ICV 23 - Day 0

While the attendees of ICV 23 were asked to gather at the Navios Yokohama shortly before the 5 PM registration began; me and the other members of JAVA gathered at a small diner inside the hotel and began to prepare. It was about 4ish when we got tossed out by the staff, who wanted to clean the place up before the dinner rush comes in. Running to get boxes of name cards, sorting said name cards and figuring out if we have enough change for the folks that need to pay for this event still. We also had to deal with last minute cancellations and it felt almost like a 2 minute drill in American Football. At 5, the folks were ready but we needed a few minutes to put final touches. We ran out of some paperwork, especially dealing with Yasukuni Shrine that we will see on Wednesday. After a few minutes, we decided to just save the packages with the Yasukuni stuff for the “gaijin” and the JAVA members (myself included) won't get the full welcome packages. But, we got the main things, such as the patches, lapel pins and also special Japanese souvenirs. 5:25-5:30 rolls around, we sent JAVA member Tetsuo Kato down to ask folks to start coming for registration and me and the rest of the JAVA members just waited for the rush. It was a bit confusing first; I had little sleep the night before and just did the whole Yokohama – Narita -Yokohama – trip and I just felt drained. It felt like a few minutes before I was able to get into motion, while the Japanese beside me worked as hard as they could with the limited English that they know. I also had to handle the money, so I had to hassle people I don't even know asking for some amount. By the time 5:45-5:50 rolled around, it was all over for the registration table. Everyone but three folks picked up their badges and everyone pretty much came on time. The drinks ranged from the tame (water and orange juice, which I sought after; had some beers while watching a baseball ceremony at Yokohama Stadium) to the hard stuff with little room in between. It felt like a reunion for everyone except for myself, since most of the people I am seeing in this reception room I am just meeting in the flesh for the first time. We had drinks, laughs, chats and introductions. To me, it felt like the Aussies and the Nordic folks has the biggest delegations (behind the Japanese). We knew when the Aussies showed up, because every single one of them had this giant stick flag (I got one, thanks Ralph K.!). The Nordic folks had on lapel pins, so we know where they were from. The most interesting thing I saw is a Aussie guy and one of the Japanese trade suit ties; not sure what lead up to the trade, but it was quite fun watching it happen. Around 7 PM, JAVA President Nozomi Kariyasu grabbed the mic and told everyone that the reception was over. But, as always, we take the slow exit, yet the staff at Navios Yokohama didn't mind it too much. Everyone else went their own ways except for myself, all of JAVA and a few attendees stayed in the lobby either to do business, trade or just chat. From just the few minutes I spent with Peter O., I managed to leave with several flag pins that I will put on my jacket (if the weather cooperates). After all of the non-JAVA left, we had a general business meeting for JAVA to go over the events of the day and also plan for the opening ceremony at the Navios Yokohama. Going to have to be at that hotel by 8 AM along with the JAVA members, but folks don't have to start showing up until later. It wasn't until around 9 PM that Nozomi called it a night, so I left for a konbini (24-7 convenience store) then back to my Internet-less youth hostel.

Considering this is my first ICV, I was a little overwhelmed by the sheer friendships that I was able to solidify in the flesh, but also seeing how far back many of the people go. No one gave a care about the language barrier; I was personally flipping from Japanese to English and vice versa; Peter O. and Victor L. were trading words in Russian and I am also hearing a lot of German, Dutch and Nordic languages. I had a lot running in my head, so I wasn't able to just sit there and relax until Zeljko H. asked me to sit down and just chat about Japanese and Croatian matters. The longest chats I had at the meeting was with Ralph K. from Australia; we talked about just normal stuff and also discussed about what the Aussies did to help make this ICV better. They discussed about the technology we used and also gave comments about information about this ICV and just Yokohama in general that I passed around. I also received good feedback about the website that I helped set up with the Japanese. (It was also at this reception that I was asked to report everything that happened during this meeting, which I agreed to without even skipping a beat.) I am honestly glad that I am here and able to meet a lot of people that I have emailed over the years. I cannot wait for the opening ceremony tomorrow, since I not only will have a short speaking part but I am also being used in a tribute to our dear colleague Harry Oswald. The phone is telling me it is almost 10:30 pm, I am going to sleep early.