Trustworthiness and patience
May. 27th, 2003 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayAfter signing off Sunday morning from the hotel, I finished packing and met Yuki downstairs for one last morning in Japan. I was pleased to see that she was wearing the NASA-Ames jacket I'd given her before as a thanks for showing me around the previous weekend... but we only had a couple of hours, so we rushed out.
In Shimbashi, southest of downtown, there's a redeveloped area that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie set... angular architecture, monorails, airbridges, all immaculately landscaped and laden with color, textures and art. We went to the top of one of the tall buildings, and looked over Tokyo Bay towards Odaiba in the morning sun.
It didn't hurt that that building was full of mid-century modern furniture, like my Eames lounge chair at home. And a nearby courtyard was full of abstract monsters...
including a Buddha-like figure.
Then we had an hour left to finish shopping -- comics (for an SO's friend) and tea. Yuki took me to a trendy, shopping-intense area of Tokyo -- Shibuya -- where teen/20s culture and the latest trends and fads rule, and 35 is old ;-). It's a place that she described, grinning, as "her garden." Emerging from the train station, it was crowded and rushed... Yuki took my hand and led me through the throngs. (smile)
We stopped at the statue of Hachiko, a dog that used to meet his owner at that spot every evening. When the man died, the dog kept faithfully returning and waiting. (Note the tiny Stitch figure that someone had placed on the statue. *)
Then to the manga shop above a department store -- I was surprised at the number of titles. And varieties (!). But... why are women's eyes always drawn huge and roundly, with typically rounded features, while male eyes and faces are usually "normal"?
Anyway, we went across the street to a different department store that had a tea section. It had everything I wanted, easily.ame_chan would have been drooling, I think ;-). Yuki bought each of us a cup of cold green tea mixed with cane juice -- macha? -- which was tasty and balanced. And then we hurried back to the hotel.
By then, it was 11:30am... with a taxi, no problem catching my 12:10pm train to Narita, I thought. Except that checkout time was at noon, so there was a line stretching around the lobby... we left the hotel at noon. Sigh. At Tokyo station, the railroad gave me a partial credit towards another ticket for a 1pm train. So Yuki and I wandered around and eventually picked up a bento (boxed meal) for the train (it's about an hour to Narita). The picture shows me with it on the train... I did this for meals several times (including both shinkansen trips), as the boxed food is generally good and relatively inexpensive. Crab-topped sushi with an egg-yolk in the center... mmm. Even when I'm stressed about making my flight (in the photo ;).
Checked luggage was X-rayed *and* completely hand-searched... but no problems. Gifts and brown paper envelopes were not unwrapped... I boarded, settled in and left Japan around 3:30pm (11:30pm Saturday, at home) arriving a bit early at 8am. It still seems a bit surreal... that was just two days ago.
Yuki was hugely helpful, patient, understanding, trustworthy, friendly and curious about my life, work and culture. She stayed with me Sunday all the way to train boarding, helping me with my ticket exchange and luggage. It was sad to leave her there... I was truly touched, over this past week. We didn't hug (wrong cultural context) but clasped hands... and I blew her a kiss just before the train door closed :-).
I came to Japan hoping to renew an acquaintence, found a colleague and friend, and left admittedly a bit crushed-out. Too bad that the distance is so great, friendship-wise, but it's another incentive to learn Japanese (smile). I like the friendly picture below, which was taken Wednesday night at the space robotics conference in Nara.
In Shimbashi, southest of downtown, there's a redeveloped area that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie set... angular architecture, monorails, airbridges, all immaculately landscaped and laden with color, textures and art. We went to the top of one of the tall buildings, and looked over Tokyo Bay towards Odaiba in the morning sun.
It didn't hurt that that building was full of mid-century modern furniture, like my Eames lounge chair at home. And a nearby courtyard was full of abstract monsters...
including a Buddha-like figure.
Then we had an hour left to finish shopping -- comics (for an SO's friend) and tea. Yuki took me to a trendy, shopping-intense area of Tokyo -- Shibuya -- where teen/20s culture and the latest trends and fads rule, and 35 is old ;-). It's a place that she described, grinning, as "her garden." Emerging from the train station, it was crowded and rushed... Yuki took my hand and led me through the throngs. (smile)
We stopped at the statue of Hachiko, a dog that used to meet his owner at that spot every evening. When the man died, the dog kept faithfully returning and waiting. (Note the tiny Stitch figure that someone had placed on the statue. *)
Then to the manga shop above a department store -- I was surprised at the number of titles. And varieties (!). But... why are women's eyes always drawn huge and roundly, with typically rounded features, while male eyes and faces are usually "normal"?
Anyway, we went across the street to a different department store that had a tea section. It had everything I wanted, easily.
ame_chan would have been drooling, I think ;-). Yuki bought each of us a cup of cold green tea mixed with cane juice -- macha? -- which was tasty and balanced. And then we hurried back to the hotel.By then, it was 11:30am... with a taxi, no problem catching my 12:10pm train to Narita, I thought. Except that checkout time was at noon, so there was a line stretching around the lobby... we left the hotel at noon. Sigh. At Tokyo station, the railroad gave me a partial credit towards another ticket for a 1pm train. So Yuki and I wandered around and eventually picked up a bento (boxed meal) for the train (it's about an hour to Narita). The picture shows me with it on the train... I did this for meals several times (including both shinkansen trips), as the boxed food is generally good and relatively inexpensive. Crab-topped sushi with an egg-yolk in the center... mmm. Even when I'm stressed about making my flight (in the photo ;).
Checked luggage was X-rayed *and* completely hand-searched... but no problems. Gifts and brown paper envelopes were not unwrapped... I boarded, settled in and left Japan around 3:30pm (11:30pm Saturday, at home) arriving a bit early at 8am. It still seems a bit surreal... that was just two days ago.
Yuki was hugely helpful, patient, understanding, trustworthy, friendly and curious about my life, work and culture. She stayed with me Sunday all the way to train boarding, helping me with my ticket exchange and luggage. It was sad to leave her there... I was truly touched, over this past week. We didn't hug (wrong cultural context) but clasped hands... and I blew her a kiss just before the train door closed :-).
I came to Japan hoping to renew an acquaintence, found a colleague and friend, and left admittedly a bit crushed-out. Too bad that the distance is so great, friendship-wise, but it's another incentive to learn Japanese (smile). I like the friendly picture below, which was taken Wednesday night at the space robotics conference in Nara.
