First things first

Sumimasen, a little explanation.  I don`t have photos of my own yet because I don`t have the little connecting thing and I`m not sure this computer, which is in the Kyoto Station Internet Cafe, will take photos.  I`ll bring it and find out the next time I post, perhaps tomorrow.  It`s possible I`m going to have to post stock internet photos from time to time and then replace them with my real photos when I get back home.

Second, you`ll see how much I usually edit, because for the next couple of weeks I`m probably not going to do it much.  I don`t want to spend all of my Japan time editing, plus I have to pay for this access by the quarter hour.  So it`s going to be a little rougher than usual.

Third, I`m overwhelmed.  Everything is so Japanese here.  It really takes my breath.  I don`t know exactly what I was expecting but it`s as though they`ve taken everything I thought about Japan and condensed it.  A little story from my journal (which is a longer, more detailed, unedited and hugely more boring of this blog): As I was waiting at O`Hare for the Japan Air Lines planes to take off, the flight attendants came in, about an hour before the flight.  They all came at the same time and they stood in a knot.  A huddled knot.  They were the Japanese flight attendants for this flight, and I knew they weren`t going to mover from their huddled knot without a good reason, like a fire that endangered their passengers or worse yet the good name of  Nishimatsu san, president of Japan Airlines.

Well, twenty minutes later, there was a reason that good.  It was obviously the equivalent of a team meeting/pep rally.  The Team Leader, who later revealed herself as such, was giving the flight attendant pep talk, which during which I have to believe the good name and honor of Nishimatsu san was mentioned more than once.  The team, I have no doubt, was exhorted to do their very best on this flight to bring glory to the airline and Mr. Nishimatsu and thus on themselves.  And boy did they.  They get on that flight and they mean business, which in this case is taking really great care of each of their one zillion passengers.  I accidentally pushed the flight attendant button with my elbow at one point and she was there in my face wondeing what she could do for me before the light from the button reached my eyes revealing my error.

I like JAL.

Only they were a Lot more huddled than this.

And this is going to be boring.  The directions on this computer are in Japanese, which is not good enough to permit me to figure out how to cut and pste copyrighted photos onto this unassuming little blog.  It may be a problem.  I had this flicker photo of a huddled knot of JAL flight attendants, though not nearly as huddled as ours were, but in any case I don`t seem to be able to cut and paste that or any photo.

And after all, what is this blog without the pithy little comments I put under the photos, I ask you?  Not much.  I`m going to have to figure this out, because my readership is going to plummet from zero to below zero if I cant figure out how to fix this soon.

Nishimatsu san is the dude on the right

My little Japanese timer tells me I have 4:04 left to finish this blog, so I`ll wrap up.  I hope to have the photo thing solved soon.  Maybe I`ll get you that snappy picture of Nishimatsu san that I was so hoping to paste up here. 

I love it here and I have a lot more to say than I`m going to have time so say it, sumimasen. 

I can also say that my two and a half years of studying Japanese has not gone to waste.  I`m having a blast speaking Japanese to everyone who has the patience to listen.  And thank you to the man who gave me directions.  I love saying the directions for some reason.

More soon.