I am excited because I learned that my friend Mari Aoki (who lives outside of Tokyo) is going to try to meet up with me when the ship gets to Kobe, Japan (Kobe is several hours away from Tokyo so hopefully she will be able to make it!). Now, in addition to Gudrun Mueller-Ewertz and Inga Schmitz in Germany and Richard Sappe in Switzerland, I can count Mari as one of the friends I've been able to visit in their home countries. However, unlike the trips to visit Gudrun, Inga and Richard where I could communicate pretty fluently in German without constant translation assistance, this will be a different experience visiting Mari because I don't speak Japanese. Since Mari hasn't been immersed in speaking English for a while either, I'm sure we will have to use charades a lot to figure some things out. Now my task at hand is to learn enough Japanese to communicate basic ideas...it will be great though to see Mari again because it has been nearly 10 years since we last saw each other. To have a native Japanese-speaking friend as my own personal guide is also wonderful and will surely help a lot in teaching me the ins-and-outs of Japanese culture.
Some photos of Mari and me from back in 1997...
me and Mari - March 1997
Gudrun, Mari and me at a formal party for the international dorm we lived in - May 1997
Mari, me and Gudrun - May 1997
