A note for those reading this blog

If you have not previously visited my blog (or are arriving here from another link), please use the Archives link on the side to go to the oldest entries, then read forward from there.

Blogging is, by nature, a LIFO (Last In, First Out) process. My blog is more of a diary and should be read from oldest to newest entry.

Enjoy!

A couple of minor changes here....

Unfortunately, my blog has been hit with 'comment spam' recently - things that look like comments but are actually unwanted advertising for someone else's get-rich-quick or rip-you-off schemes.

I've cleaned out the non-comments and changed a setting; comments can still be entered, but there is an additional verification step before they will be accepted. It's a bit of a nuisance, but the cretins that prey on others leave me no particular choice.

If you come across any comments in any blog that include highlighted links, please do not click on the links unless you know exactly who put them there (and even then I would avoid clicking on them). They are not much different than those strange e-mails with links that pretend to go to banking sites, etc. - all they will do is cause you problems.

More later - our Japanese administrator is due here for a visit in two weeks.

Tokyo Return, Day 4 - Returning Home

Up at a 'normal' time, and I get on the computer one more time before packing it up. The first news report I see is a 'passage of time' report - James Doohan, know to millions of "Star Trek" fans as Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise, has died. I muse on the fact that "Beam me up, Scotty" is something that I wish I could say today, rather than sit on that airplane. I'll have to e-mail my partner, who is as much a Trekkie as I am.

Breakfast finds me downstairs with many of the other American teachers, and conversations range from 'what shuttle are you riding (to the airport?)', to the news about the Star Trek actor's death to a query about who has the new Harry Potter book to read on the plane, which leads to a second discussion of what bookstores have it and in which edition (we've found both the American and the British publishers' versions - the British is trifle bit cheaper in price, for the most part). By the time we all get to our planes, more than half of the teachers will have a fresh copy to read.

Check out is straightforward, as is the walk to the hotel down the street where we will catch the shuttle bus to the airport. The desk clerks at that hotel seem very surprised at the size and amount of luggage we have, until I explain that we are a group of teachers finishing a 6-week-long stay in Japan. One clerk smiles broadly and exclaims, "So that is why your bags are so big!" and asks how we liked our stay. I tell her that we have enjoyed ourselves.

After all of our concerns about the flight home, the reality is a bit of an anticlimax - no long lines, no particular problems with over weight bags or security problems, not even major difficulties with boarding. And the flight itself is a decent one - for the first time, I get to ride in a plane that has the individual video screens for each seat, which means I can choose which movies I see during the flight. I also manage a couple of short sleep sessions, another good thing that should ensure that I am not quite a zombie when I get home.

Our arrival in Chicago heralds the end of the 'easy' part - now we know where some of the lines went. The entry point lines are long, but they are moving; unfortunately, the same cannot be said for baggage claim. As the suitcases slowly trickle down the chute, several people begin to worry about making connecting flights - it takes almost an hour for all of the bags to arrive, and there were one or two broken ones as well as some missing luggage.

The customs checkpoint moves fairly quickly; baggage re-check on the other side does not. It's almost as though the baggage handlers at O'Hare Airport are operating on reduced capacity or something. Later listserv messages confirm that there were major problems - several of the east-coast-bound folks arrived home without their bags. (Hopefully, everyone will be reunited with their belongings soon.)

I get to my gate for the connecting flight to St. Louis and find Theckla but not Joy - she shows up later, having stopped to grab something to eat. I call my husband, and find out that my son will be picking me up; this is nice, but I wonder if his compact car can handle my large suitcases. Oh well, we'll find out, won't we?

The flight to St. Louis is uneventful - sleep time for me (I don't even bother with getting something to drink). We arrive almost 15 minutes early, but our rides have also gotten there ahead of time. My son is waiting at the concourse entrance; turns out he wanted to be sure which one is was, since he is flying out on business from there next week. The others soon find their people as well, and our baggage shows up rather quickly, for a change. (Okay, now I understand what's going on - someone transplanted our usual baggage handlers to Chicago....)

We load everything (yes, the bags fit), and head for home. I've had a wonderful time, but I'm glad to see my family again. I'll spend the next few days recovering from jet lag, then begin working on plans for the upcoming school year.

Tokyo Return, Day 3 - The final meeting

Breakfast with Ishii-san one more time - the Japanese teachers have a 9:00 AM meeting, and then they head back to their schools. American teachers have our meeting this afternoon, and we will fly out tomorrow.

I have that last box to mail, so I walk over to the Sanno Grand Building with Ishii. When we get to the JUSEC office, I tell him that I will be e-mailing him once school starts so that we can set up our first video conference, then wish him a safe flight home, and head back for the first floor. My box safely on its way, I go back to the hotel. Our meeting is this afternoon, and I have to get my web report onto a CD.

The housekeeping force is already started, but I need uninterrupted time, so out comes the "Do Not Disturb" sign. (Later, I found out that about a third of the teachers were doing the same - the poor ladies cleaning the rooms must have had a dreaful time keeping track of which rooms were done and which still needed work.)

Pictures uploaded, Week 5 Report created, and everything is burned on to a CD - okay that's finished. Now I dig through my receipts - I remembered last night that I had not put the camcorder spare battery or the extra CDs and tapes on the expense report, and I need the dates as well as the amounts (for Yen to Dollar conversion). Now I've got those things taken care of - is there anything else in the way of paperwork?

No - now it's just the last of the packing. All of the accumulated camera and computer stuff gets put in one bag, all of the paperwork in another, the last of the specialty things wherever they will fit...Okay, pull out the clothes for tomorrow, make a space for the last of the dirty things - this just might work. I test the bags, then take the heaviest of the two downstairs to check the weight. It says 28 kg - I am allowed not quite 32 kg, so even with some slop, I should be okay.

Wow, I may actually be ready for this last sesson.

Okay, I've got time for lunch before I go over there. I hang the "Make Up the Room" sign out, grab my folder and head for the street. And discover (happily) that a new lunch option is available - Subway! There was a Subway around the corner from the hotel, but when we came in June, we discovered that it had closed and some new construction was going on. Turns out they were turning the space into two shops - an updated Subway (yay!) and a Haagen-Das ice-cream shop (double yay!!!!!).

And they've got Diet Pepsi! (Be still, my beating heart.......)

Subway is very similar to the American version, but there are some sandwiches and wraps only available in Japan. I try one of those - a Taandori Chicken wrap that turns out to be wonderful - I think I'll have to see if they plan to introduce it in the U.S. Now it's meeting time.

Our last gathering is a discussion of our various experiences and short descriptions of what we have planned for our paired projects. I wasn't sure what to expect - my experience was great, and I knew that many others had enjoyed their community visits as well, but I had also heard discussions that indicated that a couple of people had some problems. But everyone did report their various good/unique/special experiences, and I think even those with some problems found that there were good things that happened as well.

Some of the problems I heard about were related to miscommunications between the Japanese hosts and MTP regarding housing and the payments of the costs associated with it. Because we do not (for the most part) stay in regular hotels during the 4-week community visit, there are a lot of things that are very different in the weekly rents - for example, utilities are charged based on actual use, and are paid at the end of the stay. The schools that have participated in MTP have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done; it's the new schools that are having issues, but things will get worked out, one way or another.

Our last bit of paperwork complete, the Americans head back to the hotel, some to go out for the evening, others to finish packing and head for bed.

Tokyo Return, Day 2 - National Science Museum

Ishii-san had called me when he arrived on Monday evening, and we agreed to meet for breakfast at 7:30 AM. So why am I running around like crazy, yanking clothes from the suitcases at 7:28 AM?

Because I overslept, that's why.....

I had the curtains open (an early sunrise is a very good way to wake me up), and I vaguely recall half-waking, looking at the clock and realizing that I could sleep for at least another hour (sunrise is around 5:00 AM - that's what no Daylight Savings Time does), so I did...and then some.

Oh well, I manage to get showered and dressed and downstairs by about 7:40 or so, so it wasn't too bad. We enjoy our breakfast and talk about our morning schedule. Ishii isn't sure how long it will take to get to the National Science Museum, our morning gathering place, but I assure him that, even with a transfer from subway to train, it shouldn't take more than 40 minutes or so.

We agree to meet in the lobby at 8:45, and I head back upstairs to (sort of) put things to right. Then we make the trip out to the science museum. Our meeting this morning is a presentation about the museum and its collections (it is the equivalent of the Natural History Museum portion of the Smithsonian), and a shorter presentation about ways to collect bugs.

Ed Jones is not at the meeting; he has been dealing with some health issues and is in the hospital, but he talks with us via cell phone and answers a few questions that come up. We all send wishes for his speedy recovery.

The latter topic always seems a bit redundant with science-based teachers, but in recent years, museums that specialize in science training have discovered that while kids seem to instinctively know how to catch a bug in a net, adults don't retain that knowledge very well. The presentation offers some good tips for attracting different kinds of bugs, both in nets and in traps designed for specific insect types.

After the presentation, we are invited to view the rest of the museum and have free time until our farewell dinner tonight. Both Ishii and I have seen the museum before; Ishii wants to go to Akihabara to look for a specific kind of radio, and I decide to go along just to look at what's available.

Akihabara Electric Town is a collection of shops with electronics of all types - every camera known to the modern world, both new and used, any portable form of music player that one can buy, even individual parts (I walked through a building with a series of small booths selling transistors, capacitors, diodes...anything one might need to build or repair anything electronic). If it uses electricity, one can buy it here.

Most of the shops advertise that they are "Duty-Free" - most of the time that means that they can supply the necessary paperwork to ensure that you do not pay extra taxes if you hold a foreign passport. These shops can often offer an international warranty (on new products) as well, which is an advantage on some items. The prices, though, are usually list (sometimes a bit lower, occasionally higher), and one is expected to bargain it down, something that I have never been very good at. As a result, I prefer to do most of my electronics shopping in Shinjuku, where list prices also prevail, but extras are often thrown in, making for (I think) a better overall deal. Also, if you are looking for the latest technology, the shops in Shinjuku seem to be a bit more consistent in keeping things in stock.

(As an example, I bought my new camera on Monday in Shinjuku; the store was down to two in stock - one, after I bought mine - but expected to get more within a day or two. The same camera was shown at several stores in Electric Town, but had 'Out of Stock' stickers in most places and list price or a little bit higher in the one or two shops that actually had it.)

Ah well, enough of that - plenty of people have gotten great deals in Akihabara, and that's good; others do better in Shinjuku. Shopping is an individual thing; you have to figure out what works best for you, then follow that plan.

I decide to head back for the hotel, to finish posting XOOPS reports (actually to get the pictures uploaded and then post the reports), and try to make some sense out of the mess that is my suitcases and stuff. I stop at the post office and buy another box - I've got to ship some of this home.....

My afternoon is spent completely repacking. After much thought, I figure out what can be shipped and what should go into a suitcase and succeed in getting most of it into the correct places. I will need to take one of my cases downstairs and check its weight, but they feel about right, so I think I will make it.

Our gathering in the evening is fun. There are all kinds of drinks and many different foods; this is more of a buffet rather than a sit down dinner, and people mingle and talk. The American teachers present MTP staffers with flowers (for the women) and small carved cups (for the men). I have a set of cups for the Jones, but those will have to be delivered later.

After the main party, a large group decide to do one more round of karaoke, at the bar across the street from the hotel. Karaoke is very much a Japanese entertainment venue (in fact, it originated here), but it is done differently that it is in the U.S. Instead of having everyone in one giant room, the Japanese have small group rooms, each with a large screen TV, music system, and lighting effects that work with whatever music is selected. One nice thing about this setup is that you don't have to feel embarrassed about getting up and singing in front of strangers; it's only your friends and drinking buddies that hear your voice, good or bad. The evening is great fun.

Then it's time to head back to the hotel. Even though it's late here, I get online and find my family available for a short IM chat. My daughter informs me that she still needs a pair of tan jazz shoes (for some reason, they weren't ordered with the rest of the stuff for danceline). Hmmm, sounds like Mom-the-keeper-of-the-schedule is back in full-time business early.

I sigh, and tell her to get me brand name, color and size. Fortunately, our favorite dance accessories place is online and available 24/7 (Dance Distributors - they do a great job of keeping large shoe sizes in stock, important if you're a nearly 6-foot-tall female dancer), so she sends me the link to the shoes she wants, calls the coach to verify color (did you know that you can order three different shades of "tan" these days?), and I place the order. They are in stock and should be there by the time I get home, so she will have them for danceline camp.

Amazing...simply amazing. It's midnight in Japan, mid-morning in the U.S., my daughter can tell me via Yahoo IM that she needs dance shoes and I can order them on the spot. Quite a world we live in, these days; what did we ever do before the 'Net?

Bedtime - I'm exhausted.

Tokyo Return, Day 1

Monday morning, and time to head back to Tokyo. Hiroko will also be going home to Komatsu, so we meet in the hotel lobby and check out, then head for the train station once more. We take the short trip to Nagoya's main station and stop at a breakfast shop/bakery called Cafe Denmark to get something to eat.

All too soon, it's time for me to catch my train, so we head for the shinkansen tracks. Tears again from both of us - this has been a wonderful time together, and we will miss seeing each other, but we will continue our e-mail discussions. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to get together some time in the future, perhaps when Hiroko comes back to the U.S. to finish her university studies.

I climb aboard and find my seat, loading my excess of bags in the overhead compartment. My seat mate is interested in the Expo 2005 bags; although his English is limited and my Japanese is still rather spotty, we manage to have a short discussion about how I liked the Expo visit. He wanted to know if we had visited the Hitachi pavilion; turns out he works for Hitachi. We exchange business cards as he leaves the train at Yokohama.

During the ride, I get some more journaling done, and see an interesting sight along the way. There was an area of shallow water just a little north of Nagoya where small motorboats (we would call them johnboats in Missouri - flat bottoms with a small engine on the back, used for fishing) were running back and forth, and people were wading and reaching into the water at intervals. I think they were harvesting shellfish of some sort.

The train arrives at Tokyo Station, and I grab all of my stuff, ask the station master where the taxi stand is (he points me in the correct direction), and find a cab to go to the hotel. (I could go by subway, but it's a bit of a distance and I've got far too many things to carry today.) The taxi driver is female, which is a bit of a surprise, but nice. I hand her the map that has the address and directions in Japanese, and she checks her GPS system to find the most direct route. It works; as we get close, I indicate that this is the area, and she and I are both happy.

The hotel tells me that I am early and my room will not be available for about 1-1/2 hours. That's okay - I got in a bit sooner than I expected, so I leave the most awkward of the bags there and head back out. I've got some additional shopping to do, and I would really like to get some lunch.

Shopping is done, lunch is eaten, and I head back for the hotel to check in. They have received a shipment of suitcases (the MTP crowd is arriving in force), but mine are not in the pile - perhaps at a later time today. After settling into my room, I catch up on e-mails and upload my latest journal entries, then decide it's time to go look at cameras one more time.

Shinjuku is not hard to find, and with a little walking, I soon locate the store where I bought my camcorder. I have an English copy of the user's guide to pick up, and they have that. Then I look around - I am still thinking about getting a small still-shot camera for those times when the camcorder is too bulky to carry. I also look at MP3 players - not for music but for possible use to store videos and play them (when hooked to a computer). While I see several varieties there, I do not find any that seem to have everything I want - mostly a very large storage capacity and USB2 connectivity. I think that I will probably have better luck looking for the larger capacity ones in the U.S.

I'd really like to get an ultra compact camera, specifically the Fuji FinePic, but it's rather pricey (over $400) and it uses a different memory card, which means I would have to buy yet another type of storage card. I settle on a Canon IXY (a mid-sized one, 5.0 Mpixels); while it uses its own battery packs (which are somewhat expensive but generally have a good use life), it also uses the same SD media cards that the camcorder uses, so I can interchange cards with the two cameras. I've had an IXY camera before (the American equivalent is the PowerShot SD400) and they take great pictures. This one isn't much larger than the Fuji ultra, so it will work nicely as a pocket camera. I also pick up a spare battery.

One more stop on another floor of the electronics store, where I find the latest Naruto video game, one that my son had asked that I look for when I got back to Tokyo (it was released on July 14). He's going to be happy, I think - not only did I get the game, but it came with a game machine cover done up as one of the characters.

Back to the hotel, where we discover that not only are my bags not there, they're apparently scheduled to arrive on the wrong date (Wednesday instead of Monday). I'm busily thinking about what I have that I can wash out and re-wear, when the desk clerk (who has been on the phone with the delivery service) tells me that the bags are within range and can be delivered sometime tonight. She is apologetic that it may be a late delivery, but I assure her that I won't mind coming down to get them regardless of what time they arrive. I thank her profusely for her help and head back to my room.

The bags arrive much earlier than any of us expected - thank goodness! I won't have to hang laundry tonight after all.....

As the evening progresses, I see Japanese and American teachers arrive. We exchange greetings - we'll get a chance to talk tomorrow morning when we all meet at the Science Museum for our first meetings. I spend my remaining free time working on this blog and finishing the Week 5 report, to be posted on XOOPS.

Then it's off to bed.

Nagoya, Day 1 and 2 - Expo 2005 Aichi

Saturday morning, I wake up ready to a new adventure. Everything is mostly packed; I just have to put the last few odds and ends away and do a last check around the apartment. Then I gather everything up and lock the door for the last time.

A quick walk to the train station, where I stop and grab a bottle of tea for along the way. I find Ishii-san and the head teacher waiting for me there; Nakagawa is in charge of one of the sports teams and must be at school for the opening of the holiday weekend tournament, along with Principal Yagi.

Both teachers rode the train in from Fukuoka and will ride back to Hakata Station with me. As I am more-or-less loaded down like a typical American tourist, each one grabs an extra bag to help me along. I buy a local ticket and we head for the train.

Once at Hakata Station, we go to the Shinkansen tracks (in a separate part of the station). Here we discover that my original JR ticket included train fare from Futsukaichi – I didn’t need that local ticket at all. Since we have plenty of time, Ishii grabs both of the tickets and hurries back to the local tracks to get a fare adjustment.

Once that’s done, the two teachers buy ‘platform passes’ for the shinkansen line. These are tickets that are good for access onto the train platform itself, but will not give you a train ride (without paying the full fare); you must leave from the same station that you entered. These are a great way to help someone get settled on the train and see them off in proper style (much as people used to be able to do at airline gates, before boarding pass security became the norm in the U.S.).

As the train leaves, I wave goodbye and settle back for the ride. The car isn’t very full, and I wonder if perhaps I should have gone ahead and gotten a non-reserved ticket. That notion disappears rapidly as the train moves north – with every stop, the seats fill up. By the time we have passed Hiroshima, some people have left, but others board and take their vacated seats. Okay, the reserved seat was a good idea, after all…….

A little over three hours later, I arrive at Nagoya station. My friend Hiroko had e-mailed me to suggest that we meet at the Expo information booth in the station; that’s a good idea, but where is the booth? A check with the station master gets me some directions, and I walk over there, looking around for my friend.

“Rebecca!” I hear, and there she is! She hasn’t changed much at all, except that her hair is shorter than I remember it. We hug each other and exclaim how happy we are to see each other.

She arrived earlier than I and has been talking with the people at the information booth; she has brochures for both of us (in English), and the tickets she had previously bought for the full day we have planned for Sunday. As we grab all of our stuff, we decide to go ahead and get lunch at the station, then head for the hotel.

Lunch is at a Maccaroni Grill restaurant – probably not related to the one of a similar name in the U.S., but has Italian (with Japanese accents) cuisine. I order something called a Hamburg plate, which turns out to be something very close to….meat loaf, the first I’ve had in Japan! And there’s rice, some pasta and a small salad; the pasta and meat have a tomato sauce that’s good. Hiroko orders a variety of pizza and seems to enjoy it as well.

Just as we are getting up to leave, the server, who is clearing the table next to us, drops a glass, which shatters on the tile floor. Everyone freezes; there’s glass and water all over, and we are all concerned that someone will get cut or slip in the water. Fortunately, we were close to a side window, and the area immediately around us had already cleared of patrons (we were the only ones left in that section).

A manager comes over just as I pick up the two bags that were closest to the spill; he anxiously asks if we are injured. A quick check and I assure him that no damage was done, as another server offers napkins to help with drying things (not much, actually – the server was between us and the glass). I am more concerned about the server herself and ask if she was hurt by flying glass; she assures me that she is fine. We stay put while the last of the glass and water are cleaned up, then head for the front to pay our bill.

Our next stop is the subway station across the street; our hotel is just a couple of blocks from Atsuta Shrine, and it is accessed on a different (non-JR) train line. After a bit of minor confusion over what kind of tickets to buy (there are both above- and below-ground trains to that station, and each uses a different ticketing system), we get to our destination and head out to find the hotel.

Hiroko was told by the hotel staff that the building is on a side street directly across the main road from a Denny’s restaurant; that turns out to be a familiar sign that’s easy to spot about two blocks away (yes, it’s the American one). We’ve both already agreed that it’s hot outside (much hotter than Komatsu usually gets, in the mid 30s Celsius), and the cool lobby is a relief. Check-in is painless – I’ve learned already that my passport will be the first thing requested and have gotten it out along with my credit card for her to process.

We are asked if we would like breakfast tickets during our stay; after a little discussion, we decide to get them for Sunday, but not Monday, when we will both head back ‘home’. Then the next question is “what kind?” – Japanese style, or something closer to an American breakfast. I opt for American – toast, egg and coffee; while I like the foods that are usually served in a typical Japanese breakfast (mostly a version of a traditional bento, or box, lunch), I am not that fond of fish first thing in the morning (it’s one of the few foods that I don’t handle well at first light – good thing I didn’t live back in the 1800s in England, when kippers or fish balls were a common morning offering).

My friend had suggested that we think about two options for Saturday evening; we can visit the shrine just down the street and perhaps see a bit of Nagoya proper, or we can take a train out to the Expo site and buy an evening-only pass – a half-price ticket that allows you to enter after 5:00 PM on any fair day. Her previous research had determined that our best chance for seeing some of the very popular corporate pavilions would most likely be in the evening; all reserved spots for their presentations were taken, and there were a limited number of non-reserved places available during each viewing period. After a bit of discussion, we agree that Expo was where we wanted to be, so we head back for the train and find the correct line for the Expo shuttle.

We arrive at the site a little before 6:00 PM, and buy our evening tickets, then head for the gates. Here we find a full security check going – bags are being searched (and they were polite but thorough; I even had to open the small zippered sections on the outside of my backpack), followed by a walk through a metal detector. But the line isn’t long, so we quickly get into the fair.

We check with the main information booth – unfortunately the Hitachi pavilion is completely booked for the evening, as are several others that we were considering. But I notice a sign just behind the counter – it seems that the Toyota pavilion (another very popular one) has four ‘open’ shows in the evening – no reservations, first-come, first-served. Okay, let’s head for that one first.

There’s a long line already for the early evening show, and it appears that we are unlikely to get into that one. We decide to visit the India pavilion in Global Commons 1, just down the loop from the corporate area and then come back to join the line for Toyota.

India is very good – a diverse presentation of its sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes (there’s a curry restaurant at the side of the building). We enjoy walking around and viewing the displays. Then we stroll around the commons area and head back for the corporate area to join the line for Toyoto.

It turns out to be a somewhat long wait – a bit less than an hour – but the show inside is well worth it. Toyota's pavilion theme is that of future mobility based on robotics technology, both as independently functioning units and as devices that aid human movement.

The show starts with a human DJ ready to sing and rap; along comes a walking robot carrying…a trumpet. It puts the instrument to its ‘face’ and music is heard – and it’s not prerecorded; the robot is moving its fingers on the valves and blowing through the instrument!

‘He’ is joined by a robot band (called Concerto); two more trumpets, a flugelhorn, a trombone, euphonium and drummer, all playing their instruments. The only ‘anomaly’ is with the trombone player; ‘he’ was using something called a valve trombone, an actual instrument that plays in the same range as a slide trombone, but uses valves to open and close the tubing, rather than actually sliding the long tube section (that requires a bit more precision than even a robot has at this point).

The last to join the group was a robot DJ, who raps with the human and then helps lead both a Dixieland and rap version of “When the Saints Go Marching In” (with new words). It’s a great performance!

The main show is a dance and multimedia presentation in the style of Cirque du Soleil, complete with an aerial acrobat/dancer and others doing floor work, showing images portraying the dawn of history, a la “Rite of Spring”. Suddenly they are joined by others – robotized ‘vehicles’ called i-Units, a single-person chair/car that can be used in both low-speed and high-speed transportation. These units have robotic technology built into them; they can literally drive themselves or respond to guiding signals from a human passenger.

The last unit to arrive is an i-Foot; a robot designed to hold a human and walk, even up and down stairs!

From previous news reports and some science information gathered from robotics websites, I knew a little about the concept of a ‘walking’ wheelchair, one that is not limited by barriers that conventional mobility units cannot conquer unaided. I had no idea, though, that a functional working model existed; to see this unit walk around the stage area, with a live human being directing it, was fascinating!

My friend and I both agree that this show was well worth the wait.

When we leave the show, it’s just about closing time, and we are confronted with what will become very familiar this weekend – a long line waiting for the shuttle bus to take us back to the train station. Not quite two hours later, we finally arrive back at the hotel, dinner in hand (we each grabbed something at one of the food booths before we left the fair), and adjourn to our rooms to eat and sleep.

Sunday, we get up and prepare for the day. We have agreed to meet downstairs at 7:30 AM for breakfast, in hopes that we can catch an early train to the Expo site. It works – sort of – but everyone else in the city apparently had the same idea.

Trains are crowded – we get on the first available train, but just barely. The shuttle from Bampaku Yakusa station to Expo North Gate has a long line – we wait for several buses before we get one. (Fortunately, I found something of interest in the bamboo forest next to our line – a large bird people-watching in the trees not far from our line. It looks a bit like a large kingfisher; I will have to look online and compare the pictures I took to decide what it is.)

We get to the Expo site, and here our line-standing assumes new depths – the security checkpoint takes over an hour to clear. Okay, we’re finally in the park, and we head for information to see if any reservations are still open – we and a couple of hundred-thousand others…..

No, there are no daytime reservations left at any corporation pavilions; country pavilions have some, but those reservations must be made at the pavilions themselves. But the good news is that many of the areas are not congested, including several of the country pavilions we want to see.

So we head out on the Global Loop – a huge walkway built near the center of the complex that takes you to each of the areas or commons. The Expo site is very hilly and has many trees and other plants; since the theme of this Expo is “Nature’s Wisdom,” every effort has been made to avoid making too many changes to the natural surroundings. The Global Loop allows movement from one area to the next without forcing one to use steps continually and without requiring massive terraforming to make a smooth walkway.

We got to see India’s pavilion last night, so today we start with a couple of other Asian pavilions. While the Korean pavilion has a 2 hour wait (we pass on that one), there are several others that have interesting sights, including the Nepal pavilion. My friend is very interested in the various aspects of Buddhism as it appears in different countries; she and I both enjoyed seeing the examples of both Buddhas and the various Hindu gods in the Indian pavilion. Today she points out how Nepal has both Buddhism and Hinduism within its borders, and that in some respects the two religions have mingled, much as Buddhism and Shintoism are joined in Japan. The Buddhas that are on display here are much more ornate, closer in style to some of the Hindu gods.

After our visit to the Asian area, we travel further along the Loop and eventually descend to the central area, where we find the Global House – and a 3 hour wait for non-reserved visits. No, that doesn’t sound like a good idea either, so we instead head for the next Global Commons area, where we find Mexico, the USA and other American continent countries. The Mexico pavilion was on our ‘to-see’ list, so we join that group and soon are inside looking at views showing the differences in geography and commerce in various parts of the country.

Our next stop is in the central part again, known as Japan Plaza. We had hopes of seeing the Japan pavilion, but the wait there is also about 3 hours long, so we stop to eat some lunch and then decide to try the next two Global Commons areas, with European and Middle Eastern countries, and the African nations.

The Egypt exhibit has another long line, but the rest of the Africa area is easy to enter. There are shops and displays from countries all over the African continent – carvings, weavings, jewelry (Hiroko is soon buying) and musical instruments (and it’s my turn).

I end up with a mahogany djembe, an African drum. I have wanted one for a number of years, but they are often quite expensive in the U.S. Today, I have found a smaller one for Y5000 (less than $50 U.S.) from the Congo; it is well put together and has interesting carvings and a nice sounding drumhead. Now I just have to figure out how to get it home – mahogany is heavy!

Our pavilion visits also take us to Greece (with displays about ancient traditions such as theatres and the masks often used in traditional Greek performances), Bulgaria (where we find a musician playing a Middle Eastern version of what Europeans call bagpipes), and a walk past the Nagoya City Tower (where we can hear various types of traditional Japanese music, both formal and informal).

Listening to the music provokes a discussion with Hiroko; she wants to know why the Bulgarian musician’s melodies have a sound similar to that of Japanese music. I talk about traditional instruments and the scales (tonal groups) commonly found on them, and this leads to a further discussion of music styles from all over the world.

We’ve had discussions of this sort via e-mail before; Hiroko isn’t a music teacher (she teaches English), but her college studies were in cultural anthropology, and she has previously noted the ways that music can represent a culture. She also gets lots of questions about modern music styles from her junior high students and has occasionally asked me to help define a specific style, such as rap or hip-hop or rock-n-roll, so that she can explain it correctly in English.

It’s time to take a rest and get something else to eat, so we grab some Japanese finger foods – fried balls of shrimp and octopus, and cherry flavored ice cream, which is absolute delicious! As we sit and watch ducks and koi in the large pond in the Plaza, we talk about many things, including Hiroko’s interest in returning to the U.S. to work on doctoral studies in cultural anthropology. She had hoped to attend this coming year, but there were no openings in her chosen graduate schools, so she will try again for next year. I hope that she is able to fulfill her dreams; I have helped her with editing on a paper she is trying to have published, and I know that she is very interested in working on Japanese cultural studies.

We head back for the front of the park; many of the pavilions have more openings in the evenings, and we hope to get a shot at visiting the Hitachi pavilion, which is the other corporate pavilion we wanted to see. But a check of the situation tells us that there is a 4 hour wait! We are really beginning to feel tired, and we both decide that a soak in the tub back at the hotel might be a better use of our time.

One more stop to make – and one more line – at the gift shop. The store itself is packed; moving from section to section is a bit like trying to change cars in the Tokyo subway during rush hour! Hiroko elects to stay outside with our belongings; I dive in.

First on my list are the small stuffed versions of the Expo mascots, Morizo and Kiccoro, and those are easy to find. Then I head for the back of the store, where T-shirts can be found. With a little searching and some help from a stocking clerk, I am able to find all of the shirts I want.

Now it’s time to pay for my choices. I can see the checkout area, but don’t see any way to join the line. A question to a clerk gives me the answer; the checkout line is another queue, with a 40 minute wait! Okay…….

This line, unlike many of those we have seen today is set up to be single file, so it is almost impossible for people to ‘migrate’ forward, as has been the case in other lines. And the wait really isn’t that bad, other than my feet are now pointing out that I’ve been on them for at least 10 hours today, with a couple more to go.

Purchases made, I rejoin Hiroko; she had eaten some ice cream (vanilla this time) and suggests that I get some before we head out. While I am eating, we strike up a conversation with some other waiting patrons; they are interested in what I have bought, and I explain that they are souvenirs for my family members back in the U.S. Just before we leave, we ask if one of them will take a picture of Hiroko and I together, and one of the young men agrees. (We have several shots of each of us taken at various points in the park, but no pictures together.)

Then we head out the North Gate and join another line, this time for the Limino, an elevated train to the main station back at Bampaku Yakusa. This train is an example of more eco-friendly transportation – it runs on magnets on a track that looks like a regular train track with flattened rails. It’s very quiet and not nearly as jerky of a ride as a traditional train.

An Expo shuttle train is waiting at the station when we arrive, along with a very long line of people waiting to ride it. That means another 45 minutes of standing…….

Back to the hotel, where we collapse in our rooms. The public baths may be closed, but our rooms have Japanese bathtubs and plenty of hot water; a good soak does wonders for tired feet and legs.

I spend a little time working on my journal and drinking tea, then head for bed.