OK. So I should definitely be either writing an important and late letter or be asleep right now, but instead I thought I’d write this post for you, my few (and faithful?) readers. Drop me a line if you want more, and let me know if you have questions about what I’m up to so I can write about them. Cool?

When I last left you, I believe it was about a week ago. (I can’t check what I posted already because I don’t have internet access right now; more on this later.) Like last time, there really isn’t any way I can talk about things to the extent I’d really like to, so bear with me as I try to find a way to make this work. Let’s start with last Saturday.

One thing I keep struggling with is how to answer the following question: Where would you like to go in Japan? I’ve already had a lot of experiences, in a number of places, and I since I’ve never been a tourist in this country in the traditional sense, I’ve never even looked at a travel guidebook that might give me an idea of what kind of options I have. I usually just ask people for their recommendations (o-susume wa?) and that can often lead to interesting ideas.

And so, my host family decided to take me to Mount Fuji. Which I was totally excited about, since I love nature and pretty sights, even if they involve long car rides. And a long car ride it was. I woke up around six (so no sleeping in, even on Saturday!) and we left the house 6:30ish.

Driving in Japan is totally interesting, for a number of reasons. First, almost everyone has a built-in GPS navigation system. It’s almost a necessity in this country – the streets are tiny and follow no particular logic, and to make it even more difficult street names are few and far between. Second, almost everyone has a new car – every three years, the Japanese government requires all cars to undergo a sophisticated safety check that’s so expensive people usually just end up buying new cars to avoid the pain. Third, there aren’t many freeways, so most of the time you’re winding through tiny neighborhood and country roads that have probably been around since the Edo period. Following the directions of your speaking (and completely accurate) Car-Navi, of course.

So, we drove a few hours to Mt. Fuji. We went as far up as one can go by car, the point where a lot of people who climb the mountain start. Like a lot of my other experiences with Japanese tourist areas, there were tons of shops, restaurants, and photo-ops, but it was still pretty cool. We took some pictures, but unfortunately it was a little too foggy for great mountain views. Which was too bad, because we drove for some time. I did get some pictures, on the way down. I’ll post them, eventually.

On the way back, we stopped at a cave. I think I’ve always enjoyed caving, and this was no exception. This particular cave seems to have been used as a source of ice long ago, and it was definitely freezing inside. It was pretty small, though. Not hard to navigate, but nowhere near as interesting, as, let’s say, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

Next, we grabbed a quick lunch and drove to Hakone, known as a gateway between Edo and Kyoto during the Edo period. It was a checkpoint for travelers, and home to some sort of garrison. A good deal of it was recreated, and there was a little museum, so that was kind of neat to check out. There was a great view of a lake from a little higher up, which was cool too.

After that, we headed back, and got dinner at a small soba shop in the neighborhood called Kamakura. Like everywhere else my host family has taken me, Kamakura was pretty great. I sampled a number of interesting appetizers, including one thing I had definitely never had before: a buckwheat dumpling, in the shape of a leaf, boiled in water. Hard to describe (and I wish I had had my camera to take a picture) but with a little shoyu, really, really good. The soba noodles I had were also excellent. The meal came with some sake, which despite some mediocre experiences in the US, I think I can now say I enjoy.

As a side note, the word “sake” in Japan simply means “alcohol.” What we call sake in the US is called nihon-shu (literally, alcohol of Japan) in Japan. And it’s sak-EH, not sak-E with a long E.

I didn’t do much on Sunday. After a long week, it was nice to have a break. I did teach my host mother how to make pizza from scratch, which was actually quite successful. For dinner, I tried Unagi (eel) for the first time, and it was…all right. While I actually liked the taste just fine, there was something sort of weird about eating fish with the skin still on and with tiny bones inside. It just didn’t feel right. But I’m sure that if I ate it a couple more times it wouldn’t be so weird anymore.

Back to work for the week. On Monday, I first went to a really interesting all-company meeting. A number of employees received awards and gifts, the company president made a speech (a long one, maybe a half hour, on all sorts of things: world politics, national safety week, the company’s financial status, etc.), and then I had to introduce myself. In Japanese. In front of 175+ company employees. With only a couple minutes’ notice.

I got a pretty big applause.

For the rest of the day, I was assigned to the division of the sales group that works with large companies. I learned that while the vast majority of Bushu Gas’ customers are consumers in homes, a surprisingly-high portion of gas revenues comes from factories. Indeed, the among company’s biggest customers are ones you’ve heard of, like Honda and Citizen (watches). I went with one of the workers (whose apartment I moved to on Thursday; see below) to visit two corporate customers, one a company (apparently now indirectly owned by Wal-Mart) that makes packaged food items for department and convenience stores, and a heavy industrial factory that has something to do with galvanizing huge steel objects. We had to inform them that their gas rates will be going up soon. Yikes! But interesting, for sure.

Monday night, my host mother taught me how to make oya-ko-don, one variety of donburi – a simple dish of meat over rice. “Oya-ko” is a clever joke: literally, it means “parent-child” but refers to a donburi with both chicken and egg on top. Easy to make, and tasty too. Coming soon to a kitchen near you?

Tuesday, I was with the “Gas-kan” group, in charge of laying and replacing gas pipes under roads. I went to a couple different work sites, which were actually pretty interesting. The company is switching a lot of its infrastructure from old galvanized steel pipe to new polyethylene pipe. The new pipe has a lot of advantages, but mostly in terms of safety and convenience. They’re flexible, which is critical during earthquakes – common in Japan. Also, they’re pretty easy to work with: to connect pipes together, special couplers are used with built in electrical coils that actually melt the pipes together. Easy.

In the afternoon, I was taken to one the company’s largest projects, a huge new pipeline to a couple of new Honda factories. The pipes being laid are huge – over a foot across – and made of welded steel. Honda is one of Bushu Gas’ largest customers, and it’s pretty amazing to me that the company would spend so much money to extend a new line so far from its regular service area. Probably a good business investment, however.

I got to see the site where the factory is being built, and words literally can not describe what I saw. Billed as Honda’s most “eco-friendly” factory, an entire mountain was leveled to create space for the factory. This is considered environmentally conscious because status quo is completely displacing the soil. To see such a huge area, from above, totally flattened was completely stunning, and the fact that it was considered a good thing even more so. It’s not that this is a surprise: Japan’s topography is around 2/3 mountain, and at this stage in development there isn’t much other space to expand in. I just wish I had a camera with me that day. Here’s the one I do have.

On the way back, our last stop was interrupted by a phone call involving a work site being disrupted by some members of some sort of organized crime group (Ahem.). I never even thought about this, but of course this could be a problem. Anyway, I ended up sort of hitting a wall by the end of the day and got in a pretty bad mood, but it was about time for that, and I got through it. I made California rolls in the evening, and my host mother did not realize that they were actually invented in California. Go figure.

Wednesday, I was with the group that does work proposals and blueprints for mostly new building construction. I literally did nothing in the morning, and learned to do some CAD work in the afternoon. They were completely impressed by how fast I learned the CAD system, though I wasn’t doing any real work. It was a lot of fun, and I can see how useful it really is. For example, they have a software package that will calculate exactly what kind of gas pipe to use in any given part of a house, then label every section. It saves them a lot of time.

Thursday, I moved. So soon? Yes. In my six weeks in Saitama, I’m scheduled to stay in four different places. One one hand, it’s great that I get to meet so many people. On the other hand, it’s a lot of moving and living out of a suitcase, and it’s definitely stressful to shift gears so regularly.

Anyway, I had the morning off to pack, and it actually took much longer than I expected. It seemed like the host mother I had been staying with was sad to see me go – I think I provided her a lot of entertainment over the two weeks I was there. She even taught me a simple piano song (she’s a piano teacher) and was clearly touched that I learned it well and quickly. I spent the afternoon doing nothing in the office at work (a nice break). I moved to my next housing arrangement in the afternoon.

I say “housing arrangement” rather than “host family” for a reason: where I am right now is completely different than my previous set up. Instead of the home of a higher-up, I’m staying the company-owned apartment of a regular worker. According to a outdated copy of the book I’m reading, 15% of workers in Japan live in company-owned residences. Sekine-san is 29, the same age as Zach (my oldest brother), and lives by himself. He doesn’t have internet, so that’s one reason I have for not posting more.

I was at first a little concerned, because whenever I told someone in the company who I would be living with, there would be some degree of shock and laughter, but I think it’s mostly that there’s been an expectation that us Americans should be staying in places with space and [insert amenities here]. The first question people ask is often “does he cook?” and in fact, he doesn’t. So he arranged for us to do most of our meals next door, at the apartment of another Bushu Gas worker (and good friend), and his wife (who I had met during the gas vs. electric cooking demo).

I was a little nervous about living with someone younger, because it would be such a change, but it’s actually been great. While I can definitely make friends with people my parents’ age, I have definitely had a different relationship with Sekine-san and his neighbors. I’ve been able to ask questions about the company and Japanese Culture that I could never ask of a higher-up, and it’s been totally instructive. Also, I’ve been able to do a number of things I never would have done otherwise. And sure, the apartment is tiny, but I can deal.

Here’s the first example. Thursday, there was a dinner-and-drinking get-together with a number of the other people who live in the company-owned apartments (sha-taku). It was at a nearby restaurant/bar called “Saucier,” and it was my first time drinking in a group in Japan. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, in a different way than at work. People were definitely more relaxed, and of course the booze helps to make conversations flow more freely. The food was truly interesting: each dish the owner brought out was different. He said he was trained in French cuisine, but I’m not sure I could call any of the things he served French. From Japanese-style oden to pasta, it really ran the gamut. Meet and fish of all kinds, too. Actually, pretty tasty. Also, shochu is pretty good.

OK. Since it’s taken me this long to get this far, I’m going to stop here. A preview of next time: my first true Japanese business drinking experience, my first trip to a Japanese public bath, and yes, Tokyo Disneyland.