Futottai kaiyoobi wa sugoi desu yo!

Happy Mardi Gras! My, how the days go by. Last week I had a satellite meeting/workshop near Tokyo, so I shinkansened over there and met up with my MIT cohorts. I took some photos en route, alas Fuji-san was shrouded in clouds and not obviously visible. I'm pretty sure I knew which looming shape was Fuji-san when I took the picture, but now I'm not sure. So I've posted all my pictures, replete with blurred telephone poles, blurred houses, and blurred I-don't-know-what-all. So see if you can't find Fuji-san (it's like Where's Waldo, if Waldo were a 500-billion-ton, snow-covered chunk of Japanese rock).

The highlight of the ISAS trip, as usual, was the excursion to Steve-san's home away from home, Asakora. I believe I have misspelled this, but apparently it means "morning warehouse". (Asa is definitely morning, as in the ubiquitous asahi, "morning (aka rising) sun". Not least of the examples is Asahi beer, which is a real eye-opener.) I believe Asakora is also a play on the name of the proprietess, Asako or "morning child".

To make a long story longer, in the few hours we spent there, we talked to:

• the "Norm" of the place, who recently traded his Jeep for a Chrysler Crossfire, one of only 150 imported from the US into Japan, and who once bowled 299 (we heard this story last time);
  
• the president of the Japanese Professional Bowling Association, who has, in fact, bowled 300;
  
• a beverage engineer for Calpis beverage company, who gave us some free samples and waxed eloquent about the production of Scotch whisky;
  
• radio personality Nomura Kunimaru-san, who hosts a morning show of Japanese cultural programming broadcast throughout the greater Tokyo metropolitan area (that's Gozen-sama, 9 am weekdays at 1134 on your AM dial).

We met Nomura-san last time, and even listened to a recording of a show he taped from the sushi bar itself. (Very convenient.) Each time we meet him, he promises to talk about us the next morning. Alas we always seem to be in a meeting at the time, rather than huddled around the ol' Atwater Kent.

Just 2 1/2 weeks left in my job here...

Watashi no barentain ga desu ka?

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all. The tradition here is for women to give chocolate to the men, and not just ones they like, but the ones they work with too. They get a payback on March 14, White Day, when the men are supposed to reciprocate. It's not clear that male co-workers/bosses actually do this, however. (And we all know how husbands and boyfriends can be.) Some women are up in arms about the whole thing. I just know I got some tasty chocolate thanks to Yamada-san. Maybe I'll go see if there's any left, although it's possible the grad students have gotten to it.

Oyuki ga daisuki desu

Not much excitement during the past two weeks. Working, sleeping, and some eating. I did manage to order a pizza and have it delivered successfully. I must confess that I ordered it online, so there was no telephone transaction. (I've let my prepaid service lapse, in any event, so it would have been difficult.) But I did have to enter my address correctly. I also ordered something from amazon.com Japan. I'm getting pretty good at typing kanji, and I know several of them as well.

No, I didn't get squid on my pizza. Maybe next time.

I hope everyone back home enjoys the Nor'easter. I'm sorry I'm missing it. While you're all trapped inside for a couple days, it would be a good time to learn the kanji for yuki, or "snow". Add a long o or "big" in front of that, and a bunch o' kyoofuu, and you got yourself a Nor'easter.