nagoya

Just back Aiichi Shukutoku Daigaku where Roy and I visited an amalgamation of three classes to talk about our work. Lots of stuff on the table-- mythology, the future, cloning, biotechnology, growing old, family, language, the JC internment, being Japanese, being Asian, flowing, travelling, limping. Hope it was productive for the students. The group was almost all women. There were four men.

On the way back we were delighted to have a cab driver who was studying English and wanted to talk to us. He had a DVD player in his car, with an English lesson DVD in it. There's a lot less English signage here than in Taiwan-- a sign that we're in a first world country, says Roy. It's hard figuring things out with minimal access to language, but we haven't yet had any major mishaps. There are, however, an awful lot of stairs without railings in this city.

Enjoyed riding the bullet train (Nozomi) from Tokyo, very fast and sleek. Leaned over the aisle to watch the suburbs go by. We'll have tempura supper soon with Bev Curran, who hosted us. We're staying at the Nagoya Marriot. It's attached to the train station. There's a big department store in this complex also. Might be time soon for a little light shopping.