Spring Around the Globe
Introduction
The sun is out after a few days of misty rain (Seattle or London type
weather).
Today I will be beginning to learn to use my brand new digital camera,
reading many messages about traveling "safely" in Moscow and
St. Petersburg so I lose my concerns about it.
Many wonderful things are happening thanks to contacts that
many of you have made for me.
I will be meeting many professionals in creativity in Osaka, Kyoto,
Tokyo and Toyama, Japan, then in Seoul, Korea, Taipei, Taiwan;
Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, China and Bangkok, Thailand.
Thanks to Marc Tassoul my weekly Alan's Creativity Challenges
will continue to be sent out fresh each week from various cities
and countries to the creativity internet list CREA-CPS and
CREATIVITY in addition to you as well.
I will write one more time before I begin my trip in Philadelphia
on March 11.
Still two more concerns.....my passport returning from Washington, D.C.
with my Chinese, Russian and Ukraine visas in it on time and all my airplane tickets arriving before I leave for Philadelphia.
Due to some challenges with letters and such in Russia and
the Ukraine we lost a couple weeks concerning both of these.
See you in cyberspace
Wandering Alan
tickets are being purchased and will be shipped to me at my
hotel in Philadelphia. Warning in the future always plan
way ahead and don't
make changes. Ha!!! Like that is possible.
It is gray, overcast and looks like rain again today here
in Athens, Georgia.
Went to visit Paul Torrance yesterday. He was very tired
from physical therapy. I will stop by to see him again
today. Please send notes to him. They help him smile more and show him how many people are caring, thinking and praying for him now.
Chapter 1
I am typing away ansering messages today in my first
internet cafe with American rap music
booming away all around me.
I spent 5 days in Philadelphia. The
first morning was begun with a beautiful fog to
look through from my 11th floor corner room in the
Marriott Courtyard next to the famous classical
architectural monument, the Philly city hall.
Going to the American Creativity Association
Conference was a warm up for my trip. Some of my
international friends were there from Taiwan,
Singapore, Denmark, Italy, Canada.
Now I am beginning my first day in Osaka.
It is 11 pm here.
I have had my first full day in Osaka.
After about 5 hours sleep I woke up about 3 am and
reviewed my piles of emails from my various contacts
to plan who to contact next to make final plans.
Then it was off to explore the area around my hotel
and the train station a few blocks away. The usual
details: where to buy tickets, can I buy a Japan Rail
Pass, where to exchange money or an ATM machine, where
the limo/van service is for when I leave on the 30th
from the Kansai International Airport.
Imagine a packed football or soccer stadium letting
out all at once and you have a sense of what the
typical scene is like here in Osaka at the main train
station when the morning arrival trains show up. A
sea of human beings, all rushing to work. Stop and you
become another layer of asphalt or a new finish on the
terrazzo floor below you.
I wandered around the 200 or so stall shopping mall
that seems to go off in all directions seeking answers
and leads to other answers. Found an internet cafe.
Now I know where there are 4, ranging in price from
the rediculously high at Kinko`s to rediculously low
or free at a Yahoo Broad Band store. Tonight I asked
at the reception desk of my hotel and now am sitting
at another very reasonably priced cafe.
This has been a day of variety: sights, sounds,
tastes, experiences.
I found a noodle shop in the train station mall that
was great and had a Japanes breakfast, chosen by
taking the waiter outside the restaurant to their
display of plastic models of their food. After awhile
eating my breakfast, ala Japanese style, the fellow
next to me asked me a couple questions. We spent
about 20 minutes talking back and forth between his
English and my "count them on one hand" numnber of
Japanese words so far vocabulary. He turned out to be
a club owner, guitarists-western electric and a music
teacher. The breakfast consisted on a mixture of
mixed rice rolls with or without seaweed, a large
noodle dish soup, sliced highly ginger spiced
whatever, a dumpling like thing filled with rice that
was very sweet, green tea and a glass of water.
Shortly after returning to my hotel before 10 my host
arrived. Then he and I waited for my other host who
was going to drive. We drove through the downtown
area of Osaka, 5 million or so, across two rivers and
through a tunnel several miles/kilometers long
underneath a mountain until we arrived at Nara the
capital of Japan in 752, 1250 years plus ago.
We toured the worlds largest wooden structure built in
8th and 9th century with a Buddha of bronze that was
several stories tall and the surrounding grounds.
Then it was off to a few different temples and a
beautiful huge park filled with semi-wild deer that
were mooching food and biting those who did not give
them food.
Along the way my hosts cheerfully shared information
about the historic buildings we were touring and
taking pictures of me with one of the them at every
turn.
Along the way we found the equivalent to a Japanese
Coffee House where we had some green tea and sweet
rice balls with red bean sauce.
Not long after that we stopped for a traditional
Japanese lunch in a 7 seat restaurant. Mine was a mix
of duck and rice along with a soup course, saki soaked
plum, salad, regular Japanese tea and more green tea.
After strolling the beautiful grounds some more
visiting several other temples and walking by hundreds
of concrete lanterns that are used in various holiday
festivals we drove back over the mountain instead of
through or under it.
The view from the top was very hazy. You certainly
can get a perspective of how large Osaka and the other
cities are plus where we were located related to the
sea.
After touring all day in touring clothes we arrived at
the conference center where we had a drink and I
proceeded to make my two hour presentation to a group
of very eager business people through an interpretor.
Falling the session, filled with laughs we all joined
together for dinner, drinks and many more laughs along
with several questions that had not been asked during
the session.
Now I am starting to fade and need to get some much
needed sleep.
Sayronara from
Wandering Alan