Day 2 (and 3) in Japan

Hello again,

I realize that my last post of Day 1 in Japan actually more like the first 24 hours in Japan.  Anyway, after the last posting we went to meet with Tanioka-san (Bre's host for her research work in Japan) and he brought us to the University Co-op housing office where we got great help at finding an apartment.  The apartment that we chose is on the Western edge of the university campus.  It is on the second floor and faces south, so it will get plenty of light in the winter.  The apartment has a bedroom, living room, small kitchen, small toilet room and a separate small shower room.  There is a alcove to take your shoes off in as you enter the apartment.  We will need to get slippers and guest slippers.  You are not supposed to walk around in someone's house in your regular shoes.  It is quite nice and at 51.5 meters squared it seemed big enough.  Our current hotel room is 13.8 meters squared, which is just barely big enough for our suitcases, a bed, bathroom, and very short hallway.  The new apartment comes furnished because the last tenants left their furniture behind.  Apparently this is something you can do in Japan.  Who knew?  The lady at the Co-op who helped us find the housing actually drove us out to see the apartment.  We will move in on Wednesday, and Tanioka-san offered to help us move.

The second part of our goal for yesterday, adjusting to the time zone ended up in failure.  We took a nap in the afternoon and went to bed around 6pm, meaning that we woke up at 4am.  Today we will do better, no naps!

This morning we tried the hotel's breakfast.  Some of the details of the breakfast I didn't understand because I don't read or understand Japanese.  I think it was an all you can eat breakfast.  The portions were very small and the food was mysterious.  Bre tried the salted and fermented squid internal organs along with several other dishes.  Bre says that she put this item on her plate before reading the description.  Whatever the case may be I watched her eat it all.  I am not sure what I ate, the English descriptions of each dish were limited.  I am discovering that while food adventures can be fun, first thing in the morning is not a time when I am looking for a food adventure.

For lunch we went to the 7-11 convenience store across the street from the hotel.  A 7-11 store in Japan is not at all like a 7-11 store in the US.  I really liked the food that we got at the 7-11.  There is an element of surprise since we can only guess what the food is based how it looks.  I had a vegetable and noodle salad with hard boiled egg and a sesame sauce.  Bre had fried rice with scrambled egg and mystery meat.  We shared a sweet buttery dessert roll.  It cost half as much as the hotel breakfast and was very tasty.

 This is a photo of the JR Train Station in Sapporo.  It is only a few blocks from our hotel.  It reminds me of the train station in Berlin, only bigger and much more confusing.  Bre told me that on her previous trip to Sapporo she got lost in this station.  I can totally believe it.  The train station has, in addition to a train station, a very large mall spread out over 7 floors, a movie theater, a subway, a giant electronic store, and many other things that I have not yet figured out.  In the US a mall like this would be built with wide pathways and long sight lines.  This mall has narrow pathways, large crowds, short sight lines, and virtually all the signs are in Japanese.  In other words it was very foreign to me, despite having a Starbucks.

 Here is the police station outside the JR train station.  I like how small and modern it looks.  Surrounded by giant glass towers the police station is a one floor glass box.

 I like the fire hydrant and sign.  I assume that the reason there needs to be an 8 foot tall sign is that the snow gets so deep that you might lose the hydrant.  Nothing says a bad time like running over a fire hydrant in a snow storm.

 The series of photos above is from the University of Hokkaido campus.  I learned that this Univeristy is often referred to as Hokudai, much like the University of Washington is referred to as UW or U-dub.

The fall color is on, and according to Tanioka-san this is the time of year the university looks the best.  I enjoyed the long line of Ginko Trees changing their leaves.  We were not the only ones there photographing the leaves as they changed color.  There was a small army of Japanese photographers out this afternoon.

I included this last photo because I really like the image of the elephant electrical line worker fixing the line with his trunk.  It is the sort of image that I would never imagine before coming to Japan.

Tomorrow Bre and I will meet with the office lady at Bre's department and work on getting our alien registration.  The whole process is very complicated.  We have to get an apartment so that we can have an address for the alien registration.  We have to have the alien registration to apply for a bank account.  We are excited to meet Bre's new co-workers and get started!

I have been enjoying everyone's comments to the blog.  If you ask a question in the comments section I will do my best to respond in the comments section of the blog.  Thanks for reading!

-Kyle (and Bre)