'Sayonara'

I haven't blogged about my last weekend (in Izu) yet, but I promise it's coming! It was an adventure and sixteen halves. Coming soon... but until then -

Yesterday I gave my final presentation and attended my sayonara (good-bye) dinner. My presentation was 15 minutes, and in Japanese. Yep, Japanese. Surprisingly, I wasn't too nervous. I've sort of stopped getting nervous about presentations because I have a reasonable amount of confidence in myself and my ability to present, and being nervous doesn't help. Just like worrying.

So the presentation went well - but it was half the time it should have been. Oops. It was 7, instead of 15 minutes. But then it ended up taking 25 because it sparked a discussion on the unit of Watt-Hour; an efficiency measurement. So...that was amusing. I explained it, and then they all discussed it and I sat and sort of giggled. It was pretty funny - some people got it, some people didn't, some people just thought it was useless. After my presentation, our manager presented me with a certificate of Internship Completion, and everyone clapped.

After my presentation, I went to sell popcorn. Presentations and popcorn? Why, you ask? Our company has quite a few labs and offices and industrial space in this area, and every year they put on a community festival - I suspect to gain the goodwill of the community and be involved (good ideas, obviously). So I put on my fancy shirt and sold popcorn. I had to teach them how. The method was to pop the popcorn (without oil) then sprinkle it with salt, and wonder why it tasted bland... so I introduced them to the importance of oil, as well as putting the salt in with the oil. Voila - yummy popcorn! Unfortunately, my popcorn time was cut short by my sayonara dinner.



We had sushi and random goodies and some laughs. The two other female members of the team and I had the grandest time, taking silly pictures and laughing and talking. And guess what. I was talking mostly in Japanese. Yay! At the end, after we cleaned off the tables, Takemori-San presented me with a picture (from Mt. Takamiyama) with notes and messages from anyone. I didn't mean to. But I cried. Just a little. I hope no one noticed. But they probably did. Then I whipped out my notes and thanked them all for everything and said I would miss them and Japan. Someone suggested karaoke, so we headed off to karaoke!




On the way, I asked people what their note said (I don't read Japanese / Kanjii). Some were simple, thank you's and good luck's. But others made me smile and cry at the same time. One of the girls said she wrote this..."Stephanie, every time see me, smile. So beautiful! Makes my heart feel warm and happy. I will miss you." Other people told me to come back, and that they had good memories with me. It was touching, to say the least, and made me want to leave even less. (Imagine that...if I could stay longer here, I would. In January I couldn't have imagined wanting to stay.)



We got to karaoke and had a wonderful time! English and Japanese songs...and I even sang one in Japanese (sort of) - they were impressed and thought it was great. It was 2.5 hours of fun and great memories, but it was still a little sad. I kept thinking about how I would probably never get to do this with these people again. I also wished I had gotten to know some of them better. There were also two university students that have just finished a three week internship, and I wish I could hang out with them more! They were a lot of fun, and pretty cute. Especially one of them - and he totally has a crush on me. Hehe. Anyways...it was a great evening, a little bittersweet, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything!








Now I am at work, on my last day...cleaning up, organizing, etc. I'm going to leave some Canadian pins and magnets with everyone and tell them not to forget me, and email me if they will be in Canada. I'm going to miss it here. A lot.

Kampai!!

Edit: Just to clarify - this isn't a drinking game. I rarely (if ever) play drinking games. I presented it as a game because it seems to me that there are rules that everyone unknowingly follows. In reality, the way people act comes out of respect for each other and is in keeping with the social atmosphere. Eating and drinking is a huge part of the social culture in Japan; there are always people who take things too far, but in general, the drinking is just a social activity, and kept to a reasonable limit. It's not used as an excuse to drink excessively or act inappropriately. Please read with this in mind. :)

It's like a contest. Or a game - with elements of quickdraw and musical chairs.

The Rules...
Round 1 - If a beer glass should be emptied - even ever so slightly - a player must immediately reach for the closest beer bottle to refill it. Once a hand has picked up a beer bottle, the remainder of the players ought to quickly grab for one - as there are not quite enough to go around.

Round 2 - Upon filling the glasses of everyone around them to the brim, players may set down their beer bottle, and - accompanied by 'Sumasen', 'Arigato', and bowing - may lift and tilt their own glass to be filled.

Round 3 - Short break. Conversation continues.

Round 4 - Someone takes a sip. Repeat from Round 1.

Ending the game - The Game can only be ended when the collective group leaves the establishment. At no time during or after dinner, while seated in the restaurant, should players cease to participate.

You think I'm exaggerating. But I'm not. Last night was a goodbye party for our team manager, who received a promotion and will be working out of a different office. I spent the first few minutes of dinner just watching the Game. It made me laugh. Often, when the glass was still full to a centimeter (a centimeter!) from the top, someone would pour to refill it. Then the person who's cup was filled quickly picked up the beer bottle to return the favor. And then everyone else jumped in - rushing to make sure everyone's glass was full to the brim. It was quite amusing to watch, and difficult to describe so as to give you a sense of the urgency with which it was carried out.

After dinner, 7 of us continued the party at a karaoke bar the next station over. We sang, drank, and laughed our way to 12:30. At 12:30, we finally wrapped it up to head home. Having missed the last trains, we taxied home - I shared a cab with Takemori-San and Matsushita-San. I can't even imagine how much the evening must have cost. Dinner was high-class, and everyone (17 people) had at least 3 drinks plus infinite amounts of beer. I'm sure you could fill a bathtub with the empty beer bottles. The karoake bar included several more drinks and snacks, for 7 people. Our taxi meter was at $55 when they dropped me off - with two more people to drop off. A second taxi took home the rest of the group. Eating and drinking with coworkers is a huge part of culture in Japan - but I'm still amazed at how much they so often invest in it.

So - I had a great night, lots of fun, 5 1/2 hours of sleep...hehe. But it was fun to hang out with my coworkers outside of the office.

A Watery Grave

Friday morning I spent working with coworkers on the Chemical Heat Pump. We were checking lines and pressures and fixing leaks, and we finally had it ready to run. We started running tests. It was a mix of interesting and boring - waiting around, but I am finally starting to understand the system and how it works, and the thermodynamics behind it.

We left for lunch at noon, and stopped by the office to check email, etc, before heading back to the lab. I was trying to print something when cell phones started ringing, and a couple people ran out of the room. I thought they just didn't want to be late to start again after lunch, but when I was walking up the stairs, I noticed that the ceiling was dripping and there was a puddle...never a good thing!

When I got up to our floor, I stopped short of walking right into a big puddle! The water source to our project wasn't attached properly, and flooded the entire floor! So I spent the afternoon pushing water around to the drain, and mopping up. There was several inches of water over a very large floor section, and around quite a bit of electrical equipment. Fortunately, I don't think anything was ruined. It was quite the surprise, though! Now the project is delayed for a couple weeks while all the safety reports and precautions, etc are taken care of. Oh well!! :)

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There is a new member to our team and one is leaving, so yesterday my 'team' went for dinner after work! It was a lot of to hang out with everyone. I believe I provide a lot of entertainment at such dinners, for a couple reasons. 1) I try to speak Japanese, which in and of itself must be pretty amusing; 2) I ask, "Kore wa nan desu ka?" (What is this?) a lot, which is generally followed by a discussion and my coworkers trying to explain something Japanese to me in English; 3) I have interesting reactions to some of the food...

I don't put wasabi (the green stuff) in my soya sauce when I have sushi - it's pretty strong tasting, and I'm not a big fan. BUT! At dinner yesterday, there was wasabi in the rice, hiding under the sashimi! When I ate it, it was super strong, and it shocked me a bit. They laughed at that. The other things we ate were all delicious, save one - but I kept that under wraps. One of the dishes served was two small, whole fish (heads and eyes included). It looked...interesting...and still had all the bones in it. Some people didn't eat the head - I ate one, but not the other. The fish were cooked long enough that the bones were pretty soft and edible, but I didn't like them - so I picked a bit. Overall - dinner was delicious!

I convinced everyone to go for an hour of karaoke, after dinner - and I asked/insisted in Japanese. I think they only said that they'd come because they felt sorry for me - the poor white English girl trying to speak Japanese; we'd better just go. :) Half kidding! It was a lot of fun!! We sang about half English and half Japanese - most Japanese people know some of the more popular English songs. I sang to Karen Carpenter with one of the girls, and to Simon & Garfunkle's 'Let It Be' with my boss! Did I mention I have a pretty sweet boss? Between dinner and karaoke, it was a great evening.

It's late and I'm tired, so I'm jumping into bed! Tomorrow I'm going with some girls from the dorm to Kyoto to dress up as Geisha! I'll hopefully post some pictures and some Geisha info tomorrow.....