Yesterday I flew from Tokyo to Houston – a very long Wednesday, 39 hours long. As I traveled East across the International Date Line, I “gained” a full day.
My time in Japan has been just lovely. Yes, ISS training is very standardized and in the end there is no big difference in learning about cooling loops of the JEM in Japan, of Columbus in Europe or of the US modules in Houston. But a training trip to Japan is also an almost overwhelming cultural experience. Unfortunately I don’t speak any Japanese, so I can not even begin to scratch the surface of this rich culture. But even without understanding much, it’s fascinating : it’s impossible not to be touched by Japan’s hospitality or enthralled by its sophisticated cuisine, with the variety of its ingredients and dishes and the elegance of service and presentation. You are bound to admire the strive to perfection, the attention to every minute detail in all things. And the kindness, politeness, readiness to help, which people meet you with are hard to match. A big thank you to our JAXA colleagues for making us feel so welcome. In the pictures you can see some of them during our visit at the JEM mission control room SSIPC (Space Station Integration and Promotion Center).
Now it’s time to resume training here in Houston! After a free morning to rest from the flight, I’ll have a training tagup and a photo/TV ops this afternoon.
[Picture: ESA/Corvaja]
(Trad IT) Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui:
https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/
(Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí:
https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/
(Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici:
https://spacetux.org/cpamoa/category/traductions/logbook-samantha/
06/03/2014