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  07.20.02
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Things are going well. I spent the day taking
pictures around the neighborhood.
Tomorrow is Jack's first birthday party (though
his actual birthday is on the 24th). We're
throwing him a small party at the Farm Grill,
an American-style buffet place, in Shimbashi.
Makis, Mhairi, and Ioulia, Cowboy Mike and
Kaye, Nicole, and maybe a few other people
should be in attendance.
I'm sure I'll have a lot of pictures
to show
you of the party.
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The people at urbanphoto.org were very kind and put up a gallery of my
pictures in their new Tokyo section.
 07.18.02
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Back in 1991 while in Nepal I spent a long,
cold night hunching down around the warmth
of a kerosine stove with a man who called
himself a 'soul doctor.' When I asked him
what he meant by that he said, "Why
obviously my man, I diagnose diseases of
the soul and recommend treatment."
Of course I had to ask, "So, how do
I shape up? How's my soul looking?"
"Ah, my friend," he replied, "I'm
sorry to have to tell you that you have a
serious case of 'life', and I'm afraid it's
terminal. I'd say you have 50, maybe 60 years
left at the most. In case you're wondering, that
works out to about 20,000 days."
I looked down into the flame and thought
about what he had said. My time was running
out, and there was no avoiding the issue
anymore: No more 'going through the motions
like it was never going to end.' He spelled
it out for me right there, "about 20,000
thousand days." I thought about how
quickly each day passes me by. I thought
about how small a number 20,000 actually
is.
"So," the soul doctor finally
said,
"Now that you know, what are you
going
to do with what little time you have
left?"
The only thing that I could think to
reply
was, "I wish I knew. I wish I
knew."
 07.16.02
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I'm on the train right now. It's 9:45 p.m.
I'm going home from work and running a little
bit late because my weekly work-group
meeting was interminable. It was a three
hour, mind-numbing, brain-running-out-my-nose
kind of meeting.
For those of you who have never had the
opportunity
to attend a Japanese business meeting
let
me tell you a few things about them.
First of all, Japanese business meetings
are often directionless and without an explicit goal. They
rarely have
a formal agenda and they often just
seem
to drift along at their own pace.
People never argue or debate at a Japanese
business meeting. There's not usually any need for this
anyway because all of the important decisions
have already been made in private meetings earlier in the day
or at impromptu chit-chat sessions by the water fountain. The meeting just
serves to build consensus.
Because they're so long, boring, and
generally
unnecessary, you're only occasionally expected
to
actively participate. Consequently,
it's
common to be
at a meeting, sitting around a
table, with four out of the ten people
present
doing their email on laptop computers while another two doze. Yes, they
actually
close their eyes and take cat naps.
Sometimes people at meetings don't even know
why they are there or what the meeting's
about. This is often because people will
be asked to show up at a meeting if they
have some expertise or experience related
to the group's project. I suppose the idea
is that they will, through a process of intellectual
osmosis, transfer this experience to the
other group members. Incidentally, these
are often the people doing their email.
I'm coming up on my stop, Nippori.
From here
I'll have to transfer on to the Joban
line.
I should be home in about twenty minutes.
Let's hope there are no more meetings
tomorrow.
07.13.02
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Summer is the worst time of year in Tokyo.
It gets so hot and humid that you feel like
splitting your head open and blowing on your
brain.
There are some interesting things that you'll
notice people doing only in the summer. Women
will carry parasols. Men will wipe their
faces with handkerchiefs. Everyone will walk
really, really slowly, especially when going
up stairs.
You will also see many people fanning themselves
with delicate, decorative bamboo fans. Men
and women of all ages will produce one seemingly
out of nowhere and start to briskly fan themselves
while waiting for the train or while in line
at the ATM.
Thankfully it is only two more months until
mid September, the best time of year in Tokyo.
I'm counting the days.
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