Sunday's trip to Nagoya
...written on 09.09.02, @ 9:56 a.m.
Mon September 9, 2002
#2 of 2
Sunday was my day off and I arose early to go to Nagoya for a workshop on teaching English. There are few things that come naturally to me, frankly I'm hard pressed to think of even one right now, but teaching, and as one community theatre director told me, acting, aren't on the list. I am always on net or in bookstores or at workshops, trying to get new ideas for teaching or training.
The workshop venue had been changed from the normal 5 min walk from the station place, to way out in the boondocks (as far as I was concerned). I had gotten directions emailed to me the night before, so I wasn't too worried.
I came across my first problem as I came out of exit #2. If I turned right, as the directions indicated, I would be in a 5 car parking lot. Oh Great. I had half an hour before the meeting started and things weren't looking good.
I spied another foreigner with a paper in her hand and asked her if she was going to the workshop. She said yes, so we went off together, both perplexed by the directions. We stopped many times along the way to ask for help, but were forced more and more off course (as we were to learn later).
Finally I saw a group of men in uniforms. Their arm bands stated that they were water employees and when we approached one of them, the entire group swarmed around to assist. We were almost two miles away from our destination and it was 10:00, the starting time, as it was. The helpful water employees brandished a city map and indicated where we should go, until the leader made a motion to one of the men for him to drive us there. We climbed aboard the big white truck and waved grateful goodbyes to the 15-man crew.
After the workshop, where I learned how to liven up "Bingo" and buy or make materials for class on the cheap, I took the subway back to Sakae, the big shopping district in Nagoya and went to Maruzen bookstore. I hadn't planned on it, but I bought a lot of books. I also bought a calendar for 2003. It features the work of artist Paul Klee, a major influence on Maurizio Olivotto, the Italian artist I encountered in the wind swept hills of Arezzo in 1994 (see An Italian Adventure )
After that strenuous shopping, I stopped at a bakery and had a fruit smoothie while I started reading one of my new books, "Dogs and Demons: the Fall of Modern Japan by Alex Kerr. Whoo, what a butt kicker! It's sad, but very true. Japan is strangling itself financially and environmentally with its dependence on the construction industry. Over 60 percent of the coastline has been cemented in the name of erosion measures which have now been found to accelerate the erosion process. All but three rivers in Japan have had their banks and bottoms cemented or diverted or have been dammed. After summer, many trees in the cities have their branches lopped off because people complain about how messy the leaves are when they fall in autumn.
It is a very interesting read and I haven't even finished chapter one.