It has been a productive week. First, I finished my directory project for the Ombudsman's office. Honestly, it was not a difficult project. It was only a directory. All that was required of me was to assemble all the information and make it pretty. They would have been satisfied with legible but I opted for attractiveness.

I have also become involved with the ship's welfare team again. Providing I am not forced to witness the same as last time, it should be a fulfilling activity. Visiting the families of the ship is important to me. Their morale suffers as much, if not more, when their spouse is under way. It is important to keep it up so those on ship can function with little worry of their families.

It also seems there are crew who have not changed since we were stationed here last and remember. I have been asked if I will return to baking for the crew, especially for the single sailors to help keep their spirits up. I have agreed. These single sailors are like my own and I care very much that someone remembers them. I am happy when I am greeted by them around the base and see their smiles.

My lesson planning is going well also. I am to have 2 morning classes. I will teach "Introduction to Probability for Computer Scientists" and "Programming Abstractions." These are first and second year courses so are not overly complicated to teach.

A very important difference has greeted us to Japan this time. The year in Japan is now “1” with the crowning of Emperor Naruhito.

The former Emperor of Japan, Akihito, is now the “Emperor emeritus” of Japan. He was coronated  in 1989. The years since are referred to as the Heisei era. The number of the year of his reign was on all of my power bills. So, if it was 9/13/2008 (Written as in the USA) the Japanese would be 20/9/13. “20” being how many years the emperor had been ruling. This can be confusing when trying to determine when the power bill is due. I will adapt.
There is some to adapt to, much to readapt to and much exploring to be done before school begins. It seems we will leave Jared alone now and then since I will be teaching school and Chao lei will be attending school.