Welcome

Why kichi-Georgei?  I'll have to tell you later. Before we can get to that point, I need to start from the beginning and work my way to the present.

The Japan experience started in a Quaker school in North Carolina with a small bearded Buddhism teacher.

 

In 1988 I took my first eastern studies class at Guilford College with a professor by the name of David Barnhill.  My friend Bill had taken a few of his classes and recommend that I start with the Buddhism class.  It was a great class.  We started with Confucianism and early eastern philosophy and worked our way through Chuang Tzu and Hsun Tzu both of which I recommend. (Columbia Press ISBN 0-231-08606-7) 

Your life has a limit but knowledge has none. If you you use what is limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger.  If you understand this and still strive for knowledge, you will be in danger for certain! If you do good, stay away from fame. If you do evil, stay away from punishment.  Follow the middle; go by what is constant, and you can stay in one piece, keep yourself alive, look after your parents, and live your years.  

- Chuang Tzu

(Matsuo Basho)

This seemed to me more of a handbook for life than just a class.  I was hooked.  After the Buddhism class, I ended up studying Japanese Court poetry, Matsuo Basho , Saigyo, Japanese Film just to name a few.  By the end of my time at Guildford, I walked away with an eastern studies minor.

As an English major with an Eastern slant, I decided that I should probably jump on a plane for Japan at some point. To do that I needed to save a bit of dosh. 

A job - that's what I needed.  To save for my big adventure, I'll work helping the homeless!  A job I can respect and salary that will pay for my plane ticket in only a few short years.  

 I worked in Washington D.C. at D.C. Central kitchen for the next two years. 

D.C. central kitchen was started by Robert Egger, who's book, "Begging For Change" is a must read. 

 While I was in Washington, I studied Basic Japanese language classes at the U.S. Japan culture center. At then end of the class, I invited everyone from the class to my sister Debby's house for a party.  (I didn't really have a house and Debby and her husband Jason lived in Adam's Morgan in Washington, so I thought it would be better to have the party there instead of my tiny apartment in Alexandria. They were very kind to put up with my communal way of thinking.)

 We ate sushi and drank Sake and spoke what little Japanese we could muster.  At the end of the evening, the president of the Japan society asked if anyone was going to Japan.  I told him I was planing on going to Kyoto and he told me he had some connections in Kyoto and made arrangements for me to stay in the Calligraphy Center for a week until I could get settled.  As my teacher had taught me, I refused the first three times and finally excepted on the fourth. After the party, my teacher also taught me we should wait at the front door and wave as the president left even when he was in his car and couldn't possible see us.  This was my first real introduction to Japan . 

(Vineyard Haven Harbor) 

After I decided I was headed to Japan, I decided to take the summer to save some real money and worked mowing lawns on Martha's Vineyard.  I ended up meeting someone that summer and stayed the year working as  a substitute teacher in the winter. Come spring, I finally decided it was time I get on a plane. 

In 1995, with a small suitcase in one hand and a laptop in the other (the latest Apple 180c), I got on a plane headed for Japan.  At that time, the cheapest way to get to Japan was on Korean air.   I flew from Washington D.C. to New York, New York to Soul Korea, waited for five hours in Soul and finally landed in the newly opened Kansai Airport 24 hours later. 

I should back up a bit to explain that the very kind president of the Japan Society had called me the day before I left to let me know that the place he had arranged for me to stay had a sewage problem and that he had made alternative arrangements for me to stay with a friend of his.  (Of course, after refusing three times, I finally agreed to stay with them until I could get set up on my own.)   

Unfortunately, there was a mixup in arrival dates and they thought I was arriving the day before.  (Apparently they didn't even know how old I was or my gender for that matter.)  when I called to let them know I was in Korea on my way to Japan, they thought I had gone to the wrong country.  "Wrong country!!"  they had told me over the phone.  " Get on a plane! Come to Japan!"  they told me. To this day, I am still convinced that they think I mistakenly flew to the wrong country. 

While waiting in the airport for five hours, I decided that I should prepare myself for the great unknown and study a bit of Japanese.  I thought I'd better practice a bit and as the airport seemed to be filled with a lot of Japanese waiting for the same flight.  "I might as well start now," I thought.    I looked at my book and thought I would start out small.  

Nanji desu ka?  (What time is it?) I said to myself. 

Nanji desu ka?

Nanji desu ka?

I said it three times. At this point three had somehow become a montra kind of thing.  Finally I got up the nerve to try it on someone other than my teacher in Washington.  There was a nice looking woman sitting near me, obviously waiting for the same flight that I was.  I approached her and bowed slightly saying "Sumimasen, (excuse me) "Nanji desu ka?"  My pronunciation was good and I must have had a hopeful look on my face, because she truly looked sympathetic when she replied, 

"I'm sorry, I'm American.  I don't speak Japanese." 

Still embarrassed an hour later, I got on the final leg of the flight and arrive in the land of the rising sun.  

 

(Hi no maru) 

It's late and I think this is a good stopping point.  Next blog I'll try to cover being stopped at customs and the Ohira girls.