One Month

I'm so exhausted. Today was the first day I didn't do any work at all :-)
What I did instead was cycle to Ushiku a city south of Tsukuba. Of course I took some detours (originally I wanted to take the highway, but then I changed my mind and...).

Despite the detour it only took 35 minutes to get there... (but it's slightly downhill and I was cycling almost full speed). Lucien (an American working as an English teacher in Japan) was so kind to pick me up in Ushiku (which is a bit more than halfway) and give me a ride with this car to the capoeira training. We did 2 hours of free training and then 2 hours of regular training. Then Lucien brought me back to my bike... and it took me an hour to slowly get back home... did I mention that I'm exhausted?

So now you know what I do when I take a day off ;-)
Tomorrow I'll try taking the train. It should take about an hour to get there...

Anyway, the training was great :-)
And of course the capoeiristas are very nice people. The mestre speaks Portuguese, then one of the students translates it to Japanese and then Lucien was translating it for me to English. It might be a perfect chance for me to practice both Japanese and Portuguese :-)

So, that's what I do when I take a day off from work :-)

Looking back on what has happened since I've arrived... well I can read some Hiragana characters now! :-) work is great, I really enjoy it, especially the conversations with colleagues at lunch time. BTW, I think I figured out everyone's secret here: they love their jobs! at least that's the only explanation I could figure out for what I've been witnessing ;-)

another big achievement has been to learn where to find things I like to eat. I picked up my alien registration card, and I'm considering getting a cell phone... maybe also a car?? it would make it much easier to get to capoeira training... and it would also make it much easier for me to explore the neighborhood of Tsukuba.
Japanese classes have also been great, besides Hiragana we also learn about Japanese culture and history. and recently we also tried some origami :-)

oh, and earthquakes! there are so many of them. it's amazing... but you get used to them real quick. what I haven't gotten used to yet is enjoying so much green around me everywhere. there are fields, trees, parks, ... it's the greenest city I have ever lived in. Talking about Tsukuba... here is a map from Google. I guess the picture was taken in winter. Right now everything is green. I marked places I visit regularly. The green line marks the wonderful pedestrian path which goes through the whole city... and which I take to work (there is a picture of this path in my previous post).

Pictures

A random picture in Tsukuba:


My favorite supermarket:


Another cherry blossoms picture :-)
(I was told that it will probably end suddenly this weekend)


This path almost directly connects the place I live at with my office.


One of my favorite things in Tsukuba :-)
(Picture taken within the AIST complex.)

Ninomiya House

Ninomiya House is the place I live at. It's a home for foreign researchers visiting one of the many Tsukuba research institutes.

Here are some who recently arrived (updated automatically):

(For more information see this link.)

This is what an apartment for one person looks like (mine looks exactly like this except that it is mirrored):


(For more information see this link.)

Ninomiya House is located between the center of Tsukuba and the AIST. Here is a map:

Ninomiya house is in the center. Less than 2 kilometers in the south-east is the AIST (instute number 20 on the map). For more information see this link.

End of Week One

It seems like I just arrived in Tsukuba an hour ago... but it's been more than a week now. So far I can say that everything has been just perfect (except that I'm missing Gwen). Everyone is very friendly (especially my colleagues at work), the city is beautiful (great for bicycling!), I'm starting to know how to get around, the work environment couldn't be any better, and my accommodation is great. Goto is surely doing a great job making everything as easy as possible for me, and making me feel very welcome, and I'm learning a lot from our collaboration which I enjoy very much. Here is a picture of some of my colleagues. Taken after lunch break at the AIST.



Today I applied for my "alien registration" and opened a bank account. In both cases the friendly ladies spoke about as much English as I can speak Japanese. In addition they only had Japanese forms at the bank. At the end it was much easier than I ever would have expected. Here is a picture of the remaining pictures I had taken today for the alien registration.



To make life easier and more interesting I'm taking Japanese classes. The course I'm in is one level below the beginners class. It's held directly at the home for foreign researchers where I'm living at which makes it a nice opportunity to get to know my neighbors.

The teacher is very friendly and patient. The best way to make him laugh and clap his hands excitedly (but silently) is to use very polite Japanese phrases. He is also very optimistic: He is confident that we will be able to write and read Katakana (that is the easiest of the three ways of writing in Japanese) within a month. Most of the other students (including me) would consider that to be some kind of miracle. Anyway, I'm sure that will be lots of fun.

Oh, and very important: I finally found sufficient sources for food!! :-)

I gave up being vegetarian the moment I arrived. Actually, I'm not sure if there wasn't some meat in the soup they served in the plane (although I had registered for vegetarian food...). Anyway, now I know where to find tasty food for a reasonable price. And I've had some great meals since I've been here including lots of things I've never seen before :-)

And there was another small earth quake yesterday... I guess I'll get used to it very soon. Something else I'll need to get used to is that whatever I try I'll never be the first or the last in the office. Back at OFAI it was easy to be the last, or the first in the office. But here (only considering the cubicles in the room I'm in(actually they call them "booths", maybe that's the correct term for very big cubicles??)) there is always at least a handful of people around. Some spend all night here (I guess they take short naps in between?), some come while it is still dark outside, others leave when the sun in about to rise. my only chance to be the first or last might be on the weekend :-)

As you have probably guessed I'm spending most of my time at the office... that's mainly because of the ISMIR deadline (which will hopefully be extended by at least one week...). However, once that's done I can't want to check out Japanese capoeira :-)

Have a nice weekend!

Aussichten

Bei klarer Sicht (so wie zB jetzt grad) sieht man von meinem Balkon aus den Berg Fuji. Leider ist meine Kamera nicht in der Lage die Aussicht so einzufangen wie man sie sieht, aber es reicht vielleicht um einen Eindruck zu bekommen. Aber vielleicht schaff ich es irgendwann einmal den Berg huebscher zu fotographieren. Ich nehm an, dass ich es noch oefters probieren werde :-)



Und hier noch ein Bild das ich heute Frueh gemacht habe (ca. 05:30). Die Aussicht ist direkt vor meiner Wohnungstuer. (Genau in die andere Richtung wie der Blick von meinem Balkon.) Dauert wohl noch ein paar Stunden bis die gleiche Sonne euch in Wien aufweckt :-)



Heut (Montag, 3.4.) ist mein erster offizieller Arbeitstag, bin schon etwas aufgeregt. :-)
Wenn’s Wetter so schoen bleibt macht meine Arbeitsgruppe heute ein kleines Kirschblüten Picknick. Und vielleicht find ich heut heraus wo es einen Supermarkt gibt bei dem ich auch Obst kaufen kann...

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VIEWS

On a clear sky (like just now) one can see Mount Fuji from my balcony. Unfortunately, my camera cannot capture the astonishing view appropriately but the picture gives you an idea. Maybe next time I'll manage to take some better pictures. I'm sure I'll give it many more tries :-)

[picture]

And here is another picture I took this morning (around 5:30 AM). The view is from in front of the door to my apartment. (Exactly opposite to the view of Mount Fuji.) It will probably take a few hours until the exact same sun will be waking you up in Vienna :-)

[picture]

Today (Monday, 3 April) is my first official day at work. I’m a bit excited :-)
If the weather stays this nice my team might make a small cherry blossom picnic. And maybe I’ll manage to find out where there is a supermarket where I can by fruits ...

Mein Erstes Erdbeben! :-)

Grad vorhin war ich am arbeiten (in meiner Wohnung im 8ten Stock), als ploetzlich alles zum wackeln anfing. Bevor mir klar war was da los ist war’s dann aber auch schon wieder vorbei. Ein Blick aus dem Fenster verriet mir, dass es nichts Besonderes war. Zumindest fuhren die Autos wie gewohnt weiter. Auch in meinem Heim war nichts los (zumindest nicht am Gang). Im Fernsehen wurde schon wenige Sekunden spaeter darueber berichtet. Hier ist ein Bild:



Ich wohne nordwestlich vom oestlichstem 3er. Ich nehm an 3 steht fuer die Staerke vom Beben. Gefuehlsmaessig wuerd ich sagen 3 ist vollkommend ausreichend. Viel mehr moecht ich eigentlich lieber nicht erleben.

So... ich goenn mir jetzt einen Tee zur Beruhigung :-)

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MY FIRST EARTHQUAKE! :-)

It happend just a second ago. I was working (in my apartment on the 8th floor) as suddently everything began to shake. It was over before I realized what was going on. A quick look out of the window told me that nothing serious happend. At least the cars continues driving. And also in the stairway nothing was happening. On TV they reported the quake only a few seconds after it happend. Here is a picture:

[picture]

I live nortwest of the number 3 in the east. I suppose the 3 is the strength of the quake. Feelingswise I'd say 3 is totally sufficient. I do not want to experience more than that.

So... now I'll treat myself a cup of tee to calm down :-)

Nahrung?

Schon mal ueberlegt was "Moisture Dessert" sein koennte?
So langsam hab ich schon den Durchblick. ZB, Moisture Dessert ist eine Art Frucht- oder Gemuesejoghurt (aufjedenfall etwas gruenliches). Und wenn auf einem Getraenk irgendwo die Zahl 3.6 draufsteht, und die Verpackung eher blau-weiss ist, dann ist es natuerlich Milch! Etwas Probleme hab ich noch mit den Kochanleitungen von den diversen Fertiggerichten… aber bisher ist noch nichts schiefgegangen :-)
Hier ist ein Foto von dem was ich grad vorhin einkaufen war:



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FOOD?

Any clue what a "Moisture Dessert" could be? I'm slowly starting to understand...
E.g., a moisture dessert is some kind of fruit or vegetable joguhrt (most definetly something greenish). And if you see the number 3.6 on the package of a drink and the package is somehow blue and white then its obviously milk! I still have some problems with the cooking instructions for some of the meals... but luckely everything turned out alright sofar :-)
Here is a picture of the what I bought today:

[picture]