1/30/14-Risen from the Ashes, a Thought on Chinese New Year’s Eve

Returning to South Bay Home

Today (1/30/14) I went back to South Bay where my old home used to be to celebrate Lunar New Year with friends and colleagues that work at the locations near there such as Airports and Harbor.  Although I did not actually visit my old house, I was thinking about it.   We, my late husband and I lived there for over 10 years, and a place of joy and love.  In the later part of the 10 years, his health condition became worse.  I did not want to leave him at home alone while I went to work in downtown Los Angeles, so finally we decided to sell the house there, and move to live in an assisted living facility closer to my office.  The assisted living place was small but nice because I didn’t have to cook except for Sunday, they served three meals every day in a restaurant like diner.  Besides, they had maids to clean the small 900 square feet apartment every week, and there was a nurse on duty 24/7.

Through The Valley of the Shadows..

Then right after New Year of 2006, we planned a vacation in Thailand with a tour company called China Tour.  They had a full itinerary including a river cruise along the River of the Kings in Bangkok.  When we started out from LA via Cathay Pacific Airline, my husband who had had difficulty eating before seemed to be able to eat more on the plane.  When we arrived in Bangkok and were on guided tour through Bangkok temples and palaces, the tour became a challenge.  In the tour bus it was freezing cold, but when we went down for sightseeing the weather was very hot and humid.  During the later part of the tour, because of changes in the climate in the bus and outside,  my husband became sicker and sicker, and did not enjoy even the River Cruise at all.

At the end of the tour around January 15, we were supposed to visit my husband’s mother at his old house for a couple of days and then come back to the US.  It was obvious he was very sick and had to go to Thai hospital emergency.  There was a family doctor near by who came to see him at our house not too far from the Bangkok Airport.  He had Pneumonia, and could not eat by regular food, but needed to be fed through the tube that went down the nostril through to his stomach.

When it was time to come back to the States to work, we could not, because PJ was not out of danger yet, so we waited and received treatment until he was stabilized.  Then we prepared to come back, but in the beginning, the airline was hesitant to let him board the plane because he had feeding tube through his nose.  Somehow, we were able to convince with the doctor’s assurance that it was fine to let him travel.  The flight back was very stressful for us because of my husband’s condition, and I was acting like a professional nurse even with my limited nursing knowledge.  I was shown how to mix milk with powder protein and squeezed the mixture down the tube by the Thai doctor, who was also an AMWAY agent in Bangkok.

When we arrived back in LA, the assisted living place did not allow us to stay in their facility any more because they were afraid of non-compliance with State regulations related to management of their facility.  My husband had to go to convalescence hospice, since he still had Pneumonia.  I didn’t want to pay full price to stay at the assisted living because that included food and other services that I did not need.  My loving son who lived in another state was able find through online search a rental apartment, which happened to be a block away from our first home.  The apartment manager was kind to prepare the facilities and everything for the disabled so that it is accommodating for my husband when he came home to stay.

But he was not ready to come home.  Each morning before going to work, I drove from Glendale to Hollywood to visit him.  In the evening, after dinner, I would go and see him, listened to music mostly oldies and some jazz, before leaving around 8:30 PM.  Those were dark days, and I could understand quite well the words from Psalm 23, “When I walk through the valley of the shadow…”.   There was another bed of patient in the same room as PJ.  During the four months there, there were two Roommates, one after another that passed on in that room.  On March 26, while I was visiting at night, I received a phone call from my sister with tearful voice saying that we lost one of our church members’ girl, who was just on the way back from celebrating her 10th year birthday.  The van where the mother was driving were cut in front by two cars from left and right racing with each other, so in the process of avoiding crashing in the car that came, the van flipped over four times, and the little girl was thrown out of the van into the side of the freeeway.  On another dark drizzling Friday night, after visiting PJ, I was also involved in a car accident, which took me a year after that to resolve.

I was thankful that I was strong enough to be with him during his last days on this earth.  On the night before his passing, we listened to music on CD, and he even sang aloud with the song, and before I left the door, he called me and said again smiling “I love you”.  He seemed to have peace, and come to think of it, it was a special night that he might have a hunch of what was going to happen the next day so we lingered a little longer saying goodbye.

Happy Chinese New Year!  The Phoenix Rose from the Ashes!!

I started writing this blog post on Chinese New Year’s Eve, when traditionally, we would clean up the house, and prepare for things new the next day.   It is time for new things and joy to take place.  Chinese people usually work the whole year long in business, but not on New Year.  In Thailand, businesses run mostly by Chinese merchants would close, and people would enjoy being together with family, eating, playing games, distributing red envelops to children, employees, and teachers.  It signifies hope and newness.

It was October of 2007, almost two years after the time of trials in 2006 that I dared to venture out to travel and live again.  My first trip out of the country was Thailand, and with my brother and sister in law, we continued and joined a specially arranged group tour from Thailand to China in the province of Chengdu, and Mount Quingcheng where they are called “Heavenly Kingdom” for the scenic and cultural beauties.  They were places that reminded me of the beauty of the scenes from the movie “Crouching Tiger”.  We also went to Jiuzhaigou Valley or Valley of Nine Villages with a lot of Tibetan population in the area.  If I were a very good photographer, I would have been able to capture better pictures of the sceneries and people that I saw there who seemed to come out of the pages of National Geographic!

Here are a couple of photographs to give you some ideas of the beauty I saw.  I even took picture wearing the mountain tribal costume!!

There are times for everything, now it’s time to have hope and arise from ashes and live!!!

Again Happy Chinese New Year and Happy New Life to you and me!!  

1/13/14 Angels Part II-Angels In Japan

My Traveling Adventures In Japan

In previous post on Christmas Eve, I mentioned that sometime God sent angels in the form of friends to help us in our journey through life especially when we traveled the road alone.  Although there are more stories of my personal encounters with angels in America, I would do it some other time. Today let’s move on to a different country, and this time  the encounters were in Japan.

In 1982 I received a research grant by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to do research on skills formation among the blue-collar workers in Japan.  At the time, Japan was at its economic height in terms of her rise in the global market share of automobile and electronic industries.  My research proposal was to study the skills formation method for labor in automobile related industries.  It was very kind of Professor Odaka from Hitosubashi University who accepted invitation to be my host scientist at the time of the grant application.  He hooked me up with people in the industries and academics for this research, and assisted with scheduling visits at factories.  Together with another colleague from the Thai University I taught, visiting professor Adashi, Professor Odaka arranged for visits to the Japan Institute of Labor, and universities in Nagoya, and Kyoto in addition to Tokyo.

A Colleague Became My Angel

As I mentioned, at the time of the five-week visit, Japan and especially Tokyo was bustling with trade activities because of auto shows that were going on.  It was hard to find accommodations even with JSPS’ generous stipend for me.  At the time, there was a new PHD graduate from University of Hawaii that came to our faculty as a professor and my new friend.  She was an answer to my prayer for accommodation in this short work visit to Japan.  Her nickname, Ying, which is often a name for lady of the royal bloodline; she was an intelligent yet very gracious and gentle young lady.  Her father had been a former Ambassador from Thailand to Japan, and it was a fortunate coincidence for me that she happened to go to Japan the same time as I, but for a different purpose.  When she heard that I had difficulty getting a hotel reservation, she graciously invited me to join her to stay at the beginning of the visit at the Royal Thai Ambassador’s residence!!  She was a heaven sent friend indeed!

When we arrived at the Ambassador’s Residence, I was awestruck to see that the residence was actually a castle, right in the middle of Tokyo where property square footage was very expensive or big plot of land was rare. The castle used to be the residence of Japan noble family, Mr. Mumon Hamaguchi, who was the adopted son of Mr. Fukishi Fukuzawa, founder of Keio University.  He was well known as a connoisseur of arts and antiques and decorated the castle with arts and furnishing in French Louis Dynasty style, and Imperial Chinese art works.  I was told that the brother of the last Emperor of China used to live there, and sure enough I found out from the Embassy website that confirms the story.  The website reports that “One of Mr. Hamaguchi’s nieces, Lady Hiro, was married to Prince Fuketsu Aishinkakura, the younger brother of the last Emperor of the Ching Dynasty of China who later became the Emperor of Manchukuo (Manchuria).  The couple temporarily resided at this mansion before moving to Manchuria.”  The Thai government was able to obtain and purchase this priceless property probably because of its close affinity with Japan at the time.

Well, in conclusion, this is not an ordinary stay of a weary traveler: I was a guest in a place where noble men and women, even the Royalties stayed!!!  Who would have imagined that I, a humble citizen had an opportunity to use the exquisitely designed (not sure if it’s French or Greek) bath room that was used by Crown Princess of Thailand when she came to visit Japan!!  It was a surreal experience!!!

Thai Embassador Residence in Tokyo

http://www.thaiembassy.jp/rte2/index.php option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=87

The stay lasted a few days with my angel friend, who took me shopping in some special department stores that the embassy people frequented.  I bought quite a few beautiful silk blouses, which looked new for a very long time, and one I still have to these days.

After a few days of shopping spree, my young lady professor friend and I parted when she traveled on to another country.  I found hotel accommodation, and started working for my research project.  Since this trip was to conduct studies of Japanese blue-collar workers and their skills formation, I started by visiting the Department of Labor.  My host professor gave me names of people to contact, and before leaving Thailand I had written letters asking for appointments with several people in Tokyo including Mr. Hirota, the Director of the Research of this Department of Labor.

Surprised by Joy!

When I went to the Department, they had me wait in the reception area since something came up related to work, and Mr. Hirota was not there to meet me at the time of appointment.  I was waiting there for may be more than half an hour, reading magazines.  I was getting impatient and worried that I would not be able to get the information I need for the project.   Then I looked up, and saw some one that looked so very familiar walked by the room.  It was another pleasant surprise! It was Mr. Hiroshi!!  The last time I saw him was two years before at the Presbyterian Church in Bangkok that my husband and his whole clan were members; we were just friends then.  I called out to him, “Mr. Hiroshi!”  He looked at me, but did not remember that we met when he was the Labor attaché from Japan in Thailand.  At the time, Japan companies had factories in Bangkok and surrounding provinces.  Mr. Hiroshi was a diplomat in matters relating to labor relations in a foreign country outside of Japan.  He was a Christian, which was a bit rare at the time to find a Japanese Christian, in Thailand at least.  He was a church friend in Thailand, and my husband and his late wife used to entertain him quite a few times before.  By this time, my husband, a widower and I were married but Mr. Hiroshi did not know since he was reassigned back to home in Japan.  I only met Mr. Hiroshi a couple of times at the Thai Church in Bangkok so he could not remember me.  He asked who I was and the purpose of my visit, and when he knew that I was the new wife of my late husband, unbeknown to me, he went to work right away to connect me with two church families!

He invited me first to stay at his apartment, with his wife and two children, a pre-teen daughter and a little four-year-old son.  It was a very pleasant stay Japanese working family style.  Then he took me to his little church on Sunday--with preaching all in Japanese.  Of course, I did not understand a word!  But it was good warm congregation.  He arranged for me to stay at the home of a church elder, who was a children book publisher.  He and his wife had grown up children, and they looked after me as if I were one of his children.  He told me that my name means alligator in Japanese, and gave me children books that he published as souvenirs.  After the delicious b-b-q fish with fresh and pickled vegetable, it was time for a bath, Japanese style, which meant taking scoops of hot shower from the bucket before dipping into the big piping hot family bathtub.  Aahhh….very soothing indeed..

After the awesome bath, I was shown where to sleep.  It was in the living room on the floor with fluffy white comforter and futon Japanese style.  Under the ambiance of the nightlight, I went through the children books that my host gave me.  It was peaceful and calm; this reminded me of my mom who used to read stories from Chinese children books to us..  I felt like a little child. I felt the warmth and safety of a home, as if I were in the house of my own grandpa and grandma I never met in real life.  It was easy for me to fall asleep there after looking at pictures in the children storybooks.

The next morning, I had an appointment to visit one of the automobile part factories, so my host sent me to meet with my colleague to catch a train to the factory situated somewhere between Tokyo and Yokohama City.  He was amused that I carried my alligator purse and brief case with me, matching the Japanese translation of my name!

Since I only knew a few words in Japanese, I needed an interpreter to translate the interview.  There was another colleague more senior than I that was in town for another research project. Dr. Lily, so an interpreter was pre-arranged for both of us by Professor Odaka for the visit to medium sized factory of auto parts.  The interpreter was an American PHD student, who had been in Japan for quite a few years, and was proficient in Japanese.  Joining with us was another visiting lady scholar from the US.  It was an eye opening session that helped us understand the manufacturing process, and for me to tie the process with skills formation theories and practices. 

Picture of the Visit to a Japanese Factory with Colleague and Interpreter.

January 20, 2014 MLK Day: My Impression of Civil Rights Era

Today is Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s Day, my favorite day of the year that I can once again contemplate on the life of faith, love, and sacrifice of this great nation’s icon, who with an almost prophetic voice echoed hope and dream for us.

Dream of Coming to America

Right around 1963, the height of the Civil Right struggle, I was in another side of the globe, a teenage high school student in Bangkok Thailand.  I dreamed of coming to the US after reading magazines while visiting the library of the US Trade Center, where my uncle worked.  Apart from trade news, I enjoyed looking at beautiful pictures such as pictures of beauty pageants like Miss America at Atlantic City, and Cotton Queen in a park somewhere.   Then there was music that made me dreamed of coming to the U.S.

It was at American Alumni Association (AUA) auditorium in Bangkok that I heard the song “We Shall Overcome” for the first time from a group of Negro Spirituals Chorale group.  The lead singer with his eyes sparkling in the spotlight made a great impression on me.  That was one of the first inspirations for me to come to America, land of liberty, so I thought.  Although it was the time of Civil Right movement, I didn’t know it.  I didn’t know that the US had people in poverty, and who suffered prejudices.

With the dream, I seek to apply, take exams, both essay and interview, and won a scholarship from American Field Service (AFS) Exchange Program to come to America.  It was an adventure and fun for a teenager who never traveled away from home further than a few hundreds miles.  About 60 or 70 of us from all parts of Thailand traveled in the Air India chartered plane, and our first stop was New York.

First Stop New York and Baltimore Suburb

We were in New York in a hotel close to the AFS head quarter and the UN building.  My general observation was that there were a lot of black kitchen and cafeteria workers but not administrative office staff.  They were pretty friendly to us.

After a couple of weeks of orientation in New York, my fellow Thai exchange students were all picked up or transported to different part of the U.S.  I was the last one left because of stomachache.  My host family from a Baltimore suburb came to pick me up after the doctor cleared me that I was well enough for a yearlong adventure.  The host family was a middle class of German descent, with American dad working in Bethlehem Steel Company, where the majority of people there worked.  My American Mom worked part-time in a junior high cafeteria.  The whole family came to pick me up and drove me from New York to a Baltimore suburb.

I was treated like a princess there at the high school that sponsored me.  Now come to think of it, the school committee for the exchange program was treating me like the princess in William Wyler’s movie “Roman Holiday” starred Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.  They scheduled me to give speech about Thailand and perform Thai classical dance and music in clubs such as Rotary Club, Optimist Club, junior high school, and etc.  Sometimes there were people from other regions that came to pick me up to attend functions.  There were times that I had the opportunities to stay with Jewish American families, both well to do and not so well to do.  I noticed a little, but not too blatant negative comments from my host family and the temporary guest hosts about each other.

I gained a few close friends from both senior and junior classes: Carol, who dreamingly promised with me that we would find ways to go to work for United Nations one day; and Susan, who took me to eat Pizza which I enjoyed so much.  Later on when some one interviewed me and asked what my favorite American food was, I said it was pizza!

           A Rigional Gathering of Exchange Students in Baltimore Area

Boys and Dates!

When I was in Thailand, dating was not in my vocabularies.  I had been in government temple girl school before matriculating into the pre-university school.  Even in the pre-university school, since I was in Liberal Arts, there were only 5 or 6 boys in the class.  It was a culture shock to see boy friends and girl friends kissed in the public here.  In America, I learned that in high school, if a girl didn’t have a boy friend, then she was not popular.  There was some pressure being a girl at the time.  Fortunately, I survived the popularity test and had a very fine boy dating me.  He was a gentleman, six foot four tall, a manager of the school band.  On weekends, he would drive me in a convertible (borrowed from his sister) to his Christian Scientist family farmhouse about over 30 miles from our school.  He also took me to “Peter, Paul, and Mary” Concert in Baltimore.  I just loved Mary when she sang, “If I have hammer”, and shook her blond hair backward.  It was good time all year round with Richard taking me to places and school dances after the basketball games on Friday nights.  For the senior prom, there was no doubt that he would be my date.  There was a picture with me wearing blue gown with the hip hairstyle at the time~ “The Bee Hive”.  Unfortunately, for some reasons, my photo shoot with Richard was lost.

                                        

                               Senior Prom Date-School Band Manager

Then there was a black student in junior class who was in the same chorus class as I.  Joe was Vice President of junior class, and was in school gymnastic team.  I think there were only a handful of black students at the time, and Joe was the cute one, who wore three-piece suit and carried brief case to school.  On Christmas, he came and handed to me a box of Christmas gift that all the girls in the Chorus class looked on with slight envy.  I think the way he came and brought the gift of sparkling diamond-like brooch to me was quite dramatic, and that caused all the ooh and aahh in the class.  Like a pro diplomat, I thanked him and took the gift calmly instead of screaming with excitement.  I must admit I felt so special.

Joe did another charming thing, he asked me to be his junior ball date.  I didn’t know it was such a big deal, but the school took the matter up in the foreign exchange student program committee.  I asked my American parents why, but they could not find a good reason.  They greatly enjoyed music from Louise Armstrong but were talking about the story of history of slavery and etc, but a reasonable explanation for not allowing me to go to junior prom with Joe was not forthcoming.  Fortunately, the school agreed to let us go to the ball and I had a great time.  There was an adventurous story about the trip with Joe, a novice driver, to the after-prom dinner place, but I will leave it for some other time.

Needless to say, interracial marriage at the time was rare.  There was a movie called “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”, starred Sydney Poitier, that explained the sentiments of the time.

Fast forward, the taboo against inter-racial marriage and dating for the most part is the thing of the past.  We see more mixed racial families nowadays.

Although discrimination and bigotry in several forms still exist, but the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior have opened doors of opportunity to many of us including myself.  In early 90’s, I was fortunate to be part of “Affirmative Action Advisory Committee” at work.  This afforded opportunities for me to attend executive level committee meetings and conferences, and participate in decision-making process in activities such as contractors selection.  There are more works to do to provide equal opportunities in employment, housing, and economic development, but we have come so far and closer toward the “dream”.

I am grateful for the leadership, faith, love, and sacrifice that Dr. King had made.  America is a better place because of such a selfless leader.  I salute you, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King!!!

1/13/14 Angels Part II-Angels In Japan

Japan Travel Adventures

In previous post on Christmas Eve, I mentioned that sometime God sent angels in the form of friends to help us in our journey through life especially when we traveled the road alone.  Although there are more stories of my personal encounters with angels in America, I would do it some other time. Today let’s move on to a different country, and this time the encounters were in Japan.

In 1982 I received a research grant by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to do research on skills formation among the blue-collar workers in Japan.  At the time, Japan was at its economic height in terms of her rise in the global market share of automobile and electronic industries.  My research proposal was to study the skills formation method for labor in automobile related industries.  It was very kind of Professor Odaka from Hitosubashi University who accepted invitation to be my host scientist at the time of the grant application.  He hooked me up with people in the industries and academics for this research, and assisted with scheduling visits at factories.  Together with another colleague from the Thai University I taught, visiting professor Adashi, Professor Odaka arranged for visits to the Japan Institute of Labor, and universities in Nagoya, and Kyoto in addition to Tokyo.

As I mentioned, at the time of the five-week visit, Japan and especially Tokyo was bustling with trade activities because of auto shows that were going on.  It was hard to find accommodations even with JSPS’ generous stipend for me.  At the time, there was a new PHD graduate from University of Hawaii that came to our faculty as a professor and my new friend.  She was an answer to my prayer for accommodation in this short work visit to Japan.  Her nickname, Ying, which is often a name for lady of the royal bloodline; she was an intelligent yet very gracious and gentle young lady.  Her father had been a former Ambassador from Thailand to Japan, and it was a fortunate coincidence for me that she happened to go to Japan the same time as I, but for a different purpose.  When she heard that I had difficulty getting a hotel reservation, she graciously invited me to join her to stay at the beginning of the visit at the Royal Thai Ambassador’s residence!!  She was a heaven sent friend indeed!

When we arrived at the Ambassador’s Residence, I was awestruck to see that the residence was actually a castle, right in the middle of Tokyo where property square footage was very expensive or big plot of land was rare. The castle used to be the residence of Japan noble family, Mr. Mumon Hamaguchi, who was the adopted son of Mr. Fukishi Fukuzawa, founder of Keio University.  He was well known as a connoisseur of arts and antiques and decorated the castle with arts and furnishing in French Louis Dynasty style, and Imperial Chinese art works.  I was told that the brother of the last Emperor of China used to live there, and sure enough I found out from the Embassy website that confirms the story.  The website reports that “One of Mr. Hamaguchi’s nieces, Lady Hiro, was married to Prince Fuketsu Aishinkakura, the younger brother of the last Emperor of the Ching Dynasty of China who later became the Emperor of Manchukuo (Manchuria).  The couple temporarily resided at this mansion before moving to Manchuria.”  The Thai government was able to obtain and purchase this priceless property probably because of its close affinity with Japan at the time.

Well, in conclusion, this is not an ordinary stay of a weary traveler: I was a guest in a place where noble men and women, even the Royalties stayed!!!  Who would have imagined that I, a humble citizen had an opportunity to use the exquisitely designed (not sure if it’s French or Greek) bath room that was used by Crown Princess of Thailand when she came to visit Japan!!  It was a surreal experience!!!

See link to Website of The Thai Embassador's Castle in Tokyo

http://www.thaiembassy.jp/rte2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=87

The stay lasted a few days with my angel friend, who took me shopping in some special department stores that the embassy people frequented.  I bought quite a few beautiful silk blouses, which looked new for a very long time, and one I still have to these days.

After a few days of shopping spree, my young lady professor friend and I parted when she traveled on to another country.  I found hotel accommodation, and started working for my research project.  Since this trip was to conduct studies of Japanese blue-collar workers and their skills formation, I started by visiting the Department of Labor.  My host professor gave me names of people to contact, and before leaving Thailand I had written letters asking for appointments with several people in Tokyo including Mr. Hirota, the Director of the Research of this Department of Labor.

Surprised By Joy!

When I went to the Department, they had me wait in the reception area since something came up related to work, and Mr. Hirota was not there to meet me at the time of appointment.  I was waiting there for may be more than half an hour, reading magazines.  I was getting impatient and worried that I would not be able to get the information I need for the project.   Then I looked up, and saw some one that looked so very familiar walked by the room.  It was another pleasant surprise! It was Mr. Hiroshi!!  The last time I saw him was two years before at the Presbyterian Church in Bangkok that my husband and his whole clan were members; we were just friends then.  I called out to him, “Mr. Hiroshi!”  He looked at me, but did not remember that we met when he was the Labor attaché from Japan in Thailand.  At the time, Japan companies had factories in Bangkok and surrounding provinces.  Mr. Hiroshi was a diplomat in matters relating to labor relations in a foreign country outside of Japan.  He was a Christian, which was a bit rare at the time to find a Japanese Christian, in Thailand at least.  He was a church friend in Thailand, and my husband and his late wife used to entertain him quite a few times before.  By this time, my husband, a widower and I were married but Mr. Hiroshi did not know since he was reassigned back to home in Japan.  I only met Mr. Hiroshi a couple of times at the Thai Church in Bangkok so he could not remember me.  He asked who I was and the purpose of my visit, and when he knew that I was the new wife of my late husband, unbeknown to me, he went to work right away to connect me with two church families!

He invited me first to stay at his apartment, with his wife and two children, a pre-teen daughter and a little four-year-old son.  It was a very pleasant stay Japanese working family style.  Then he took me to his little church on Sunday--with preaching all in Japanese.  Of course, I did not understand a word!  But it was good warm congregation.  He arranged for me to stay at the home of a church elder, who was a children book publisher.  He and his wife had grown up children, and they looked after me as if I were one of his children.  He told me that my name means alligator in Japanese, and gave me children books that he published as souvenirs.  After the delicious b-b-q fish with fresh and pickled vegetable, it was time for a bath, Japanese style, which meant taking scoops of hot shower from the bucket before dipping into the big piping hot family bathtub.  Aahhh….very soothing indeed..

After the awesome bath, I was shown where to sleep.  It was in the living room on the floor with fluffy white comforter and futon Japanese style.  Under the ambiance of the nightlight, I went through the children books that my host gave me.  It was peaceful and calm; this reminded me of my mom who used to read stories from Chinese children books to us..  I felt like a little child. I felt the warmth and safety of a home, as if I were in the house of my own grandpa and grandma I never met in real life.  It was easy for me to fall asleep there after looking at pictures in the children storybooks.

Getting to Work in Japan

The next morning, I had an appointment to visit one of the automobile part factories, so my host sent me to meet with my colleague to catch a train to the factory situated somewhere between Tokyo and Yokohama City.  He was amused that I carried my alligator purse and brief case with me, matching the Japanese translation of my name!

Since I only knew a few words in Japanese, I needed an interpreter to translate the interview.  There was another colleague more senior than I that was in town for another research project. Dr. Lily, so an interpreter was pre-arranged for both of us by Professor Odaka for the visit to medium sized factory of auto parts.  The interpreter was an American researcher, who had been in Japan for quite a few years, and was proficient in Japanese.  Joining with us was another visiting lady scholar from the US.  It was an eye opening session that helped us understand the manufacturing process, and for me to tie the process with skills formation theories and practices. 

                Interpreter-Dr. David Merriman, Colleague-Dr. Lily K., & Yours Truly

                                               End Result of the Project-A Research Paper

On the Train, In the Back Street, More Angels Guiding My Way

There were more visits to different factories, and my mean of transportation was by sub-way and trains.  I did not know Japanese, although some of the Japanese characters were like Chinese, which helped me a little bit to remember the names of some train stations.  Most Japanese in the general population in Tokyo did not speak or understand English at the time, so traveling to different places of appointment was a challenge, but I survived each time.  There was one time that I was not sure I was taking the right train or not.  When I stepped into a packed train, suddenly my eye met a lady, and I recognized right away that she was the librarian at the Labor Department.  So I asked her how to get to my place of appointment, and she was able to tell me which train to catch next!

Another time, I already got off the train, but was not sure about the direction to the factory of the next visit.  A gentleman that walked by figured that I needed help, and asked me in English, if I was lost and where I wanted to go.  It happened he was one of the Board Member of a Non-profit labor organization affiliated with international labor union so he could speak English.  Who would guess that in a city of millions of people in this busy non-English speaking city, there were people that appeared out of the blue, and could assist me to show me the way in English?

Work and Enjoyment with My Personal Angel

After the Tokyo visit, the next stop was Nagoya, and near by where most companies that were affiliated with Toyota, and Nissan were situated.  Two out of my three case studies were from this area. My Japanese colleague, visiting Professor Adashi was the host there together with his friend, Professor Kuramitzu.  At the end of the Nagoya visit, my dear husband came to join me, and went with me to Kyoto, where I interviewed Professor Koike at Kyoto University while he was free to visit the cultural landmarks.  This visit is a little more laid-back, with more opportunities for adventure and visit to culturally significant places.  With my husband with me, I was adventurous enough now to stay in a charming little inn that we found along the way in Kyoto.  The inn looked to me like a scene in my high school play: “Tea House 

of the August Moon“.  Mr. Hiroshi, our former Labor Attache friend told us when we met him again in Tokyo for a steak dinner he reserved for my husband, that the inn where we stayed was some kind of “lovers’ inn”.  We laughed so hard when we found out!
 

Although I forgot about most of the work aspects of this visit, the memories of surprising elements of the loving care of God and his earthly angels, including my late husband, forever imprinted in my mind.  These memories helped in continuing strong in my journey through life of faith, even when there were heavyweight-sized trials that I encountered every now and then.

I hope the stories of this adventure encourage you to be strong as well, my friends…