A few weeks ago, I went to Japan to tour the JAXA (Japanese NASA) site and attend a US-Japan Composites Conference. Whenever I hear the word "Japan", it now conjures up memories of sweating. My trip could be summed up this way: I was sweating, went in a store/restaurant/subway and dried of, sweated again, dried off again, sweated again, etc. I would daily develop a film of sweat, not unlike the rings on a tree truck, which could be used to follow my travels that day. I got a little sweat-rag as a gift from engineers at JAXA, and it was the most-used thing on the trip.
Anyway, it was funny ordering food without knowing what it is, but here is one of my better meals:
and some food was not-so-great for a non-seafood-lover. But I braved it anyway.
I was told by a professor that you are supposed to slurp when you eat your noodles. I didn't really believe this, until I was sitting at a bar-type seating right in front of the cook, and everyone next to me was slurping as loud as they could, and the cook looked pleased with this. I did my darndest to match their slurping, but my American upbringing seemed to keep me from my true slurp potential.
I sweated around at a botanical garden in Sapporo:
I sweated on a boardwalk through the marsh:
I sweated near a nice little pond:
I sweated in the market in Sapporo. My better half forced me to leave 1/2 of my suitcase empty, and then come home with some gifts for everyone, so the shopping pressure was totally on! I found some kimonos for only 15000 yen, and so I bought some for the boys (though they were adult sizes, but who cares for dress-up clothes, right?)
One aesthetic impression I had of Japan is that there are signs everywhere! Everywhere! And not just normal signs, but cartoons and glowing letters, with multiple-sized fonts, and bright colors, and cartoon characters. They even had cute little cartoon characters on their safety signs.
I sweated in a tram to the top of Mount Moiwa, then sweated on a hike on the way down. Very pretty. Unfortunately, this was on my way to the airport for a mega-flight, so I had to do a paper towel-shower in the bathroom at the airport. I had to change planes in Tokyo, which meant I just started sweating all over again.
Love Japanese toilets! I luckily had some experience with a model my dad has, so I was pretty skilled already about which buttons to use and which to avoid.
One of the highlights of the trip was being taken around Tokyo by Kaz and Maiko, some of our friends in Michigan. Kaz took me to this cool festival down a little street, where the kids were doing these cute little dances....
I thought these hats were way cool. They looked like fortune cookie hats!
... and the pure cuteness of all the kids dressed up....
Kaz and Maiko in a cool little shopping area. They are having their first baby soon, and they are going to be awesome parents!
We sweated up to a skyscraper to get a view of the city.
This was my fancy 50,000 Yen dinner with the JAXA crew. It was an open bar, and they were seriously disappointed that I don't drink. The table was floor level, and we were sitting below ground. Being a little large for the Japanese furniture, I nearly broke through the paper walls getting out of the table. I told them that I don't need alcohol to stumble around foolishly. I think they were glad I didn't drink at that point...
At the restaurant, I bravely ate everything put before me. Didn't know what it was most of the time, but I ate it anyways. And I sweated.
This is the sweating streets near Shinjuku station. During the summer, they don't wear ties or coats to work, and everyone is wearing a white short sleeve dress shirt and black pants. I felt out of place with my crazy colored shirts.
This is the Maiji Shrine near the station. It was a beautiful place to walk, think, and sweat profusely.
So my big debut in Asia was a sweating success: next time, I'd like to go at a different time of year or wear that futuristic vest from Back to the Future II with some sort of temperature regulation unit.
