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The last blog entry was philosophical in nature (my natural tendency), but there is a lot of information, details I can share as well. Over winter break, my colleague and friend, Michiyo, invited David and me to go to the mountain home of her husband to spend two days with her, her husband, and their two daughters. Their mountain home is only a couple of hours from Tokyo, but it is deep in snow at this time of the year. We had a lovely time with them in their mountain home. We went to an onsen, and I had my first experience of being outside in the hot spring water while it snowed. The snow was very light (only a snow flake now and then!), but it was cold and the occasional snowflake served as a reminder of the cold because, although naked, the spring water so heated the body, that I felt hot. I will always remember that after sitting in the hot, outdoor spring for more than a half hour, when I got out and walked into the building, I did not feel any need to hurry! I was too relaxed to rush and was not in the least bit cold! In fact, we had stayed so long in the hot spring that when I entered the building, I felt the need to drink water and got a bit dizzy. I love onsens! I hope everyone who has the chance to onsen, will take it! David does not like hot baths and consequently does not appreciate the onsen experience. He stayed at the mountain home while the rest of us relaxed in the cold mountain air and the hot spring water.

The following morning, Susumu, Michiyo’s husband, drove us further into the mountains! The road was slippery, and Susumu-san had forgotten to put the four-wheel drive. He stopped to change from two-wheel to four-wheel drive, but then we did not have enough traction on the slope to get started. David, Michiyo, Ayano, and I got out to push, and we made some progress, but it was too slippery for us to get good traction. We then pulled grass from the side of the road that was not too buried in snow. We put the grass on the road, climbed in, and sure enough we were happily on our way. Memories of trying to back our large blue van down a slippery hill because I hadn’t made it up came flooding back for me! Tina and I came so very close to ending up at the bottom of the very deep gully in Northern New York on a New Year’s Eve. The NY experience was more life-threatening than this one as Tina and I teetered over the gully with more of the van over the edge than not, and we had to figure out how to get out of the van without causing it to lose its precarious balance. To this day, I cannot remember how we got out of that van. All I can say is it just was not our time to part from this world. Being stopped on this slippery road on a slope was not exactly safe, however. Cars coming up behind us had to pass us and cars coming from the other direction had to cautiously pass by. Going down the hill backwards was not an option, and at times going up it did not seem like much of an option either. It was one of those experiences that once it was over, there was a sense of group collaboration generated by having the shared experience.

We continued our drive into the mountains. We went to a shrine and spent time there to warm up but also took advantage of our bilingual friends, who could explain a lot of the charms and traditions attached to the shrine. Going to a shrine is something that many Japanese do during the first week of the New Year. We were there on January 4, 2006. We drove around a huge lake that is in the middle of three mountain peaks. Because it has been a cold winter, and the ice was solid, there were many people ice fishing. It was interesting to see some of their ice-fishing cultural icons. They have see-through plastic tents where they gather to stay warm and to eat. It was a great trip for David and me because we got to experience some New Year traditions in Japan, and because we got to spend time with Japanese friends in their home.

Returning to school after the two-week break was not easy. The two weeks was enough time to lose momentum, but not enough time to completely refurbish the engines! We started back on Jan 10th, and had three and a half weeks of the semester to complete. The stress levels have been high as SILS students have a lot to do in the final weeks.

The research interviews I have been doing for a project with Professor Iino continue to be interesting and positive experiences. I am learning so much by talking to individual students. I am finding them even more exciting now since Professor Iino and I were awarded 300,000 yen for our research for transcription costs. I am elated and relieved! Interviews are great for learning, but transcribing them is a lot of work!

This past week, one of the deans at SILS invited me to join a group of faculty and administrators for a monthly gathering at a Korean restaurant for food and drinking. Since I am vegan and do not drink, my purpose for going was completely to meet people at SILS. It was a very nice evening as I did get to connect some faces to some names I knew. Also, I sat next to a woman who has many students from China in her course. Since that is our largest group of students seeking a four-year degree from outside of Japan, I really want to interview some Chinese students. I had not had any volunteers from that group. When I mentioned that I would like to interview some of her students, she invited me to attend her class to recruit volunteers the next day. I did and have already scheduled some interviews with some of her students. This was such great timing!

I am also excited because one of my duties as the RD of JS is to visit all the sites where are students will being doing month-long practicums. The academic year begins in April, so we are completing one academic year with the end of this semester. The next break is comparable to a summer break in the US. Our JS students will do practicums, and still have one month of break. Michiyo and I will be going to Niigata this coming week in order to visit the new site for our program; then on Feb 9th, we will take two students to the site. Ben and Lisa introduced me to this site (which is in Niigata prefecture, not Niigata city), and Michiyo and I have worked together to arrange for two students to do their practicum there. We both are excited about this new opportunity, and Niigata will always have a special place in my heart. We spent nearly two weeks there in June 2003 with Lisa and Ben and their friends, especially the Sakura family. We returned there for a long weekend while Lisa, Ben, and Sophia were here in October. It is familiar to me, and I have a sense of going home (to my Japanese home) when I think of going to Niigata.

In addition to Niigata, I will be visiting many other parts of Japan. David is making the trip with the nine JS students, Michiyo, and me as we take the overnight train to Shimane Prefecture the second weekend of February. This is a very rural part of Japan. We will stay there two days so we will have time to get to know the area a little. David will then return to Tokyo, and Michiyo and I will head to Osaka to meet two students who will spend a month in that area. We will spend the day in the Osaka area and return to Tokyo late that same day. My spring break will be very busy, but it will be exciting.

I have finished my last lecture class at SILS. On Tuesday, my students will take their final. (And I have it almost written. I only need to do editing and final revising before copying it!) The next three class periods will be their student group policy research projects that should be very interesting. I have such nice students. I will hate to see the semester end! At the end of our winter break, we had the students over to our apartment for dinner. David got to meet them and now better understands how nice they are. We really enjoyed our evening with them! I could also continue teaching this course for another entire semester. It is such an interesting topic and there is just so much that we can do with it and not feel bored or tired of it!

Life in Tokyo continues to be exciting and rewarding! My one complaint is that we have not seen our granddaughter in a very long time! We were very used to seeing her on video camera every few days, but since they moved to their new home a couple of weeks ago, they do not have a phone! We’re suffering from Sophia withdrawal!

We have been in Japan for more than five months, we have met the New Year here, and I am close to the end of the first semester. So much has happened in the past five months. Despite our continued struggles to learn Japanese, we have learned so very much in general. I have been interviewing SILS students, have my own students in my course, and have much contact with the Japan Study students, who have come to Japan from US Midwest private colleges. In addition, I work closely with a Japanese colleague, Michiyo, and have had some conversations with other SILS faculty members and with Resident Directors from other US colleges/Waseda partnerships. All of these people have helped me learn a great deal about Japan and Japanese. Essentializing notions such as “Japanese are conformists,” have been severely challenged. As my understanding of Japanese education, both in policies and practice, has grown, so has my understanding of why being a professor in Japan is such a comfortable experience, especially when teaching a course on social justice and education. Japanese society is complex, and the educational policies and practices are exceptionally interesting and complex. I have learned so much from students and colleagues here, and this type of learning is what makes life so very interesting and worthwhile.

Learning the Japanese language is a different story. I can tell that my Japanese has improved (and David’s has improved even more than mine), but the improvement has been slow and taken so much work. We both study Japanese several hours a week, but for me, I can summarize my experience that I seem to spend many more hours “forgetting” Japanese than I spend learning it. I am resigned to the fact that I am not going to be close to fluent in even basic Japanese at the end of our year here, but at least I will know a lot more than I knew previously.

Another great aspect of life in Tokyo for me has been my increasing desire to act on my interests in Japanese designs, handiwork, and fabrics. Although my Japanese is limited, I can read pictures and have experience sewing, so I have convinced myself that I will be able to create or be inspired to create similar designs for clothing, quilts, and art based on pictures I am gathering while here. I am also planning to acquire fabrics that will be difficult to find in the US that I can use to create some unique items. Since I was very young, I have been drawn to fabrics and amazing handiwork designs in patterns. Many aspects of the Japanese sense of beauty resonate with my soul. This has supported an ever-increasing sense of inner peace for me even while I live in one of the most populated cities in the world. It has also been a source of confidence in my own creative abilities. Perhaps I am fooling myself as I am immersed in this “foreign” experience, and it will be a temporary confidence in creativity. However, I presently am finding it immensely satisfying.

Hi all, long time no blog. Things are going well. We had a nice, quiet Christmas. Some students came over on Christmas Eve and we watched the traditional Christmas classic, Office Space.

A couple of days before, we went to a pottery town called Mashiko about three hours north of Tokyo by train and bus. There was a lot of pottery of all different styles and prices. We spent several hours looking at the pottery and certainly saw only a small part of what was there. We bought several pieces that we liked and then went to a Japanese vegetarian restaurant. In Tokyo, vegetarian restaurants are rare and it is difficult to get any vegetarian food in most Japanese restaurants—mostly because of the use of dashi as a soup base and fish used in many sauces. So we were rather pleasantly surprised to find this restaurant in Mashiko. The food was excellent, interesting, and tasty. It was so good, in fact, that we lost track of the time and almost missed our bus back. There are some pictures in the gallery.

Yesterday we decided to get on a bus close to our apartment that we hadn’t taken before. It went to Ueno park. The park was not crowded (perhaps because the ginko tree fruits rotting on the ground are particularly bad smelling this time of year) and we walked a lot. We wanted to go into the Tokyo National Museum gift shop without paying for the museum. This is possible and Karen asked how. We were told to go north a short distance. Well, we went a short distance and there was no way to get in. We continued to walk all the way around this rather large park and there was no way in. When we got back to the regular entrance more than half an hour later we saw the place we were to go a mere few steps away.

We then walked to Akihabara and bought a USB hub for all the geeky equipment we got for Christmas. Oh yeah, for Christmas Karen got a set of speakers to play music on. The laptop computer speakers just aren’t good enough anymore. We’ve been listening almost non-stop ever since. We connect them to our computers, my Creative Zen Nano MP3 player, and Karen’s Olympus digital voice recorder to listen to music. We also connect them when watching DVD movies. It makes them sound as if we are in a theater compared to the computer speakers. Other geeky gifts– a new USB hard drive—250 GB and a computer video camera so Sophia can see us while we see her. We’ve been using Google-talk, Skype, and Skype-out to talk to everyone. Now we’ve started using Festoon to see Lisa, Ben, and Sophia. If anyone else has a camera and wants to see us, we’d be glad to. If you would like to or need to use a different program rather than Festoon, let me know what it is. My email is dgourd@gmail.com.

David and I started taking Japanese classes in November. We only study one hour two times a week with our teacher, but it was a good decision for us! We are seeing an improvement in our Japanese language skills. We sure have a long way to go, but we just were not able to pick up the language and study on our own when we could easily go for days without ever needing to use Japanese. Now we have a teacher who expects us to do our homework and we are able to ask her questions, so we can make sense of things we see and hear. It has been very useful.

It is also interesting because David and I are such opposite language learners! He is an oral/aural learner, and I learn through reading and writing. He can memorize things easily—even random things with no context. I can’t memorize easily and need a context—even a random one will help—before I can memorize things. I cannot even remember my name in katakana, while David can say MacDonald (as in the hamburger place) with ease! I have no desire to say MacDonald, so even if I learn it for one class period, it’s gone the next! However, ironically, I seem to remember many words longer than David. We have analyzed this as my not remembering anything through short-term memory, so I only remember it by moving it to long-term memory. My approach is to move things to long-term memory as soon as possible. David, on the other hand, has an excellent short-term memory, and he relies on it. If he uses things regularly, they slip into his long-term memory, but if he doesn’t use them, he forgets them very quickly. The result of our analysis is that we are much better at speaking Japanese together because then we can use the strengths of both of us. Mutual dependency!

Our classes are expensive, and we had thought about stopping them after a couple of months, but we have seen so much improvement (we certainly study more regularly) that we decided to continue indefinitely. Interestingly, our teacher this week suggested that if after one hour of lesson, it is not a convenient stopping place, we can go over our time. The one hour does go quickly, especially because we usually have a lot of questions.

I have already written many times about how much I am enjoying my work with Japan Study and teaching at SILS, but things just keep getting better, and I want to return to this topic.

The Japan Study Program director made his yearly visit to Waseda and was pleased with the operations this year. Michiyo, the Program Associate, and I have been telling him we have great students and no major problems, and he saw for himself how well things are going as he met many of the students. It is a very positive work environment in JS at SILS, and Michiyo and I have been able to collaborate easily. I am thrilled to have a wonderfully competent colleague who works hard and cares about the students and the program. When issues come up, we are able to talk through them together, and when we disagree, we keep talking until we find a solution that we both can support. Naturally one of the reasons we have no major problems thus far is because two minds is better than one; we have been able to act more effectively and efficiently be collaborating. Also, Gary DeCoker, the director of the program, is very competent and collaborative as well. Good communications are essential to an effective program!

Another positive note professionally is that I applied for an academic position that I am quite excited about. After several years of considering dropping out of academia completely, I did not expect to apply for another academic position. This was the only position I have found interesting in the listings in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and although my living abroad this year may be a liability from the search committee’s perspective, I am happy to be enthusiastic about a job possibility!

A few days ago, I received information from one of the editors, Reva Joshee, of a book in which I have a chapter. Reva let all of the authors know that the book had been through the final external reviewer process and would be moving forward in the publishing process. She forwarded some of the comments of reviewers. The book, editors, and authors were all praised! The books is well-conceived and creative, as well as much-needed. (The focus of the book is multicultural policy. It has a unique organization with each section having three chapters–one chapter on Canada’s policies, one on the US’s policies, and one that critically discusses the issues raised in the previous two chapters in order to move the descriptions and analyses to a broader theoretical level. Ingenious, right!?)

My chapter is in the language policy section, and is the third chapter of the section. I was able to draw the connections between Canada’s and the US’s language policies, to discuss the similarities and differences, and to raise critical questions about language policies.

Among the statements made by reviewers were that the scholarship in all of the chapters is impeccable and the writing is of exceptional quality. All of the reviewers said they would buy and use the book. (One said the book should have been published last year!) I am feeling very happy for the editors, Reva Joshee and Lauri Johnson, who indeed deserve the praise, but I am also feeling very proud to have my work included in the book and to be working with such great people!

Continuing speaking about great people I work with, I am currently working on a research project with Professor Masakazu Iino at Waseda University in the School of International Liberal Studies (SILS). SILS is a new school within Waseda University and has some unique features that piqued my interest even before I came to Tokyo. Three primary distinct features of SILS are (1) an international focus, (2) a liberal arts program, and (3) language instruction in English. Students from Japan and other countries (mostly China, Korea, and Taiwan) earn a four-year degree and students from other nations (many from colleges in the US such as the Japan Study students) study at SILS for 1 term, 1 semester, or 1 year. Professor Iino and I are investigating the students’ experiences in SILS. I am doing interviews with students and learning a lot! Today, we just found out that we can apply for some research funds from SILS so we can pay to have the interviews transcribed! HAPPY!

Life is good!

Well today I used Japanese more than any other day thus far in Japan. It began with our second Japanese lesson. We exchanged very few actual sentences, but I did produce some follow-the-pattern sentences and named several pictures using Japanese. The real use of the language, however, came much later in the day. I’ll share my two stressful stories.

This past weekend, David and I had gone to Akihabara (known as electric city) to purchase a digital voice recorder for my research. This part of Tokyo is THE place to go for such things as a digital voice recorder, camera, and electronic dictionary, all items that we have purchased in Akihabara. This is where you get the best prices and the most recent models for the Japanese brands. And sometimes, only sometimes, a sales clerk speaks English. David had done the homework initially to help me determine a couple of recorders to consider. He also found prices on Amazon.jp in order to give us a price range in order to barter. I also read some reviews, so even though we went to four stores comparing prices and available models and did not find a clerk who spoke English, we were able to communicate and make our purchase without much anxiety. And even though the only available manual was in Japanese, we were fairly confident we could get an English manual off the Internet.

Like most of our trips to Akihabara, the time we spent there was much less than the time spent to get there! I was, indeed, both proud and excited about our little purchase, especially because I had been well instructed on how to get reimbursed from Waseda once I made my purchase. I went home with this great little recorder that is just what I need for my research and I would be reimbursed because I had gotten my “reshito” (receipt).

So today I took the recorder and the reshito to the woman in charge of research funds who had given me clear, specific instructions and warnings about making my purchase. I proudly showed her my reshito, but her face showed concern and anxiety. She doesn’t speak very much English and I speak so very little Japanese. She spoke in Japanese to me, and I could understand that my reshito was not what she meant by reshito even though I didn’t know the words she used. I tried to explain in Japanese that I had asked for the reshito and had gotten this paper. She kept saying it wasn’t a reshito. She then told me she was going to call the store where I had bought it. I understood the Japanese she used to tell me she was going to call the store, but I really did not understand the problem that would make her need to call the store.

I sat in the office while she called the store. I listened and understood bits and pieces of the phone call. After more than 10 minutes on the phone, in which her concern and seriousness did not disappear, she hung up and made another call. That one lasted only about 5 minutes; then she came back to me to explain. She spoke in Japanese, and I was not getting her meaning until she said in English “next time.” Whew! I was going to get reimbursed so I could listen a little better. Apparently the reshito I got was a tax-type receipt the stores in Akihabara are required to use, so they do not give cash registrar receipts. However, Waseda requires a cash registrar receipt for reimbursement. Next time, I will get both! She had gotten all the information she needed by phone; then called a supervisor to get approval to reimburse me for the 26,000 yen for my cool little recorder. That was really a good price—almost 3,000 yen less that at Amazon.jp and it is such a small, cute recorder! (David was also able to find the manual in English!)

I will also remember not to go do business in the SILS (School for International Liberal Studies) office on Wed afternoon when the office personnel who speak English are in a meeting!! Well, actually, I might just go on Wednesday afternoon again because it MADE me use Japanese and I did get through it.

So I left the SILS office to do a run to the 100 yen store to pick up some office supplies. On my way back to my office—less than a half block from my office, I realized I didn’t know where my keys were. I searched and searched and searched and could not find them. I retraced my steps and stopped at three stores to say in Japanese, “My keys. . .” and shrugged. Everyone searched then said “Nai.” (None.) I searched my purse again and this time found them! It was a very stressful afternoon but at least I know I am in a different country today! I could not imagine how I was going to get into my office. I would have had to talk to a security guard and convince him/her to let me in! That would have been more challenge than I was ready for!

As stressful as the events were today, they turned out all right, and I was being sincere when I wrote that I am glad for the times I actually have to use Japanese. It isn’t that everyone here speaks English. Very few people actually do. It is just that we work most of every day by ourselves, and the people I am in contact with most of the time do speak English. Even shopping we can do without knowing much Japanese. It is amazing how much a person can do here without knowing Japanese. I do, however, hope some day to actually be able to talk to people!

I often think of things to put on the blog while I am walking, but then there are so many other things I want to do, too, that I don’t quite get the blog entry written. It has been more than a month since I posted, and Margo and Lisa have asked when we were going to do a new entry. If people are reading, we better write!

Life is Japan continues to suit us well! I am loving my work here. David’s job, unfortunately, is not as exciting as he would like it to be. It’s not a fulltime job, so he does have time to do some projects that are exciting. He is not complaining as Tokyo suits him better than Galesburg or the Midwest in general ever has! We both enjoy our non-work time. There is always something to do! Mostly we just walk in or to places to discover another part of the city. We found these great Korean red bean pancakes on a walk a couple of weeks ago that I am anxious to have again!

Last weekend, the Japan Study Program had its fall retreat in Nagano, a mountainous area about 3 hours by bus west of Tokyo. It was cold and rainy on Saturday, but Sunday was sunny and beautiful. We have a wonderful group of students, so even though David did not attend because he was sick, I enjoyed talking and interacting with the students and Michiyo, the Program Associate. Michiyo, her daughter, Sarah (Michiyo’s assistant), and I snuck off Sunday morning to go to an onsen (a hot springs public bath). It was fabulous!

Lisa, Ben, and Sophia arrived in Japan on October 5th, David’s and my 26th wedding anniversary. It was a great way to celebrate! We met them at the Nippori station with little trouble and at first Sophia looked like she wasn’t going to come to me, but when I spoke to her, she clearly recognized my voice, and let me hold her! Since their luggage, including Sophia’s stroller, was tied up in a workers strike in France, there were many opportunities to hold her! We had to go shopping to get necessities and for the first few days we didn’t have a stroller. I loved holding her, although, she really is a bit heavy for hours of carrying. The stroller that Ben and Lisa purchased on the third or fourth day helped us all out.

In addition to shopping, while Ben, Lisa, and Sophia were in Tokyo, we went to the National Museum in Ueno Park one day and went to Asakusa to visit a famous Buddhist Temple and grounds and to shop in a traditional shopping area of Tokyo. Both trips were very nice.

Lisa, Ben, and Sophia, went to Gosen City a few days after arriving in Tokyo. We missed them, but that was a busy week for us. I had a lot of responsibilities for the Japan Study Program and David was interviewing and going through orientation for his new job. I had coordinated two events for JS, a dinner with the Program Associate from the States and a trip to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. While leaving the museum, I ran into a student I knew from my first year at Knox College. He is the student that asked me to be the advisor of the Chinese Club at Knox. I believe he is from Singapore, so in Tokyo, a city with 12 million people that is not in the country that is home to either of us, it was incredible to just run into each other! He is in a graduate program at a university in Tokyo. We exchanged contact information and should see each other again.

The weekend before the Nagano retreat, David and I joined Lisa, Ben, and Sophia in Niigata for a few hours of shopping then went to Muramatsu (that may not be spelled correctly) where the Sekuras live. Their city is being combined with some other cities and will be Gosen City now. We were there for three nights and had a wonderful time! It was the best weekend we have had so far. Mrs. Sekura is a wonderful cook and the family is so gracious, fun, and interesting to be with that every minute was fabulous! Time with Lisa, Ben and our granddaughter, of course, topped the bill, but it was great to share the time and space with other people who lover our kids and granddaughter so much. So-chan (Sophia shortened with the Japanese honorific term for children added) charmed us all, and kept us all busy! While in Japan, So-chan learned to crawl, pull herself up to furniture, and to walk pushing a little toy or holding onto someone’s fingers. She matured more every day, and she is a good eater. Just feeding her kept many people busy, and, of course, what she ate caused other needs, too! Her favorite food was the wonderful Niigata rice! It is excellent and we were eating rice that had been in the field the week before. Rice lovers, you don’t know what you’re missing until you have had rice that fresh! We have tons of photos of Sophia, but they still don’t seem to be enough. We miss her so much!

While at the Sekuras’ we went to an onsen. It was fabulous! Lisa, Sophia, and two Grandmothers enjoying the baths together may not happen again. We spent a large portion of the day there, as after bathing, we ate lunch in a large room with low tables that were perfect for So-Chan. A lot of other children were around in the play area, too. We just ate and hung out after bathing. It was a very relaxing day.

We returned to Tokyo with Lisa, Ben, and Sophia after our visit at the Sekuras’ and went to parks and shopping close to our apartment. We had meals late after So-Chan had gone to bed and David got home. (He doesn’t get home until 9:30.) Since the Goold family returned to Oxford, my attention has been on teaching (finally read some of my students’ papers), working on a research project, and catching up on JS items, and of course going to the retreat in Nagano. I am still enjoying the course I teach and am excited about all of the components of my work here. It feels so good. Every day I feel a bit more relaxed and excited; it’s a freedom I have not felt for a very long time.

This weekend, I will be preparing a speech, the first of a series of three. I should be more concerned than I am because I have only written a paragraph so far, but it is on critical pedagogy, a topic I know well and can talk about easily with confidence. I am actually looking forward to having a captive audience and meeting students and faculty from education! You can get the details at this site http://www.waseda.jp/sils/en/student/info_05KarenENG.html.

David and I have also decided to begin private Japanese lessons. We met the teacher on Wednesday and will begin classes one hour a day on Mondays and Wednesdays. It will make us more busy, but we want to increase our speaking ability. Just studying on our own means that we forget the things that we learn so easily because we’re not really using Japanese except when we’re studying. Classes are expensive, but we think it is something we need to do.

Time to work on that speech!

Our not very old Fuji Fine-pix 810 is broken. The LCD broke sometime in the first few weeks of our being in Japan. We could still take pictures, but couldn’t see them until we transferred them to the computer and we couldn’t make any adjustments–forced flash for example. Then just after Lisa, Ben, and Sophia arrived the pictures began coming out with lines and having light problems. It got to the point that the camera was not usable. So we bought a new camera. We liked the size of Lisa and Ben’s Canon Digital IXUS (Powershot Digital ELPH in the USA) and the picture quality so we bought one–the Canon IXY Digital 60 which is called the Canon Digital IXUS 55 in Europe and the Canon Powershot SD450 Digital ELPH in the USA.

One of its features is to take a series of shots and stitch them together. I did this from our Balcony and the result is here. To view it copy the URL below into a browser.

http://www.nerdylorrin.net/gallery2/d/35194-2/From_our_balcony_in_Tokyo.jpg

Finally we have our wireless network working. This was a long process. We arrived in Tokyo on August 17 and had an ADSL modem. We could get internet, but only through a wired connection and only one at a time because we did not have the ISP connection numbers to set up our router. Also, the connection was in the previous resident director’s name and he didn’t cancel it as a favor to us. The program agreed to pay the monthly fee and change the billing to the program, but the busy program associate forgot to do it. In the meantime we ordered a wireless router from the States which Lorrin and Tina kindly shipped to us. When we received it we went to the program associate for the numbers we needed only to find out she had forgotten about switching it over. She then did it right away, but the numbers didn’t finally arrive in Karen’s hands until Friday. This weekend through a lot of trial and error and finally finding English instructions I got the wireless working. It isn’t quite perfect yet because it is not encrypted, but that should not take much longer. So, this blog entry was done wireless.

Friday we bought a stroller because we did not know when the luggage would arrive. There is a Toys-R-Us at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The stroller was on a good sale and therefore a very good price for the quality. We visited Ueno park yesterday where we went to the Tokyo National Museum. We saw a pottery exhibit that traced the history of pottery in Japan. It was great. We also saw some permanent exhibits on painting, clothes, other pottery, and military gear. Today we went to Asakusa where there is a large Buddhist temple and lots of small shop shopping. We also ate at a sushi place there. The food was terrific. These kind of sushi places are a lot of fun. The sushi plates go by on a conveyor belt. You take what you want and at the end they count up the number of plates of each kind of plate and charge you accordingly. The chefs making the food take orders and interact with the customers. We also came across a “Brazilian” parade that was really awful. The dancers were bad, the costumes were bad, the whole thing was bad. More later