I've been extraordinarily lucky: Traveling to more than 50 countries, guiding for 10 years in Alaska and Oregon, living in Central Asia and experiencing quite a bit along the way. All while managing to develop a few good stories. In between teaching, a 2 year old and a wife in grad school - I also started a new direction by starting a career in art. Here is art, travels and other aspects of my life.

Everest panorama

Everest panorama

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Day One: Jet lag, Meetings and 33 Million People

Arrived in Tokyo and felt the press of humanity. My first five minutes of walking was at 5 pm rush hour, and I was a salmon swimming up stream in unfamiliar waters. After arriving in the afternoon, walking the streets of Tokyo for the evening I was set up to meet a former Fulbright scholar who was in the US in 1952 to 1956 as part of the first year of the Fulbright exchange. "Al" as he liked to call himself, was a 82 year old engineer who treated our group of 4 to a great dinner and an introduction to the ideas of taking your shoes off before going into a restaraunt. He laughed a great deal and quickly helped me realize the amazing friendly nature Japanese posses.



I woke up very early via jag lag and hit road with a 4:30 Am run through the empty streets of Tokyo. Oddly enough it was light a 5 am and the park was inhabited by the tidiest squatters in the world, in addition to elderly Tai Chi practitioners and people walking their dogs. Tokyo must be one of the cleanest major cities I've ever encountered. Unbelievably clean, and there are rarely trash bins to be found. I still cannot figure it out, but it is clean beyond anything I expected. I ran in the morning humidity and begin to become deeply fascinated with this place I never even considered traveling to.



After the run I headed up to excitedly don my suit and tie. Ugh, suit and tie in 85 + degree tropical heat. Looking forward to that. Interestingly enough the Fulbright Memorial really made strong efforts to give us quality sessions and speakers.



Out first speaker was the Head of the ministry of Education and he was the most candide politician I've ever heard. Hard to believe someone in charge was so willing to address the problems faced by the Japanese education system. As candide as he was about the problems, it was sort of amusing since he thought a national drop out rate of 1% was horrible. Not sure what the US has but I do know it is certainly above 10%.


We then headed out to be tour bus tourists.... Not my favorite way to see the city, but I could handle the pain for a day. See the pictures from the previous entry. Lots of lines, buses and canned photo opps. The visit to the Japanese Congress was highly unexciting, but a required visit since the rumor was the Japanese had spent well over $10,000 for each of the participants to be here and enjoy this trip. Boring was a small price to pay.



We came back to the hotel for a "black tie" reception. Lots of speeches from important people, quite a few toasts with Sake and Asahi beer and amazing spreads of sushi. Since we were dressed up a small group of us decided to go "local" and hit the Karoake Bar.



Karoake in Japan is not like the US. You actually rent a small room with a big TV. Very odd, especially when you do not know a single person you are going to be singing with in just a moment. The complex is filled with room after room and most of them seemed to be filled with businessmen who were alone and rocking out. Odd yet very intriguing. After the first few notes of the first song inhibitions waned and everyone rocked out to at least one song. I managed a little Johnny Cash, Billy Idol and the Clash for my encore.












After an incredibly long day, I could not fall asleep fast enough.