working holidays

i have monday and tuesday off to go on a business trip, alone this time.

2 free holidays, shopping, and weekday late afternoon naps (yummy sleep) in my very nice company-paid hotel room overlooking tokyo bay, steps away from the conference site. the nano symposium-the reason for the trip-should be great too, featuring famous japanese and western scientists and nobel laureates...meaning, unlike all the other events, i get to hear some english.

i love the long country/mountainside train rides and huge bookstores and good restaurants and free entertainment everywhere you look; the only downside about going to tokyo is that it always makes me wonder about firecodes and if there are any in japan...

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after work friday i went to this mall looking for some new shoes and all of a sudden this tall black man comes from behind me. out of nowhere it seemed. 2 of the questions he asked me: do you speak english? do you have any japanese ancestry? (a good excuse for him to stare at me for a while). as silly as they seemed at first, i`m used to those questions now. the funny thing is i couldnt help thinking how out of place he was...as if i fit in any better ;) he ended up in japan thru the air force and now lives in some little country town north of here.

that brings the count to 2 black people in hitachi, if i include that drive-by guy, although neither live here unfortunately.