First Full Day

I woke up around 3/4 in the morning (I need to get used to military time, that's how they do things here) and called family and a little bit lot friends. :) Skype works wonders. Anyways. After getting a little more organized and taking a nap, I headed out for the day. Where I work was only 3 miles away and I didn't have to be there until 1 o'clock b/c they had a meeting today and requested that I arrive after it. After stopping to figure out where to go and how to get there, I set off from Sakura House: Shoin Jinjamae (my point of residence).

This next picture is from Setagaya street, pretty much a direct line from where I work to where I live. Tis pretty, no?


Well, I hadn't eaten or drinking anything since I left the airplane the night before... so I stopped by a vending machine. I found it humourous to see a huge picture of Tommy Lee Jones on the side.


I got a bottle of Pocari Sweat. If any of you have every had Pocari Sweat, you'll know it tastes much better than it sounds. It really is like a clear gatorade... except it's much better than gatorade. I can't really describe it, you'll have to pick one up. It, too, describes itself as an ion/electrolyte replenisher. I needed the replenishing.


So my plans to learn Japanese in the recent past failed miserably (due to unforeseen ... events) but nonetheless I pressed forward. I passed a little bread vendor and immediately they started a rampage of hellos, good morning, and welcomes. I walked forward and paused. I wanted to order something since they were so nice but had no idea of how. So I followed an old lady and just pointed to something random and ordered.


Turns out I ordered a red bean bun. Twas quite yummy. The rest of the walk was filled with dashing in and out of stores and sweating. ENDLESS sweating. It wasn't very hot, but the humidity kills. I ended up buying this... thing (pictured below)


The only thing I could read about it was that it was 100 percent cotton. Good enough for me. It became my handkerchief so at least I wouldn't be soaked by the time I got there. I was crazy tempted by all the food along the way too. Turns out though, most restaurants don't open until lunch time... around 11. Do Japanese people just not eat breakfast?

To appease Dean Ram and Dean Brzinski who no doubt will be reading this eventually, I'll get to the actual work part. I finally arrived at the Research Institute. This place looked much more hi-tech than the rest of Tokyo. (Tokyo is similar to Taiwan in appearance... i.e. a lot less hi-tech than I thought). I walked into the main entrance to a phone... where I called my lab. I was two hours early, but I was greeted and taken up to the ninth floor by Kanami (who through my email contact, I had thought was a guy... oops.) Anyways, they were just finishing the lab meeting so I was ushered to the front to talk about myself and who I was in front of the entire team (10 or so)... of which most know preliminary English and few actually speak it well enough... but that I'm used to.



I filled out most the paper work stuff... hacked into their network (cough... twas hard to do in Japanese) so I could use my own computer instead of their Japanese one and got to work. I found out a couple things. Most people bring their lunch.. so I'll have to start figuring out how to do that as well. There are a LOT of people in this lab, so I'll need to learn Japanese... and quickly. I'm picking it up little by little. And I have a lot to learn. Dr. Saito was sick today so that meeting will have to wait until Monday. I met Dr. Matsumoto and many others, they're all very nice.


( a picture during the set-up process.)

I'll be learning how to culture Human mast cells from peripheral blood (which if you know immunology, is cutting edge) along with a million other new techniques which in itself is awesome... but I have a lot of relearning to do.

Begin Work? Check.

-Tim Soo

P.S. I need to eat...