It's Snowing on New Year's Eve in Tokyo

Well, the family is gone and they made it home safely. The weather was great while they were here but it has turned colder since. The view here is from my balcony down onto the temple gate below.

I went into work onthe 29th and 30th. The 29th is the "official" last day of work and then there is the week long New Year's holiday which is one of most looked forward to in Japan. On the last day, Chiyoda holds an office party.

Everyone has a drink and there are snacks. Afterwards, it seems to be tradition to go to a karaoke bar at Chiyoda. I went and we had a good time. Since I had not had quite as much to drink as some of the others it was a little bit hard to get me to sing but I finally relented. For those who must know, I sang Hank Williams "Jambalaya" and the old blues song "Stormy Monday". These songs are simple, don't have any vocal range, and nobody there knew if I was singing it right anyway.

My friends from work were a little more lively. They sang Western and Japanese songs in about equal number and I was surprised at how good some of them were. The girls usually danced while they sang and if they did duets they were pretty much dancing in unison - it must have been memorized from the video. Anyway, it was good fun.

Today I have been doing the housework and just relaxing.

Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu - Have a happy New Year!

The Beer Museum at Yebisu Gardens

Megan: What kind of beer was that you were drinking? And David....

A Japanese Maple at the University of Tokyo

It has been a very warm year in Japan and this maple is just turning colors. Tokyo University is well known and has a kind of European look to it. It is located near Ueno on the North side of the city. They sell beer in the University student center just like at Baylor and we were fortunate enough to find T-shirts - thank goodness...

The Year of the Rooster

This is Megan and David at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. In the Chinese zodiac, 2005 will be the year of the rooster. Because a lot of Japanese culture originated in China, the zodiac is observed here as well. The takoyaki (cooked octopus in a dough ball) sure were good...

Theater in Kyoto

Kyoto is of course known for its cultural arts, crafts, and food. It is the cultural center of Japan and you can still see many things that have been unchanged for centuries. (hint to one member of the family for the future: Indian food is not considered a traditional Kyoto specialty)

Dave and the Shinkansen

This is the shinkansen (bullet train) that we took back from Kyoto. The train has a top speed of close to 300 km/hr (180 mph) yet is very smooth and very quiet. The seats are spacious and it is very efficient. But tickets are a little bit pricey. The train was full the Saturday that we went to Kyoto.

Pagoda in Kyoto

We had a very nice trip to Kyoto and of course visited a number of temples and went shopping. This was my first time to Kyoto and it wasn't quite like I expected. Kyoto is an interesting mix of old and new Japan but appears more European to me in some respects. The river through the city, the greater space than Tokyo, and the avenues make it seem so.

Meg Graduates from Baylor!

Here she is, by the statue, a full fledged graduate with a job and everything. Lots of family and friends were there and we had a great time. When Megan started at Baylor I told her I expected to be back in four years to take her picture at the statue. She made it in three and a half! Congratulationas Megan....

More Atago Lobby Flowers

For those of you who liked the collage of flowers from the Atago Lobby, here are some more. Also, here is another T-Shirt saying (this time from a sweatshirt) worn by a young mother with a child:

Amusement Wagon Style
Little Fairy
Since 2001

If you know what this means, please send me a line. Mata ato de...

The Tent...

This tent was in the lobby of the hotel where I was staying in Doha and I talked Zaharah (contracts advisor) into taking a picture with me. Aren't the colors pretty? There is a better one with me and the belly dancer but I am waiting to see how much trouble I get into with this one first before posting it. If I really wanted to get in trouble there is the one of me with two girls in yukata (kimono) at the Chiyoda festival in Japan.

Hello from the Villa

Aunt Pauline wanted me to post a picture of me so here I am in Doha. Note the clever use of the universal Japanese "hi - it's me" picture pose. As always, click on the picture to enlarge it.

Eid Mubarak from Doha

Doha was nice and I got to see a bit more than the last time I was there. Ramadan and then Eid came while I was there. The weather was nice - in the upper 80's (around 30 degrees C) and it rained. There was even hail in the Northern part of the country which is very rare.

While I was there I:

• went to the Souk (market)
• went to a show that had a belly dancer and an Arabic woman singer
  
• ate a feast in an Eid celebration tent that had a whirling dervish dancer
  
• worked out and went swimming once
• went to the mall
• ate brunch at the Ritz Carlton and listened to Jazz
• ate Mexican food and everything different that was Arabic I could find
  
• worked every day

Eid mubarak...

Happy Halloween

It has been another busy week for me as I'm sure it was for you. Today I was riding my bike around and saw these characters outside a rock concert in Central Tokyo. They look like they are dressed for Halloween but this is normal Sunday attire for them. You can see similarly dressed kids over at Harajuku on Sunday - remind me to take you there on Sunday when you visit. Megan asked that I post a picture of my bike so I have done that too. By the way, if you ever want me take a picture of something just let me know. It could be my apartment, or the train I ride in, or anything. Sometimes I struggle a bit for something to write about.

The weather is cooler now - cold if it is rainy. No earthquakes to speak of this week. Today was perfect sweater weather. Next week I am going to fly to Doha for a few weeks. I'll write from there too. Until then....

My Bike

Corvette Z06 - They don't come any hotter than this...

Dai Hon Zan Sojiji

In back of the temple

Dai Hon Zan Sojiji is a training temple for Zen Buddhist priests in Tsurumi where I work. The temple is visible from the train station up on the hill and and dates from around 1300. There are a lot of other buildings here as well.

Nezu Shrine

This last week or so has been bad for natural disasters in Japan. If you check the news sources you will find that there was a bad earthquake yesterday (I felt two of them in my apartment and could see the curtains sway a bit) and a typhoon a while back. There were a number of deaths and really it has been bad. As I think I've said before, my apartment and the place I work are designed for earthquakes. The trains are designed to shut down if an earthquake is detected but it still can be bad. When the typhoon went through it shut the trains down and I got stuck (ate dinner at the rail station) until it passed through.



Today I went for a walk in an old area of Tokyo near Ueno. There are a lot of old buildings and stores from a 100 years ago or more (must have seen an earthquake and a typhoon or two). Fortunately there was a festival going on at the Nezu shrine. Nezu shrine is about 1,900 years old and this was the first time I had seen it. The women in the picture are participating in some way. I don't know what the festival was about but there were loads of people. One interesting thing about it was that they were having a kind of neighborhood garage sale beside it. The same sort of stuff you would see in the United States - baby clothes and things outgrown. And there were lots of tents set up as usual where they were selling food and drink.



There were a number of art museums in the area and I also walked through the University of Tokyo campus. The University of Tokyo looks very European, and of course has a very good reputation. That's about it for this week.

USC Vs. ASU Football Game

Here are Megan and David at the USC football stadium during halftime. USC beat ASU 45 to 7.

USC Thornton Symphony in Concert

The orchestra, about ready to play. That is David playing the dark colored bass just to the left of the curtain on the right side of the stage. It was a very nice performance. The program was:

• Overture to La gazza ladra: Gioacchino Rossini
• Pavane: Gabriel Faure
• My Bells: Bill Evans
• Blackbird: John Lennon and Paul McCartney
• Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, op. 47: Dimitri Shastokovich
  

The Shelly Berg Trio played Jazz with the orchestra on Pavane, My Bells, and Blackbird. Of the pieces, I liked the Rossini Overture and Blackbird the best.

This last week I went back to Houston and then out to Los Angeles. It was great to see so many family members - and I didn't go into work one day!

Robot Flagman

I have seen this fellow around Tokyo before but this is the first time I've taken his picture. Here he is in Hamamatsucho waving cars away from danger with his right arm (there is a flashlight wand in it) while pointing the way with his left. There is another workman watching him and standing ready in case he fails in his duties. So far, he seems pretty reliable as far as I can tell.

There have been over 20 Typhoons this year and another one is rolling in tonight. So tomorrow will be messy.

See you soon.

Kabuki Scene at Edo-Tokyo Museum

Today I went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum which is very nice. It is in Ryogoku where the Sumo matches and training stables are. It is very much worth a visit if you like museums. It covers the period from the beginning of the Shogunate when Tokyo was called Edo right up through World War II. It includes displays and artifacts on everyday life, art, and major historical events. There are full sized replica buildings in it and lots of interesting things - including the civil engineering features that made a city of 1 million people possible 400 years ago.

Lone Star Beer

Photo displayed in the Beer Museum at Yebisu Garden. They know good beer and good people here when they see them.

Torii Gates and Shrine in old part of Shinagawa

These Torii Gates lead to a small shrine. The old buildings behind it are of a traditional Japanese style and you can see the light construction. But note the satellite dish! Buildings like these are like old barns in the United States. You see fewer and fewer of them and they aren't always well kept.

The Palace Garden

The palace is not too far from my apartment and I can see the grounds from the window where I eat breakfast in the morning. Here is a lantern and pond inside a garden that is open to the public.

Apartment Flower Arrangements

Apartment Flower Arrangements

Hi to all, and I hope genki desu (you are well). This has been a very slow week as far as news here. Nothing but work. So I'll write about the flowers in the front of the apartment building. Flower arrangement is a master art in Japan and I don't profess to know much about it. They keep a flower arrangement at several spots in the building including the entry, the front desk, and the spa / gym / restaurant entrance upstairs.

The pictures on my blog are from the front of the apartment - every week or so I take a picture of the current arrangement. These are from the summer - the arrangement changes with the seasons. I especially like the one at the restaurant because it is so simple - usually just a single stem or even a branch in the winter.

That's it for this week. Take time to smell the flowers.

Advertising Fans

Beer Change

It has been a busy week at work but I haven't done much else. An interesting thing here is that almost all the T-shirt messages are in English. So I entertained myself this week by writing some of them down. Here are some of the more interesting ones along with a short description of the person wearing it:

• Young woman: "Beer Change"
• Teenage girl: "Happy Hunting Products - The Conny Island Product"
• 30's woman: "Rocks Benefit" with a star around it
• Young man: "Cap'n Munch"
• 30's man: "Ride for Tomorrow - Athletic Bull"
• Pretty girl: "I know what you want"
• Middle aged woman: "Everyone imetates me - Always"
• Teenage girl: "Sports Island Fishing Cruises - Ocean Wise"
• Young mother: "Jungle me Jane"
• Pretty woman: "My life is Boring"
• 30's woman: "Bada Boum"
• Young man: "Recon Ensemble Trifecta - Primary Design Function - Color Denial"

The spelling is as it was on the shirt. A lot of them don't make much sense but who cares? I haven't looked in the United States lately but the spelling probably isn't too good there either.

Clothing here for women changes with the seasons as I think I have written to you before. The women all wore boots in the winter and pretty much stopped at the same time. Then there were high heels and then sandals - even high heel sandals. Women still carry umbrellas for protection from the sun. Not everyone, but quite a few. Folding fans are also common. I need to get myself one. They hand out free fans as you walk down the street with advertising on them. In the winter, they hand out free tissue packages with advertising on them.

It is starting to cool down again. So pretty soon it will be boots and tissue season again. Well that is pretty much it. Hope to see many of you while I am home.

Driving Range and Tecate

Today a guy from work who lives in my building and I went to a golf driving range on our bicycles. This driving range had multiple levels and was built in an old baseball stadium. You basically are hitting from where the grandstands used to be into left and center field. Or even over the fence.



You buy a ticket from a machine and then insert it into a ticket taker at the range. It then feeds balls from under the floor automatically onto a tee. You push a button with your foot to make the tee go higher or lower. It remembers where you like it and keeps teeing balls up until you run out of count on your card. You don't even have to bend over to tee the ball up! It's expensive ($30 for 100+ balls) but worth the experience.



Then we decided to find some place different to eat and found a Mexican restaurant in Ginza. It was pretty good although I wouldn't rate it as too authentic in some respects. I had ceviche (it had octopus as well as fish in it), tacos, and buffalo wings. Pretty good. The also had Negro Modelo, Tecate, and Carona.



That's it for this week. Take care.

Corvettes and Earthquakes

Hello to all and I hope you are doing well. Please eat something off the barbeque grill and drink a cold one for me since it is Labor Day Weekend. I celebrated Labor Day by working the weekend and of course today. Let me know how your Labor Day went.

Not too much happened this week except I got tired of walking everywhere so I bought a Chevrolet Corvette! Finally, some decent transportation. Actually, it is a bicycle. If you have visited, you may remember that Japanese people like American things. They sell bicycles here, licensed from General Motors, with the Corvette emblem. Mine is a "Z" and it says 406 HP on it. Actually it is a 21 speed Mountain Bike and pretty cool even if it isn't a car.

The other recent thing is that there was an earthquake last night. It registered Magnitude 7.1 near the south coast of Honshu, Japan. Seven people were injured in Kyoto. It was 3 Magnitude in Tokyo and you could feel it. I was in the apartment and really couldn't tell it because my building is dampened with giant shock absorbers. You can see them by the recycling bin in the center of the building - be sure to get me to show them to you next time you visit. Anyway, I could "hear" the building move and squeak even though I couldn't really feel it because of the dampening.

Here is an interesting website on earthquakes: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/ It shows the recent earthquakes that have occurred and their relative strength.

Japan is designed for earthquakes - probably better than California even. So stay away from the hurricanes in Florida, tornados in the Plains, and earthquakes in California. I'll watch out for the typhoons and earthquakes here.

Shrine Cats

The story of the Maneki Neko (Beckoning Cat) is an interesting one. I got one for Stuart last Christmas and the other week I saw this one and got it for myself. You can find the story at this web site: Maneki Neko. Mine is kind of different. He is chubby and looks kind of feisty. I found him in a store when I was walking the Seven Good Fortune Gods Tour. I don't think I wrote about that. You can find out about that at this web site: Shichifukujin.

Anyway, whenever I saw a neko (cat), real or stone, I sat him down beside it and took a picture. These were all neko I saw at shrines. The Kanji on the bib invites good fortune. He has also been to the top of Fuji-san so I figure this is one lucky cat. He spends most of his time near my front door inviting good fortune.
Frank

Moon Setting Behind Fuji-san

Fuji-san

The moon fades behind
Fuji-san so still and quiet
I freeze for a time

A Haiku poem. (Megan: I bet you didn't think I wrote poetry). This is a picture I took of Mt. Fuji in early evening with the moon disappearing behind it. Haiku is traditional Japanese poetry with a number of forms but is usually short. I chose 17 syllables, in 3 lines, arranged 5-7-5 which is a common form. It oftens includes nature and an emotion. Usually there is a clever turn in it. Do an internet search and you can find out more.

Climbing Fuji-san

Hello and I hope you are doing well. It sounds like everyone is back at school or working and so it is with me.



This week the big news is that I climbed Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) starting around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and finishing the morning of Sunday the 29th of September. Fuji-san is 12,390 feet tall and there are four trails or so up to the summit. You normally start at what is called the 5th stage which is around the tree line.



I started with two people I work with - a Malaysian woman and a guy from Qatar. I got separated from them and thought they had turned back. I was foolish enough to continue. The big problem was that I wasn't dressed properly. I had on blue jeans, running shoes, a head lamp, and a good gore-tex coat. Thank goodness for the coat.



All the Japanese people had on North Face equipment and looked like they were on an expedition to Everest. I sure wish I had my rain pants, gore-tex boots, and gaiters. That volcanic rock isn't much fun when it gets in your running shoes. And I couldn't have gotten wetter if I were sitting in a tub.



I climbed hard the first evening on the Kawaguchi-ko trail and got to stage 8.5 which is less than 400m altitude from the top I think and less than an hour away at the rate I was climbing. This was a very good pace - much faster than average. It was raining lightly and dark. I was tired and had an altitude headache but could have made it easily. At that point I was still relatively dry. But I was the only person climbing and I couldn't see the trail because my glasses were wet so I thought it better to stop.



This was the last place where there was a climbing hut so I spent the night there. You can get a spot on a wooden floor laying beside other people for $60. The spots are arranged in rows with a rack built above the floor to get a second layer of people in. You get a warm blanket under and above you and a pillow that feels like it is full of sand. Fortunately there weren't that many people on the mountain and there was nobody beside me or across from me or I would have been very crowded.



I was hoping it was going to stop raining, being an optimist and all. Of course it started raining harder but I managed to sleep about 4 hours. The bed was uncomfortable and it was cold, humid, and noisy in the hut. When I woke up about 3:00 am it was raining hard. I heard people outside starting to climb. The idea is to climb at night and then watch the sunrise. Around 3:45 am I started climbing again.



Unfortunately I was soaked with 15 minutes. It was raining too hard and very windy. It was also cold. I don't know how cold for sure but probably in the 40s. The mountain was slippery. I fell in with a Japanese group that had a guide so I was pretty sure I would stay on the trail. The night before I wasn't so sure. But within 20 minutes there was a continuous line of people climbing to the top. It took more than 2 hours stop and go to finally get there because it is mostly a single file trail and because some people were having trouble. (I saw people gasping for air stopping to smoke a cigarette).



At the top there is a shrine where you can get your climbing stick stamped, a noodle shop, post office, and a weather station. There isn't really a summit - it is a crater rim which I had planned to walk. But I was so cold and miserable I just got my stick stamped and started down. Most people don't make it to the top - they just walk for a while and turn around. I didn't take any pictures - it was raining too hard and I didn't want to get my camera wet. You definitely couldn't see the sun rise.

I found out at work the next day that my friends had made it. In the text message they sent to my cell phone they had a typo and said they were at Station 5 (the start) when they were really at Station 8. I wish I could have stayed with them because it would have been more fun (except when Zaharah was getting sick).



All in all, this was one of the more uncomfortable things I have done in my life. I couldn't wait to get off the mountain. It was a tough slog up and even tough down because of the mud. I didn't have my spare clothes properly packed and they got soaked in my pack so I couldn't wear them. It was 4 hours back to Tokyo wet and cold the whole way. It seems like most of the really miserable things I have done were either in the deep open ocean or on high mountains. Maybe I should stay somewhere in between (or at least plan better and maybe look at the weather forecast).

If you go, pick a nice day when the sun is shining and not when a typhoon is passing by. Of course it makes for a good story either way.



Mata ato de - see you later

Yebisu

Yebisu - My favorite Japanese beer (I visited the town, the brewery, and the shrine)
Frank

Writing in Japanese

I am very fine and I hope you are too. This week I thought I would write about Japanese writing. This is one of the things that make the language difficult - you can't easily learn to read it like you can Spanish or German. The basic history of the written language is this:

The Japanese adopted their written language from the Chinese and the basic characters are called Kanji. These are the somewhat complicated looking characters that you see and are pictographs. According to one book I have this didn't happen until the 5th or 6th century so it is really pretty recent. Right now there are about 2000 Kanji symbols that most school children learn but there are many more there are either archaic or in uncommon usage.

The characters are similar enough to Chinese that most Japanese can recognize many Chinese symbols even though the languages are very different except for some borrowed words. Interestingly, the Chinese have changed their symbols quite a bit since Mao and the characters used in Taiwan are apparently more similar to those in Japan than what is used in modern China.

Because the Chinese and Japanese languages are so different, the Japanese also adopted two phonetic syllabic writing systems. In other words, each character represents a syllable like ba, ki, or ga. The syllables consist of the vowels a, e, i, o, and u pronounced very similar to Spanish plus a bunch of syllables and "n". All Japanese words end in a vowel or n. The vowels are pretty much always pronounced the same with a few rules and thus pronunciation is "easy".

The first syllabic system is called Hiragana and is used to basically make Kanji usable in Japanese. It is used for grammatical words not present in Chinese, verb endings indicating tense, etc. It can also be used to spell any word in Japanese and is used for that when there isn't a standard Kanji symbol.

The second syllabic system is call Katakana and is used for foreign words and those borrowed from foreign languages. There are a lot of borrowed words, especially scientific words and things adopted from the West. It's 46 characters have exactly the same syllabic sounds as Hiragana. Hirigana and Katakana together are called kana.

Also used is Romaji which is a way of using our alphabet to spell Japanese words. You usually see Romaji in block letters but the Japanese I know can print or write cursive. There is quite a bit of advertising done in English. So Japanese schoolchildren have to learn a lot of characters!

It's interesting to write your name in Japanese. The proper way to write your name as a foreigner is to do it in Katakana. Because not all the sounds present in English exist in Japanese (and remember each word must end in a vowel or n) it isn't going to sound the same as in English. But Japanese characters and Kanji can be very beautiful in their own right and people like to see them written in different ways. For fun, see how my name and that of my brothers can be written in Japanese below.

The Milburn Boys

Click on this picture, or any picture on the blog, to make it bigger. Our names are shown in English, Romaji, Hirigana, Katakana, Kanji, and the basis for the Kanji symbols that were chosen by the translator. On the right is my Hanko, or stamp. Hanko are still used for signature on formal documents by everyday Japanese people. Mine is a combination Kanji / Katakana translation that is based on sound as well as meaning for Frank. The name Milburn (Mill Stream) can be translated as Usugawa in Japanese.

If you want to find out about your first name in Japanese, try the link on my Blog titled "Your Name in Japanese". It is a really interesting web site.

Ebara Shrine

Here I am at Ebara Shrine in Shinagawa with a statue of Ebisu, one of the Seven Good Fortune Gods. Note that he is holding a fishing rod and that is a fish under his arm. Ebisu is the patron of Fisherman. This shrine is famous for a festival in June as well as Ebisu.

Beatles while Eating

I have discovered two restaurants in Tsurumi where I work that appear to play Beatles music all the time. They are a Noodle Shop (Raman-ya) and Fast Food Hamburger Place (Mos Burger). Why Beatles? I don't know. The interesting thing about this is I hear songs I haven't heard for 35 years and remember them immediately. Things I just heard yesterday I have no recollection of.

Anyway here is what I have found I like at these places:

• Raman-ya: Order the "Number 1 Miso" or if you really like it spicy, the Number 2. I think Number 3 is probably too spicy and have never tried it. You say "Number 1" in English, not Japanese. Each ladle of spice costs an extra 20 yen or so. I like to order mine with tamago - a boiled egg.
• Mos Burger: Try the Nan Taco (nantakosu in Japanese). I thought they only did stuff like this in the United States. It is taco meat with some curry and taco like seasoning and tomato / lettuce on a piece of Nan bread held so it forms a kind of taco. For those of you unfortunate enough not to have had it, Nan is a bread from India. Point to the picture of it when ordering although they probably would understand Nan Taco. I order mine "seto" with a salad.

Oishii desu - It's tasty.

A Nice Walk

This week was a bit unusual. I decided to walk today from Tokyo to Kawasaki which is a pretty good walk. It took me about 5 hours but it was cool today from a rain and quite nice. The amazing thing is you can walk the whole way on sidewalk and see other people walking along the whole route. Can you imagine that in Houston or LA? It is continuous mid-rise buildings most of the way but you see temples, shrines, parks, and so on. Really interesting but it wore me out.

A couple of other things of interest happened this week:

1. A woman cut in line in front of me at the checkout this week. The first time I can ever remember.
2. We had a train problem and it took an extra 20 minutes to get to work. This is only the second time this has happened that I can remember. The last time it took an extra 5 minutes. Trains are very reliable here.
3. A child had a temper tantrum on the train because his sister wouldn't give him part of her candy. This is practically unheard of. I suspect she is like Cody was and waited until her brother had finished his and then started eating hers.

The gym in my apartment is closing for the week. Just when I had started really working out again. Oh well. I'll start up again next week. Take care of yourself and I'll write again then.

Shantytown in Kawasaki

During my walk today I passed this shantytown in the flood plain of the Kawasaki River. You can see the river in the background. Pretty nice housing for the homeless. In general the homeless seem to take care of themselves here and look presentable. I see some exercising and getting dressed in suits. Most seem to sleep on benches or have small tents. These shacks look fairly permanent and some have small gardens.

I was surprised to see homeless here although I'm not sure why. You certainly see them in Houston, New York City, London, and Paris. Apparently there is very little crime associated with the homeless here and I've never been bothered by anyone as I walked about. It is just part of the fabric of life these days I guess.

Summer Fireworks

One of the big summer events is to have fireworks. There are a number of major displays all over Japan. Last evening they had the one you can see from my building but I went over and watched it with some people I know from work. The display goes on for about an hour and a half non-stop. The Japanese girls wear yukata, it was hot, and some people drank a bit too much. Something like the 4th of July I suppose.

Fireworks over Tokyo Bay

Difficult to Translate

My secretary sends email to me in Japanese at times to help me improve. Yesterday she sent an email in Romaji asking if I had anything on my calendar for Monday. I understood it and attempted to reply. I got the first part correct - "Right now, Monday's calendar is empty". At least she understood it. But my attempt at the second part was completely indecipherable apparently - "But by Monday it will be full".

The reasons this happens are sometimes complicated. The word you pick from the dictionary may not really fit in that context or is not normally used in the sentence structure you picked. In this case I'm not sure that the concept was one that is even commonly used in Japanese. My secretary and the contracts engineer discussed at quite some length how to say this and they never gave me a good simple translation.

Which leads to another point. When you say something simple in English and someone translates it - why does it take so many words? I have asked this and received a couple of related reasons:

1. Japanese people are not direct in their language - this would be considered rude and they add polite additions. In English you just come out and say it.
2. Because they are not direct, they are often looking for the shading and reasons behind what to us would appear a simple statement. When translating, the translator will attempt to help the listener understand shades and meaning behind what the speaker said.

Interesting. But don't take anything that I write on the Japanese language as fact or based on any real scholarship. I find Japanese people have more in common with me than differences and the perceived differences are just interesting.

Tin Ear

I have a tin ear. Maybe not tin, but no better than brass at best. Anyone who has listened to me try to tune a guitar or pick out a tune on the piano knows this. With language, this means that it takes me 10 tries before I guess how a new word is pronounced. Alternatively, you can write it out and say it V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y for me. Kaite kudasai. Yukkuri hanashite kudasai.

This hit home when I kept trying to hear for a week what they were saying when the door on the train closes: "Doa ga shimarimasu". I knew it meant the door was closing - they always say it just before the door closes - what else could it mean. I tried to repeat what I thought I'd heard to my secretary and she had a blank stare. One of the other guys said "Oh - Doa ga shimarimasu". She said "Oh - The door will close". The guy who knew how to say it said "Oh - Is that what it means?"

Now how is it that he could hear it and repeat it and not even know what it means? He said he had been hearing it every day for 6 months - of course he could repeat it. I think some people have a better ear for sound than others. Also, I am losing some hearing from being around too many power tools and industrial compressors without hearing protection. Not to mention firearms. But my Japanese is better than the other guys. Which shows you can excel if you try hard enough (and the other guys don't know it is a competition).

Conflicting Advice on Grammar

One of the problems with engineers doing things is that they want to know how it works. I have been an engineer too long. I want to know why Japanese sentences are said the way they are and what the rules for constructing the sentence are. Needless to say, this is not the way children learn to talk and it probably isn't the way I should learn either.



The word "no" in Japanese is a way to state the possessive. The word for shirt in Japanese is "shatsu". If you don't pronounce the u at the end it sounds like shirts a bit. This is because essentially all of the Japanese words for western style clothing come from English. So "Frank's shirt" is "Frank-san no shatsu" in Japanese.



In pidgin Japanese I used to ask for miso soup with small clams by asking for "Shijimi Misoshiru" - clam soup. But one of the secretaries pointed out to me that I really should be putting "no" in between (not on this example, but on something similar). So, today I asked for "Shijimi no Misoshiru o kudasai" - Please give me soup of clams. Much more proper. The waitress called to the back "Shijimi Misoshiru".



So when I got back to the office I asked another secretary about it. "Oh yes - Shijimi Misoshiru is just fine" she said. What about the other example where I was supposed to put no in between. "Well", she said, "that is OK too". It is unlikely I will have to pass a Japanese grammar test so I am going to quit worrying about it.



Mata ato de... See you later...

Cicadas and Nurses

Two things hit me as I was walking home this evening. I have noticed both before, but I was still thinking about them when I walked into the apartment...



Cicadas: They are deafening. You hear them all around trees in the parks and outside the building at Chiyoda. I don't ever remember hearing them as loud as they are here. There is concrete everywhere but they find the trees.



Nurses: They still wear white uniforms and hats just like the '50s at the hospital across the street from my apartment. It is a teaching hospital and it may not be the same everywhere in Japan. But they all look much more professional and proper than in the United States. This is probably a good place to get sick if you have to do it.

I may not have written about the time I got sick here. It was just the sinus infection I usually get after my allergies in the spring. Demo, ima genki desu. I went to a doctor with my secretary. He charged me 3000 yen ($25) if I remember right and that included the prescription for antibiotics and cough medicine. My secretary said that was a bit more than if I had gone to the clinic, but I didn't have to wait - I walked straight in. All without health insurance. He had just bought a 1957 Chevrolet Belair convertible and showed me a picture of it.

Oyasumi nisai...

Nijubashi

Yakitori

Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 6:58 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

One of the highlights of this week was going to the yakitori (working man's place where they serve beer, sake, and grilled chicken). Yakitori means grilled chicken. This yakitori is in Hamamatsucho on the way to my apartment from the train and I have gone by there many times but never gone in. It is an open air place and is always crowded. None of my gaijin (foreigner) friends would ever go in so I talked one of the Japanese guys I work with into going there.



This one has been there at least 50 years and the waitress who served us said she had been there 40. She was 80 years old and a real sweetheart. So they had the expected skewered chicken, oshinko, bieru, and sake. But they also had a lot more. I won't go into all the delicacies but there is no part of the chicken or pig that isn't utilized. I had the equivalent of Japanese menudo and it was really good. All of it was good. Oishikatta desu. It was the best sake I have ever had - I think I am developing a real taste for it.



Today I went for a long walk around the palace in central Tokyo. This is where the feudal lords used to have their castle and rule Japan during the Edo (samurai if you prefer) era. I went by Hibiya park and there was a band playing the blues and jug band music. I walked the gardens where the palace is.



Erica talked me into creating a "blog" which is an electronic log you can put on the internet. If you would like to see a picture of a famous bridge at the palace then look at my blog:



http://frankmilburn.blogspot.com/




I will try and update it in future and you can look back at old emails if you find that interesting. I put some more pictures in there that you may not have seen. I think I captured most of my emails since I got this new computer but probably not all of them. If there is one missing that you think was worthwhile and you kept, just send it to me and I'll post it.



I have started working out at the gym again so I feel good about that. I hope you are eating right, doing what you can to stay healthy, and enjoying the sights too.



See you next week...

Tokyo is Prettier at Night

Small Things

Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 9:39 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

This was a slow week and not too much to write about. I always learn something though. Here are a few of the things I learned:

• My regular oven is also a microwave - a space saving feature. I didn't know I had a microwave because all the writing is in kanji.
• When they carry the portable shrine (makoshi) they bounce it up and down. The reason they do that is because the god is "rowdy" and he is supposed to like it
• The rope that hangs around a shrine is made from rice straw for good luck and because rice was so special to the diet
• When you dip sushi into shouyu (soy sauce) you are supposed to dip it fish side first so the rice does not crumble. Actually, I thought I was doing fairly well until I learned that. Now I am having trouble with the rice crumbling.
• The Japanese equivalent of cheap gin or white lightening is called shochu and it used to be a working man's drink. Except now it has gotten trendy kind of like tequila or fancy vodka and they sell expensive versions.

It has been hot but a typhoon (real name is taifuu) came through and cooled things off a bit. They usually aren't much more than some good rain (ame). Sometimes there is a pretty strong wind (kaze ga tsuyoi). My Japanese isn't much better but a few of the guys at work have not taken it upon themselves to teach me inappropriate language. I think they are finding it entertaining.

I hope things are going well for you....

Matsuri

Matsuri

Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2004 9:31 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

This week was the Summer Matsuri (festival) at the offices where I work. They carry a portable Shinto shrine called the Mikoshi around the block after drinking sake. Then you drink more sake and eat a lot while having a party. At the party you do traditional things like pounding rice with a huge wooden mallet and then making it into a rice ball desert. Or you stack cups into pyramids and the first one to finish gets a toy Winnie the Pooh bear. That pretty well describes it. So attached is a picture of the Mikoshi - note the traditional blond hair style of the one guy carrying it (just kidding).

The heat has been oppressive. It got up to 100 degrees on the day before the summer solstice. On that day, you are supposed to eat "unagi" which is a type of eel. I asked my secretary about this but couldn't really understand - it is supposed to give you strength on really hot days or something. According to my secretary, the eel is imported from China because "Japanese eel is too expensive". I think it is fresh water eel but I am not sure. The eel they serve in the sushi shop is conger eel and is called anago.

Hope you are all well. Stay out of the heat if you aren't able to get any unagi...

Back in Japan

Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 5:53 PM
Subject: Back in Japan

My flight got in an hour early so it was a good flight. I let an Exxon guy who was in Tokyo for a while when I was gone borrow my apartment and he left me a good bottle of wine and some chevre (goat cheese) - he is a Frenchman - so my pantry is stocked better than it was when I left.

I enjoyed seeing you all when I was home....

Tanabata

Tanabata

Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 8:25 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

Hello to all and I hope you are doing well. This week I went to a festival called Tanabata which is based on an old Chinese tale converted to Japanese. There are lots of festivals in Japan during the year but this is one of the more famous ones. It is frequently translated as the "Star Festival" and the story is something like Romeo and Juliet depending on who you hear it from. If you are interested, here are some websites:

http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/holidays/akie.html
http://www.geocities.com/shunkomuroya/nihongo-memo/nenchugyoji/tanabata.htm

I went to the festival at Hiratsuka which is just south of Tokyo, in the Kamakura area. I've attached two photos from that festival. Basically you wander down the street with a million other people and look at the lanterns and decorations. And then you stop at one or more of the stalls and eat and drink. It goes on for blocks and blocks and blocks. A lot of girls wear kimono (really they are wearing yukata which is a simpler lightweight cotton kimono - kimono are too heavy and expensive to wear to a summer festival) and there are lots of families. It was fun.

The end of FEED party went well and all the Chiyoda (Japanese), Qataris, and expats seemed to have fun. I made a pretty good mistake before the party trying to speak japanese. But if you don't make mistakes you aren't trying. Anyway, my boss from Doha told one of the Japanese that a plate was pretty. So I translated it as "Kirai desu" but this means "He hates it". The correct translation is "Kirei desu". But one of the japanese guys laughed and said are you sure about that? I caught my error since I knew both words. Another one along the same line that I messed up once is "Karei desu" which means it is spicy. An "r" sounds more like an "l" to us a lot of the times so these words are pronounced:

kirai (key-lie-ee) - hate
kirei (key-lay-ee) - pretty
karei (ka-lay-ee) - spicy

Muzukashii desu ne - Hard isn't it? A lot of Japanese jokes are based on plays on words. You would have to be careful what you said to a Japanese girl or you could call her spicy or tell her you hated her.

So, next week I am going to a cryogenic heat exchanger fabrication shop in New Jersey and then to Houston for a week so I won't write for a while.

Sumo

I went to see a Sumo exhibition. The Grandchampion (Yokozuna), a Mongolian, won but there was some excitement in that a young Japanese wrestler got close. An interesting thing about it is that you order a huge lunch before hand and pick it up when you get there. There is enough food for four people. For a westerner, the seats are small. The ones closest to the ring are on tatami mats.

There is a lot of tradition and pageantry associated with it. Every move and throw has a name. Salt is thrown by the wrestlers to purify the ring and traditional hairstyles, clothing, etc. are worn.

Boss Coffee

Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 9:34 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

This turned out to be a very busy week. My boss flew in on Saturday and we worked through a number of things that needed to be handled which is good. But I didn't get out much.

Here is one thing I figured out this week though. Those of you who visited might remember the coffee in the vending machines and especially "Boss" coffee which had a picture of a girl holding a brush like it was a moustache. Everyone asked me about that but I couldn't answer. It turns out that Boss coffee has a sales gimmick like Juan Valdez with a moustache. So the girl is trying to look like Juan while she drinks the coffee. That is the best I can describe it.

This week we have our celebration for the end of the first engineering phase and it will be done Japanese style. We will have a cask of sake and it will be in a nice hotel. That is tomorrow. I'll have to make a little speech and say a few words in Japanese as well as English. Should be fun.

That is about it - have a great week!...

Yakiniku

Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 9:37 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

It was nice to be home and see family. David and I had a nice trip to Maryland and in general it was relaxing to just be at home. I got back to Japan last Sunday and it has been nothing but work since. I had almost 700 emails waiting for me at work. I normally get 60 to 70 per day. It slacks off a little bit over the weekend but not too much because Friday emails from Houston arrive on Saturday and they work Sundays in Doha. Anyway, I worked yesterday and today and got caught up.

The project is just finishing up the technical part of ordering the LNG tanks so the group celebrated by going out to a Korean BBQ Friday. The Japanese name for a Korean BBQ is Yakiniku which means roast meat according to my dictionary (my secretary translated it as burnt meat). This is appropriate since what you basically do is sit in front of a charcoal fire and roast meat.

That is it for me, I hope you are all doing well.

Gogo no Ocha - Japan, the land of cute.

Gogo no Ocha

Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 9:37 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

This was an interesting week. I had to work late on three days to get our package out. We got it out on Friday, one day early. A major success.

My Japanese is getting a little better but is still bad. I can order food, shop, and sometimes get directions. It is a difficult language to learn though. I am trying to force myself to speak it more. Today I was able to ask the cost of a ceramic "koi" fish in a shop window and understand it was just a display and not for sale. Another major success.

One night I was walking home late from the train station and not paying attention. Lots of times I go a slightly different route just to see if I can see anything new. I was going a way I had not taken before, was tired, and thinking about something else. I walked for a while and looked around to see I was "lost". This has happened once or twice before. The streets are narrow, windy, and in some respects look all the same. Of course I wasn't really lost, but I had to take a few minutes to get my bearings, head towards a main street, and then get a landmark. No problem.

Attached is a picture of the latest advertisement to show up on the train - kind of like Kan-Kan the dog who was selling Sapporo beer earlier this year. Only this girl is dressed in a bird suit and selling Gogo Tea. Gogo means afternoon in Japanese so it is afternoon tea. It is green tea so without the mixture of Japanese and English in the name it would be called Gogo no Ocha (really). Note the clock showing 3 o'clock (Sanji desu). I have no idea why she is dressed in a bird suit and holding a stuffed baby bird. I asked one of the secretaries and she looked at me like I was silly for wanting to know.

Hungry Koi

Irasshaimase

Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 10:15 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

This has been an interesting week for me and I hope it has been for you also. Happy birthday to Megan - I can't believe it has been 21 years. And you have turned out nicer (and different) than I ever imagined.

One of the things everyone kept asking me when they visited is what are they saying when they greet you in the store. It means of course "welcome", but also has the meaning "can I help you" when they use it in the store. I never could remember to ask how it is spelled until the other day. It is spelled "Irasshai-mase" and when pronounced sounds closer to "rah shee mah say..." when I hear it. The "i", which is pronounced "ee" at the beginning is very soft.

Another one people ask about is when the train pulls in they say "Ma mo naku" or "soon". Then they say something like "ichi bahme sen - Shinagawa, Tokyo". This means Soon, 1st track, (a train for) Shinagawa and Tokyo. That is the Japanese lesson for this week.

If you are interested, my project made the ExxonMobil Annual report this year and you can see it at the web site. Here is a short-cut to the particular page: http://www2.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/corporate/ARtechno2003pdf. The "state-of-the-art turbines, compressors, and heat exchangers" are going into our LNG plant in Qatar and are the first application anywhere in the world. We go out with our tender on May 15th so I expect to be pretty busy until then. Hopefully a little rest after that.

This week is "Golden Week" in Japan. It is a week where the "Former Emperor's Birthday", "Law Day", and another "Girls Day" all line up. In between they have a holiday just to have one so that everyone gets a week off. The trains and such are not crowded at all when I go to work because everyone is on vacation or visiting family. We are about the only ones working.

I went to Kawasaki today to look around because I had never really done that. I found the symphony hall which you can see from the train I go to work on and is very nice. Then I checked out the shopping district and such. This has to be the most consumeristic place on earth. It is difficult to imagine that there are so many huge stores and so many shops here. And they really love techno-gadgets. There must be 30 different electronic dictionaries (mostly japanese-english) that you can buy. There is one that is english oriented with an english keypad and I finally bought it. I was looking at it so long the guy finally offered me a discount on it, probably to get me out of the way, and I couldn't pass it up.

Megan and David: Remember that giant sculpture that looked like a moving monster castle we saw here? That's what it is - a giant monster castle called "Howl's Moving Castle". They have a movie coming out about it. Megan, if you still have that picture with me in front of it, please send it. The latest movie poster you see pasted all over the place here is "Kill Bill" with Uma Thurman holding a samurai sword and wearing a wedding dress - seems plausible enough to me.

Well, that is about it. Hope your week has been interesting.....

Azaleas

Tsutsugi

Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:37 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

Just a quick note this week. I went to the national gardens at Shinjuku Goen this last Sunday because the azaleas were in bloom and also to see the last of the cherry blossoms. In Japanese, azaleas are called Tsutsugi and cherry trees are Sakura. Anyway, that was very nice and I have attached a picture of the last of the cherry blossoms. This one is a "double" pink which are the late bloomers.

Last night several of us when and ate Sukiyaki which is meat and vegetables cooked at your table in a soy broth. Very good. Other than that it has been a week mostly of work. The big effort will be over the next two weeks.

USC Concert at Disney

Awesome concert - we all enjoyed it. See David playing bass on the far left?

Los Angeles

Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 12:01 AM
Subject: Weekly Email

This weekend I am in Los Angeles with Mother to attend David's concert in the new Disney Concert Hall. I had a good flight to LA on Friday and David and I went down to Malibu for dinner on Friday evening. No real problems with jetlag, I must be getting used to trans-Pacific crossings

Saturday we picked up Mother about noon and went to the Los Angeles Museums that are next to the La Brea tar pits. They were very nice, especially the section on American art and furnishings. Last night we ate dinner at a seafood restaurant on the beach.

The Walt Disney Center is nice so we are looking forward to the concert. David and I walked by it on Friday.

Will tell you how it was next week.

Hatta-san and I

Office Politics

Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2004 2:11 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

Happy Easter - I hope you are enjoying the day. Today is a really nice spring day in Tokyo, clear, and short sleeves weather. I've been working on the income tax but plan to get out shortly. I have picked a fairly famous garden that I plan to go to.

This week I thought I would tell you about the office politics instead of the standard description of the cherry blossoms, temples, shrines, or festival. There are office politics in Japan just like I suspect there are in every country. It is fun to watch them here because it is a bit like a silent movie - you can't understand what they are saying but you can deduce what is happening.

All of the engineers, and therefore guys, work on the other side of the building and you have to walk over there. As soon as you walk in you are out of place and accordingly there is nothing to see. But on our side it is much more interesting. We have Japanese secretaries, all women. They speak the best english at least partially because they are more frequently around westerners. The men are always called by their last names and add -san which is the typical sign of respect, similar to calling someone Mr. Smith instead of Jim. But the women we call by their first names and add -san. And they call us by our first names so I am Frank-san. If we were following standard Japanese protocol we would all call each other by our last names.

On Thursday I went to dinner with Hatta-san who is my project manager counterpart in Chiyoda. They know I will eat about anything and he took me to a specialty sushi restaurant in Tsurumi where we work. I had eaten everything there before, so not only did I not leave anything on the plate, I spouted off the names and told the owner how good it was in Japanese. This impressed her to no end and she spent about 15 minutes telling me how wonderful I was to eat fried fish head, sea urchin, and beach clams. Hatta-san was translating and it was just like in the movies. She would speak about 90 seconds and then Hatta-san would say "She said she has never seen an American who likes sea urchin". And I would wonder how come it took 90 seconds to say that.

Anyway, I used all the polite Japanese I knew and the staff followed us out of the restaurant. Most of them wanted to shake my hand and I got plenty of bows. The next day I was semi-famous at work and one of the Japanese engineers told me that even he didn't like sea urchin. Actually it isn't too bad - it is just mushy and doesn't look too appetizing.

I finally went to the seafood market here in Tokyo last Sunday. They were "butchering" a huge tuna at one place - it was as big as a cow. So I said to the guy "Maguro desu ka?" which means "Is it tuna?". They love this and you usually get about 2 to 3 minutes of reply in Japanese of which I catch very little. But this guy kept it simple and I caught some of it - he ended up giving me a piece to take away. Even knowing a little bit of a language can go a long way.

Well, I have put off the income tax long enough. I also have to get ready for the trip to see David in LA.

Have a wonderful Easter.

More Flowers

Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 9:43 AM
Subject: Weekly Email

This week the sakura petals are starting to fall. The trees are still pretty much covered with blossoms but in some areas there is a light pink carpet on the ground. When a gust of wind comes there is a shower of petals. So by next week it will probably be pretty much gone. When I walked to work yesterday the Zo-jo-ji temple was flooded with blooms and they were having a festival of some sort. The azaleas are starting to bloom right behind them and right now the weather is really beautiful. All of the Japanese were out and walking about yesterday.

All the visitors I had told me I needed to watch the movie "Lost in Translation" about Bill Murray in Japan. I'm not much on movies but one of the guys at work had it and let me borrow it. It really enjoyed it. I think it must be a bit hard to identify with if you have never been dropped in a strange country but I could identify with a lot of it, especially since it is set in Tokyo. You can see my apartment building in it. After seeing it, I still can't tell you where the dinosaur building is - maybe Ginza - I'm not sure. The Family Mart is out of the Sapporo Beer Dog - I'll go back and look today.

We have been working on getting our FEED (Front End Engineering & Design) package ready for bidding the job. Last Wednesday it went out. Our management was in Japan just prior to release and I spent 3 days briefing them. Prior to today I had worked straight days since Teresa, Megan, and David left. Yesterday I only worked a couple of hours and today I am taking off. I can feel the release of tension already. But tonight I will try and get the income tax finished.

The project that I am working on produces liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport and sales. It is the same gas you use to heat your house and cook on. The process refrigerates the gas down to about -260 degrees and turns it into a liquid. At that temperature, the LNG can be stored and transported since it reduces in volume down to about 1/600th of what it would be at the burner tip. It weighs about half what water does so the special tankers that transport it don't draw much draft. In the process we make propane, butanes, condensate, sulfur, and if we want, helium.

The LNG trains that we are designing are about twice as big as anything built before. Each train is about a kilometer long and uses three GE Frame 9 turbine-compressor-generator sets. Frame 9s are the "big boys" of gas turbines and this is the first application in this kind of mechanical service although there are a number of them in generator service. It now looks like we may build 6 to 8 more trains. If this is done, the trains that we are designing will produce a third of the world's LNG. The size of each train is such that the financing of one train alone will be the second largest project finance in the world today.

When our management was here they asked me to be project manager through start-up on the first train which is about 3 and a half years from now. I have been working hard to put myself in a place to be considered for that so I was pleased. You don't get many opportunities like that in a career - it will change the way LNG is produced and shipped and have an impact on a world scale. There are details to be figured out but it is something I would like to do. In any event, I have agreed to stay in Japan an additional 3 months to do post-FEED technical work and oversight of the technical bidding.

So, this has been a big week. I am trying to arrange to go see David in concert at the Walt Disney auditorium later in the month. It was really great to see everyone here and I look forward to getting back home for a while.

Sakura and Pagoda

Hanami and Sakura

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 10:46 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

The cherry blossoms (sakura) are in full bloom now. Today was probably close to the peak day. The blooming of the cherry trees is a major event in Japan and is called Hanami. The way to celebrate it is to get a plastic tarp (in the old days a blanket or tatami), a picnic box (bento), and some sake, and go to the park. There you sit under the cherry trees and view the blossoms, talk to your friends, eat, drink, and be merry. If you don't want to bring your food and drink you can buy traditional snacks from a stall and eat them.

We have been working extra hard but yesterday one of the Japanese guys I work with invited me to his home for dinner. Before we went to dinner, we went to the park. The park near his house is a famous one for cherry blossoms called Inokashira Park. There is a nice lake there with koi in it. You can rent a boat shaped like a swan if you want to also. We got some yakitori (chicken grilled on a skewer) and an Ashahi beer and enjoyed the sakura on top of sakurayama (cherry blossom hill). Then we went to his house where his wife fixed a very nice meal.

He lives in a duplex next to his father. The house is small but very nice and uncluttered. His wife was a fan of classical piano and she had a piano as well as a large collection of classical recordings which we listened to. As an appetizer we had salmon and a japanese pickle dish which I made the mistake of putting in the same dish. She fixed an excellent meal of beef bourgeon and a kind of salad. They slurped their salad when they ate it which is considered good manners. Anyway it was a very nice evening.

I ended up working today because we have a package going out tomorrow and we had to get it prepared. My boss is coming in tomorrow evening so this will be a busy week. Then I need to try to get the income tax completed. After that things may slow down.

Best to all, write if you get a minute.

Happy hanami and enjoy the blue bonnets (get a blanket, take some chicken and some beer, and sit and enjoy life)....

Nikko in Snow

Nikko

Bonsai Museum

Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 6:54 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

Well, the third and last wave of family for a while left yesterday. We went to all the usual places in Tokyo plus Kamakura and Nikko. The day in Nikko was especially nice in that the weather was perfect and we were able to see most of the main shrine complex. The cherries are just barely starting to bloom and we had great weather right up to Thursday evening. Friday was pretty cold but we ended up going to the museums at Ueno and staying out of most of it. I think Teresa, David, and Megan really enjoyed it. I enjoyed all of you - it is really quiet now.

I have made the observation that shopping was one of the great draws for Tokyo for all the visitors. The department stores are incredible and there are some good souvenir type shops as well. Besides the shrines and temples, the other great draw is the food. If you are willing to try something different, the Japanese cuisine is really good. If I get back here and there are visitors again, we will have to go to Kyoto. It is known for the culture, including food and temples.

Every group that visited left me some kind of unexpected "gift". Mother and Aunt Pauline left some bath soap. Cody and Kathye left cookies, snacks, and anti-wrinkle cream. David left a box of half eaten chocolates in my back pack and Megan left a Japanese Cosmopolitan. All will be put to good use.

Saturday I went into work for a while after Teresa and the kids have left. Unfortunately it is all still there pretty much as I left it.

Today I did my laundry and I've started income tax. To get out, I decided to go to the Bonsai Museum. This turned out to be quite a trek - it was the first time I was unable to navigate on the train. I couldn't find the local train and got on an express that went right by my stop. Then I tried to turn around and got on the wrong train. Finally I ended up taking the subway but had problems with that because my map was labeled wrong. When I finally got to the station I couldn't find the place because the building wasn't on the local map they always have at the subway door. I ended up having to ask the policeman who didn't speak english.

When I got there, it was a really nice museum but small. They don't have much room for display but some of the specimens were incredible. You could see the whole thing in an hour and study each tree individually (7 minutes if you are Jessica). The most impressive one was 350 years old and about 4 feet tall. Anyway, I probably wouldn't take visitors there unless they are really into such things. The cherry trees in that part of Tokyo are right down by the river and were already in pretty good bloom. Really nice.

Well, that is about it for this week. I am blessed to be able to live in such a place and have family enjoy it with me.

Take care all...

Frank

White Day

Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 2:14 PM
Subject: Weekly Email

Dear All,

I leave for the airport in a few minutes to pick up Teresa, Megan, and Dave. We are starting to get a lot of work done, but more on the way, on my project. So last week was busy.

Today is "White Day" in Japan. I may have already explained this but on Valentine's Day girls give guys something. Then on White Day, guys return the favor. The weather has really started to turn nice. It is in the 60s today and sunny. The plum trees are starting to get past their full bloom but the cherry trees are really starting to show buds. Watching the cherry blossoms fall is a big deal in Japan and in about two weeks we should be in the thick of it.

I got an espresso machine last week on my rental allowance. And it really makes great coffee. I'm still learning to froth the milk with the steamer for a cappuccino though. My effort this morning wasn't too bad.

I haven't heard from Teresa and the kids about what they want to do (except Megan wants to go to museums). So I think we will go to the National Museum first which is at Ueno. What all the visitors really seem to want to do is shop. So we'll go to the museum shop and then on Tuesday I'll take them to the Oriental Bazaar. And then we can take a trip outside Tokyo to somewhere like Nikko or Kamakura.

Well that's about it. Happy White Day!

...Frank