October 3rd, 2006: Sometimes you feel like a sardine.

You ever have one of those days that just start off rough and just keep on going? One of those mornings when your alarm doesn’t go off (because it’s set for the wrong time maybe?)? One of those mornings when you don’t quite make your train or you hit rush hours? Or how about one of those mornings when you just cant seem to communicate with others and everything appears to fall apart in front of you.

Welcome to my Tuesday. This was just not the day for me. Last night, I thought I had set my travel clock for the correct time, but apparently, I did not. I was woken by Wouter at (what I thought was 6am) 7am, 15 minutes before we were scheduled to leave. I was able to get myself freshened up, dressed, and have breakfast in time, but unfortunately we did not make our first train on time. Granted, most everything is in Japanese in the train station. Thankfully, Wouter is more versed in metro transit in Japan, so he was able to get us to and through the three trains we needed to take to meet the rest of the cast. He was truly amazing. His mind works in such fantastic ways. All I can say is “Wow” and “Thank God you’re my roommate, Wouter”.

Add the “Crap, we’re running late” stress onto claustrophobia, and you’ll understand my experience on the trains. I rarely feel this anxious. Something about being chest to back with others on a train makes me want to start swinging my arms to create some personal space. We were so packed in some of those trains that I could tell whether someone had been working out! One person leans, the entire train leans. I couldn’t even get my arm to my pant pocket to take a picture on many of the trains.

However, thanks to Wouters amazing mind and calm, we were able to get to our destination, sadly about 10 minutes late. We were met (after a few ill fated phone calls) by one of the Japanese staff at the Suita station and a few other cast mates. We were thankful to not be the only ones who were late. Together we traveled to Osaka castle….which was, I may be exaggerating but, two stops in the other direction from where Wouter and I had started. Wouter and I had traveled an hour, only to have been closer to the Castle when we started our trek! We could have been early. Arrrrrrgh!

Ah well, good to be with cast again. We made it to the Castle, which was absolutely beautiful. Please enjoy the photos. I had fifteen minutes in the castle before I was to meet with the Ed team to put together our presentation for today. Due to some breakdowns in communication, our rendezvous location was changed and I ended up waiting by a fountain by myself for about an hour. Gotta take a joke, right?

From here, things improved. I met up with the cast and we returned to Suita (more trains!). The Ed team and I met during lunch to put together our presentation on Love, which went surprisingly well (especially as I felt unprepared; but that could be just because I like lots of preparation time). Additionally, today we also helped to facilitate the hot topics: Nuclear power/weapons, Technology, and Gender Roles. Once these were done, I felt I could breathe.

For our return trek, I was much less stressed. I didn’t have to worry about presentations. I didn’t have to worry about us finding the right train. I could laugh with Wouter when we got lost (which was relatively infrequent). I was able to look around me and say to myself, “How cool is this? We’re figuring out our way around Suita Japan, by ourselves”. Granted, I have Wouter to thank for much of our successes there, but it was still liberating to be getting around independently.

Back home, Wouter and I spent some time with Takuto, playing Uno, while Chiemi picked up Kanato at his secondary school. Considering that Takuto knows very little English and we know very little Japanese, it was a very smooth game. When Kanato arrived, I taught the boys how to make airplanes out of the uno cards. I learned this from my Nanny Ginger when I was around their ages. Funny how those lessons come in handy.

Now, time for sleep. Hopefully I’ll get up on time. Cross your fingers.