Today combined work and a certain measure of pleasure as we took our microscopes to Nippon Steel Corporation where I used to work.  Again, I had another partner, and another long drive, so I found out that this man had studied marketing and accounting, but had worked at a supermarket cutting and packing meat before joining our distributor.  I’m going to have to make this my standard question with all the cool answers I’m getting. 

We took the Tokyo Bay Aqualine to Kisarazu, cutting off about one hour of driving time, and stopping at the Umihotaru parking area.  (Only by reading the Wikipedia article did I just now figure out that this is the longest tunnel for cars in the world.  I took it for just another Japanese tunnel.  The German Wikipedia article adds a comment on how the Tokyo Bay Aqualine is symptomatic of the Japanese policy of economic stimulation via huge government projects and old-boy cartels cashing in.)  The satellite view is pretty weird, but the view from the Umihotaru restaurants such as the food court commands most of the bay on clear days and even on a dreary, overcast one as today provides plenty of distraction with all the ships passing by.  I didn’t so much watch them as watch my overstuffed Sasebo Burger, named after the Kyushu town of Sasebo and a descendant of US marines stationed there. 

We arrived a bit ahead of time, which gave me a few minutes to surprise Ms Tsuri and Ms Sato, whom I hadn’t told about my visit.  I hadn’t told anyone but Suzuki-san, because I didn’t know how much time I was to have to visit friends.  At two o’clock we set up the microscope in a meeting room on a wobbly table and hooked the laptop to a projector.  I’ll spare you a blow-by-blow description of the demonstration, but it went better than I expected (I was working with a prototype today) and it measured all the samples we threw at it as easily and quickly as hoped for.  It was well past five when we finished; six o’clock when we got all our gear in the car and were ready for departure.  Toward the end, when we’d already packed up most of the gear, a few other guys from the electron microscope group I used to work with stopped by to say hello.  These are the guys (and Suzuki-san belongs to them) who tease me because of my bald spot and because my Japanese has deteriorated, but they’re also the guys who insist I stop by on pleasure instead of work sometime and that I make sure it’s a Wednesday, when their section leader has everyone over to his flat for drinks.  When Suzuki-san told them I was engaged they suggested Japan as a honeymoon destination and wanted to see a picture.  I obliged, and had the picture up on the canvas before they dimmed the lights again.  “It’s the Mona Lisa!” said Sasaki-san.  Judge for yourself…

Back home I had some excellent sushi in the restaurant in the ground floor of my hotel.  Not to make anyone envious, but it was eel and scallop and several tuna varieties and salmon roe and other tender bits, along with tamagoyaki and miso soup.  Aah…