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I'll see you all soon - I'm flying back on the 29th of June and will be in Lancaster for a few days...

Pictures

By the way - it recently came to my attention that I should probably explain something about the flickr site. Once you click on a thumbnail of a photo (the baby picture) it should show up slightly larger. What some people haven't noticed is that by clicking "All Sizes" in the top left hand corner of the photo, you can see a much larger version. (Much larger...) OK, be good and have fun!

Tohoku University part 2

Well then...



Time is rather sneaky isn't it...It seems that quite a bit of its snuck by.

For all of you viewers at home - my apologies - work has been pretty intense as of late. I'm actually sitting at my desk waiting to finish monitoring a test system (its 10:30 pm here right now) and so I decided to write a bit.

I left in the middle of a story about Tohoku Univ. I'm afraid that I don't have enough time to catch up with that and everything else that's happened over here. I'll do my best to hit some highlights and then fill you in when I get home.

So the second day, we got up around 8 and met up in the lobby downstairs. We walked to the subway and caught the line over to the University. We got a chance to see a longterm study with a goat named Eva Hatoko. She's doing really well and the doctor that serves as her caretaker taught her how to "shake" with either front leg and also to stand at attention with verbal commands. Its always interesting to me to see the bond that tends to form between animal research subjects and their respective human researchers.

After a quick lunch (that's the other thing - people wolf their food over here. I'm a slow eater in the US so I have to actually concentrate if I want to try to keep up with the pace. As for stuffing your mouth - I don't know if that's possible over here. For all of the polite niceties of Japanese culture, slurping and shoveling food are strikingly absent.) getting back on track... After a very quick lunch, we headed up into the hot and stuffy, 'uglier than Benedum' (and no that reference isn't to exclude those unfamiliar with Univ. Pitt - its just the best description I could come up with...) to prepare for and conduct the study.

I don't think I'll go into much detail, but it was really amazing watching the LVAD being implanted into the goat. I got to hold an open faced side biting clamp that was attached to the ascending aorta, while the doctor made an incision and sutured the pump's outflow graft into place...it was really cool. It was a great opportunity to ask a lot of questions - I learned a lot that day...

The next day we reviewed the results of the testing, visited Eva again then left for Tokyo to visit the branch office there. While the important people had meetings, Usgawad-san and I went to Shinjuku (famous for its stores/malls) and checked around for a bit. Then we grabbed a train back into Suwa arriving long after sundown... I was pretty tired when I crawled into bed that night.

Since then I've been mostly working a ton. Last week my supervisor, Jon, from EMUSA (where I work in Pittsburgh) made a trip out here to Suwa. It was really nice to see a Western face and have the chance to talk in some full out English. In addition the weekend of his arrival, I went to Tokyo (via train) and met up with a friend that used to work at EMUSA. She and her family live in Tokyo about 30 minutes from Shinjuku Station. We met up with Jon when he arrived. I got to explore Tokyo including Asakusa and the Imperial gardens next to the Emperor's palace. It was really amazing stuff - check the pictures. : D

I have to go now - its time to check up on my test system. Hopfully I can go home then (I came in at 7 this morning and I'm leaving at 11 pm - hopefully) so I guess that's a 16 hour day. Whoopie! haha, oh man - at least I'm taking a break now - and I had a 20 minute lunchbreak outside too - so...yeah. I'll be happy to go back to my 9 - 6 in the US.

Take care all - I'll see you in 17 days or so!

God bless,

Jonathan

Since then, I've been mostly working

Tohoku University

Dum-dah dum dah-dah daaaahhhh!
Dum-dah dum dah-dah-duh-dah dummm daaaahhhhh....
~The Forest Gump Theme Song by I'm not really sure who


Greetings all! Here's the latest from Suwa...

Last week I had a really amazing opportunity. I got the chance to observe 2 animal studies at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. Sendai is a fairly large city (large enough to hold its own subway system) but certainly no Tokyo or Kyoto. Its called the forest city because so many of its major streets are packed with large, green, lush trees. I didn't have time for sightseeing in the city however, because we had a full schedule. We left from Suwa-shima station at 7:13 a.m. on Monday and after taking 3 different trains (and about about 5+ hours later) and a subway for a few different legs, we arrived in Sendai. We made our way to the University, bags on shoulders or in hand in the warm, bright sunshine (I was a bit sweaty at that point). We arrived at an unimpressive building and hopped into the elevator to make our way up to the Fifth floor. The building wasn't any better inside - for those of you that were cool enough to go to the University of Pittsburgh, let's just say it made Benedum look bright and cheery. Still, when we stepped into the center where the study was to be conducted I was quickly amazed by their research. The walls were littered with posters and news reports from past and current projects.

The people there were very nice. My supervisor started explaining the device in Japanese. Noticing some puzzled faces on some people obviously not from Japan, I ended up also giving a brief overview to two graduate students in the lab from Brazil. I tried some Spanish out later (since its kinda close to Portuguese) and got a better reaction than it merited. Haha, later when I mentioned to one of them that I'd love to visit Brazil someday, he told me that I should come to his home village because "its beautiful *deliberate pause* and safe." Sweet! Sign me up... ((I'm serious...sign me up!)

After we finished our tasks at the University we went to dinner. I had raw tuna and shrimp with assorted vegetables over gohan (rice) - it was really good - as far as raw seafood goes. I really pounded the wasabi (horseradish) along with the stuff and that makes almost anything good for eating. We checked into the hotel at about 9:30 p.m. After setting up my room, I found that there was a pant press (for removing wrinkles) but that there was no iron, nor any way to use the pants press on a dress shirt. Thankfully, after checking out the hotel's information booklet, I discovered that there was a laundermat room on the 4th floor and lo and behold, it held dryers. I soon had wetted wrinkled dress shirts (from traveling) and tossed them in the dryer. (In Japan, dryers aren't all that common - at least as well as I can figure) most people hang their clothes out to dry. (I don't know how that works in the winter. I'll have to ask. Most housed are way to small to just hang clothes to dry all over the place - at least, that's what I think?) Soon I had dry, smooth, dress shirts and I was ready for the new day. I passed out after setting the beds alarm clock (built in to the headboad along with switches controlling all the lights in the room).

Well, that's all for now folks. I'll continue this one when I get the chance...

Have a great week!

Jonathan

Golden Week

Hello everyone!

My apologies that its been so long. life's been a bit hectic as of late. Thanks again to all of you that have been thinking of and praying for myself and my family. Life just refuses to slow down...

Golden week takes place during the first week of May. Its a national holiday in Japan and employees at Sun Medical (as well as most workers in Japan) had a number of days off of work. We had Monday, Thursday and Friday off.

On Monday, I went to FujiQ Highland Park with 4 coworkers. It was pretty incredible to see Mount Fuji up close and to ride some ridiculous roller coasters. One of the roller coasters accelerated from 0 to 172 km (100+ mph) in 3 seconds... We also rode what used to be the world's tallest rollercoaster (its still in the top 5 and at 259 ft. I would say its a pretty sweet ride). The amusement park visit included a brief climb up a small hill in the park that was nicknamed "mt. fuji." It offered a nice view of the park and of Mount Fuji.

That evening we attempted to see Mt. Fuji from a nearby park (nature park) but it was already closed as the sun was beginning to set. We stopped at a restaurant on the way home and I had delicious Japanese style steak. It was actually pretty similar to Western style steak with a distinct absence of A1 sauce... (The steak was cooked with similar spices including a lot of ground pepper.) It was delicious. Naturally I was pretty exhausted by the time we arrived back in Suwa.

On Thursday, I visited Nagano City, towards the north end of Nagano prefecture with another coworker. As many of you probabaly recall, the winter olympics were held in Nagano City in 1998. We visited the M-wave building, the site of the speed skating events, and home to a museum of olympic memorabilia.

After grabbing some lunch, we hit the main attraction: sen koji (I'm not certain of the spelling, its pronounced 'shen koh - jeeh') Its a very famous buddhist temple. It was very interesting to hear descriptions of what the different structures/statues/items meant and were used for by the temple. Ugawad-san gave a good tour...and made for some good conversations. The buildings were very beatiful, but I enjoyed the Japanese style gardens and park adjacent to the temple even more. We spent a bit of time walking around the park - examining the trees, flowers, ponds, stream, and such... I recommend checking out the pictures if you're curious to see what it was like.

We checked out some of the local shops and found some pretty neat things. Ugawad-san wanted to make a special trip to Starbucks (there happened to be one in the city...he spent some time in Texas during his studies and has a friend that is crazy about Starbucks) So we walked along the main strip of shops and made our way to the Starbucks and a bookstore. The way was full of flower displays that were specially crafted for Golden week. There were also a live mariachi band and a jazz trio that we bumped into at different points during the evening, performing live music. As it began to get dark, we made our way back to the car and set out to return to Suwa. Ugawad-san felt a little bit nervous about navigating (as it had been about 5 years since he'd last been to Nagano city. But he managed just fine and we were soon on the main highway headed back to Suwa...

For the rest of Golden Week, I relazed, slept in, and checked out the sights in Suwa itself, including the nearby Lake Suwako.

Well, I must be done for now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll try to write again soon.

God bless,

Jonathan

Thanks so much all for your prayers. My Grandmother has gone home to heaven. She passed peacefully while her husband and all her children were right there with her. I will miss her, but I am very aware that God's timing is perfect. It has truly been a priviledge to have her in my life for 23 years. I have been very blessed...

Dios te Bendiga,

Jonathan

My Grandmom

Greetings from Japan - I'm missing you all. : ) If you get the chance would you pray for my Grandmom and my fam? My Grandmom's dealing with cancer right now and it hasn't been going very well as of late. I'm doing well - tho its weird being so far away. I've been seriously amazed at God's grace to give me joy and peace daily... Emotionally and spiritually, my family is doing well and so is my grandmom. I also did get a chance to see her before leaving for Japan. Thanks so much...

God bless,

Jonathan

And I rationed my breaths
As I said to myself
That I'd already taken too much today
~DCFC

To Matsumoto and beyond...

my, my, hey, hey,
rock and roll is here to stay…
~ Neil Young

My mind is pretty scattered these days. The first week out here was pretty nice; I had more time than things to be done. Sad to say, that problem didn’t last for long. Life is once again high-octane, unleaded, and fully combustible. (Wham playing “Wake me up before you go-go” in the background.) Work projects are in full swing and weekends and evenings always seem to find a way to fill themselves... As a result, I haven’t had a chance to write to you all in awhile. Thankfully, I find myself with a free evening tonight (the only items on my agenda being a load of wash and a few dirty dishes). So, where did we leave off? Hmmm….let’s see - ah yes. Way back when…Friday evening…company dinner…

Wait for it…waiiiittt for itttt…ahh, I always have to warm up. If you think the long side-tangents are exhausting to read - try writing one sometime…they’re excruciating.
______________________________________________________________

On the following day (the Saturday after the company dinner), I had been invited to go and see a punk rock show. One of the engineers, Taka, plays in a Japanese punk band and they were one of three acts at a small theatre in Matsumoto. *Pause*

Let’s do a little bit of leg work to set this up. Let’s back up a few days to the Tuesday of my first week at work. As one might have guessed, I had been getting to know my coworkers a little bit at a time. In talking with one of the engineers, Miyakoshi-san a.k.a. “Taka” I found out that he played the guitar. (Actually, I already knew he played the guitar, but we weren’t acquainted yet.) As most of you know, Huggies hearts music. I didn’t want be cut off from playing music for a whole 3 months. So before I left the States, I had been trying to find a way to get one of my guitars out to Japan or to buy one when I arrived. So I asked Taka about finding a place to buy a guitar and he said that he thought Suwa was more or less a one horse town. If I really wanted to find a good music store, I should go to a larger city, like Matsumoto. He then invited me to come with him to Matsumoto and do some music shopping. I asked if I could come to see his band play and he seemed excited at the prospect. I told him I’d check my schedule and confirm with him later in the week. I would later discover Taka thought I wanted to shop for CDs, not a guitar, and that one of the other engineers, Toshikatsu, wanted to lend me their guitar. After looking around, I would also discover that the cheapest guitars out here are pretty bad - brands I have never heard of before - and they run right around $285+ USD. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of taking someone else’s guitar, but they thought that even the cheapest guitars would be too expensive to just buy and ditch after three months… So that put me in the position of either: taking someone’s guitar or seeming like a willful American with too much cash. I was ready to spend up to $300 on a new guitar - considering the fact that it would be $150 bucks to ship my guitar one way. But at Toshikatsu’s insistence and with the agreement that he’d let me know whenever he wanted it back, I accepted the lent guitar. Let’s get back to the original side-tangent: Taka’s invitation to Matsumoto. So, naturally, I accepted the invitation to see the punk show and to tour Matsumoto.

After learning that I wasn’t really interested in CD shopping, Taka mentioned that Matsumoto was famous for a castle that had been built there. Long story short? I spent the day at Matsumoto with three other engineers from Sun Medical, seeing the castle, a real old school Shinto shrine, the amazing cherry blossoms, and the punk show (actually it was 2 engineers for most of the day, and then we joined Taka in the evening for the show). You can check out pictures of them online at my flickr site. I don’t think I’ll be able to do a better job with words, so...yeah, I’m just gonna be lazy there. Later we’ll explore our feelings by taking a hard look at the mechanization of the ceramic mug industry and what that’s done to our personal and corporate identities… (If you don’t have the link for my videos and pictures handy, they should be in a separate post below.)
The cherry blossoms and the castle were very picturesque. There were plenty of people in the city (it’s one of the two largest cities in Nagano prefecture; the other city being Nagano City of prior Olympic renown. Matsumoto is about a 25-35 minute trip from Suwa by car or train.) Matsumoto was the first place that I saw other westerners, like myself. There were people enjoying a traditional Japanese style picnic, called hanami, eating and drinking under the cherry blossoms. After walking around the castle a bit and enjoying a few Kodak moments, we stopped in at the music store and browsed a bit. I got to check out the guitars and the selection and pricing confirmed that Taka and Toshikatsu had already advised me of. After putzing around the music shop, hit a little coffee shop, grabbing a muffin and a mocha or a latte etc. then headed over to the music venue.

The show was ok - Taka’s band was good. The other two acts were rather bad, the opener was downright horrible. I probably clapped the hardest for him in between songs because I felt pretty bad for him. The crowd was nice - but he had a bad case of stagefright and of generally sounding not so good… (I’ll upload a video…ask me about Japanese vocals in general sometime. That’s a tangent I don’t have time for…) I was surprised by how small the theatre was at first, but once the concert started it made more sense. About 20-25 people ended up coming to the show. Taka’s band had a decent sound and plenty of energy, which made them fun to watch. Towards the end of the show, he actually jumped into the crowd and after yelling and shaking a bunch of the fans, slapped the guitar on me and indicated that I should get onstage and play. The rest of the band just kept playing while he was getting his point across. Seeing as I’m a shy and timid person I graciously declined his kind offer. Hahaha, seriously tho, I got up on stage and started playing the most ridiculous solo of my life (ridiculous in that I tried play faster than I could and was probably in a different key, but based on the atonal nature of the riff and the massive distortion, the fact that there were only 20 people there and I wouldn’t see most of them ever again, I didn’t really care how horrible it sounded…) while of course jumping around, I even broke a string…it was a lot of fun. That was my first solid example of what Taka’s like, a bit unpredictable at times. His personality is definitely honest and open, and I appreciate that. I’ll be interested to learn more about my coworkers throughout this season.

After the concert, Toshikatsu, Usgowa, and I rode the train home to Suwa. Toshi and I grabbed dinner at a fast food restaurant. (I had pork with freshly cut strips of ginger, gohan (rice), miso shiro (miso soup), and a salad. It was all very delicious.) I slept pretty soundly that night.

The next work week was full of wonder and excitement - ISO 14708 standards, IEC 60068-1 standards, and protocol writing. If that’s not a good time, then…ummmmm… Actually, I do appreciate the perspective I’m gaining through this process, namely applying internationally recognized standards to a specific product or set of products. In addition, I’m learning about the external Controller and its circuitry in much greater depth.

In addition to learning things about qualification and testing, work is teaching me something else vital. My coworkers have been teaching me all about Japanese food, including the local restaurants. As engineers, we have been eating out about 1 or 2 times each week. I’m finding that Japanese cuisine and I can be friends (for the most part.) My favorite so far is the ton-katsu, breaded pork cutlet with an amazing sauce - reminiscent of Worcestershire sauce, but thicker, sweeter, and less salty. The “ton-katsu” restaurant was styled after traditional Japanese architecture, with seating on the floor. (I should be posting picture of examples of this style soon. Basically, it involves a lot of stained wooden beams - think old school karate movies…) The tables are located in ‘rooms’ that are elevated off the rest of the floor (3-5 inches up). Shoes are removed and left on the ‘lower level’ floor before stepping up into the room. Then it’s simple matter of placing/adjusting your seat cushion and taking a seat at the low table. Differences between Western and Japanese cuisine extend beyond the food and furniture. As I’m sure you’re aware, they use hashi (chopsticks) instead of knife, fork, spoon. Instead of serving water with their meals, the typical beverage is hot, Japanese green tea. (Strangely enough something that we often call ‘green tea,’ Japanese people call red “co” tea “ocha.”) Naturally, one can order additional beverages with the meal, but green tea is their ‘water.’ (Another note: at one Japanese fast food restaurant they served ice water, not green tea.) Disgressing to the differences in cuisine across the cultures: instead of napkins, they use some kind of moist cloth, often like a washcloth. It arrives already wet and usually warm. People wipe their hands off with the towel in place of washing their hands before dinner. Sometimes people will wipe their faces and necks with it as well. It then serves as their general napkin equivalent for the rest of the meal. Most meals are served with multiple dishes. Typical setups include: the main entrée, a serving of rice, miso soup, sometimes garnishes/dipping sauce(s), and perhaps a salad. As I’ve mentioned before, presentation seems to be an important part of the meal for the Japanese people.

The Rolling Sushi Restaurant (let’s call it RSR) was an experience. Some of the stuff there was pretty good. Some of it was - eh, not so much. You’ll have to check out the footage and pictures from the multimedia sites to get the effect, but basically, Sushi was just ‘rolling’ by us on a conveyor belt. Whenever someone saw something they wanted, they just grabbed it off the conveyor belt and ate it. They had some tuna, salmon, raw shrimp - with the antennae/eyes still attached, crab legs, crab brains, octopus, and squid to name a few. I tried many kinds of sushi and I was ‘on a roll’ (i.e. “mondane” no problem, in fact, I hadn’t gagged/puked since coming to Japan.) I guess coming to Japan, I was mentally braced for all the raw seafood. Raw crab, fish, shrimp, whatever. Up to this point, including that evening, I had eaten little whole squid, octopus cooked and raw, many varieties of raw fish (various types of sashimi and sushi), uncooked crab -including crab brains - which if you’ve ever shelled crabs - c’mon, that’s just nasty… Still, up to that point, mondane - no problem. Tonight, there was a new challenge; one that caught me off guard. (Mom, you may want to skip ahead to the next paragraph.) Now, before you all start clapping, let me just set the record straight - I didn’t puke. I didn’t really even come very close to puking. I did however, gag twice as I struggled to swallow a large chunk of chewy, RAW horse flesh. One of the engineers had “kindly” selected it for me from the conveyor belt and politely offered it for me to try. I had already made it through a couple round of sushi, the nights octopus, and the crab brains. I made the mistake of looking at the ‘horse sushi’ before I picked it up. It was noticeably darker than the raw fish flesh. I could see the striations of fat and muscle. After taking a picture or two, I shoveled it in and started chewing. (Let the games begin…) The whole chewing business didn’t go so well. It was too chewy to really bite through it. So after a few healthy chomps, I tried to swallow it more or less whole. It didn’t go down. After a solid gag, I calmly collected my cup of tea and drank a mouthful to coax it down. During the chewing and gagging process, I distinctly recall two words floating through my consciousness “glue” and “factory.” I hoped that the present company would attribute my watering eyes to fresh horseradish and ginger in the sushi but… Haha, so that’s the first time I’ve ever eaten horse, and raw horse at that. I highly recommend it to you all.

I am pleased to say that there was one element of solid, objective truth that stayed me through my tribulation. I was comforted in the knowledge that not more than 40 feet away, sat that great and mighty bastion of American consumerism, present in every corner of our globe, yes, I’m speaking of the Pride of American cuisine, those glorious golden arches of freedom fries, McDonald’s. It has been a charitable friend, cleansing away the stains of raw squid, eggs, horse, brains and the like… In a culture where raw flesh and strange foods abound, there are no words to describe the catharsis of eating a Big Mac value meal with large fries and a large drink… There’s also a KFC right up the street a few blocks. Seriously though, beyond the hyperbole - its nice to grab a burger for a change of pace…

The following weekend was fairly low key. I did a fair amount of shopping - grocery and apartmentwise. I cleaned my apartment for the first time, and did some loads of laundry. I listened to Mike’s message from 2 weeks earlier - easily downloadable at PCOP.org. That was really cool... Other than that, like I said, it was low key.

Last week, work has been pretty good. I’ve started actually running some tests with an environmental testing chamber (ooooooohhhh) with adjustable temperature and humidity. (No longer do you have to go to the tropics, ESPEC will bring the tropics to you!) One of the workers for Misuzu is running in an upcoming election for the local government. She stopped by the office to campaign a bit. I guess it was cool? I also got to meet Dr. Kenji Yamazaki (Yamazaki sensei). He is part of the family that owns Sun Medical and my company, Evaheart. He’s kind of a big deal in his field and in our company. I am very pleased to report that he is also a kind, personable individual that does not come across as self-important at all. I got a chance to hear his review of a prototype my supervisor had been working on for quite some time and shipped out just before I went over. It was really cool to get the chance to hear Yamazaki sensei’s feedback and to pass along the constructive comments and congratulations to my supervisor, Jon G. at Evaheart. (No that's not an allusion to memory loss...)

Wow, we are almost caught up to the present. Not to worry, there’s still tons to tell…including the story of the mighty jetcoaster and climbing mount fuji. Haha, I’ll write more when I can, but for now, I’m gonna have to say goodnight and catch some zzzzzzz’s.

God bless,

Jonathan

P.S. The predicted subsequent phone conversation - my side of the phone call…

No, Mom. I didn’t REALLY climb Mount Fuji, ok? … Yeah, I know, but I … uh-huh … Yeah, but I mean … Well it was gonna be a surprise and I thought that … Uh-huh … ok … Yeah … yeah, it isn’t a good idea to joke about things like that … right … ok … uh-huh … well, I love you too … alright … Goodbye.

google is a big, stupid, jerkface

I've been having some problems with google these days - it automatically reconfigured my account's default language to Japanese because my IP address is in Japan. Naturally, trying to reset what they'd already reset, while wading through menu's and buttons in Japanese, wasn't going so well. Thankfully, I finally found some info to help me figure it out...I think I have it under control now.... But hey, just wanted to letcha know Google, despite all your help during my college career, you can be a real jerkface sometimes...

ancient technology

For those that have requested my snail mail addy out here -

Attn: Jonathan Hughes
SUN MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH CORP.
2990 SHIGA, SUWA-SHI, NAGANO-KEN 392-0012 JAPAN

Joy in the morning...

Now’s its sunny with a high of 75 since you took my heavy load and made it light…
~Relient K

My second week of work in Suwa, Japan has finally drawn to a close… Overall, it was a good week, mixed with some sad parts, and I’m glad its over. I believe we left off somewhere around last weekend so let’s pick this thing back up and start running…

At the end of the workday on Friday’s, we all have chores to do. Tuesday through Friday, there are simple cleaning assignments (dust off a set of desks, vacuum a room, sweep some steps, etc..) for each employee. Work starts at 8:30 so people typically get here 15 min. early to take care of their chores. I wasn’t really scheduled to do anything while I was out here, but I volunteered myself for chore duty. One of Sun Medical’s employees, Fuji-san (aka Mr. Fuji) is in the hospital after a very dangerous fall off the side of a steep mountain/hill. He fell over 200 meters… I am not certain of his current condition but I do know that the Doctors thought his internal organs were all functioning properly. Its very remarkable that he didn’t die. In his absence, I’ve taken over his chore assignments. Chores are finished and people leave the office by about 6 pm on Friday’s. That’s really early for people out here. I rarely leave work before 7 pm, typically after 8 p.m. I’ve have not stayed past 9:15 (yet) but I know that many of my coworkers do frequently. On a Tuesday evening, at about 8:45 pm, my supervisor was hinting that I should leave work earlier. I laughed and then asked him, half-joking, what time he worked until. His response was that I didn’t want to know. “Its bad.” In terms of the long hours, it definitely reminds me of being in school again. Working into the evening brings out that ‘late night computer lab’ feeling. Where you find yourself and all of your classmates stuck inside the computer lab, working on the same stupid assignment until long after the sun has gone down. Thankfully, unlike my college experience, I am usually one of the first people to leave, not on of the last.

This past Friday, as I mentioned in a previous post, Yamazaki Shachou, was having a party at his hotel for the new Sun Medical employees and many of the company’s employees. So after Friday evening chores (I was vacuuming the office space) we piled into vehicles and drove over to the Hananoyu Hotel. At the hotel, we made our way all removed our shoes and entered a semi-large room (about 35 X 40 ft.) with 3 round tables, Japanese style, about 14 inches off the ground. There were about a dozen places at each table... After taking our seats on the cushions on the ground, we listened to a brief a introduction by one of the office managers and a welcoming speech from President Yamazaki. Then after a toast (kanpai - pronounced COM-PAI), the new employees and I gave a brief introduction of ourselves and the meal began.

The center of the table was full of different platters of food, situated on an elevated, rotating platform. There was miso shiro (miso soup) with soba (buckwheat noodles) along with tempura (battered and fried) crab, shrimp, and sashimi. There was also octopus (tako) tentacles and small (baby) whole squid (ika) - I think/hope they had their guts scooped out, but I'm not too sure on that one...

Well, the food (except for those 2 baby squids) was delicious. Oh, and the sashimi, the slimy, raw fish flesh - its ok. Some of my friends really like it (right Mike G?). I think its ok...but I don't think I'll miss it too much. Ton-katsu on the other hand, well, that's AMAZING! But that description can wait for another post. Disgressing, we spent quite some time eating and talking. Its polite in Japan to pour drinks for your neighbors, and not to pour your own. So I did my best to keep my neighbor's glasses full and everyone was always trying to get me to drink something...I didn't want to drink too much and thankfully, they weren't insistent if I politely refused...

One of the neat things about the meal was that after everyone had eaten their fill, people mingled, moving from table to table. So I got the chance to talk to/meet everyone there, whether they were from my table or not.

One of my coworkers brought his guitar that evening. President Yamazaki had Taka, myself, and Usgoua-san sing some songs and play some music - sort of some karoake - without the music tracks. However, they did use a karoake system and microphone. One nice thing about being a gaijin is the fact that I can forget the lyrics to a song and just make them up on the spot (aka the "pumpernickel/watermelon" system - right Mom?). It was a very relaxed atmosphere and a pleasant evening. After dinner, we went and enjoyed the onsen (hot springs bathing) on another floor of the hotel. It was very relaxing.

I returned to the apartment aroud 11:15ish and spent some time hanging out with Toshikatsu at his apartment playing some songs on his guitar. He's been lending his guitar to me this week. (Toshi is very thoughtful to say the least.) When Toshi was first describing his guitar he said that it was a 1970's Martin...Its actually a Morris. I've never heard of the brand before, but its playable and it holds its tune suprisingly well, so no complaints here.

Well, there's much more to write about, but I'll have to save that for my next post. Thanks for tuning in... Its been good having you...let me know if you have any questions...Have a terrific weekend.

God Bless,

Jonathan

A response to Monday's tragic events

I’ve been up late writing books
All about heroes and crooks
One of them saves you from this
The other one steals you and then
Sure things fall
And all sure things fall…
~Yellowcard

I’ve been using my webmail account with Yahoo to communicate with people from work and you all at home in the States. When I arrived at work yesterday morning, I opened Yahoo.com’s frontpage to access my webmail. In the middle of the page was a story on the shootings that had occurred at Virginia Tech. If you are not prepared to read through heavy and difficult things, I would stop here. The rest of this post describes my reaction to this shooting…

Since that first story, I’ve been following the media’s coverage online and praying for the people involved and affected by this profound tragedy. I wish the shooter could have been stopped sooner somehow. I was affected by the story of Liviu Librescu, the professor that blocked the doorway with his body, in an attempt to buy his student more time while he was killed. In an interview of one of the survivors of the attack, the interviewee kept repeating the word ‘surreal’ when describing the situation. I can’t really imagine what the students in those classrooms felt. Having gone to Univ. of Pittsburgh, and having had friends that attended VT, this event really hits home for me. In a way, being over in Japan has isolated me from the constant wave of media and attention surrounding the shootings. Still, it seems much more tangible than the many lives that are ending each day in Iraq. In some ways, I wish that the death toll that the Iraqi people and our military and its allies have experienced would impact me in a similar way. I’m afraid that I grow numb to repeated tragedies all too easily.

In the face of difficult circumstances, like this shooting, I am forced to think of things bigger than myself; things like the value of a human life, the danger and consequence of hatred, and the uncertainty of each day. It strips away my unconscious assumptions of invincibility and complete self-reliance. My carefully cultivated mentality that death is too far removed to even be considered breaks down.

I believe that it’s possible for a person to be evil. Yes, there is confusion, pain, ignorance, and depression. Beyond that, people have the choice to do right, to love each other and to love God, or to do what's wrong. I believe that apart from God’s grace and help to change, humanity falls short of perfection; even the ‘good’ people that do ‘good’ things. I realize that I don’t know the hearts of other people, so let me speak of my own. Unfortunately, I have seen the influence and effects of sin in my own life; I have seen my own imperfections. I’m convinced that I need the forgiveness and redemption that’s found in Christ alone. I honestly don’t know where else to turn… The hope and peace that He holds makes the senseless, horrible actions that the killer planned and carried out seem all the more disturbing and tragic.

May God’s hope and mercy find and help us all.

Dah whole fing wiv da MEE-deyuh...Boo-yah-kuh-sha

Hey folks!

You can check out my pictures at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66142386@N00

I will be posting videos at:

http://youtube.com/roswell84

Currently, I have a video tour of my apartment posted.

That's all for now...lunchbreak is over here at work!

Catch ya on the flip side...

Jonathan

Let there be blog...

DISCLAIMER: The following accounts and descriptions may make you stupid. They may make you very way stupider. I’m sorry but when you read too much stuff by one person you tend to start thinking like that person (or not-thinking like that person). I’m given to rambling, poor grammar, side-tracking etc… and run on sentences that really don’t do anything but repeat themselves and should be truncated at some point but then they keep on going needlessly until you just want to grab the nearest pen and start scribbling dots on your monitor so that for the love-of-fried-mozzarella-sticks there’s at least some stinkin’ punctuation in that massive Donne-like sentence…*gasp* What was the point of all that…? Oh, yes! The point is simply that I’m not a very refined writer. Come to think of it, I’m not even a writer at all – I’m an engineer. I’ve heard that the two are antithetical; I suppose their respective stereotypes are. Thankfully, I’m a bioengineer, which means I’m sweet. Most of us BIOE', especially those of us that aren’t me, are generally well-rounded individuals. Usually, we do alright in the humanities and social sciences and “the” sciences (and by “the” sciences I mean pretty much all of them.) Besides, if technical writing counts, then I’d say we bioengineering majors write more than your average liberal arts major…by a factor of ten. (Did I mention that my highschool English teacher was Mrs. Bell? You can send any critiques of my poor writing to her.)

There, now having said this – and taken up 2 minutes of your life that you will never get back – I hope you all thoroughly enjoy my “Japanarration!”



Evidently Pittsburgh weather likes to go out with a bang. After a solid week of 60+ degree (F) temperatures, there had been flurries overnight. It was 5:50 a.m. and I was pretty much asleep on my feet – luggage in hand – as I walked down the stairs from my room to the car. My parents were driving me to the airport. (They made the 4+ hour trip out to Pittsburgh the previous evening. They also hit, or rather tried to hit, the local hotspot restaurant at Univ. of Pittsburgh, Fuel N Fuddle… After 11:00 pm everything is halfprice. It was packed out, so we ended up going to Primanti Bros. instead. Thanks to all the friends that made it out to see me off and my apologies that we couldn’t get into FnF. I know J-Haugh… Don’t have a cow man. If you ever get the chance to eat at the Fudd, you’ll understand.)

My flight was scheduled to leave from the Pittsburgh Airport at 9:27 am. I wanted to arrive at the airport in plenty of time – I was aiming for 6:30 am. My Dad had given me a wake up call at 5:45 a.m.

On the way to the airport, my mom was her usual wonderful, cheerful self. She broke out into song at one point and in my semi-comatose state I found myself simultaneously amused and annoyed, but most of all just glad to be with my wonderful parents on the morning of my first trip out of North America.

When we arrived at the airport, I checked in and hugged Mom and Dad goodbye then headed towards the ‘airside’ of the airport (containing the terminal where my flight would board at 9:00 a.m.) The line through the security check took about 40 minutes. Once I was through, I located the Travelex station where I was scheduled to exchange US dollars for Japanese yen at 7:00 a/m. The sign on the window indicated that it was closed until 11:00 a.m. I had to decide whether to head back to the airport’s ‘landside’ and check Travelex’s main branch. If I did so, I would have to make my way back through the security check… The line had grown a bit by this point. After a few minutes of deliberation, I decided that exchanging currency wasn’t worth the risk of missing my flight, so I decided to stay put. I wanted to let my boss at Evaheart know that I missed that exchange so there would be no unwarranted speculation/worry if Travelex called to say that I never made the exchange.

I called from a payphone – only to realize that it was not yet 8:00 am and no one was in. I left a message and figured that would be good enough for the time being. The plane left on schedule and arrived in Chicago with plenty of time to make my connection. I would be traveling on JAL (Japan Air Lines) for the remaining 13 hours of my trip.

Upon arriving in Chicago, I had to make my way to a separate terminal that held the foreign airlines (including JAL). I went outside and got onto the next tram (rail system that serviced the airport.) I rode the tram from my current terminal (3) to terminal 5. (During the flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago, the flight attendants had looked at everyone’s itineraries to make sure that we knew where to go to catch our connecting flights. One of the flight attendant’s explained where I would need to go once I arrived at the O’Hare airport. She point out the two terminals on a map…The flight attendants also made sure that people that needed to rush to catch their next flight were the first to get off the plane. I thought that was cool...nice work United.) Once I arrived in terminal 5, I had to go through another security check (because I had to leave the terminal to catch the tram.) I grabbed some Combos to munch on (the pretzel kind) and parked myself at gate 8 to wait for our boarding call.

The international flight was ok. The plane left 15 minutes behind schedule – which was no problem. The service was very good and the seats were decently comfortable. I had requested a window seat and the airline came through. After taking my seat, it took about 2 seconds to notice that my neighbor had...ummm…a unique odor. I spent most of the flight shifted against the window to give them more space. My neighbor was very old and not very mobile. As a result, I felt bad asking them to get up to let me out into the aisle (they also didn’t speak English – The majority of the people on this flight with JAL were Japanese nationals returning from trips to the US. I was one of about 8-10 caucasians on the flight. Oh – and did I mention that the plane was pretty huge? I guess it was a 757 or a 767…) At any rate, my seating arrangment translated into 13 hours of airtime and only 1 bathroom trip. (I’ll let you do the math). At the end of the day, my neighbor was a nice enough and pleasant enough, and so the rest didn’t matter so much. I slept as best as I could and saw the better parts of Rocky Balboa, The Pursuit of Happiness, and Blood Diamond. I was definitely very happy once the plane had taxied up to the terminal in Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. (Actually, Narita – a.k.a. “New Tokyo” is about 60 km outside of the heart of Tokyo. Tokyo is mammoth…

In Narita airport, I had one main objective: to purchase a ticket for the “Limo Bus” service to take me to the Washington Shinjuku Hotel in Tokyo. I was scheduled to meet the Dr. Tokuno – Sun Medical’s primary liaison with the US and abroad – for dinner. After leaving the plane, I wandered through the airport and on a hunch took a shuttle service that dumped me into the main terminal. Sure enough, I grabbed my checked luggage and made my way through customs, with my temporary/visiting visa stamped and good for the next 90 days. It was not too hard to locate the Limo Bus service counter (my boss at Evaheart had printed out some materials including a small picture of their counter and an explanation of how to purchase a ticket and catch the appropriate bus.) I saw an internet kiosk and broke a 1000 yen bill (about 8 US dollars) into the machine receiving 10 100 yen coins. The kiosk took one 100 yen coin. I shot out an e-mail to let me family and company know that I’d arrived at Narita. I included Dr. Tokuno, hoping that since the Limo Bus ride to the hotel was almost 2 hours long, he would be able to judge when I’d arrive.

The limo bus, complete with some Canadians seated in the row in front of me, was nice and not too full (I had a set of seats to myself.) They did their country’s stereotype proudly, they were friendly and dropped the occasional ‘eh’ into the conversation. One of the Canadians had been working in Tokyo for some time. He gave a running commentary to the other two (presumably he was picking them up from Narita Airport) and answered a few questions I had. (Check out my flickr site for pictures from the ride over.)

Dr. Tokuno met me in at the hotel’s check in. I checked in, tossed my bags in my room, and returned to the hotel lobby where Dr. Tokuno was waiting. We made our way to the hotel’s restaurant (the Washington Shinjuku Hotel is pretty high end - the restaurant was amazing, expensive traditional Japanese cuisine.) We ate sashimi (raw fish – different kinds of tuna and snapper) and tempura (fried food, including shrimp) along with many other intriguing things. The food’s presentation was meticulous and beautiful – for Japanese cuisine (at least the expensive kind) the color, shape, and texture are almost as important as the food’s taste. Dr. Tokuno served me a shot of sake with the meal – Japanese wine made from rice. The meal was delicious and it was good to talk with Dr. Tokuno. One of the things we talked about was the difference between Evaheart and Sun Medical – based on the cultural differences. He explained Japan in terms of its origins as a farming based economy. According to Dr. Tokuno, much of the Japanese tradition, the social ranking system, the emphasis on tradition, tatama’e, etc. can be traced to farming roots. Villagers dependent on farming either would be successful at growing crops, or they and their families would not have anything to eat that year. The respect for elder’s and the clear divisions in status, came from the fact that everyone looked to experienced farmer’s for guidance. People living in close quarters in the local villages gave rise to a culture that valued getting along smoothly with one another more highly than honesty. In Japan, the tatama’e is the attitude one always takes when relating to others. My phrasebook defines it as “diplomatic show of interest, concern, appreciation, etc. while the hon’ne is a person’s “real intention, feeling, etc.” Its considered extremely important to put forth the tatama’e and suppress the hon’ne in order to be polite. As a result, Japanese people are extremely accommodating, considerate, and polite – which makes them wonderful hosts. It also makes it pretty tough to sort out what’s real and what’s just living up to social norms… Its very possible that some people’s interest in me stems from an obligation to follow the tatama’e, but its cool. Before coming over here, I decided not to second guess everyone’s intentions out here during the trip. So, yeah, I know what you’re thinking – what was I thinking coming to Japan? I can be kinda blunt sometimes. People usually know what I’m thinking before I do. I’d rather have honesty than warm fuzzies. (Proverbs says something to the effect of: “better the wounds of a friend than the kisses of an enemy.) So I’m sure my hon’ne will be getting me into trouble at some point – but so far so good. I’ll keep you posted, ok?

Disgressing to our story, we finished dinner and I headed up to my room. It was my first time using chopsticks in a while and the sashimi was a bit of challenge to pick up. (Soft, slightly slimy, raw fish flesh that’s kind of heavy and very easy to slip out of one’s chopstick tips. It was good practice. I’ve since learned that my Japanese sucks, but people are impressed with my chopsticks ability. If one more person asks me where I learned how to use chopsticks, I think I’ll make up a story about it being part of some prior competitive training – probably on the scale of 7-10 months…) I brushed my teeth and tried to stay up as late as possible and passed out, exhausted. It was the first time in a long time (maybe in my life) that I was ‘trying’ to stay up until 10 p.m. I was scheduled to meet Dr. Tokuno to catch a train to Suwa out of Shinkjuku Station at 8 am the following morning. (You can check out pictures from the hotel room on flickr.)

I met Dr. Tokuno in the morning and he took me to Shinkjuku station – a vast array of incoming and outgoing trains at tons of different platforms. I already had my ticket for the trip (brought to the US by Dr. Tokuno on his latest trip.) The train ride out was pleasant. It was nice to get out of the big city (aka Tokyo) and into the countryside. I purchased some green tea from a vending machine on the train, took in the sights, and snapped some pictures of the scenery. President Yamazaki, the president of Sun Medical, got onto the same train at the second stop. The ride out took a little over an hour. Ms. Chino (Chino-san) met President Yamazaki (addressed at Yamaki Shachou out here…roughly translated “businessman Yamazaki” I guess) and myself at Chino station. (As far as I know, Chino-san and Chino station sharing the same name is coincidental.) They took me over to my apartment. In the parking lot, they showed me the trashcans and the recycling cans (aka trash and “other trash”) as well as a bicycle that the company had procured for me to ride while I was there. In the parking lot, I was introduced to two more Sun Medical employees that were closer to my age (I’d guess around 26-29 but its difficult to tell…Japanese people tend to appear younger than they are to us Westerners.) After introductions, we went up to my apartment, on the top floor of the complex. (I’m in 304). Once inside, they all did their best to explain the climate control, air filter, television and remote, bed/couch, shower, sink, washing machine, range (aka stovetop – its gas and its sweet), rice maker, microwave, etc… It was a little bit difficult, but there English was really quite good so I was able to arrive at a pretty good guess of what they were explaining and then figure it out on my own later. For example, I asked them how to operate the rice cooker and they were basically able to tell me which button to push to turn on the power and how to turn it off and what button to push to “start.” They also showed me lines in the pot and a measuring scoop. I basically guessed that the lines which were labeled with numbers indicated how much water to add for that number of scoops of rice. Later that week, I attempted to make some rice and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it worked the first time… I guess their rice cookers are too easy for even a “gaijin” (foreigner/outsider”) to mess up. (Josh – you’d probably find a way to destroy that rice tho – wouldn’t ya…) At one point, the operating manuals (which were carefully piled by the door) were consulted for an explanation for me. Unfortunately, they were all in Japanese. After checking out the apartment for a bit, we went to lunch. We had a soup that was hot on top and cold on the bottom, called soba (named for its noodles – aka soba noodles.) It was delicious.

I returned to the apartment after lunch and Toshikatsu, who lives in the same apartment complex (you can see pictures of him at the flickr site) took me shopping for groceries. I had to purchase a pot and pan. I was surprised to find decent cookingware right in the middle of the grocery store. The name of the grocery store was “Bell Shine” and it says as much right on the store sign. In that same complex of stores, there is a sports equipment store, a drugstore (that’s huge and practically another grocery store), an electronics store and much more. Between that and a decent daily allowance, I’ve been able to buy what I’ve needed so far. These stores are about 5 minutes by bike from my apartment. Toshikatsu and I checked out Eiden (the electronics store) for a bit and then headed back to the apartment. (Note: all of the cars have the steering wheel on the right hand side – traffic stays on the left hand side as opposed to the right…kind of like Europe style.)

After I’d finished shopping, we came back to the apartment complex and I said goodbye to Toshikatsu and returned to my apartment to unpack as best as I could. (I was still waiting to receive the bulk of my clothing as I sent a separate box via Fed.EX. After unpacking I made some dinner and watched some CNN (in Japanese of course), then passed out, exhausted. (I think it was around 9:00 p.m. at that point)

I woke up around 2:30 a.m. and stayed up for awhile watching some men’s volleyball and baseball on the TV. At about 5:00 a.m. I was tired again so I crawled back in bed and was soon asleep. I suppose jet lag/time zone jumping was taking its toll… (Trust me, with the strange hours I keep in the U.S. it really hasn’t been all that bad! Haha, so I’m not complaining. My family will tell you that I don’t have an easily recognizable sleeping pattern…) I awoke to the sound of someone knocking at the door. Then ringing the doorbell, then knocking and ringing the doorbell, then ringing it again, then...well, you get the idea. (When people knock over here they evidently don’t tend to wait for a response, they just keep knocking/ringing until someone shows up. I gotta admit, that’s not my favorite…But I’m a survivor – eye of the tiger, baby; eye of the tiger.) So, with the lovely background music of thumping and ringing, I got up grabbed a shirt and walked down the hall to answer the door. It was someone (I assume) from the bike rental shop that wanted to show me the bike that Sun Medical hooked me up with. (Unbeknownst to them I already had my key to unlock it and seen it on my grand tour the day before.) I’m sure that I looked like I’d just woken up (I felt like it). The guy was pretty chagrined and gestured like he was sleeping. I laughed and told him not to worry about it, then gestured for him to wait as I grabbed a jacket. (The jacket my mother INSISTED that I not leave in Pittsburgh at the airport…haha – thanks Mom.) It wasn’t really even that cold outside, but I’d just woken up and I was wearing shorts… We made our way down to the row of bikes and as he searched through them, I indicated that it was the green one. Sure enough, the key still fit in the lock just fine. The guy was satisfied that he’d accomplished his goal and he hightailed it outta there at that point. I was now pretty wide awake and ready for a new day, so I showered and decided to head out to see if I could make it all the way back to the Bell Shine grocery store and back again without getting lost. Thankfully, I was able to locate the store without much trouble at all. I was able to pick up a few more things at Bell Shine and find my way home without any difficulties. I grabbed a LAN cable at Eiden so that I could connect to the internet when I got back to my pad. (I had been kind of confused the day before when Toshikatsu had indicated that I didn’t need to buy a LAN cable.) Once I got back to the apartment I realized why. The jack on the wall – that I thought was for an LAN connection – was a phone jack. There was no internet service available…bummer, dude.

That evening, my supervisor, Tomoya Kitano (aka Kitano-san or Tomo) took me to dinner. In our little group was Toshikatsu, Tomo and his wife, and myself. Once at the restaurant, we were joined by a Sun Medical employee named Nomi (She’s also in her late 20’s. Nomi works in the IT department.) The meal of the evening was yakku nikku, Korean style beef. The meal was great – they first brought an ornate little bucket of hot coals with a metal grill above it. They brought the beef uncooked and cut into small thin strips. Toshikatsu, who was seated closest to the plate of raw beef, kept up with adding the beef to the grill face. It cooked right in front of us. There was lettuce to wrap the beef in. Basically you take a leaf of lettuce, stick a grilled strip of beef into the leaf add a little sauce, wrap it up and viola – yakku nikku. We also had some beef tongue… The tongue was ok – basically like regular beef but with a slightly different texture. I don’t really think about what the food actually is – I just eat it. If it tastes good, or if doesn’t make me gag, then its all good. I can say that I’ve definitely enjoyed a lot of the food out here. There are a few things that are just ok or even kinda gross but they’re the exception not the rule. Disgressing, we talked and Tomo’s wife plays volleyball and invited me to come play. She said they play on Friday evenings (and Tuesdays). I will definitely try to do that if I can. One rough thing about working long hours is just sitting in a chair for 12+ hours in a day…well its not exactly what I’d recommend as a conditioning program.

Toshikatsu agreed to meet me the following morning at 8 a.m. sharp. We would walk from the apartment complex over to Sun Medical and start working. Sure enough, he met me at the bottom of the steps and we walked over to the company. It takes less than 7 minutes to make the trip on foot.

At work, I was assigned my very own desk. Everyone works in one large room. I have desks on either side of mine. The back of my desk butts up against the back of another. Behind me there are rows of desks identical to mine. There are no offices or cubicles, just rows of desks stacked back to back. After setting up my laptop, I headed over to the conference room for my very first meeting with the R&D group. I was asked to give a briefly introduce myself – which I did, poorly, in English. After that meeting concluded and we’d returned to our desks, I was introduced to the whole company, this time by Dr. Tokuno.

Sticking with the trifecta theory, there was one more meeting that afternoon. I met with Kitano-san, Tokuno-san, and Kuge-san to discuss what they wanted me to work on for the next three months. In addition to the animal studies I’ll be involved in and the implantation surgery I should get to observe, I’m currently working on testing the device under the most rigorous environmental constraints to qualify device performance. (Basically this test is being done to prove that our device can run at the temperatures we want it to without breaking down or degrading in its performance.)

I spent the better part of the week reading through ISO and IEC standards. These are international standards that serve as guidelines for establishing input requirements, testing methodologies, justifying selection of performance specifications, etc… It’s a very good perspective to be generating a protocol for an important test from the ground up. There’s certainly plenty to think about and do. In addition to all the standards I could ever want, I have a protocol and test report from previous engineering tests to serve as a guideline. These documents are translated from Japanese into English and as such can be challenging to understand at times… Overall, I think I know what I’m doing and how I want to proceed. My boss at Evaheart in Pittsburgh, David Borzelleca, has definitely been looking out for me. He’s been proactive about asking if I have questions about what I’m doing or how to do it.

On Tuesday, I watched a video from one of the device implantations. It was pretty amazing. Afterwards, one of the clinical engineers at Sun Medical went over the device and its components. We went through some of the basic operations related to using the Controller. Overall, I’d say it was an interesting and challenging week.

Well that’s going to have to do for now. I will write about the events of the weekend of April 13 and 14 when I get the chance… Basically the weekend involves a trip to the nearby city, Matsumoto to see cherry blossoms, an ancient castle, and a coworker/friend’s band play a punk show…(That’s called a teaser folks).

As per usual, I’m tired and ready to catch some zzzz’s. Thanks for reading along! Let me know if you have any questions, comments, etc… I already miss you all.

God bless,

Jonathan

Skype

If you're into the whole skype thing:

jhughes.emusa

is my skype name.

Contacts

Quick thought -

It would be great to see who all this post is getting out too... Chances are that I won't do a good job of notifying ALL the people I'd like to. So if you get the chance, just drop a comment at the end of this post to let me know that you're tuned in.

Thanks,

Jonathan

Welcome

Dear friends and family,

I'm not gonna lie - I think blogs and lima beans have a lot in common. For the record, I kind of hate lima beans. I have always been mildly (though not militantly) opposed to blogs. I'm what the "techies" would probably term a 'blog-basher.' That said, I can't help but see the irony here. With a heavy heart, I find myself prepared to do the unthinkable - to create and maintain a blog of my own...

After thinking about the logistics of trying to stay in touch and keep you all informed of what's crackin' over in Japan - blogging seems like the most effective solution. I'll be posting some smarmy, feel-good stories as well as some fascinating observations and bits of information about life in Japan that have little to no application to your current day-to-day lives... *right*

In all seriousness, the only obvious drawback to having my company pick up a tab for an 85 day trip to work, train, and hopefully play in Japan, is that I will miss my peeps here in the U. S. o' A. This blog will hopefully help me to stay connected to the people that are very important in my life. I want to communicate, albeit in part, the ways that I'm learning, growing, and changing through the challenges and experiences I have abroad.

While I'm over there, the best way to contact me will probably be via e-mail or AIM. If you don't already have my contact info:
EMAIL:
jh_pitt@yahoo.com
jhughes8@gmail.com
AIM:
numbuh11

I'll write another post when I get over there with some of the specific how and why this trip came about...

(I'll also come up with some clever catchphrase to end these posts with...or not.)