The first week

Good day everyone,

I survived my first week in Japan! It was quite an exhausting week, mainly because of jetlag. I haven't had that much trouble recovering from jetlag since... ever. But let's not dwell on such depressing matters and dive right into the fun stuff! Yesterday Shinji took me to Tokyo, which is roughly a 40 to 50 minute ride with the train; a direct line from Tsukuba to Tokyo, Akihabara, the center of electronic based media and gadgets.
Our first stop was at Sensou-ji, a massive Buddhist temple, completed in 628 AD. The temple area also houses a 250 meters long shopping street that was especially crowded on this Sunday.

The larger of the two gates to the temple

The shopping street

Our next destination was the Edo museum. Edo was Tokyo's name during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate, 1603 to 1868. It is also its founding name. There wasn't much here before Ieyasu Tokugawa became Shogun and decided to move the capital to this place. It seems to be a reoccurring thing, this "This-place-looks-nice-let's-build-a-city"-thing.

That's the guy, Ieyasu Tokugawa

Model of Edo (Tokyo)

I am still getting used to many things. There is the bowing. Even before/during/after a two sentence small talk both parties seem to bow a gazillion times. Even just walking past each other is invoking the need to bow. It is hard to wrap my head around these circumstances. Get it? Wrap my head around...? Never mind...
Oh yeah, and when you drive through one of the gates onto the research facilities the guard will salute you. Nobody ever saluted me. It's weird. Am I that important?
Another thing is the unemployment rate in Japan. It seems to be so low because of the fact that literally every imaginable task has somebody who is responsible to fulfill it. At least one person. People standing in line to buy a ticket for the museum? There are two guards making sure every customer knows where the end of the line is. The person at the reception of my dormitory seems to be a different one everyday. Literally at every public place there is at least one person to talk to if you need information about whatever. Trouble with the ticket machine? There is somebody to talk to. Lost at the bus stop? You'll find a responsible person. It's mind boggling. Don't get me wrong though, I think everybody benefits from this, except the one who has to pay all these people...
By the way, I seem to be quite skilled with chopsticks, a natural even. Though, as soon as somebody pointed that out I dropped my fried fish... twice... in a rough...

Greetings from the land of the rising sun,
Nils