My first Japan Journal, sent at the end of May, 1995. 

Chapter 1!

Hello, all! A number of people have asked that I keep them up to date on my experiences in Japan, so rather than write a separate letter to everyone (which would leave me with no time to actually work), I'll be sending general information out to you in installments. (Those who remember Leo’s trip to Japan are already familiar with this.)

Four Weeks in Vancouver

I lived on campus at Canadian International College for the four weeks I was there. I lived in residence at Waterloo for my first year there, then moved out and never had a desire to go back. I was reminded quite vividly of all the reasons that I do not enjoy residence life as much as others do there...

Basically, my days were as follows: wake up, go to class, eat, study, read, call people. Not a very exciting time. However, Vancouver itself is beautiful, as I discovered when my parents and my grandmother (Nanny, my mom’s mom) came out during my last few days there. (Yep, they came to visit me. It was wonderful. Now there are several pools going on back home as to whether my mom will visit me in Japan or no.) I also managed to sneak in a trip to Victoria one weekend, and spend time with my relatives there.

I learned a lot of Japanese in Vancouver-- probably about as much as possible (for me) in a one-month time frame. However, already it is obvious that it is woefully inadequate. I usually enjoy expressing myself somewhat more eloquently than, "Me, Tarzan. You Jane." but right now it’s about all I’m capable of.

I can read easily two of the three alphabets of Japanese- hiragana and katakana This is a good thing, except that virtually everything in written in the third- Kanji. And there’s only about 1500 or so that must be known to be considered even remotely literate. Argh. So I’m still entirely dependent on other's abilities in English...

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles... and Elevators

Aside from the large differences between Canada and Japan (language being the most formidable (for me) so far), there’s also a lot of little things. First of all, it's amazing how similar, superficially, Japan and Western countries are. There are cities, buildings, roads, billboards, etc. Of course, there's Japanese writing on the ads, but I am still amazed at the amount of romaji (Japanese words in Roman characters) and actual English on signs, clothes, and television.

My respect for Japanese programmers has increased dramatically. My computer here has a standard, English keyboard. The keyboards to display Japanese characters are the same physically, but each key has a different meaning.

How all the thousands of characters that make up Japanese are stored, and the arduous keystroke-combinations that must be used to type a standard Japanese sentence, are mysteries that I will not even attempt to learn until I have mastered the language proper.

But what amazes me is this: They program their computers in *English*. Now, for those who don’t know much about computers, yes, there are many different computer languages. But they are all (at least, the ones I know) English based (except for IBM's-- anyone out there know JCL?). For example, there’s if, print, loop, while... all these words perform functions that their name would imply (or at least something close). Knowing English, it’s not too difficult to learn another *computer* language. I will be working in C, a language I'm familiar with. But the people here are also working in C, which is English based. So they're writing in (what is to them) gobbledegook, and what results is technology that is beyond anything I’ve worked on or seen working in Canada This is difficult, complex stuff- and it's being done in their second language, or a language they don't understand at all.

Humbling.

Most of the people in my department at work speak varying degrees of English-- most of those at my dorm don't. (Yep, another dorm here, but at least I have a room of my own, and I don't think I’ll be awakened at 3 am by heavy metal music blaring at top volume on somebody’s stereo down the hall).

Most people know (at least, I did) that one drives on the left side of the road in Japan. I knew this to be true, but I didn’t quite register what that means. For example, when two cars are headed towards each other, as often happens on two-way streets, I often think, "Is that car far enough away from the other to avoid a collision?" However, I since I’ve arrived here, I have realized that that wasn’t what I was thinking. I was verifying "Is that car far enough *to the left* of the other car to avoid a collision?"

So when I look at two car approaching each other here, I still ask myself the latter question, which comes out as a resounding NO (since cars pass each other on the right), and there's a moment of panic as I expect a terrible accident... which never occurs.

It’s about a 20 minute walk from my dormitory to the train station. (Then I take a train for about 45 minutes to another station, then it’s a 10 minute bus ride to the MF labs from there. A heck of a commute.) I tend to make a habit of looking at drivers of vehicles while I walk (it gives me something to do). Often, I've had that instinctive panic button pushed, "OH MY GOD, that person isn’t even looking anywhere near the road!" or "HOLY COW, there’s no one driving that vehicle at all!" Of course, the steering wheel (and other driving equipment, such as gas pedals, brakes, ignition, etc.) is on the opposite side of the car, compared to North American vehicles... that panic reflex is subdued, now, but it kicked in pretty strongly the first time I observed the "driverless vehicle" effect.

The trains here are... complicated. They're not nearly as crowded as I was led to believe they would be (but then, I’m not in Tokyo, where most of the stories originate). They are sometimes quite full, but no more so than Toronto subways are during rush hour (and usually considerably less so). BUT, although they run on a fair exact schedule, navigating from one station to another can be a damn near impossible job.

First of all, there are different tracks, which branch to different lines, which of course take you to different stations. So a train that stops at Station A may next go to station B, but after that goes to C and D, whereas another train may go from A to B, then turns onto a different track so the next stop is station E, then F. So you have to be careful.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. In addition, to getting on the train that runs along the proper line, you have to get on the right "express level”. What does that mean? Well, not every train stops at every station. A train in the above example may come from somewhere, zip right past station A without even slowing down, and stop at B, then skip C altogether and stop at D. So if you just want to get from B to C, you're out of luck if you get on that train. (Well, you have to double-back. But make sure you don't get on an ”express" train that skips C on the way back, as well...) On top of this, add transfers, and no fewer than FOUR level of express... sometimes I'm amazed that I make it to work in the morning at all.

Of course, I can see the necessity of all this... if every train stopped at every station, it would take forever to get anywhere. So the complexity is necessary, but brutal to comprehend, especially for a foreigner who can't read Kanji, because the train's route and the express level are written in Kanji only. So I end up with four sheets of schedules and frantically comparing characters to make sure I end up on the right train (and get off at the right stations). So far, I’ve missed my stop only once, and fortunately had no trouble doubling back to get to my dorm...

A neat thing here is the elevators. They’re not much different from the ones at home, but they have one enhancement. When you push the call button, a chime sounds and the light above the elevator that will come turns on. 

When the elevator arrives, a different chime is heard and the doors open. So I can't play that childhood game of standing in front of the elevator I guess is going to arrive...

A lot of things are signalled by chimes here. Before an announcement, a chord (or series of notes) is played, on trains, buses, and in stations. If a train is going to charge through the station (see above), another (this time discordant) sound is made.

I haven't had much time to see anything outside of my dorm->work->dorm circuit yet. I landed in Japan around 3:30 pm (Japan time, I have no idea what time my body was on) on Monday, and Tuesday morning at 8:30 I was at work. After work, I go back to the dorm, eat supper, bath, shower, and go to sleep.

Tonight is my "welcome party", and I suspect that I will be expected/forced to consume large quantities of various nuns of alcohol. Fine, except I just made plans to see horse racing (I think that's what it is) for tomorrow, and I have to be ready to go by 8:30 am.... that may be painful.

Apart from communication frustration caused by my language shortcomings, I haven't really felt any of the "culture shock" that I was told to expect. That will probably come, though. After all, it's only been four days.

Keep in touch.

Gambatte kudasai!

Leslie