the british embassy in tokyo

A reception at the british embassy. Another mindless neccesity of the program I thought. 'Mingling' for 'minglings' sake - and because it's probably all linked up to some kind of show of gratitude, appreciation and respect it most probably will involve speeches. Oh and no doubt large amounts of 'personal introductions'

Here I have to pause for one moment for a quick rant about personal introductions.
.... the term, 'personal introduction' never used to fill me with dread. It always seemed to make a lot of sense, I have even advocated personal intorductions during meetings and committees at various points in my life. I certainly won't be doing that again in the near future.Sometime over the last month or two however the 'personal introduction' became a code word for useless, vague, mindless run downs of facts. Waiting in an embaressed line each of us explains when we graduated, who we are, what we study, where we're going, what our dress size is, if we snore in bed etc etc.. -- no one will really be listening and we are so accostumed the procedure that I think I know the other scholar's biographies as well as I know my own. Most infuriating for me is the realisation that no one will remember the biographies five minutes later, and so their sole purpose appears to be to show off some of the prestigious universities some of the scholars have attended. It's like some really annoying parent who forces their child to stand up and tell their grades to the guests at a party so they can feel proud and the child can squirm in their shoes - they know, just like everyone else in the room, that it doesn't really matter what grade one gets in a spelling bee - but the parent still insists - and everyone congratulates themselves and pats each other on the back.

I think I can remember the day my hatred for the 'personal introduction' tipped over the edge into full scale passion. It was the day we were forced to introduce ourselves, through a microphone speaker system to a room of 6 people. We outnumbered them by almost two to one and yet our voices boomed across the room. 'I am Becky. I am a graduate from blah blah ...". For us, this particular days introductions were extra exciting as we also got to tell the group 'our favourite japanese word' and why (at the time I think I knew about 20 words, which made the whole thing quite problematic -- even the most diplomatic of people, with a degree in international relations finds it difficult to explain that her favourite japanese word is 'yubinkyoku (post office) because it reminds her of the british TV show 'you've-been-framed' without sounding like a complete retard.). In an added humiliating slant we also had to introduce ourselves in alphabetical order - just in case those six people got confused as to weather my name starts with a B or a P.

Rant Over.

Grumbling and slightly annoyed that I had to spend a whole day in formal wear (biking for 30 minutes in a suit and heals is never fun..) I arrived at the embassy for seven o'clock. Firstly, there were no public personal introductions. The place earned itself one point on the scale of a good time already. Secondly, people didn't seem to mind having me monopolise them in questions over politics and gender in Japan. Hurray hurray. And to top it off the ambassador kept his speech short and snappy and didn't seem to mind when I started grumbling to him about my calligraphy class (we spend 3 hours on a singular line each week...), in fact he really seemed to relate.\

Maybe I should go into the foreign office.