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