Woke up in the middle of the night, was hot
Went back to sleep and woke up again at 6:30am. Got up a
little before 7am. Got ready and prepped stuff, then went down to breakfast.
Ate with a couple of the Fulbright Fellows. Then we all gathered, applied bug
spray, and walked to the Fulbright office. Along the way we passed construction
workers in blue jumpsuits. I also some amazing sunflowers with huge heads a
foot across.
During orientation, I was fighting off jetlag as I listened
to interesting presentations about the history of the Fulbright program (and
its continuing fight to persuade Congress that quality is as important as
quantity; in other words, depth vs. numbers), and the Japanese education
system’s structure, debates, and recent changes. Then we all went to a nearby
soba restaurant to eat lunch. I sat with 3 of the Fulbright lecturers and an
important Fulbright staff member (director of the Japan office?) Although I was
the youngest person at the table, for the most part I felt comfortable. There was
once moment when one of the professors was talking about how to prioritize her
time. She enjoys research, but because she mostly focuses on teaching, she was
wondering if it was worth the extensive effort it takes to publish research. I
told her that her research would increase the amount of information available
to others. She laughed, patted me on the arm, and replied that I was still
young and optimistic. Being a professor sounds tough.
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| Ten-don with cold soba. |
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| The inside of the restaurant where we didn't sit, after it emptied out. |
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| The outside of the restaurant. We sat to the left of the signs. The chalkboard says something about Lady's Day on Wednesday, where women can get any item on the drink menu for 278 yen. |
The topics of quantity vs. quality, the value of information
and its production, and the US focus on numbers as proof of results were
floating in my mind as a result of the presentations and conversations. In the
United States, there has been a push to use numerical test results and various
other statistics and countings to prove how effective and valuable programs and
schools are. The Fulbright Program is no doubt a valuable program because it
takes motivated, talented people and provides them with the opportunity to
excel and make international connections. This creates an ever-growing pool of
talent capital, with endless possibilities that can’t be measured by the number
of Fulbright alumni alone. Yet because the number is limited, people question
whether it would be better to spend more effort sending people on shorter
programs that would unquestionably end up giving those people less chance to
immerse in and connect with their environments.
The Fulbright Program, in addition to its focus on cultural
immersion and interaction, also focuses on research and teaching. For research,
in particular, a large amount of time is typically required. In order to
produce results that are meaningful, the research study must have a methodology
that accurately represents what is being studied and converts that information
into something useful. People often imagine academics conducting their research
in ivory towers, but this information is relevant and finds its way into the
normal media. Any news site and plenty of media cites frequently cite studies,
but people rarely think of the effort that goes into preparing and conducting
these studies. Because of the vast amount of information (reliable or not) now
available in this data age, people forget that information is not always easy
to produce. It takes time and money and energy.
Investing in programs or research that create talent capital
and information that may be valuable is a better use of money that providing
more people with less deep, short-term experiences.
After lunch, we returned to the Fulbright office for a
briefing on money matters, and then we went to the bank to cash our first
checks. Since I already had a Japanese bank account, I was able to simply
deposit my money in there. The only problem is that my passbook has a stamp
that ties it to Kobe University. This stamp might complicate things when
Fulbright wires me money throughout the year. The Fulbright staff suggested
having it removed when I get to Sendai.
After we finished at the bank, we split up. I walked back to
the Hotel Asia Center of Japan with 3 other Fulbright Fellows. We had
difficulty figuring out the way we came from, so we ended up taking a somewhat
circuitous, slightly back-alley-feeling route following GPS back to the hotel.
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| The sign on the top right says "Ladies' Sauna: Beauty Akasaka" |
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| A store sign with credit card signs all around it. |
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| A vertical garden |
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| 3 Fulbrighters going up a steep street. We're exhausted from absorbing information during orientation and jetlag. |
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| "Sandwich Mt." |
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| The commonly-seen juxtaposition of temple and blocky modern apartment building. |
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| Parking? |
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"Somebody's WATCHING YOU
-Akasaka Police"
(accompanied by a kabuki-style face) |
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| Part of the Cambodian Embassy, although I didn't realize it at the time. |
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| Mysterious small (or large for a toy) plane parts left on a driveway. |
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| Bottle of deodorizing spray hanging in the closet area. |
In the evening, from 6-8pm, there was a Fulbright Welcome
Reception at the Dai-ichi Hotel Tokyo. Me and the other Fellows were some of
the first people there. As we entered, we were given our nametags (with red
dots to indicate that we’re the 2014-15 grantees) and a drink (barley tea,
orange juice, red wine, white wine, or beer). At first we stayed in an awkward
huddle, but throughout the night we loosened up and began to mingle more. There
were some speeches, a toast, and then we ate food. There was a variety of food
available: raw fish, fried vegetables, pickled eggplant, pork slices, fruit,
cakes, rice, seafood curry, lemon herb fish, sandwiches, lo mein, breaded fried
vegetables and fish, etc.
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| The tag I was supposed to wear for the reception but forgot to wear (and keep forgetting that I have it since then). |
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| Electronic sign at Hotel Dai-ichi |
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| The reception room with one of the wait staff |
The reception guests consisted of Fulbright grantees,
alumni, staff, and donors. One of the graduate grantees said to me that the
reason we received this award is because we hardworking, passionate introverts;
having us mingle at a reception where we don’t know anybody was oppositional to
our natures.
Halfway through the
party, some of the grad student Americans began telling us about some drinking
party happening after the reception. It was a party for the foreigners studying
in Tokyo. We went. The party was held in a basement place called Beer Horn,
where beers were served either in horn-shaped glasses (size M) or horns (size
L). There was a lot of us, both from Fulbright and the people who were in
charge of the party (who seemed somewhat startled at the number of us who came.
However, since we were tired, a couple of the other Fellows who stayed in my
hotel soon left with me. We walked toward the station, bought some takoyaki
(octopus balls), and sat down on a random ledge to eat the hot food. Since we
were so close to the station, lots of taxis were pulling up on the street right
in front of us. We hailed one, but ran into difficulty because we didn’t have
the address of the hotel and the driver’s eyesight was too poor to read my map.
My friend looked up the address on his smartphone (he had an unlocked iPhone
for which he had bought a SIM card with a data plan). Once the driver had the
address, we got in and made it to the hotel with no problem (although I worried
about the driver’s eyesight). It was a short ride; it cost 730 yen, which we
split between us. We didn’t need to tip the driver.
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| The Hooters in my hometown may have closed, but it's doing fine in Japan. |
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| Going down the stairs into Beer Horn, and spot some magazines. |
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| Someone's medium-sized beverage. |
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| These saltshakers were on the table. |
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| The menu |
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| Takoyaki with sauce and bonito (dried fish) flakes on top. |
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| We were given small (half-size?) chopsticks to eat the takoyaki with. |
I was exhausted. Between jet lag, the overdose of information,
and the soreness of my legs, unaccustomed to heels, I was pooped.
