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.