Sitting near the front of Tokyo's famous Kabuki-za, I was fascinated by famous director Yukio Ninagawa's adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night for the Japanese traditional kabuki theater. Next to me sat my Tokyo host-mother Yumiko Sugiyama. I could watch her reaction to the play and hear her impressions on certain Japanese elements infused into the play. Sitting there next to my host-mother, I realized what a unique opportunity the Kawamura Fellowship had given me―I was able to easily juxtapose my perspective of the play with my host-mother's perspective by simply turning my shoulder. I could compare the times that she would laugh with the times that I would laugh and she could see which elements I was particularly liked and compare them to her favorite elements. That unique position is what truly fosters mutual underst anding.

This unique position allowed me to take away some observations based on the Japanese people I encountered this summer. When I visited the Shinkansen station, rode the subway, or just showed up punctually to a meeting, I had a firsthand opportunity to observe just how clean, efficient, and pragmatic the country was. Japanese subway systems are timely and extremely clean, with intuitive labels for even the specific exits from a specific station. In these stations along with elsewhere, I rarely saw trash on the ground and never encountered a train that was late. Visiting the Shinkansen management company, I learned that the Japanese Shinkansen runs every 4 minutes and has zero derailing/collision based accidents in its history. I also was impressed by how clean the toilets were. Public toilets were extremely clean and one is offered a sanitizer to wipe the toilet down before using it. When arriving for meetings, I learned that punctuality is key and it is usually appropriate to show up 5 minutes before meeting time, as opposed to 7 minutes after as is the custom at Harvard. To me, these were all pleasant surprises in a foreign country. To Sumio and the many Japanese people I encountered, these were all staples of a culture dedicated to a way of life that is clean, efficient, and pragmatic. Picking up trash or not littering were habits and showing up on time was as important as showing up.