Sayonara from Tokyo

It's about 5:30am on Sunday morning, and we're just about to do the impossible---travel backwards in time! Our flight leaves at 11:10am and arrives in Washington at 10:40am on the same day. I love how that works! We'll see many of you in Pittsburgh around 1:40pm on Sunday (United flight 7559).

We hope you enjoyed following us on our Asian adventure of a lifetime! Until next year...sayonara!

It IS the happiest place on earth!

Matt and I will probably both have posts today as we each ventured out into Tokyo. We initially had a company visit scheduled this morning; however, they emailed Matt and I the day we were leaving and said that the government was restricting their ability to meet face-to-face with anyone from North America because of the swine flu. So, we ended up having a full "free" day today. Several of us met at 7 AM and faced our first challenge of dealing with the Tokyo Metro system. It is like NOTHING you've ever seen before. Even though we wrote down the stops/transfers we needed to take, the maps in the Metro station were all in Japanese. To give you an idea of what we were looking at, click here. This is the English version and it's even difficult to decypher! Of course I didn't find this map until now; might have been a big help earlier! A nice, young, Japanese businessman who spoke English (thank goodness!) stopped and asked if he could help us. We'd probably still be in the Metro station if he didn't! Props to Hilary; she did a great job navigating us through most of the way.

Before we even entered the park, we had to purchase rain gear--imagine that! Yes, it rained off and on all day, so it was worth spending the money. It also was in the low 60s, but there were still plenty of visitors. I would guess that it was their number 1 seller today! I opted for the one that makes me look like Minney.

Disneyland was great! There is something magical about being there. We enjoyed watching the children having fun and listening to them laugh. It was interesting to see the differences and similarities between Disney Tokyo and Walt Disney World. Regardless of which one you visit, you will experience the same feelings--it IS the happiest place on earth! It was also fun to watch April experience a Disney theme park for the first time. Not only was it a Disney experience, but a cultural experience as well. Five of us were the only caucasians (at least that we saw) and I think we have a different perspective on what it is like to live as a minority in the US. People have stared at us quite a bit and it does become uncomfortable at times. They are kind, however it does make you feel a little different. I'm not sure I could have taught my students or myself a better lesson in the classroom.

Mt. Foggy

Regardless of how much rain we had in Hong Kong, yesterday was probably the worst day of weather that we've had on the entire trip. Everything we tried to do didn't seem to work out. Our trip out to Mt. Fuji took about an hour more than it was supposed to because we got stuck in traffic induced by a three-car accident. Then we found out that we couldn't go up to the highest lookout because it had snowed the night before. As a result, the closest we got to Mt. Fuji was the first picture below; so at least we can say that we saw the top (kind of!).

We then drove another hour to the resort town of Hakone where we ate lunch and then took a cruise on the largest lake in the area. We were supposed to take a sky ride through the area, but of course that was closed because of the weather. They took us to this area where you're supposed to see the vapors of the hot springs come out of the ground and where they make black hard-boiled eggs in the sulfur springs. Needless to say, we didn't see anything; but we certainly smelled the sulfur!

Even if it weren't foggy, we probably wouldn't have seen anything because we were trying to deal with the 50-60 MPH winds that we faced up there as well. As you can see, we had many umbrella casualties from the wind. I'd imagine that the Sunshine City Prince Hotel will be reluctant to lend any more umbrellas to Duquesne students! On the way back to the hotel, we got stuck in more accident backup; coupled with the rush-hour Tokyo traffic, this made the trip home last about three hours!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

After about two full weeks of cultural immersion, we were back in the classroom yesterday in our joint program with Rikkyo University in Tokyo. Unlike some previous years where the presentations were more ad hoc, our students had spent some time at home preparing their 15-minute presentations. Yesterday they shared these presentations in small-group breakout sessions with their Japanese counterparts, who did the same with them. Then the two groups prepared a joint presentation to give to the entire session at large.

Some random thoughts about the presentations: It was impressive to have the Japanese students give their presentations in English. They did a great job at something that takes a lot of courage. It's one thing to have a private conversation with someone in your second language, but to give a presentation in front of a group of about 50 people is another story. We can't understate how impressed and grateful we are at their efforts. That girl standing next to Ryan, who was from Germany via New Zealand (?), was the tallest woman that we've seen so far. Ryan is on a riser, and she is on the floor! Adam looked so at home with that microphone; we're thankful that he didn't bust out into a song, although you could tell that he wanted to!

Today we're off for a day-long trip to Mt. Fuji. We're not really sure what the itinerary is for the day, so stay tuned!

Ready to Take a Chance Again

No jolts, no surprises. We spent the whole day on Monday visiting Hong Kong's sister-former-European-colony, Macau. (Okay, that's probably not how they refer to it, but you get what I mean.) While Macau is currently known for its casino business that more than doubles the total amount of money gambled in Las Vegas, our day-long tour consisted mostly of the Portuguese colonial relics that are still in the city. We did, of course, make a few "deposits" at the Wynn casino before we left. I mean, it's all about the cultural immersion, right?


When we got back to Hong Kong, four of us visited Peter the Tailor (I'm envisioning that name to come across like Russian emperor Peter the Great.) to have the final fitting of the suits that we purchased. I was even able to get my card displayed among the other esteemed customers. Take that, CEO of 3M!

Now we're in Tokyo for the last leg of our trip. We're off to our program with Rikkyo University this afternoon, so stay tuned for some more pics from that.