Japan and Korea

Here was my email to Larisa from Japan:

This is great. I didn't know how much fun it was going to be, but as soon as I got here and saw the bamboo and the Japanese style houses and felt the humidity, it instantly brought me back 10 years. What a flood of memories. I could have believed I was a missionary again. It's so amazing that just the subtle smells and sights can remind you of a place so much. I wish you guys were here.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the temple yesterday. I was pretty bummed. Maybe I was trying to pack too many things in. I met with Momomi and Tomoko last night for dinner. That was a lot of fun. Then we walked around Tokyo a little bit.

I went to church in the Urawa Ward on Sunday and ran into so many people I recognized. Many of them were kind enough to remember me as well. In fact, the first person I saw remembered my name and that I used to wear glasses. He even remembered the new members I worked with.

I also surprised myself by speaking Japanese much better than I expected. Once I got going it just all came back. Many of them asked how I kept it up, which I haven't. I could just speak like normal though, for the most part. Very exciting.





I've now been in Korea for several days. I gave my talk at ISIT yesterday, and I've gotten a lot of possitive feedback. I did something silly though. I stayed in the apartment to prepare my talk and missed the awards luncheon where they called my name and waited for me to come up and receive my best student paper award from last year. Whoops!

The Korean language sounds a lot like Japanese. To me, it sounds like Japanese that I'm not understanding. And now I'm learning that they actually share a lot of words. Their food is half similar and half different. They have a lot more spicy and pickled foods.

Today I made my way to the temple by bus. I spent some time there. It's a beautiful plot on a hill in a not-so-beautiful part of the city.