I arrived on Friday morning, 13.09.13 in Tokyo Narita Airport.
Since before hand, I had not checked the weather in Tokyo and had been told that it would be cold (how could I be so naive), I came here with a jumper and a winter coat. Actually, the temperature was around 30 degrees... quite a shock after the wet and cold 15 degrees in Zurich before I left!
Once I got out through airport security, I met my academic tutor who came to the airport to pick me up. His name is Yutaro and he's a PhD student in the research group where I will be working this semester.
Having arrived at 8 a.m. we took the train to Tokyo Tech, where I would meet other members of the lab. Most shocking: it took three hours by train to get there! I guess the size is what's really amazing about this city.
Having arrived at the University after what felt like an eternity (also carrying all my luggage), we went to have lunch. Traditional Japanese lunch, that is. First time in a very long time I had some... sitting on the floor with a table about 30 cm high, there was really nice food. However, you receive a raw egg. I didn't know what to do with that, so I asked one of the lab students, who explained that you put raw egg mixed with soy sauce on your rice! Well, an interesting experience (It wasn't as bad as I thought).
Anyway, in the afternoon, Yutaro and I left for the dormitory (he showed me how to get there, I would have been completely lost ^^). We arrived at around 3 pm and by that time, having slept only little in the plane, I was really tired. So once I settled into my room, I was asleep nearly instantly.
My room is pretty big, 40 sq. m, and it's shared with one person. My roommate, Caspar, from Denmark, had arrived earlier that day. He's doing the same exchange program as me (YSEP) and will be leaving the same time as I will, in mid February. He is very enjoyable, speaks excellent English, and can cook really well. He studies computer science, and you can find his blog here: http://hegnetfranchise.wordpress.com/
Next Saturday, still jetlagged, I slept until almost 4 p.m. and so the day was lost, more or less. If anything, I thought that sleeping in the plane is probably possible only in Buisness class (I had maybe 2 hours of very uncomfortable sleep) and that this was normal. Also, the days before I left, I had been hiking in southern Switzerland and had only little sleep. The only thing I really managed to do was go shopping for cup noodles and milk.
Sunday, I went to Tokyo in the late afternoon to meet a friend who was on holiday in Japan and was returning to Switzerland the next morning. We met up at Ueno, and then went to a so-called Cat-Cafe. This is a really weird place: you go in, pay for half an hour and get to play or cuddle with around 15 cats. Seems to be very popular in Tokyo, because many people can't keep pets in town. However, the cats were not very motivated and mostly just sat without moving. Probably, after having people play with you everyday from 10 to 8 gets dull and boring, even for cats.
After this (wasted) half hour, we went to a nearby restaurant that served Japanese specialities. Not knowing what exactly we had ordered, we got a plate with different looking skewers. Turned out it was a lottery game between delicious fried chicken breast and less delicious chicken organs (liver, intestines, stuff I really dislike on my plate).
On my way home, I stopped in Akihabara (literally electric city) and went into the largest electronics store I have ever seen. It was gigantic, 10 levels full of TVs, Computers, USB drives and much more...
After that, I went to Shibuya to see the famous crossing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtOdSgf6Ic). However, when I was there, there weren't so many people and it wasn't so impressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment