Traditional purpose of going to a foreign country is sight seeing. I am personally not too interested in sight seeing. Once you have seen a tall building, you have seen all tall buildings. On the other hand, I feel the most rewarding part of touring a foreign country is observing and understanding the culture, how people interact.
I visted Japan on business many years ago. Let me present some experiences.
I wanted to suggest what type of experiences a US visitor should plan to acquire. My brother's family will visit us in West Windsor, NJ some time in the future. So I started making my list below what experiences I would arrange for them. This list is not in any particular order. I will continue to update this list.
I visted Japan on business many years ago. Let me present some experiences.
- I stayed in a Buddhist temple during the time. My host Muso Tanizaki was the priest there. I had to leave my shoes at the door and place them neatly and facing the outside.
- Muso took me to a restaurant that served priests. This was purely vegetarian. We sat in a little room just for two of us and were served for more than an hour by a Japanese lady continuously.
- I visited Tokyo one day, got of the bus and asked a man the directions to go to Akihabara known as Electric Town. The man couldn't speak English and I couldn't quite follow his directions that he was attempting to convey with his hand gestures. He decided to just take me there. I followed him. He walked and walked and after about 2 miles of walking, he left me there and started going back. I could never forget this. How many strange people just give up their current activity and spend an hour to help you?
- To go to my conference from my hotel I had to take a train. I started one day, it was cloudy. When I went to the train station, I saw everyone, I mean every single individual including a lot of school children was holding an umbrella. In the crowded train, people bent their heads, never looked at another person, never exchanged a word with another, and just kept reading their newspaper or a book.
I wanted to suggest what type of experiences a US visitor should plan to acquire. My brother's family will visit us in West Windsor, NJ some time in the future. So I started making my list below what experiences I would arrange for them. This list is not in any particular order. I will continue to update this list.
- Take them to a Trenton court and see how a trial is conducted. We all see court trials on TV and movies, but that does not reflect reality. Depending on time availability see both a civil trial and a criminal trial at least one full day each.
- Take them to Mercer County community college and let them sit through an entire class period (either my class class or another professor's class). This will give them an experience of how students interact with each other and with the professor. My feeling is they will see this interaction is quite different from what they have experienced in India.
- Take them to Princeton University and sit through a public talk, a classroom lecture. I am sure, it will be quite a bit different from MCCC class.
- Take them to a play at MCCC Kelly theater.
- Take them to a Broadway show in New York city.
- Take them to my work place.
- Take them to Pari's college.
- Take them to West Windsor police station, court, senior center, post office and meet our mayer and municipal office staff and get a tour of the municipal office.
- Take them and introduce to my doctor Dr. Iturbides.
- Take them on Amtrak.
- Take them on NJ transit train to NYC.
- Take them Raghu's friend Syl's parents house in Bronx.
- If possible, take them to meet Dr. Rush Holt, our congressman.
- If possible, take them to meet our governor Christie (seeing him will be quite an unfogettable experience).
- Walk over and meet a neighbor; interrupt him (Paul) when I see him mowing his lawn.
- Take them to Neera's work and college.
- Take them to Trenton farmers Market
- Take them through inner city of Trenton and Newark.
A few sight seeing places in and around:
- Atlantic City
- Hamilton, NJ "Ground for Sculpture."
- Great Adventure
- Edison Labs in West Orange
- Liberty Science Center
- Camden Aquarium
- Cape May
- Princeton Art Museum
- Princeton walking tour
- A Dairy farm (may be BoBolink)
- Sayen Park Botanical garden in Hamilton
- Old Barracks museum
Other sight seeing close to NJ:
Washington DC
Nayagara Falls
Boston
Philadelphia
Comments