There’s definitely one benefit to being a foreigner (or geijin) in Japan and that’s the fact that most people are willing to overlook your foreign ways.  One of the difficulties I’m having – aside from being confused beyond belief by the public transit system and have no idea what most people are saying (thankfully, I have a translator with me each day!) – is that I’m a huge clutz.  Japanese women are graceful.  I… am not.  I’m either knocking things over, getting my camera bag caught around door handles, or running into objects.  Needless to say, I say sumimasen (excuse me) a thousand times.

With that said, let me tell you about Japanese toilets.  You may have heard about them, or seen pictures of them.  If not, go check out this picture.  While I haven’t used any of the fancy extras (including a fake flushing noise for, ummm, privacy) I have to admit that I think all toilets should have seat warmers.

Ok, so that’s the cool, funky toilets.  What most people don’t talk about are traditional Japanese toilets.  I had heard of them, but did a double take when I walked into a restroom and discovered them.  There’s no way I can describe it, so here’s another picture (gotta love Google images).

So here’s the awkward foreigner going down the hallway to locate the restroom at a restaurant of the National Museum and when I first walk in I think to myself, “Huh, I thought all of the traditional toilets were at ground level.  And it’s funny that they’re out in the open like that.  All of the one’s I’ve seen have been in stalls.” As I start to walk into a stall with one of the new toilets, it hits me.  I’m in the men’s restroom and those are traditional toilets, they’re urinals.  Ack!  Thankfully, I managed to escape and get into the womens’s restroom (which did have both the traditional and new toilets – and me with no camera once again) without being seen.

I’m here!  In Tokyo!  But I have to tell you about my series of events in getting here…

I’m in the Phoenix airport waiting for my flight to board.  They’ve made the pre-board announcement, but we’re still sitting there for quite some time.  Then they finally make the announcement that a piece of equipment has “clipped” the aircraft and they have to assess the damage.  Everyone is asking each other, “what exactly does ‘clip’ mean?”  Well, you know the luggage equipment that has the rolling ramp that goes up to the plane?  Apparantly the guy driving it managed to run it in the side of the plane.  I talked to one of the passengers who happened to be watching and he said the guy was going pretty fast.  Needless to say, I didn’t get to leave on Friday.  I was thankful that I got to leave on Saturday, because a majority of our full flight were international and the agents were having problems finding seats for everyone. 

In any case, it was a long, long, long day, but I made it!  The Japan Library Association committee members,　who I’ll be spending time with this week, took me to dinner last night.  They’re a very friendly group and they got to tease me on my geijin-ness (geijin = foreigner).  I attempted to use chopsticks to eat my udon noodles and they laughed when I tried a few items that were… interesting (and I’m still not sure what they were!).

The only other problem I encountered before leaving home was discovering that, for some reason, my netbook won’t let me access websites.  So it looks like I’ll be relying on Internet cafes, which means my posting will be random and pictureless unless I can figure out what’s up with my computer.  Argh!  By the way, when I first got my netbook, I thought the keyboard was tricky to figure out (because a lot of the keys got moved around in order to make everything fit in the smaller size).  That’s nothing compared to a Japanese keyboard!  I’m finally getting the hang of it, but every so often I find myself typing in kana.

I never know how to start a blog post after such a long absense.  I mean, I know it’s not like there’s a dialogue going on or anything, but yet there is.  In a way.  Sort of.  Anyhoo… here’s a bullet point version of my past year:

• Dad passed away
• Adopted a puppy 
• Presented at the local library association conference, where my co-presenter and I were given the President’s Program Award
• Received Outstanding Library Services Award at same conference
• Got really, really sick with the flu/sinus infection (this wouldn’t normally be news, but I have never felt that bad in my entire life)
• Adjusted to life with the new puppy
• Felt generally crappy for some time
• Found out I have pernicious anemia (B12 deficiency – I’ll explain more later)
• Started monthly B12 shots
• Began feeling more like my old self
• Named Horner Fellow and leave for Japan this Friday, the 6th

I guess that’s about it.  As you can see, it’s been quite a year and… what was that?  Oh, you want to hear more about the fellowship and Japan.  Well… my state library association has something called the Horner Fellowship which is an exchange between our association and the Japan Library Association.  Every other year a librarian from Arizona is chosen to visit libraries in Japan and this year… it’s me!  Which, to be honest, is what finally got me off my keester and updating my blog. 

Although I’m going to be blogging about the professional side of my visit at my library blog, Infollectual, I’m going to blog about the funny moments and mishaps – that you know are going to happen – over here. (Have to admit I’m a bit freaked about this, but my mantra is “I am a super librarian and I can do anything!”  And in case that doesn’t work, I’ll bring along a bottle of tequila.)

Well, that’s the blogging plan.  I’ve got a packed schedule, so we’ll see how it goes!