Spring Around the Globe

 

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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.

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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

 

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