September 1st, 2006: Japanese presentation, Organic Garden, Ice Skating, and Cabelas

• Japan presentation: Another presentation on Japanese culture, but this one was from a business standpoint. It appears that the Japanese culture is very formal and accommodating, which strangely, I think I will find rather comfortable. I do worry about bowing at the appropriate times, not keeping my hands in my pockets, not leaning on walls, and maintaining a minimum of eye contact. Well, I’ve got six weeks to figure it out right? You’ll certainly know how it goes.

• Home team time: We haven’t had home teams in a while, and we have been about due. It seems that we have a common concern about our experience. We each know a few people in the cast well. The rest we only know just a bit more than the “bar code”. We really wish to know each other better. The question is, how do we facilitate “real time” with each other, without 80 other pairs of ears and media potentially knocking on the door? A true challenge.
• Organic Garden:
• Ice Skating: What a hoot. We all went ice skating. I haven’t been for several years. I didn’t do too badly considering I’ve been skating a total of 4 times in my life. The Brazilians and the Mexicans cracked me up, though. They were having a blast. Most had never seen an ice skating rink, let alone skated on one. So much screaming and laughing.
• Cabalas: This is a MASSIVE store, like LLBean, that specializes in hunting gear. Now THIS was a huge culture shock for Carolina, Leanne, Emma and I. We were surrounded by taxidermied animals. I can’t even imagine a store like this exiting in Mass., let alone having an entire museum created out of dead animals within.
• Set up the Lyons’ computer