Why Japan? The long answer

Meet Kosuke Kojima (koze-key ko-jim-ah). He is a grad student here at Indiana University, also in the Kinesiology Department.

Kosuke is Japanese, and he has a sharpie mustache in this picture. He did that himself. Without any sort of provocation. Really. He's a big fan of Captain Morgan. Not necessarily the rum, just the captain himself.

Kosuke is from the city of Kurashiki (curr-otch-key). It can be found in the southern area of 'main' japan. south of osaka, and about midway between hiroshima and kobe. If necessary, refer back to the japanese map linked in the 'japanese geography lesson' posting.

Kosuke invited pretty much all of the grad students to visit Japan with him. See the sights, hang out with japanese, eat raw or undercooked seafood, and just whatever the japanese do. everyone thought this sounded like a great idea. several wanted to go. when it came down to it, only Chris Brammer and I actually threw down for a ticket.

This is Chris. his mustache is real. and quite a bit more impressive now. Colleen is in the picture with him (she's the one without a mustache). she does not come into the story. at least for now.

so there it is. we're going to japan, riding high-speed trains (hopefully - we will at least ride moderately high-speed trains), and camping out with Kosuke's friends and family in various places throughout japan.

i expect it to be some combination of Mr. Baseball and Lost in Translation. If i get to meet tom selleck, bill murray, or scarlett johansson (or any combination thereof), i'll call the trip a success. I'm hoping to limit the similarities to Tora! Tora! Tora! Here's to hoping!

in case anyone is wondering, yes, i am pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to add pictures, and get them were i wanted them in olnly my fourth blog posting. the benefits of a graduate education!