Okay, I resolve to be better at writing more entries. My excuse this time is that my parents in Seattle don't have web access, and then when I got to Japan here I forgot my login information. I also forgot all my data CDs that included one with all my password and login names. Whoops.

So. Since a week ago, I've completely packed and left Detroit. The flight over was nice, and I flew business class (free WorldPerks Gold Elite upgrade) and met an interesting person from Pakistan, Hanif Khan, and we talked about language study and whatnot. I arrived in Seattle Monday night, and then spent most of Tuesday bumming around and also visiting an old friend from College, Audura, at her beautiful home in Bothell. It was cool to talk and catch up a bit. I should've written more about all that as it was happening, so I'm going to skip and continue on. I bought all the remaining stuff I needed on Wednesday morning and took off for Japan at 3PM. I was lucky as hell and got an upgrade to business class! Apparently a Japanese guy had flown to Seattle without his passport, and so the INS was sending him back. His assigned seat happened to be the same as mine, back in cattle class. So I enlisted the help of the flight attendant, and the next thing I know I' riding in Business class! It made for a pleasant trip, and I got to talk to an interesting gentleman, Hayakawa Kazumi, the President of Fluke Japan. Fluke makes electronic test equipment, and we talked at length about the differences between Japanese and American companies. We also talked about the train ride and he suggested that I get a reserved seat on the Bullet Train because I'd be travelling near rush hour.

After a seamless flight to Narita, I made it though customs no problem, exchanged $730 US for yen and caught a bus to go to the main train station in downtown Tokyo. The bus ride took about an hour and a twenty minutes, and cost 3000 yen. I then made a crucial mistake and decided to push my luck with getting a non-reserved seat on the train to JCMU. As it turned out, the train had already started loading at the platform about 30 minutes before departure, so in the first 10 minutes all the seats had been taken. I took a position without a seat standing or sitting next to little shelf with basically no room. The train ride was supposed to be 3 hours 20 minutes, so I began to realize my Karma was bad after enjoying such a nice flight from Seattle. Fortunately, I was on the Hikari Super Express and not the slow Kodama Shinkansen (Bullet Train), so it didn't stop as much and the ride was only 2 hours twenty minutes. The downside of the express train with fewer stops is that nobody got off until Nagoya, so I only got a seat for the last half hour. By this time, I was dead tired and ready to be done with the Journey. With little trouble I caught the taxi to JCMU, where everyone else had already arrived hours earlier, and was greeted by a sign that said "Welcome Nilsen-san. Please proceed to your room, #124."

The apartment is much bigger than I expected, and it turns out that since I requested a Japanese roommate, I have the whole place to myself for the next 2 or 3 weeks until the English program begins. It's slightly shabby, but only because I'd become so accustomed to my ridiculously deluxe pad in Detroit. No granite countertops or Sub-zero fridges here. I do have a rice cooker, though.

Friday morning we all met in the Academic building for a continental breakfast and tour of the building. There are lots of shoes required: inside shoes, outside shoes, slippers, etc. I have five pairs for the various locations and even that might not be enough. We were also treated to a half hour lecture on the recycling system in Hikone. It's needlessly complex and requires approximately 4 different bags to be purchased from the grocery store in order to label and discard things. There's a burnable bag, and plastic bag, a non-burnable trash only bag (for throwing away broken dishes and old stuffed animals, among other things, according to the lecture), and another bag for things I forget. After that we got a tour of the grounds, and were issued bikes, locks, and helmets. We then went enmasse (sp?) by bike to the center of town to get familiar with the area and to buy groceries so we could eat. We had 2 hours to walk around and shop at the department store, and then we had to meet back at the "Mack-oo Don-a-ru-do", McDonald's, to head back. We went out for lunch and I bought some groceries.

Lunch was a lesson in how not to order tea. Tea another student, Josh, tried to order was Japanese Green Tea. We thought that was called O-cha. It turned out that instead we got cold brown tea. Several futile attempts at conversation, we enjoyed our brown tea. I had chicken and shrimp tempura after another student explained that much of the meat dishes were described in Kanji (Japanese writing) as "tongues". This either meant that they were in the shape of tongues, as I suspect since the petrified scale model of the eel tougues looked like fish filets and not fish tongues, or they were actually made of tongue meat. I need to study foods more. I spent the evening relaxing and trying to adjust to the jet lag, studying Japanese to brush up for the exam on Saturday, or reading a book my mom gave me before I left about Mig fighter pilots. I took two sleeping pills at 11:00 at night (although I was dead tired) and woke up at 3:30. Then it was more tossing and turning until I finally just got up at 5:30.

I will continue tomorrow ... enough typing for today.
- posted by freestyle @ 7:37 PM

 
Hello. I've started this Blog to record my experiences as I travel to Japan to live from August 27th until the end of December, 2003. If you're reading along I hope you can enjoy Japan vicariously through my blog. I'll try to focus on my thoughts and emotions, rather than just a daily account of things that happen to me, but be forewarned: I'm not very good at telling my own emotions.

Anyway, about me. I'm 29 and had worked as an engineer at DaimlerChrysler (DCX) in Michigan for just about 8 years. I'd had a number of international projects starting with DCX Mexico, then Germany, and my most recent one was working with Mitsubishi as liasion engineer. I took the opportunity to learn Japanese part time at night as a way to improve my job skills.

For two years I was the engineer responsible for doing the dirty work to outsource chassis engineering of Chrysler's next generation of small & midsized vehicles to Mitsubishi in Japan. The initiative started out as a cooperative joint venture but quickly it became apparent who was in the driver's seat. Virtually all design control was acquiesced to Mitsubishi and the Chrysler Group engineers found they had little influence in the design.

The efficiency of the arrangement was undeniable, for the Chrysler Chassis Engineering team was able to tackle 5 new vehicles where previously a number of people 50% larger only designed two. In addition, acquiescing early design responsibility to MMC allowed the majority of those engineers to focus efforts on improving quality and reducing the cost of the two older products while someone in Japan worked on the future products.

It was sickening to see how the role of the American engineers was being diminished, and my job changed slowly into something I didn't want to do. To make a really long story short, the job went sour and I decided that my desire for international experience wasn't going to come out of my DCX job, and that I'd have to make one myself.

So I left DCX in May and have traveled all summer and basically enjoyed the time off. I was able to fulfill some dreams and see a lot of America. The highlight was definitely when I climbed Mount Rainier in Washington State in early August. Next week I leave Detroit to stay with my parents in Seattle for a few days and then I'm off to Japan! Here's a link to my home page that pretty well sums up my summer, with the exception of the Mount Rainier climb. I'll have to update the website on a new server, as my home cable modem will be disconnected next week.

I just signed the lease with a lady who will be living in my condo while I'm gone. This was really a miracle, and I'm extremely fortunate and glad she called and wanted the place. Honestly, I didn't get any other calls on my ad, and she showed up an payed the full amount! I am so lucky, and relieved. Now the only major hassle to resolve is that the laptop computer I ordered hasn't arrived and won't until after I leave Detroit, so I'm stressing about that. I guess I won't have a computer for the trip. Oh well, I'll have to work it out later. Nothing I can do now.
- posted by freestyle @ 5:21 PM