The G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting was held this year in Kyoto, on June 26 and 27th. The Group of Eight, consisting of the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, and the UK, take turns hosting the different meetings and final summit, and this year it just happened to be in Japan. While the final summit took place in Toyako, Hokkaido, hundreds of miles away from where I am in Osaka, the Foreign Ministers Meeting was held in Kyoto, a mere 15 minute ride away by Shinkansen. Because it was being held in our consular jurisdiction, the US Consulate Osaka-Kobe was responsible for preparing for the arrival of the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, as well as running the press filing center (PFC) for Secretary Rice’s traveling press and any other American journalists.

Most of these duties, especially the ‘S’ visit (as it was called) fell on the lap of the Public Affairs office to take care of. Thats my section! For the week or so leading up to the foreign ministers meeting, my boss was living in the hotel where our PFC would be, and where S would be staying. In the office I was doing things like preparing the welcome packs for the traveling press or packing away all the flags in the building to be used for the PFC and for any photo ops that would occur for S. Originally I was going to go out on Tuesday of that week to help physically set up the PFC, but they ended up not needing me for that. Instead, I headed to the Hotel Okura in Kyoto in the consular van with a bunch of other FSO’s (foreign service officers) for a meeting with S’s advance team on Wednesday afternoon. They had arrived in Osaka a few days before, and had already been to the consulate for a Japan-wide video conference to plan for S’s arrival. Now we were having the last ‘countdown’ meeting before she showed up on Thursday morning. I really didn’t do much during this meeting besides try to stay awake and look like I was listening intently.

After the meeting I was able to visit the PFC for the first time. Basically, it was one of the smaller ballrooms in the hotel that we had divided into two areas. One area (which would be used by the journalists) just had a bunch of tables, each with telephones, and a large TV on in the back with some satellite channel on. There was also a table for refreshments. On the other side, which would be reserved for the PFC staff (i.e. people from the consulate, mostly) had computers, printers, copy/fax machines, and another television. I helped out with a few last-minute data entry type tasks while other people from my office finished setting everything up. Around 6pm I took the train back to my apartment.

The next day, Thursday the 26th, was the official start of the Foreign Ministers meeting. Secretary Rice would be arriving around 10am that morning, and since we had already set up the PFC the night before, it meant we just had to sit around and wait for her and her press corp. Her plane was mostly on time, and when she arrived at the hotel, sadly the PFC staff was ushered out into the hallway so that S could make a statement to her traveling press corp. Not really sure why we couldn’t sit in on it, but thats how it was. She arrived with more than half a dozen Secret Service officers, and I managed to get a few pictures but the only one that came out well (since I was sort of doing it as inconspicuously as possible) was of her back. But, when finished with her briefing, she did come back out to the hallway and greeted us all. And then it was straight to her room on the very top floor of the hotel (which was completely reserved for her and the Ambassador) for several hours of personal time before her first bilateral meeting with I think the foreign minister from Canada.

The rest of Thursday would have been spent sitting around in the PFC killing time if I hadn’t been able to go on a site visit/inspection to the Kyoto International Conference Center with some of the Tokyo Embassy staff who were working in the PFC. The Kyoto ICC would be where all the Foreign Ministers would meet for a press conference on Friday afternoon. For now, they were holding meetings at the Kyoto State Guest House, which I didn’t have the credentials to get into. The Kyoto ICC was a massive building built in the 60’s that had an almost shrine-inspired exterior, albeit in cement and steel. Part of the ICC was off limits to anyone not in the minister’s parties, and would be used by the dozens of journalists from around the world as their press filing centers. Because the US is part of the G8, we actually had tables set aside for us at the ICC to use, but since we had our own PFC at the Hotel Okura, we didn’t bother.

After the quick visit with the (Japanese) Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assure everything was in order for the Secretary’s arrival on Friday, we had a quick walk through of the place before being driven back to the Okura in one of the press vehicles. We were stopped at a light for a duration while some country’s delegation was given a police escort to the Kyoto State Guest House. By the time we got back to the hotel it was getting close to 6pm, but I decided to wait around a while to go out to eat with the other PFC staffers. We went to a pizza place a few blocks away from the hotel and enjoyed some wine and pizza together. My boss was even able to show up after she had finished up with everything at the KSGH. But because I had a 1+ hour train ride to get back to my apartment (and everyone else had been put up at the hotel), I decided to cut out around 9pm so that I could get home with some time to relax before I had to hit the sack.

Friday morning started similarly to Thursday: riding the train to Kyoto, walking to the hotel, sitting in the PFC for a while twiddling my thumbs. Luckily around lunch time I was able to eat a quick lunch with my coworker Nakanishi-san before we raced over to the Kyoto ICC to prepare for the press conference. We had rushed through lunch a bit early because on Thursday everyone had gone without food for quite a few hours in the rush following the Secretary’s arrival, and we weren’t sure what the food situation would be at the ICC. Naturally, when we did arrive, the first thing we did was find the cafeteria which was serving all kinds of free food for the journalists. We enjoyed a few desserts before I was ushered into the main press filing center to pick up a bag filled with free goodies (more on that later).

I would then spend the next several hours sitting in the main hall of the ICC reserving a spot for the official White House photographer among the other photographers and cameramen in attendance. It was a bit boring but I got to watch all the various nation’s traveling press trickle into the seating area, and eventually all the foreign ministers appeared on stage. The US photographer was late so I got to spend the beginning of the press conference pretty much front and center for everything. Eventually he did come and I was kicked out of my spot, but I got to move to the other side of the room where the US press and consular staff were sitting. The official journalists were lucky in that they were given instantaneous translation headsets, but it didn’t turn out to be much of an issue as almost every question was asked to Secretary Rice or the Japanese foreign minister. I think the UK guy had a question directed his way as well, but poor France, Canada, Italy, Germany and Russia were ignored when journalists asked about the US delisting N. Korea from its list of terrorists states, how the US would continue working to return abducted Japanese citizens from N. Korea, and I think there were a few Iraq questions thrown in as well for good measure. Eventually the journalists had to leave to rush back to the Kyoto State Guest House for the next event, and I was able to grab one of the headsets and listen to the rest of the press conference.

When everything was over and the foreign ministers had returned to their segregated side of the ICC to await their police-escorts to the KSGH, my two coworkers and I (Nakanishi and Matsumura, who both work in the PAS office in Osaka) wandered around the now-empty journalist side of the ICC and picked up some more free stuff. Sadly the cafe had been shut down so there were no free desserts left for us to eat. Eventually we took the journalist’s van back to the PFC, where I then twiddled my thumbs again for a few hours until I was told I could leave around 6pm!

The Press Filing Center inside the Hotel Okura on the day before the G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting began. I made those signs!

These are my credentials that gave me access to the Kyoto International Conference Center. The top card designates me as part of the Secretary of State’s delegate! I was the only intern in the whole consulate who got to visit the ICC and the only one who actually got to be in the hotel during the two days the meeting was taking place! I’m really glad that I got the opportunity to go because I know the other interns were quite jealous!

The only picture of the Secretary that I got that wasn’t completely blurry. (Yeah thats her in the black suit walking out of the room and about to turn towards me.) I wasn’t sure if it was ok to take a picture of her or not when she arrived at the PFC, and I didn’t want to see too rude, so I just stuck my camera to my hip and set it to continuous mode and took a bunch of pictures without being noticed. You can see the Secret Service guy is totally looking at me in this shot though.

A pretty river that I had to cross each day in route to the hotel. If you click on it to see it full size, there is a white bird standing in the river in the lower right corner.

Here you can see the exterior of the Kyoto ICC. It’s really quite ugly!

Large room serving as a press filing center for everyone but the US delegate.

The main conference hall empty and later filled with journalists.

The ministers arrive.

Condoleezza Rice was the only person NOT wearing a black suit on stage. I thought it was nice and really made her stand out, also as one of only two female foreign ministers. She also brought her own headset so she didn’t look like a dork with a giant gray thing covering her ear the entire time.

A view of where I was stationed for a couple of hours saving a spot for the official White House photographer.

After the press conference was finished:

In the lobby of the ICC, the world’s largest HD television. 103 inches!

To celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the writing of the Tale of Genji, they had examples of Heian-period dress that you could actually try on (I wanted to but didn’t have time to). Also, a really cool miniature of a house/palace from that time period as well!

A picture of all the goodies I received! This included bags, tshirts, fans, books, DVD’s, CD’s, pens and pencils, pads of paper, clear files, and food! And one more thing….

Hmm what could be in this package…..

A wooden box with gold lettering! Pretty cool but, whats inside?

A silk furoshiki with a scene from the Tale of Genji on it! Its really so pretty I can’t see myself using it to wrap things up or carry anything around. Maybe I’ll frame it…..

I wasn’t even going to bother writing about this. But my mom has been bugging (haha get it) me for weeks-WEEKS-to mention it, and I (regrettably) have more to write about the subject as of last night at 2am.

When I moved into my apartment, I didn’t know that after the gas man had left and I had signed my lease and was left all alone in my pillow-less apartment for the night, that I would have another visitor welcoming me to Osaka. A cockroach. I had never even seen a cockroach in person until May 28, 2008. Now, normally I’m not bothered by most insects. I’ll either squish them or catch them and let them go outside. However, I can tell you now that I hate cockroaches and don’t want to see another one in my life if I could avoid it. They are fast and unpredictable, too big to just squash outright (think of the mess they’d leave!), and well, they just look hideous.

The first cockroach I saw got off pretty lightly, I’d say. I caught him and tossed him out the window. I think I heard someone yell from down below, but perhaps it was unrelated (I hope).

Three weeks later, I had a second sighting. I thought I got lucky at first, I spotted the thing out of the corner of my eye and spooked him so that he ran towards the balcony door. I opened the door and he ran out, never to be seen again. Well, until about 4 hours later, when suddenly another cockroach (the same one???) suddenly waddles out from UNDER MY BED. Where are these things even coming from?? I can’t find any holes or cracks or anywhere that they could be getting in. This time, he wasn’t going to be cooperative. He ran under the television while I was IMing all my friends with “OMG COCKROACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” messages. It was night time too so its not like I could leave that thing running around and hope to get any sleep!

I had to pull out all of the shelving units, and move everything away from the walls to find this thing and to corner him. I stuck a cup along the wall and somehow got him to run right into it. I thought I was being quite clever to pull off a piece of sticky paper from my lint roller to close off the top of the cup with so he couldn’t escape. Ran into the bathroom and dumped him into the toilet and flushed him. Patted myself on the back thinking I had done a great job. Five minutes later I go to actually use the bathroom and what do I see but the cockroach WALKING AROUND INSIDE THE TOILET BOWL. I think that I shrieked at this point, probably not quietly. I flushed him another 6 times or so for good measure, but he kept coming back! Finally faced with the realization that I’d have to scoop him out and actually kill him, I donned my rubber gloves and grabbed a plastic cup. Somehow I got him into the cup and drained out the water, threw the entire thing into a plastic bag and double knotted it. I put on my sneakers and stomped on him. About eight times. Then I tossed the entire bag into the garbage bin in the hallway outside of my apartment.

Cockroaches: 0, Nikki: 1

That week I went out and bought a dozen poison traps and another dozen sticky traps. The poison traps are in every corner of my apartment now, and under the bed, television, refrigerator(s), in the closet, and two on the balcony. I only put out a few sticky traps cause I figured the poison ones would be more effective. I was able to sleep with a clear mind.

Well, until last night.

Its getting close to 2am. I’m just sitting on my bed peacefully, getting sleepy and preparing to go to bed. Monday is a consular holiday so I don’t have to get up at 6:30am. I’m thinking about going to Nara to see a special exhibit at the national museum there. And I’m watching a really interesting show when, OH GOD A GIANT COCKROACH JUST WALKED OUT FROM UNDERNEATH MY BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now why did he have to do that. I had been living in ignorant bliss for a month, thinking I’d never see another cockroach in Japan because I had successfully killed them all off with my poison traps. I was able to coach him towards my balcony door and let him out of it like I had with #2, but who knows if he will come back. I put a sticky trap out on the balcony and two more inside, one under my bed and one next to the balcony door. And then I went online and read horrible stories about cockroaches in Japan. About people waking up to find cockroaches drinking water from their eyes (??????!???!), cockroaches running down their legs, falling out of their air conditioners, and so on and so forth. I don’t know why I did this. Suddenly I wasn’t tired anymore, and I felt all itchy. By 3am I knew I had to try and get to sleep, so I cranked up the AC (cockroaches don’t like the cold apparently) and tried to sleep. I probably woke up two or three times thinking there was a bug on me, but a morning room check revealed no bugs under the bed or stuck in the sticky traps.

Apparently Japan’s hot and humid summers are like a cockroach paradise, and they are pretty common. I keep my apartment spotless and there certainly isn’t any food on the floor so I don’t know why they have to come and visit me. I wish they’d stop. If not, then why don’t they visit these lovely roach houses I put out for them? It even has pink shutters and a happy looking roach welcoming them! Normally I think starving the poor things to death while they are stuck in the glue is pretty cruel but, well, I don’t think anyone will miss them.

As I type this I am breezing by central Japan at a comfy 171mph in seat 14E of the Nozomi Superexpress 155 bound for Shin-Osaka. (Well ok I finished the rest of it like two weeks later sitting on my bed…)

After work on Friday, June 20th, in the pouring rain, I hailed a cab and had it take me to Shin-Osaka station, the only place in Osaka that you can catch the Shinkansen. The Nozomi superexpress #38 was leaving at 5:37pm, giving me just enough time to pick up a bento box dinner and a drink. While I’ve gotten a bit sick of eating the traditional bentos every day for lunch at work, being able to eat one while sitting on the Shinkansen going 200mph and watching the city/countryside fly by you just makes it seem less dull. Because it was 5pm on a Friday night I had purchased a reserved seat ticket because 1) I wanted a window seat and 2) I didn’t want to have to fight with people to even get a seat at all in the unreserved car. (Typically, of the 11-15 cars per train, three are unreserved and the rest are reserved cars. Unreserved seats are a few dollars cheaper, but when it is rush hour on a Friday night, sometimes people are forced to stand up in the aisles of the train, and that really doesn’t seem like its very enjoyable.)

For the next two and a half hours or so, I had a lot of fun just sitting in my seat looking out the window at the scenery. Sadly it was pretty much pouring between Osaka and Nagoya, and then towards Tokyo it was rather gray and overcast. I also was not able to see Mt. Fuji this time, which on a clear day can be seen if you are sitting on the left side of the train. My bento was quite decent but I wish I had brought some kind of dessert with me; perhaps I’ll remember next time. I think this was my first time on the superexpress, and I was amazed at how fast it went between each station. From Shin-Osaka station to Kyoto, only 15 minutes. Kyoto to Nagoya was only 30, a trip that normally takes four times that even on a normal rapid train. Nagoya to Shin-Yokohama was the most impressive however. There were no stops made in between, and it took us about 1.5 hours to make the trip. Taking the local trains would have taken more than 5 hours to go the same distance-I know because I’ve done it like that twice. The Shinkansen are so fast, smooth, on time, it really makes me sad that I can’t ride trains like this (or any trains really) in the US.

Two and a half hours later I was walking through Tokyo station on the way to the Yamanote line for Shinjuku, where I’d be meeting my friend Brian. He didn’t have a cell phone so coordinating our meeting place was a little difficult, but in the end I wandered around long enough until I found a bank of payphones with Brian in mid-dial. After meeting up we walked a ways into Shinjuku and found a cafe for a quick snack and conversation before jumping back onto a train and heading outside of the city to where Brian was living and working. It took about 40 minutes on the train, and another 20 walking to arrive at his apartment. He also lives in a 1K, but his furniture is a lot nicer, he actually has carpet (!), and his main room is larger than mine. His bathroom is pretty tiny in comparison though: shower, tub, toilet and sink are all crammed into a space the size of my tub/shower room. Then again I think its a huge waste to have an entire room just for a toilet like my apartment. We drank some “Hawaii Blue” Pepsi and chatted before going to sleep.

The next morning we were able to drag ourselves out of bed, get showered and dressed, and back to Shinkjuku station by 1pm to meet one of my professors for lunch. She was in Tokyo for the month working on her book and in general just enjoying some vacation time. She took us to a soba restaurant that she knew was good, and I had cold soba for the first time ever. It was actually very good, especially accompanied by tempura-ed (is tempura also a verb?) summer vegetables. I can’t wait to try and make some myself either here or when I get back to the US.

When lunch was over Brian and I hustled our bustles over to Akihabara where we (I, mostly) had planned to meet some people to wander around and shop, and later to go to an all-you-can-eat Israeli restaurant where we would then be meeting even more people. I didn’t actually know any of them beforehand, but they were either members of, or friends of the members, an online forum that has something like 110,000 members right now. Of the people affiliated with the site that live in Japan, most of them live in Tokyo, and as such tend to get together at least once a month in a big group to usually go to an all-you-can-eat place and later go to clubs or to karaoke or wherever else and just have fun. From here on in this post I will refer to them as goons, as that is what they (we?) affectionately go by.

So Brian and I went to meet up with the goons in Akihabara. One of the first things we saw after leaving Akihabara station was this:

After the June 8 stabbings right in the center of Akihabara, a large makeshift memorial was constructed on the street corner near where it happened. This one is not the original, as that one had become too large and was starting to block the sidewalk. Many people left bottles of tea or flowers as offerings, and someone even went so far as leaving a gift melon. While Akihabara has pretty much returned to normal, I could still feel a tense atmosphere hanging in the area.

Moving on, we spent the next several hours hitting up some arcades, going to various and sundry shops for computers or anime goods, and eventually parted ways from the goons who were going to a friend’s apartment to take a break before heading to dinner. Brian and I continued to wander the area for another hour or so until it started to rain. By this point it was 5pm-ish and we returned to Akihabara station to meet up with the goons from before, as well as a bunch more people. We hopped on the Yamanote line and transfered at Ikebukuro and then went a few more stops. A few hundred feet down an alley near the station led us to the restaurant. Many pitchers of beer and servings of hummus and pita bread were consumed by all. Here is a picture of everyone post-meal:

By the time we were done eating, it had started to rain even harder. Several of us decided to go to Shibuya for all-you-can-drink karaoke. I think it was probably the most expensive karaoke place that I’ve ever been to. In the end it came out to 3000yen per person for an hour and a half! When we left, it was already past 1am, which meant that Brian and I were now stuck in Tokyo until morning. Trains everywhere in Japan stop running at an unbelievably early time, even in central Tokyo. The last train from Shinjuku to get to Brian’s apartment leaves before midnight, so to even get to that we would have had to leave eating and karaoke no later than 11pm. So the choice is, stop everything and leave at 11pm, or stay up all night and go home at 6am when the trains start running again? Well, you can see what we decided to do….

The only problem then becomes, what the heck do you do in downtown Tokyo at 2-5am when everything is closed? Well, first we went to a game center, but that closed about 20 minutes after we got there. Naturally it was completely pouring by this point, so we walked to a nearby hotel that had a club in the basement. Not really being partial to clubs, or $30 cover charges, myself, Brian, and another guy (named Jay) at in the hotel lobby for a few hours and just chatted. By 4:30am, Brian was already out, and I was surprised to still be awake. The rain had stopped and the three of us decided to walk towards the train station and find some breakfast somewhere. The only thing that seemed open was a McDonald’s, and the disappointing thing was that they weren’t even serving breakfast yet! McNuggets at 5am. Jay decided to live life on the edge and bought the Japanese-only “Mega Tamago”, tamago meaning egg. It was a Big Mac with three burger patties and an egg on it. It looked disgusting and reportedly tasted as such. Brian seems to be morally opposed to McDonald’s and only had an iced coffee.

The trains had started to run again by the time we were finished eating. Jay parted ways with us, and Brian and I spent the 1 hour ride back half asleep. It was still pouring in Hon Atsugi when we arrived, so we wisely decided to take a taxi back to his apartment, where we promptly went to sleep.

To get to the Ghibli Museum by 4pm (for which I had two tickets), we got up and dressed and out of Hon Atsugi by 3pm. It was STILL pouring by that time, and since I had a suitcase in tow, we called a cab to bring us back to the station. A quick stop a Mister Donut for some breakfast/lunch, and we were back on the train. This was my third trip to the Ghibli Museum, Brian’s first, and nothing had really changed there. The short film they were showing was the same one I saw when I went with Nick in December of 2005. The gift shop was really disappointing this time though. Perhaps not so for my wallet, however.

Nothing too exciting happened following our museum visit. I was reunited with my suitcase (which had been stored in a locker), had a quick meal at the Tokyo Soup Company (which was still there three years after I first ate there), and boarded a train for Tokyo station where I then boarded the Shinkansen and started writing this post!

And now some pictures:

View of Akihabara

A view of the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, just outside Shibuya station, at 8pm and 1am:

More Shibuya:

Lovely stained glass window inside the Ghibli museum. Every window in the museum is like this, with gorgeous designs inspired from their films. You aren’t allowed to take pictures but I couldn’t resist:

Bonus picture of Brian and I from my EEE PC webcam:

Heres another all picture post. A few views of downtown Osaka right near the consulate:

Can you spot the consulate? Its the gray building dead center. Look for the blue police vans parked in front.

Heres a quick geography review. This is a map of Japan:

Notice towards the center of the country, theres Osaka. It’s got a little line over the ‘o’ because technically, you should pronounce it with a long ‘o’ sound, like Oosaka. Anyway, there is where I am living right now. I live right inside of Osaka city, in an area called Miyakojima. It’s really close to downtown!

The red arrow is Miyakojima. I live pretty much right on top of that dot because my apartment is maybe 30ft away from the subway station entrance and most likely right on top of the station itself. The yellow arrow is the station that I get off of to go to work, Higashi Umeda, which literally just means ‘East Umeda’, Umeda being another name for Osaka station right in downtown Osaka. It takes me less than 10 minutes on the train to go from Miyakojima to Higashi Umeda, and in fact they are on the same train line!

Anyway, here are some pictures of my little neighborhood:

Here’s the station exit that is closest to my apartment!

Now we are walking away from the station, towards my apartment. Hmm, what is this Dining Sun place?

Oh hey, its my building! And look on the second floor, thats my place!

Free newspaper in my mailbox? Score! Too bad I can barely read it…….

Turn the corner and there are the stairs into the building. You have to walk past the restaurant that occupies the first floor to get to the apartments. I’ve yet to eat at this place and probably won’t even bother to while I’m here.

Route to my room. Its super exciting. (Not.)

My door!

And the following are some lovely views of my balcony, which now doesn’t have water pouring down onto it every day!

My washing machine and escape hatch that would allow me to fall onto the cement floor below in case of a fire or something. Hopefully I’ll never have to use that.

The escape hatch from the apartment above me. Its directly above the balcony door. This is where all the water was coming from every time it rained or (I’m suspecting) every time my upstairs neighbor used their washing machine. The landlord tinkered with it and it has since stopped leaking completely. Yay!

Cherubs?

Aaaand, three views from my window:


The guy in the last one noticed me taking photos and posed for me. You can see it better if you click on it.

So I have been keeping pretty busy here in Japan land. I slept for about 13 hours straight this past weekend after running to Kyoto and back three days in a row working the press conference at the G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting. It was exhausting but an amazing experience! Anyway, the emails are piling up and I haven’t really responded to any in…a while. Yeah, sorry about that. I got to come home a whole hour early today so I’m going to try and wade through some of them.

Hopefully I will be able to get a few more blog entries up sometime soon. Here is a preview of what I’ll be writing about:

-What I do in a typical day
-Pictures of downtown Osaka
-More pictures of my apartment, including the exciting view out my window!
-A step-by-step guide on how to kill Japanese cockroaches
-Spending a weekend in Tokyo!
-Working the G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Kyoto!
-Going to a baseball game and actually enjoying it

Stay tuned!

If for some reason a person that I don’t know has somehow stumbled across this post, then maybe I could understand the confusion. But for anyone that knows me, well, I don’t really have to explain Sirotan to you. Its a cute white seal character sold by a Japanese store called Mother Garden. Sirotan sometimes likes to dress up as other sea creatures, and his job is being cute. Theres nothing deep or significant about it, its super cute and I love it. See HERE for the complete line of Sirotan merchandise!

So of course within a week I had found, and visited, the nearest Mother Garden. Here are my latest acquisitions:

Its a little floor mat for my bathroom. I mean, I was going to get a floor mat ANYWAY, so why not make it a Sirotan mat? Oh, it was on sale too.

Its Stingray Sirotan! Did I need it? No. Do I know where it will go among its three other pillow-sized Sirotan brethren? No. Did that stop me? No.

Bonus close up shots from Stingray Sirotan. He has a fish on his butt!

I also bought a sticker book! And, a week later I went back to Mother Garden, and got this guy. I haven’t had a chance to take a picture yet so here is one from the official site:

I didn’t even know but, he is actually strawberry scented!

Well this actually took place the first weekend I was in Japan (May 31/June 1), but I decided to abandon the idea of backdating all my posts because it got a little bit too complex. Three years ago when I was studying at JCMU, I participated in an event at Kyoto Women’s University. Basically, JCMU sent four of us Americans over to eat free food and chat with the English students. While there I met Megumi. We exchanged emails for a while, and she even walked around Kyoto with me on a weekend after we met. When I went back to the states, we started to exchange mail and send Christmas presents to each other. She even visited me for a few days while she was studying in Toronto over the summer.

So when I finally got an arrival date, I emailed Megumi and she was really excited that I was coming. She lives in Osaka with her family, and invited me over for dinner the first weekend that I was in town. On Saturday she drove over to my apartment, and took me around to some stores in the area so I could buy some essentials. A drying rack and hangers, fan, towels, trash can, iron, dishes, sheets and a pillow. You wouldn’t believe the number of stores we had to go to just to find a pillow. We dropped off my stuff, and then drove over to Megumi’s family’s house.

Megumi lives clear across town from where I live in Miyakojima, near the Osaka Aquarium in Osakako (or literally, Osaka Port). They live in a high-rise apartment building, where every apartment has its entrance on an odd numbered floor, with the kitchen and one room on the first floor, and a bathroom and two bedrooms on the upper floor, or at least that was how their apartment and her grandmother’s apartment (who lived in the same building) was set up. Compared to my apartment theirs was quite large, but compared to my house back home, it was very small. The only common space outside of the bathroom was the kitchen, which was smaller than my bedroom.

Her mom greeted us at the door, as well as her younger brother. Her mom spoke a little English herself, so we were able to speak in both languages. But mostly I tried to stick to only Japanese, and I think I did pretty well. Her brother was too shy to speak to me in either languages. Eventually her dad came home from work, and we all sat around the kitchen table and had some delicious sukiyaki. I really had a great time talking with her family while eating and over tea after dinner, and her father was really really nice and funny, which is a great departure from that distant father stereotype that we seem to have in the US regarding Asian families.

After dinner, Megumi and I walked over to a large ferris wheel that was in the same area as the Osaka Aquarium, which up until two years ago was apparently the largest ferris wheel in Japan. It was a really clear night so I was able to get a few nice pictures. From the ferris wheel, you can see in the first picture Osaka Aquarium which looks pretty cool at night. On the second picture is Universal Studios Japan, which was setting off some fireworks only a few moments before I took this picture (you can still see the smoke blowing away).

Hey looks theres sweaty me and Megumi on the ferris wheel!

We walked around the shops near by and played some arcade games (I managed to win us something from a claw game, affectionately called ‘UFO Catchers’ in Japan) before returning to her parent’s apartment. Because their apartment was so small, we gathered our things and went one floor up to her grandmother’s apartment, because she had a guest room that she let me use. We both took a shower/bath, watched some television and went to sleep.

The next morning, Megumi’s mother served us scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and fruit. After everyone was ready, we all piled into dad’s car and drove across town to Sumiyoshi Taisha. Here are some pictures:

Here is the bridge that the shrine is famous for. Its called Taikobashi, which literally means “drum bridge” for the noise it makes when you walk up and down the sides of it:

More views of the rest of the shrine, including a pond and sacred tree and water fountain:

Before we left the shrine, Megumi’s father bought me a a little omamori (like a sacred amulet) as well as an ema (wooden prayer votive). I used to collect ema from every shrine and temple I would visit, write on the back the date I visited the shrine, whom I visited it with, and maybe a special note. This time I had everyone in Megumi’s family sign their name on it.

After the shrine we drove a ways to a large shopping center and a okonomiyaki restaurant for lunch. People call okonomiyaki a “Japanese pizza” but honestly the only thing relating it to pizza is the fact that its a round shape. It was my first time going to an okonomiyaki restaurant, the type of place where they make all the food right in front of you, and while I had a great time sitting there observing it all, honestly I wasn’t that excited about the food. Its mostly cabbage, held together with batter, and shrimp/squid/pork/beef/vegetables or a combination of any of the above mixed in. Top it with mayonnaise (they just love mayonnaise in Japan, I can’t understand it) and a sauce and then you eat it. Well, at least now I can say I’ve tried it.

The shopping center was situated right on the port of Osaka, and here you can see some pictures:

After shopping and eating (we passed by some place that was selling old car license plates from the US, with tags and dirt still on them, no idea why anyone would want to buy them), Megumi was nice enough to ride back on the subway with me to my apartment, which she then helped me to clean. We spent 3 hours scrubbing the floors, scrubbing the windows, scrubbing everything. The place was filthy. In the mean time Keiji, the land lord, stopped by with a few items, including: a pillow and a blanket, two glasses, one large and one small bowl, two tea cups with saucers, a ridiculously oversized skillet, cutting board, and an assortment of cutlery. It wasn’t much but, at least I won’t have to buy it.

In early November of 2007, I applied to a Department of State summer internship program. I knew that for the summer of 2008 I needed to participate in some sort of internship program involving Japanese studies, not only because it would help me get a feel for what kind of job I wanted to seek out after graduation, but it would also look good on my resume. I had gotten myself on UoM’s office of overseas career services’ mailing list, and for a few weeks had seen them mention of Dept. of State program. When I went to see what their requirements were to apply, I found that all they wanted was a copy of your transcript and a couple short essays. No letters of recommendation and no application fees. Well what the heck, I thought. Applying would be effortless and if I get accepted it can always be my fall back plan if another internship I’m more interested in turns me down.

Almost EXACTLY one month after I applied, I got an email from someone telling me I’m the alternate candidate for a spot working at the US consulate in Osaka, Japan. Well wow, and here I thought the wheels of bureaucracy moved slowly. So I emailed them back, indicated I was still interested, and the next day they emailed me again to say that I was now the primary candidate for the position. I had to wait a few weeks before I got some official paperwork in the mail, requiring me to submit my fingerprints along with a very lengthy questionnaire regarding my background. I had to list every place I’ve ever lived, gone to school, worked at, traveled for pleasure, business, or study. Then I had to list references, who could vouch for where I’ve ever lived, went to school, worked, etc. And they each had to be a different reference. Then I needed three additional personal references who had known me for at least 7 years and could vouch for my character! All this was so that I could obtain “Secret” level clearance.

All of that got sent in mid-February, and a few weeks later a special investigator from the State Department (who turned out to be a retired secret service agent, neat!) came to my house to interview me to clarify some things on my application. I was granted an interim clearance soon after, and discovered no one had even bothered to call my personal references, or even my boss of two years.

Then the relatively quick pace that this was all going at ground to a halt. I had to contact the Bureau Cheif of East Asian Affairs to actually be officially selected for the position. I emailed the guy a few times, but he never replied. Certain life events intruded and I gave the guy a couple weeks of time to get back to me before I bothered to try again. Finally in mid May I was given a start date: May 28.

Of course now I had less than two weeks to buy all the clothes and shoes I needed for my first actually professional job, get a plane ticket, and find a place to live. Wow, housing in Osaka is really expensive! Do I go with the 150 sq. ft apartment that actually has pictures out on the net for $1200/mo, or take a chance on the 120sq. ft. apartment that I’ve never even seen for $620 a month? Or how about a direct flight from Detroit to Osaka on Northwest for $2200, or take All Nippon Airways from Detroit->Chicago, Chicago->Tokyo, and Tokyo->Osaka for $1400? Suit jackets cost how much?? Well, its a good thing that in my official papers received sometime in February they told me it was going to be a paid internship, otherwise I don’t think I could have handled the intense drain on my bank account(s) in the one week period before I left the country.

Now that I’m in Japan, I’m starting to learn what the Public Affairs section at the consulate does. Its been really tough so far. They are sending me to all these parties, making me eat free food and forcing me to schmooze with government and corporate big wigs. All in the name of public diplomacy, well someone has to do it. But in all seriousness, I’ve been assisting with press reports, sitting in on speaker events both at the consulate and around the city, preparing for the Secretary of State’s visit to Kyoto for the G8 meeting later in the month, and various other duties as needed throughout the office. Everyone in the office is really nice to work with, and really so is everyone in the building (the guards, who are all Japanese, are so nice I feel like I’m going to need to make them cookies or something when I’m about to leave).

So does this mean I’d be interested in a job in the foreign service when I graduate? Honestly I don’t know. The way the system works, even if I got a PhD and was fluent in Japanese, the chance of me landing a job at a consulate of the embassy in Japan seems pretty small. Entry level people get sent to whatever third-world country has spaces to fill since the people with seniority certainly don’t want to live there. This would be the biggest turn off to me, since why would I want to work in Venezuela or Uzbekistan when where I want to be is Japan? But, I’ve only been here two weeks, so ask me again when I get back to the US how I feel about it.

And bonus picture of the US consulate. Took this from across the street because I really don’t think they would like me taking a picture of the building. Its pretty boring looking, and if you look at the full size image you can just barely see the seal of the United States of America in between the trees. Also note the police buses blocking the front of the building so as to deter protesters.

Bonus photos of protesters walking by the consulate to protest the G8 finance ministers meeting in Osaka this weekend!

You might have heard on the news that there were some strong earthquakes in Japan on Saturday. Luckily they hit in a largely rural area in northern Japan, so the damage has been pretty minimal and so far there are only six recorded deaths. Osaka is in the southwestern area of Japan, over 600 miles away from the earthquake’s epicenter, and was not affected.

Of course earthquakes are always a concern in Japan, but all modern buildings are built to strict building codes designed to help them survive moderate to large earthquakes. The apartment building that I live in isn’t brand new, but it was built sometime in the 80’s (I think), so I feel pretty safe. Japan is probably the best country to be in if you have to experience a big quake, so unless you hear on the news that a big one has actually hit Osaka (I live right in the city), you don’t need to worry about me.