 years and are a threatened species.  We wound through town and found a room at a hotel nicknamed "The People's Inn" which had seen better days but was in a glorious spot right on Ohama Beach. After dinner and a fine bath overlooking the ocean, we were resting in our room when an incomprehensible announcement came over the hotel loudspeaker, followed by several calls on our phone that no one answered.  Then the night manager was at the door, explaining that a turtle was on the beach laying eggs.  This has become an increasingly rare event so we hustled down to the beach in our yukata (along with about 30 others from the village and our hotel) to watch the turtle lay its eggs. The almost 3-foot long turtle gradually deposited over 100 eggs in a deep hole, and well after we went to bed covered them up and made its way back into the ocean.

The next day we made our way slowly down the coast, stopping at a wide long beach near Kaifu after concluding that our plan to drive to the interior and hike up Mt. Tsurugi was folly.  The roads quickly became one lane, narrow affairs with the occasional turn out, and no shortage of crazed truck and bus drivers pretending they were on a freeway.  So we backtracked and drove to Cape Murato, an abrupt cape jutting into the Pacific.  Murato is best known for being the spot  where a famous 8th century monk named Kobo Daishi attained enlightenment during his pilgrimage to each of the island's 88 Buddhist temples.  After an interminable drive up the coast (two lane roads with heavy traffic) we spent the night in Kochi, a Spokane-sized city.

Tuesday we made our way to the Iya Valley in the middle of the island.  Our first stop was the famous Kazura Bashi, or Vine Bridge, which dates from the 8th century. The area was a haven for a clan of samurai who had escaped an uprising, and they could run across the bridge and cut it down to gain time on their pursuers. Though not high up, the slats were thin and practically invited you to put your foot through...I crept over the thing, holding onto the vine rail for dear life....

Then I rather nonchalantly suggested that we take the old route to the north along the Yoshino-gawa gorge....which turned out to be a incredibly narrow and twisty one-lane road far above the lovely river.  I have been on some gnarly roads but this one was special.  Rachel wound us through it in one piece but we were both sweating bullets in a few places--sheer drops, sharp turns and no room to maneuver....then were abashed to discover that a full sized bus traversed the route on a regular schedule.

We ended the day in a small city on the northern plain of Shikoku, Kotohira,best known for the Kompira-san shrine--the trek to which starts in the city and then requires an 800 step climb up to the top, on a hillside overlooking the valley.  It was delightful though a real workout.  At the northern end of the valley a lovely old volcano overlooks the region.

What's the Worst That Could Happen....???

Well, get run over by a bus, I guess. But for a tourist/long-term visitor, probably the worst thing would be to lose your passport....or wallet. 

Last Tuesday I lost my wallet.  But the whole saga reveals much about life in Japan.

Over the weekend we traveled to a small town called Magome, about 90 miles northeast of Nagoya, to hike on portions of the old Nakasendo toll road that winds through central Japan.  For hundreds of years, starting in the 8th century, this was one of the two main routes from Tokyo (then Edo) to Kyoto.  During the military or Tokugawa era starting in the early 1600's, local rulers were required to spend much of the year in Tokyo and marched in very long processions (up to 10,000) of soldiers and their households over the Nakasendo, stopping at various inns along the way.  By the mid-20th century most of the small towns along the route were in disrepair, but over the last 30 years several in this area, plus the old trail, have been rebuilt.

Magome is now one of the most charming places in Japan.  It lies on a lovely hillside overlooking the Kiso valley; to the north lie the Japan Alps.  The old toll road has been turned into a paved walkway through the town, with the houses in the village rebuilt on either side.  During the day it is swamped with tourists, but after 6 pm they are gone, and we felt like we had the whole town to ourselves.  We spent the night in a family run inn called a minshuku and the next day hiked 5 miles up and over a nearby pass to the next post-town, called Tsumago.  The trail is delightful, up past rice paddies and small plots, a couple of small farming villages, then through groves of cypress trees and down into the next town.  Tsumago is much more rustic than Magome: by law much of the village must be kept in something akin to it's undeveloped 1700-era state--no powerpoles, telephone lines, etc.

After a look around and a lunch of cold soba noodles, we decided to head for home. That's when the fun started.

We missed the bus back to Magome and decided not to wait, so we took a taxi, which wound up and over the pass and back to the village in about 15 minutes.  Unfortunately, the driver couldn't make change for our big bills, so we had to send Nate dashing down the hill to get back the deposit on the bear bell we borrowed.  We paid the taxi driver with apologies, started walking to the minshuku and after about 5 seconds I realized that I didn't have my wallet.  Which had money to pay our hotel bill (most of Japan works strictlly on cash and foreign credit cards aren't always accepted) and, of course,the usual assortment of credit and debit cards.  Ouch.

I dashed back to the road but the taxi was long gone. It wasn't on the ground.  Rachel and Nate stayed there to be on the lookout for our cab, and I ran the half mile down through the town to the main road, thinking he might be waiting for a fare.  No luck. Ran back up the hill to the tourist info center, where I somehow was able to explain in bad Japanese that I had left my "saifu" in the cab.  She called the police, called the taxi company, and after about 15 nervous minutes they called back to confirm that yes, he had my wallet and would be there in 20 minutes to return it to me. Relief.

The driver bowed slightly and smiled as he handed it to me but wouldn't give me his name or address.  I thanked the lady at the info center profusely and returned the next day with a gift for her (which, of course, she initially refused) and for the driver.   I hope our next visit here is not quite so memorable.

Coming and Going

This is one of the best times of the year to travel in Japan and we are trying to take advantage of the lovely weather.  Two weeks ago we made a quick trip to Kyoto, which is only about an hour away by express train, but somehow it feels farther.  The city was for many years the Imperial capital and has amazing cultural and historic treasures almost literally around every corner.

We found a room in a surprisingly inexpensive business hotel (Japanese style rooms only) just north of the Gion district once famous for its geisha houses.  Over a 48 hour span we hit many of the most famous attractions of the city: Fushimi-Inari (a shrine dedicated to the god of rice and symbolized by its famous kitsune or foxes, that features a long trail covered with torii gates); the lovely Kiyomizu temple on the hillside east of the city; Sanjuusangendo (a 330 foot long wooden building holding thousands of kannon or Buddha images); Kinkakuji temple (covered with gold leaf); and the nearby Ryoanji temple and rock garden.  The latter has lost some of its charm as the moss that surrounds the famous stones (assumed to symbolize islands in a placid sea) has withered and faded. 

Kyoto did not feel like it was just a tourist town although it is a huge venue for conferences and the city is regularly filled with hordes of visiting schoolkids. Its downtown shopping area is vibrant.  We found the local public food/fish market, which was fasinating and had one "try me" sample after another.  I discovered later that many of Japan's most successful small electronics and manufacturing companies are located in the valley between Osaka and Kyoto.

Golden Week

Nearly a month since my last blog entry.   I’ve been somewhat busier than I expected, wrapping up my Mom’s trip and helping Rachel and Nate settle in after their arrival two weeks ago.  I’ve also been taking time to read—starting in on the books for my summer course plus Marius Jansen’s The Making of Modern Japan, an excellent overview of the period from 1600 to the present. The roots of both the current system of government and many ongoing controversies in Japanese politics (e.g., the proper role of nationalism in the modern state) can be traced to decisions made during the long period of military rule (1603-1868) and to the overthrow of that regime during the Meiji period in the late 1800’s.  This is at least helping me figure out what questions to ask when I meet with some of the officials from Hyogo prefecture for informational interviews.

My Mom’s stay here was the object of much amazement on the part of the people she met.  Although this is a rapidly aging society, it apparently remains uncommon for people to travel much beyond their hometown after their mid-70’s.  I’ve talked to several people whose parents are reluctant to travel a few hours by train to pay them a visit.  So the sight of an 82-year old American was a novelty.  The comments about her age both delighted and nettled her a bit.  "Why shouldn't I travel if I'm still healthy enough to go?" she asked.  She has traveled to Europe several times and has Paris in her sights for her next trip…..

We were able to make it to Tokyo and Chiba and explore Kobe a bit, and Mitsui thoughtfully took us on a tour of Nara and Horiuji Temple--just as the cherry blossoms were at their peak. But life in Japan sans car requires a lot of walking, which taxed her. The half-mile walk from the Gakuentoshi train station to our apartment (which includes a long hill) is a nice workout for anyone. I hope I’m still able to get up and go around the world at age 82.

Road trip

The last Friday in April, plus the following Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday are all national holidays in Japan.  Since vacation time here is scarce and the weather is fine at this time of year, this “Golden Week” is a prime time for tourism.  Foreigners are usually urged not to try to travel, since trains and hotels are almost fully booked and the crowds can be overwhelming. On the other hand, we didn’t want to sit around all week.  We considered going to the kite festival in Hamamatsu (featuring lots of cool kites and a famous kite battle), but the claim that 2 million people would drop by over the 3 days of the festival curbed our enthusiasm.  I don’t like crowds.

Instead, we read through our trusty Japan guidebook and decided to rent a car and drive to Kinosaki, a famous onsen (spa) town near the Japan Sea north of Kobe.  So Sunday morning we rented a very boxy Nissan at the Shin-Kobe train station and set out.  Driving on the wrong side of the road was not so bad (I hadn’t done so since a trip to Ireland in 1995) though I had to constantly remind myself to stay close to the center. The roads outside the city can be very narrow. Going north we stuck to the local roads….and only got lost once, making a 10 mile perfect circle after we missed a turn. 

The most exciting part of the drive was on the way home….when Rachel was pulled over by a somber looking policeman.  A true heart-thumping experience since you have no idea what will happen next.  He sucked air through his teeth with an “…ahhhh” when he discovered we were gaijin.  Luckily I could understand his description of our driving boo-boo. Apparently you’re supposed to stop at train tracks with no stopping signal—we had just followed everyone else in the line of cars straight across the tracks.  He let us go with a warning and a “ki o tsukete” (be careful/have a safe trip).  Major relief.

Kinosaki is jammed into a narrow valley adjoining the nearby Maruyama river, about 2 miles from the Japan Sea.  The town is best known for its hot springs and seven onsen or bathhouses and the streets were filled with people wearing kimono-like bathrobes called yuukata and wooden shoes, geta. The click, click, click from the geta starts early in the morning as people head out to the onsen before breakfast.   Luckily, the town did have some rooms available, though we had to book space in two different ryokan….at rather breathtaking prices.  The rooms had tatami mats only, plus a low slung table (called a chabudai) and legless chairs called zaisu—no other furniture.  We slept on futon (as usual, that’s all our apartment has, too) and each morning someone from the staff would bring up breakfast—fried fish, tofu, eggs, pickles, rice…a feast!

After checking in we ambled around the city in the rain and came across a lovely Buddhist temple named Gokurakuji. The rock garden there is outstanding (see photo) and we ambled around for some time, as the temple building itself was closed.  A lone Japanese entered the building and motioned us inside, into a 20’ by 20’ room with screens on each side.  He explained that his late mother-in-law’s funeral had been held there and that he came once a week to pray for her, during his weekly visit from Osaka.  He opened the screens on either side so we could see the adjoining rooms, which contained a further set of screens exquisitely painted with nature scenes depicting the four seasons.  We talked for several more minutes in broken Japanese and English before leaving him to his solitude in the temple. He and his wife are eager to visit the U.S. soon.  We appreciated his kindness.

On Bathing

All the bathhouses in Kinosaki have separate male and female sections.  You put your clothes in a lockable basket, take a small white towel and go in the room with the hot bath, sit down on a small stool and rinse yourself off with hot water. The modest use the little towel to cover themselves, but that's uncommon.  Then you get in the pool, which has water around 40 degrees C. and up--around 100 deg. F.   I think the hottest I experienced on this trip was about 45 degrees C. –too hot for most people (including me) to stand for long. Pouring sweat, then you go back to the stool and pour cold water on yourself. Yaaaah!  Then you soap up and wash yourself.  For a practical American accustomed to short showers, I’d soap up, rinse and be out of there in a couple of minutes.  The locals would take much longer, soaping and rinsing repeatedly, shaving, pouring bucket after bucket of water on themselves….a long process. It is very relaxing, though soaking more than once a day would be over the top for me.  Some people manage to try all 7 of the Kinosaki onsen during a two-day trip. It was fun to be able to stroll around the city wearing a bathrobe. 

The Hawk

On Monday we decided to take a short drive, to see the coast line and visit the small fishing village to the north, Takeno.  This portion of the coast is spectacular.  The road reminded me most of Chuckanut Drive near Bellingham—narrow, twisting and with rockslides around every other bend. Most of the town was closed up, not a restaurant in sight. So we found a grocery and bought some take out food, including some very tasty looking teriyaki chicken.  We drove back to the beach, parked the car and carried our food down to steps near the sand to sit and enjoy lunch (see the photo with the streamers).   I opened up my package of chicken and sampled it. Delicious!  I  pulled out a second piece and was about to pop it in my mouth when, WHOOSH! Suddenly my hand was empty and I stared dumbfounded into space, my hand tingling. 

A hawk perched on a nearby building had decided he wanted that chicken too, and snatched it away, then circled back to his perch to eat it.

We decided to finish our lunch in the car.

Return to Tateyama

Tateyama

Tateyama is a small city near the southern tip of the Boso peninsula, which juts into the Pacific east of Tokyo. The community has a sister city relationship with Bellingham that began 47 years ago and is still strong.  The parallels between the two cities are evident— fishing communities on pleasant bays 90 minutes from a large city, surrounded by verdant hills.

My visit in 1983 was an amazing experience.  The local Lions club members were fabulous hosts to the 12 students in our group, including the Sakai family with whom I stayed.  We already had a bit of a connection since their son Shinichi had stayed with my parents the previous summer. They welcomed me into their family and I gained glimpses of understanding of the country and the Japanese people.  I spent much time with Mrs. Sakai—Mama-san—talking about the U.S. and Bellingham in rudimentary Japanese. There were many memorable incidents.  One night several weeks into my stay I finally convinced them to let me make them dinner, and my Italian cooking skills deserted me: I managed to burn a half-inch layer of spaghetti on to the bottom of the pot.  (Luckily the rest of the meal was still edible). We had a good laugh about it but she insisted on cleaning it up. 

In the intervening years we had been visited in the U.S. by their daughter, Harue, and her husband Susumu when they lived in Atlanta for several years. But I had not made a return trip until now.   

Sakai-san—Papa-san—recognized me instantly despite my now hage head.  He has changed little, is still energetic and jovial.  Their hotel, now called Sunset Beach hotel, has an ideal location on the central portion of the city beach.  They continue to do well, attracting Tokyoites in need of a weekend getaway, plus companies that book their conference rooms for training sessions.  It is a true family run business.  Shinichi now runs the operation day to day, assisted by his wife Masami, aunt Keiko and the rest of the staff.

After placing our bags in a lovely room—with both western beds and a tatami portion that I couldn’t resist sleeping on—we proceeded to their house for a cup of tea.  Shinichi pulled out his photo album from his trip with pictures of my parents and their Bellingham house.  We filled each other in on big changes since my previous visit—my career and recent marriage, my father’s death in 2003. Shinichi has been married 16 years and now has two daughters.  Mom was thrilled to see him again.

The sad news was that Mrs. Sakai died of cancer last year.They ushered us into the nearby tatami room that holds a small shrine in her honor—the usual practice in Japan.  There next to her picture was something I had forgotten about, a small, delicate fan that I had bought for her in Kyoto, upon which I had written in Japanese a note thanking her and her family for their kindness during my stay.  Papa-san told me iit was one of her prize possessions.   I was very touched and saddened that I had not had the opportunity to see her again.  Papa-san later told me that she often wondered when I would return for a visit.  I am honored that she valued our friendship and the link between our families so highly.  I feel very fortunate that we have been able to sustain this friendship.

The remainder of our visit passed quickly.  We had two very memorable meals of traditional Japanese foods. We met the Mayor of Tateyama in his office the next morning and he was kind enough to give both me and my Mom an “International Friendship Citizen Award” certificate.  We toured the local castle, some of the local temples, drove around the tip of the peninsula to see the ocean.  Watched the sun set over Tokyo Bay with the cone of Mt. Fuji barely visible in the haze. Kumai-san from city hall was kind enough to help translate through much of our stay and fill me in on the state of the city.  The area is struggling economically  as is much of the rest of the country. 

I went on a run the morning of our departure and was amazed to find a four-lane expressway now winding thorugh the heart of the city--with shopping malls and fast-food, too.  Apparently such changes are gradually hitting many cities throughout the country. 
   

We bid farewell to the family this time knowing that we would see them again soon—jaa, mata (see you soon) not sayonara.  They want to meet my wife Rachel and stepson Nate and I look forward to seeing them again and touring more of the lovely countryside.

Tokyo

Harue and Susumu invited us to stay at their house in the Tokyo suburbs on the way back from Tateyama.  We exchanged excited greetings on the platform—I had not seen them for over ten years—and made our way through the vastness of Tokyo Station.  We made a quick stop at the grounds around the nearby Imperial Palace, and then shot over to the Shinjuku area to have a cup of coffee at the 45th-floor rooftop bar of the Keio Plaza Hotel.  My mother started to take a seat next to the window when she realized how far up we were and quickly edged away. The view east and north is staggering—the city goes on literally as far as the eye can see.  We zipped out to their home and enjoyed an all American meal of chips and salsa, followed by beef stew and salad. 

Susumu is the rare resident of Tokyo who can walk to work, though that will change in a few months with his reassignment to his organization’s headquarters in downtown Tokyo.   The district of Tokyo in which they live, he told me, was still a farming area in his youth 40 years ago, with a U.S. Army base nearby.  Since the closure of the base, the area has added a sports stadium, college campus, two police academies and a renowned cardiology hospital. 

The next day we did a quick tour of the Asakusa area of Tokyo, known for its famous market and Senso-ji Buddhist temple—see pictures below. My images of the city are of the narrow 4-lane expressways that curve through the city, the densely packed buildings, random architectural notes such as the golden chili pepper on top of a municipal building near Asakusa.   And a shockingly young man driving a blue Ferrari (a Testarossa?) in first gear near the Imperial Palace, the car whining noisily from stop light to stop light.  Pure conspicuous consumption.

Random Notes

On the shinkansen from Kobe to Tokyo, a girl passed wearing a red t-shirt with the inscription, “Jesus is My Rudeboy,” plus an image more suitable for a pack of cigarette papers. 

Our apartment has no English TV stations, so my mother and I occasionally watch the news and baseball in Japanese.  Channel surfing you come across many sophisticated cartoons featuring superhumans, animal-machine creatures and gorgeous images of space, flowers, anything you can imagine.  Just as I turned the TV on yesterday a small rotund  boy in a bright blue uniform filled the screen, helmet on, arms at his side, back to the camera and ready for take off.  The two half-moons of his tushie, however, were naked and suddenly emitted a huge bright yellow and orange flame like a Saturn V rocket, and he ascended into space.  My mother was speechless.  You won’t see that on Saturday morning TV in Olympia.

A few pictures...view from our hotel room; the Sakai family and Mom in front of the hotel and at dinner...sunset from in front of the hotel; the famous Asakusa shopping district, and Harue, Susumu and his step-mother in their garden.

Arrival and Set up....

Download arrival_and_set_up_4_1_05.doc

Predeparture....

Background

The Evergreen State College and University of Hyogo have had a faculty exchange program for over 25 years.  I'll be the latest of a group of very fortunate TESC faculty members to have the honor of representing the College in Kobe. 

I decided to document the experience through a weblog, both to experiment with the format and to create a page that would be easily accessible to students, friends, and fellow staff and faculty. I'll post sporadically and send notifying email that I've put up a new post.

Sunday, March 27th

Tomorrow is the big day.  Over the last week or so I've talked with several of the college's previous Kobe Exchange Faculty, and all have told me what a fabulous, transformative experience it was.  As I've prepared for the trip I've had a flashback to my previous life as a frequent-traveller for the federal government.  I've never enjoyed packing but this time was easier than most--having two big suitcases available makes it less taxing!  I have the same feeling of nervousness and excitement, knowing that a big adventure lies ahead.  It's a bit different, knowing that I'll be apart from my wife Rachel for three weeks--but she and my stepson Nate will be joining me in late April, with my other stepson Josh making the trek in mid-June.

My mom, Kate Geri, is coming along for the first three weeks and she is also very excited. She picked up the travel bug 15 years ago and is always ready for an adventure.  In early April we are going to visit the Sakai family in Chiba Prefecture that I spent a month with in 1983; she and my dad were hosts for their son Shinichi in 1982.  That was a mind-blower for him; my role-reversed family at the time had my father retired and doing much of the cooking and cleaning around the house, while my mother worked.  His parents were wonderful hosts for me and I am greatly looking forward to seeing them again.  I was sad to learn, though, that Ms. Sakai passed away last year. 

Before I forget, a big thank you to Gail Johnson for stepping in and taking my place as Coordinator of the MPA program for the next four months.  My colleagues in the program  were very supportive of my decision to go to Kobe, and I appreciate that.  I was reluctant to wait--once out of the queue it's easy for life to intervene and cause you to miss the opportunity entirely.

Time to wrap this up, post some pictures, and crank through the rest of today's to-do list....I'm going to post a few pictures of Olympia to give the folks in Kobe a taste of the South Sound.

Larry