This past week I spent at work was focused on sewing. I was a bit nervous to do it because the process was so alien to me. I started on a sewing machine using scrap cloth just to get some practice. They told me to sew in straight lines and it was a lot harder than I expected. There was cloth going in all directions. After a bit of practice I became not as terrible, but still pretty bad, and a worker brought out 4 pieces of cloth: the front and back side of a shirt and two sleeves. The next few days were spent sewing the pieces together. I was delightfully surprised that the way you sew shirts leaves a lot of room for error. So although I was not great at sewing, I still made good-looking shirts. There were many processes involved and lots of different sewing techniques/machines. At the end of the day I had 9 completed shirts to my name. The next step is to take my shirts to the printing factory and print images onto them. Working in the factories made me realize the amount of human work involved in garment production. I always imagined that clothes were made in mass by advanced machines, but now I see that people are extremely involved in all parts of production.

This last week my Uncle Joe, one of the big bosses, came in from Japan for some business meetings in the company. I know he's going to read this so I'll only say good things. The only other time I've seen him was when I was 7 so I didn't remember him. At first glance he looked young, and I wondered at how somebody so young was running the company. Later I learned he just looked younger, but is actually old like my parents. Joe was busy most of the trip but before he left we had dinner together. His English was good and he was very nice and easy to talk to. He spent a few years in high school in Virginia with my mom and her family, but unfortunately I forgot to ask if he had any good stories about them. I was glad to see Uncle Joe on this trip and hope that I might be able to see the rest of my family in Japan some day.