Konichiwa and the like
You'll be happy to know that my sarcasm has been recovered after an exhaustive search. I think I also might have found some of my wittiness out there with it. It has been a rough couple of weeks.
Onward and upward. On Thursday I will be going to Tokyo, Japan for a week for a Summit that my office (with the full blessing of the State Department) is hosting to discuss issues of public diplomacy. I have known that I'm going to this thing for about two months now, but only when I was at CVS today buying earplugs and Tylenol PM did the full weight of a 13 hour flight from Detroit (DTW what?!?!)-Narita really hit me. I. Am. Going. To. Japan. What the hell do I even know about Japan?
And the answer is not much: Saki, Harajuku girls, sushi, Hello Kitty, Hiroshima, Mr. Baseball, shrines, cherry blossoms, and Tokyo, the second most expensive city in the world (with Moscow at #1) pretty much rounds out my knowledge of this country. I have never even thought about traveling to Asia-- it was never one of those places that I aspired to go. But now that I have the opportunity to go, I'm starting to feel a little uneducated.
It's not like I have a lot of time to be out and about exploring, but isn't it my duty to immerse myself in another culture because I've been given the opportunity? Don't I owe it to the travel gods to go to a fish market and eat something that I didn't know was food? Or to bow when I meet someone? My coworker and I have have been practicing calling each other by "san."
"Libberash-san, will you email me your itinerary?"
"Sure, HDogg-san."
Sayonara fools. I'll catch you in August (!)
Onward and upward. On Thursday I will be going to Tokyo, Japan for a week for a Summit that my office (with the full blessing of the State Department) is hosting to discuss issues of public diplomacy. I have known that I'm going to this thing for about two months now, but only when I was at CVS today buying earplugs and Tylenol PM did the full weight of a 13 hour flight from Detroit (DTW what?!?!)-Narita really hit me. I. Am. Going. To. Japan. What the hell do I even know about Japan?
And the answer is not much: Saki, Harajuku girls, sushi, Hello Kitty, Hiroshima, Mr. Baseball, shrines, cherry blossoms, and Tokyo, the second most expensive city in the world (with Moscow at #1) pretty much rounds out my knowledge of this country. I have never even thought about traveling to Asia-- it was never one of those places that I aspired to go. But now that I have the opportunity to go, I'm starting to feel a little uneducated.
It's not like I have a lot of time to be out and about exploring, but isn't it my duty to immerse myself in another culture because I've been given the opportunity? Don't I owe it to the travel gods to go to a fish market and eat something that I didn't know was food? Or to bow when I meet someone? My coworker and I have have been practicing calling each other by "san."
"Libberash-san, will you email me your itinerary?"
"Sure, HDogg-san."
Sayonara fools. I'll catch you in August (!)
posted by Libberash at 7:49 PM
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