Charles and Christy’s Weblog

We started today by going to some shops in the fancy shopping district of Ginza.  This street has every designer store you can imagine: Prada, Gucci, Dior, etc.  One of my colleagues wanted to buy pears from Mikimoto, so we started there.  The store (and the jewelry) was beautiful.  I saw quite a few items that I would have loved to own… just too many zeros in the prices though (especially in yen).  After Mikimoto, we had lunch with our whole group (8 people) and then went to a chic teahouse on Ginza where we had sake, green tea, and sweets.  There were lot of women dressed in fancy clothese with a lot of shopping bags relaxing and chatting in the teahouse.  I definitely felt out of my leage.

 After shopping and tea, we headed toward Tokyo Bay.  We found a huge garden and walked through it.  There are lots of flowers this time of year (irises and peonies mostly).  Then we got on the water bus and enjoyed a 1 hour cruise around the Bay.  Tokyo has some very cool architecture (I will post my photos when I return).  After the boat ride, we headed to the Tokyo Tower.  This is a replica of the Eiffel Tower (but red).  We took an elevator to the 150 m observation deck but did not pay the extra money to go to the 250 m observation deck.  Tokyo is a huge city.  I guess if we had gone during the day, we would have been able to see all the way to Mt. Fuji.  To end the night, we had a drink in our fancy hotel bar.

 Overall, my impression of Tokyo so far is that it is a beautiful city with a very interesting mix of old culture and new culture.  For example, we found a beautiful Bhuddist temple at the base of the Tokyo Tower.  The people are polite (I have not heard a cell phone ringing yet and people are not walking the streets talking on their phone) and welcoming to foreigners.  It is very expensive but I think I could live here.

Today my real work begins.  We are touring the Japanese version of NIST and their advanced photon source.  I am giving a talk this afternoon as well (which I still need to look over).

Well, I am back in Japan again for another business trip.  I am happy to say that my arrival was much smoother this time.  I did not get bumped off of my direct flight and my luggage was here when I arrived.  This time, I get to spend my first 5 days in Tokyo… which is nice since last time I was only in Tokyo for a day.  The group I am with booked us in a swank modern hotel on Ginza Street - I love it.  Last night, after my long day of travel, I walked along Ginza Street.  Even though it was a Thursday night, there were a ton of people out, dressed beautifully.  Japanese women seem to always look like they are on their way to a fancy party of club.  I have free time until Monday, so I met up with two other women in the group, and we are going to explore Tokyo.  It just so happens that right now is one of the 3 times a year that there is an active sumo tournament (http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/index.html)… so we are going to try to get tickets today.  It should be interesting.  I do not really know the rules or the traditions but it will be a real taste of Japanese culture.

I posted my pictures in our gallery at www.cburdick.net/gallery. If you click on a picture, I have written short captions in many cases.

I arrived back in Minneapolis at 6 pm on Wednesday night… for me, August 30th was 38 hours long this year. My flight back went smoothly. I had a layover in LA that immediately provided contrast for the 10 days I spent in Japan.

Right away, I noticed litter all over the airport where everything in Japan was so clean. Instead of fresh fruit and fish in the food court, there were greasy fast food chains. The airline employees could not tell me from which gate my LAX to MSP flight would leave while in Japan, I could get reserved seats on any train from any train station. When trying to go from one terminal to another in LAX, the bus driver only grunted at me when I asked about the bus route. In contrast, everyone in service positions in Japan seemed so nice and helpful. While travelling in Japan without speaking Japanese was challenging for me, I imagine that travelling in the U.S. without speaking English is horrendous. At the customs station, I even witnessed a customs agent harassing a non-English speaking U.S. citizen by saying, “Don’t you think you should speak English if you live in the United States?” in a quite aggressive manner. There are lots of things that Japanese society seems to do better than we do.

On the other hand, there seems to be a major disadvantage to living in Japanese society that I could not tolerate - pervasive gender-based discrimination. Nearly every service person I met (in hotels, restaurants, and shops) was a woman. There seems to be a national obsession with weddings. Out on the streets, nearly everyone traveled in man-woman pairs - I didn’t see groups of girlfriends or guys hanging out. Based on my conversations with my Mt. Fuji tour guide, I got the impression that Japan society treats women very traditionally with strict expectations about marriage, kids, and appropriate jobs. She also told me that many women move abroad because the expectations do not match their life goals.

So, while I enjoyed me time in Japan, I also missed some of the freedoms that I take for granted in the U.S. The trip was a great experience, the conference was productive, and I am sure I will visit again (next time, with Charles).

I will post my pictures this weekend in an album on our gallery (www.cburdick.net/gallery)… back to work!

So, today was day #2 of the satellite conference.  I haven’t really had much time to explore Takarazuka though I have enjoyed our 15 minute walk to the conference site from the train station.  We walk behind all of the school children in their cute uniforms.  We even get to see them doing their morning exercise in the school yard.  I went for a short walk around Takarazuka this morning by the river that runs through town and there were some heron and egrets in the water.

Last night, another conference attendee and I skipped the formal banquet and went to a local market to pick up dinner… cold soba noodles with beans and some steamed pork buns.  The Japanese version of a food court is so much better than the American version… so much fresh fruit and fish.

We left the conference a little early today (3 pm) to start our train trip back towards the airport.  We bought bento boxes to take with us.  It was about a 5 hour train ride from Takarazuka to Narita (both a city and an airport).  We are now settled at our hotel.  After breakfast tomorrow morning, Li-lin (a fellow conference attendee) and I will go to a nearby shopping street and temple before heading to the airport.  My flight back has a layover in LA… I hope my flight home goes better than my flight here.  At least I’ll have clothes at home if they lose my luggage this time.

I will try to write a final entry with my overall thought on my visit.  The short version is that I’ve really enjoyed it.  It is a beautiful country with very efficient transit and city planning.  The food is good.  It is also an interesting mix of very modern and classic culture.  I’m sure that Charles and I will come back…

Today is the first day of the satellite conference.  The weekend off was very interesting.  First thing Saturday morning, one of Charles’ friends from business school, Nori, and his wife met me in Yokohama.  They guided four of us (Rick, Martin Moskovits, one of Martin’s former students, and me) on a tour of Kamakura.  Kamakura was the capital of Japan before Kyoto, and thus, has some beautiful temples.  We saw an enormous Bhudda.  It was cast from bronze and you could actually go inside.  We also went to a Shinto temple and learned about some Shinto traditions.  We had lunch in a sushi bar where all the different kinds of sushi go around the restaurant on a conveyor belt and you just grab what you want.  Then you pay based on the number and color of the plates on your table. 

After a lot of rushing and lugging suitcases around subways stations, we got onto the bullet train to Kyoto.  I was staying in a traditional ryokan.  You have to take your shoes off and wear slippers inside.  Then you cannot even wear the slippers in your room.  The floor is covered with tatami mats and appointed beautifully.  My room had a back door that looked right onto a babbling creek.  The ryokan had a public bath (gender-segregated, of course) - an interesting experience… actually a lot like the Turkish baths in Budapest as far as I can tell.  The food was overwhelming.  There is a special cuisine in Kyoto called Keiseki (spelling?) and it was so much food that I couldn’t believe it… many items that I could not identify.  I could not wear my normal clothes to dinner - a woman that works at the ryokan dressed me correctly in a gown.  I felt like I was wearing a costume but it was nice to have the authentic experience.

On Sunday, we wandered around the temples of Kyoto.  We walked the Philospher’s Path to the Silver Temple where there are beautiful Zen rock gardens and bonsai trees.  This was how I imagined Japan.  It started to rain pretty hard so we ducked into a shop and a bought a few souveniers.  We then took the train (again lugging luggage) to Takaruzka where I am staying for the conference.  This is a much smaller town… famous for a comic book museum and a theater.  Unfortunately, I won’t have time to see a show because of the conference.  I will try to write more details about the weekend when I have better computer access…