So a while back Mr. Hayashi was trying to talk me into joining him for a conference in Kyoto. It is sponsored by Casio, and it is promoting their electronic Japanese/English dictionaries. My predecessor Andy had one, and he highly recommended them. All of the English teachers at school have them, and they are really quite useful. I’ve been getting by with my paper dictionary, which is very inexpensive, but very slow. The electronic dictionaries are very complex and expensive – the top model goes for about 44,000 yen (around $400).
Mr. Hayashi seemed to think that if we attended the conference, they would give us each one of these dictionaries outright. For free.
I’ve become used to taking what Mr. Hayashi says with a grain of salt. I’ve sat through long conferences entirely in Japanese about the benefits of algae soap, blueberries and bee pollen, and patiently listened to his theories on the benefits of the alpha waves coming from his tape deck in his car.
In the end, I decided to go with him to Kyoto. At the very least it would be a nice day trip and we were sure to have a good dinner somewhere along the way. Mr. Hayashi asked Miss Kageyama to come along and keep us company, and so off we were to the streets of Kyoto. Mr. Hayashi had already hatched a plan to sell his new dictionary on an internet auction – his daughter was going to charge him a 10% “handling fee” and sell it for him on the open market. He offered the same deal to me, but I was still in denial – they wouldn’t just give them away.
We had a big lunch in an underground shopping center under Kyoto station. Soba noodles and katsudon… The noodles were made right in the shop, and you could watch the guy making them through a tiny window in the wall. It was delicious. Afterwards, we headed over to the hotel where the conference was being held.
Well, Mr. Hayashi was dead-on. We walked in to the conference and they handed us each a bag containing a brand new dictionary still in the box. Miss Kageyama was along for the ride – she didn’t register for the conference or anything, and they gave one to her, too. She’s been saving up her money to buy the new model, and they just gave her one. I was astonished.
Miss Kageyama sat next to me during the conference, and was giddy. It was like someone just gave her $400. I was in shock. I was a little worried about the conference. I was one of only two foreigners in the crowd of 100 or so people. The conference was going to be all in Japanese, and the instructions and controls of the dictionary are all in Japanese. I was hoping I could figure things out.
Five minutes after the conference I looked across the aisle at Mr. Hayashi and he was asleep. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged messages on each other’s dictionaries – suddenly we could communicate much better. I would just punch in the word in English, and a big long explanation in Japanese would come out on the screen for her. It worked both ways, too. I was very impressed.
During the opening speech they led us through some exercises, and I tried to follow along with my limited Japanese and by observing people around me. They had Casio employees around to help people that weren’t “getting it”, and I guess I definitely fit that description. A helpful guy kept coming over and pushing the right button – even though Miss Kageyama was right there to help me. He would smile and say something fast and furious in Japanese, and I would nod wisely, and say “wakarimashita” which means “I understand”.
I was nervous being in there – what if they found out I couldn’t understand what they were saying? What had Mr. Hayashi said to get me in here? It felt like everyone was watching me to see what I did, and my helpful employee kept coming over to push buttons. Mr. Hayashi was still fast asleep and no help at all.
Finally they moved away from demonstrations, and then it was a matter of sitting through two hours of lectures. Considering they had just given me an expensive piece of electronics, I was willing to sit there.
Mr. Hayashi woke up from time to time, but promptly slipped back into his coma. Once we finished up, he sprang to his feet, and we were finally ready to go. We walked back to the station, and then stopped in at an Indian food place in Sannomiya on the way home.
My theory on the free dictionary is that they are hoping that we will recommend them to our students, and that if our recommendations result in only a couple of sales, they will still come out ahead. It seemed crazy, but it must make sense. This time Mr. Hayashi’s hare-brained scheme worked out just fine, and I’ll have to pay more attention to the alpha waves in his car next time.
