Mopping up

It is Sunday morning now and I just finished a long hot bath. Maybe it is over indulgence, but it is the first time that I have had to relax on the trip. Friday's meetings went about as advertised, at least with our Ag rep. It was not entirely pleasant. I have reflected several times since the meeting that it is they, somehow, that seem to make the rules of our relationship, not us. I don't know that I have a problem with that in normal circumstances, our ultimate goal is to please our customers, but in this case it seems to focus on them, not the end user. The morning meeting contrasted interestingly with my afternoon visit to our food distributer. Both our distributors have had issues recently with some of our instruments, mostly trouble not of our own making. I was concerned our meeting with them would be as tense and one sided as the one in the morning. I found a completely different spirit during our meeting. It was one of concern (the problem is affecting maybe 30-40% of their business) but a focus on what could be done together to fix the problem. It was very refreshing. I left with a plan to work together to solve the problem and big smiles on their faces.

Last night was suchi fest, or so we call it (we being my Japanese professor friend and me). It came closely on the heals of the Decagon Fun Club meeting. That was what the agenda dubbed the meeting. A whole afternoon spent talking about the results of soil moisture testing. I was a pig in mud. There is very good support for our effort here and a very good understanding of what we have done and what we are working on now. The suchi party was a lot of fun too. I am sure I could keep Ryan and Rachel up all night with nightmares if I told them what we ate, but everything was very good. I must come here too often because I didn't even mind the squid this time. I remember the first time I ate it I was wondering how it would look if I leapt over the Japanese style table I was trapped behind and dashed for the toilet. We actually had an interesting discussion on the church, specifically the Book of Mormon, during dinner, discussing its origins and contents. This often happens because they wonder why we don't drink, etc., but it was spurred on by an Egyptian friend of mine that was quite curious about it. He also related a very funny story about some Christian group that nabbed him at Shinjuku station (a very busy station near by here) and tried (unsuccessfully) to baptize him at their church nearby. Very strange. Well, it is time to get ready to head to the English speaking ward for church. Marie's father was kind enough to send me directions to get there. It is actually really close to where we are staying so it won't be any problem.

Deeper into the Mire

Yesterday was just the just the calm before the storm. Today, just the prelude to the madness. Tomorrow, tomorrow is when the manure hits the fan. Everything we discussed with our distributor had a asterisk by it with a comment like: tomorrow our vice president will discuss this with you and share his plan. It all had a very ominous tone to it. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, like, you will now give us all your products for free so we can offset the costs of having to deal with stupid Americans. These are the kind of discussions that I don't look forward to. But what is the worst that can happen?

Last night, we ate dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant. The food was great. However, it made me wonder how skinny my children would get here. When presented with the small wok of cuttlefish being cooked at the table in (and this is a direct quote) liquid from it own guts, I think Ryan might have clammed up instantly. Matt pointed out that it would have been more correct to say its own intestines. I am not sure the clarification would have helped much. The finished product was pretty good, though, so Ryan would have missed out. I must be losing my edge though, all the stuff we ate seemed pretty normal to me now. I especially like that browned outside, raw inside slap jack tuna. That was excellent.

More later.

Blogging in Japan

Greetings from Japan. Matt and I are currently training our representatives in Japan and having a grand old time. What is not to like about your eyes burning from confused sleep patterns and answering lots of questions that you thought you'd already cleared up. The good thing is I have access to the web, so I can write a blog and do lots of other things while we talk because the translation back and forth takes considerable time. The funny thing is that sometimes I don't know if I am listening to Japanese or English and get surprised when they switch back to English and I am working on something else.

So far, our trip to Japan has been pretty uneventful. Our hotel is pretty nice with a good complementary breakfast and high speed internet. We are staying very near Shinjuku in the middle of a very built up area. It makes me a little claustrophobic as I long for the beautiful green fields of the Palouse, but I'll be back soon enough. It is quite comical to watch Matt and me go out to dinner. We looked into many windows trying to discern what the plastic meal in the display might taste like, but in the end, we always end up visiting Ronald, Mr. Sanders, the King or Subway. Oh to understand a few Kanji. Heaven knows that we will not get fat though, everything in these restaurants has been miniaturized. I suppose it is really a great plan, I don't think you really need anything more than you get; I think it is psychological but I am still hungry just thinking about it.

More later.