Interesting Fact Three days ago, the first subway I took was delayed. I don't know why it was delayed . . . all the announcements were given in Japanese. All I know is that we sat at one station for a rather long time with the subway doors open (letting in quite a draft). By the end of our wait, I was very, very thankful that I was one of the few passengers lucky enough to have a seat! When the subway did eventually arrive at my transfer station, I passed a guard handing out pieces of paper. He was giving them to everybody, and I took one. I had no idea what it meant, but an inkling that it had something to do with the delay. The piece of paper Something I find funny when travelling is that for me (since I can't read any written form of Japanese) this message was as good as a cipher. I could make educated guesses as to its meaning, but beyond that, I was in the dark. In the meantime, for anyone who can read Japanese, this was as standard as as any subway ticket! ...

The Week in Review Looking back over my first week in Japan, there's quite a lot I could say. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was able to experience normal days of office work. Right now LEX Japan is getting ready to send delegate application forms to the US. My job has been to go through the forms and make sure that delegates have adequate health information. Often there is additional information attached in Japanese. One of the women I work with will translate this for me, and then if necessary, I add this to the form. It's a fun job, involving a bit of conscise word crunching. I love the environment in the LEX office, and the best way to describe it is to relate a slight misadventure of mine. On Tuesday morning, I took the subway all by myself. I was okay until I arrived at Shibuya train station. (From Shibuya I walk to the office) Shibuya is a very, very large train station, and I realized that I had no idea which way I should leave (north, south, east, or west). I found...

First Day . . . All of the sudden, I'm feeling quite tired. As a result, this post will be quite brief and will cover 5 highlights from my first working day in the LEX office. 1. Seeing Mt. Fuji from the subway window 2. Noticing orages trees from said subway window: And not just orange trees, orange trees with large oranges! 3. Meeting LEX fellows I know from Shanghai LEX camp; it's so wonderful to see familiar faces! 4. Seeing the LEX office for the first time 5. Meeting LOTS of new people!!! That's all for tonight, but I'll be posting again soon! ~A view of the LEX office

Let's go fly a kite! This morning I went to a kite making class with my host mom and my 8 year old host brother. It was very fun. I'm not artistic by nature, so I contented myself with drawing a large red "W" on my kite. There were several inquires as to the meaning of "W", to which I explained I'm from Wisconsin. After finishing, we walked to a park to fly our newly made kites. It was a nice windy day, excellent for flying kites. Wind does have its drawbacks though, and soon we were all cold and very ready to walk home and eat a hot lunch!

Arrival in Japan I often read in books about people waking up and suddenly remembering that they're in a new place. I was always rather skeptical of such an experience . . . until today. This morning I woke up and lay in bed. Without opening my eyes, I knew where I was (in my room in Wisconsin) and just what I would see when I opened my eyes. Just as quickly as the thought came, it left as I realized, "I'm in Japan!!!" I arrived yesterday and am now settling into life with my host family. I just returned from biking to the park with my host mom. It was about a 10 minute bike ride and very fun. The weather here is chilly (my hands are still warming up, should have worn gloves!), but it is much, much warmer than Wisconsin. While the trees are bare, some of the hedges are flowering, and I even noticed some pansies in a window box. This afternoon my family is having a welcome party for me, and I will be able to meet members of their Hippo Family Club. I'll b...