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