Where have you gone outside the U.S.?
Well, lots of places; Canada, UK, Switzerland, Italy, Japan.
Let's talk about just one to start with. I've already heard a bit about your trip to Japan, how about we talk about that one?
OK.
What was it like there? Like, did they have customs you found strange?
I lived in Japan for about a year, from 1970-'71, and I was a college jounior. I was living and studying in Toyko, a city of 10 million people, and that was very different than where I grew up, North Dakota, where we lived in a city of about 10 thousand people. There were also many different things, like: the language, the food, and the beds. One of the things I most felt was that I didn't look like everybody else. The thing that I think I learned most there was what it felt to be in a racial minority.
Was the landscape different than what you were used to?
Yes and no. The city was the biggest change, because it was the biggest I'd seen. I hadn't been in a city even 1/10 the size of Toyko. It was a little more familiar outside the city, even though it was tropical and humid. The plants were different too, with bamboo and rice paddies. The mountains of Japan reminded me of the ones in Montana. I was most at home in Hokkaido, the north part of Japan, that had wide open spaces and mountains, and the people were farmers/pioneer types.
Now I remember a time you were talking with a farmer an he kept saying, "I do not speak English." (Now I should point out she was speaking in Japanese) What did you think of that?
That has probably changed now, but then people didn't expect me to speak in their language because I didn't look Japanese, or they had a pre-thought idea of what was coming from me, and what I would do. There is another possibility, and that is that I might have been bad at speaking Japanese.
What was the environment like there? How did people treat nature?
At the time I was in Japan it was polluted, but now it's much better. The problem was that Japan was in the middle of a big economic boom, and they weren't paying attention to environment. On the other hand, I learned a lot about reuse and recycling. Because they have to import most things, they were among the first to make a fuel-efficient engine. The family I lived with had only a half size refrigerator to save space and energy. They were able to do this because fruit grows all year round.
How did you get around there?
Mostly public transportation. I took a subway to school, and that took 1 hour and 15 minutes each way, for long range trips I took the train. To get to Japan I flew from San Francisco to Alaska to Japan.
Who did the country trade with? You said they had to import many things.
Well, anything that had a made in Japan label used to be bad. Now it had a lot of brand names like Sony, Nintendo, and Nesan, Toyota. They are now experts with electronic things, and they basically invented both the Walkman and the CD player. Its main trader is the US, but it wasn't always like that. At one point the only US brand names were KFC, Pepsi and Coke.
Nancy went to Toyohashi City to see her Japanese family's family, and below is a picture of her with her Japanese grandmother.
These dolls, above, are daruma. They are an interesting part of Japanese culture. As you may be able to see, the dolls' eyes are not filled in. This is because these dolls are wishing dolls. When you make your wish, you fill in one of the eyes, and then when your wish comes true, you fill in the other. Actually, these are more like "goal" dolls. People set goals for themselves, and then try to reach their goals.
All of the dolls are red, and have the same basic design, but they come in different sizes. You can get the smallest ones, that are about baseball sized, attached to arrows, and the biggest ones, about two feet tall, you buy and get a net to strap them to your back with. This is just one of many interesting parts of Japanese culture.