So, I'm here. Luckily, there is an unsecured wireless access point in my apartment building, so it looks like I'll be able to communicate with the rest of the world. Hurray!
My plane flight was uneventful, except for copious amounts of turbulence. So much, in fact, that we ended up missing our second meal because the flight attendants didn't want their food carts flying across the cabin. I flew with Marshall, Cathy, and Robert, but sat alone, and mostly read and slept for 11 hours.
Marshall and Robert met a Japanese girl from Osaka on the plane, who drew them a cute card and helped us get out of immigration and onto the bus that would take us north from the Kansai airport to the center of the city. It was very foggy and pouring rain when we landed, and yet it was at least 85 degrees outside. I likened the feeling to the line up to the top of Splash Mountain at Disneyland. But probably hotter. Not exactly pleasant, but bearable. It didn't help that I had forgotten to bring an umbrella, either.
It was a long bus ride, and the fog obscured most of the scenery. When we got into Osaka proper, however, it was amazing. We drove through narrow highways with gigantic space-agey buildings on all sides, covered in flashing neon signs. It was like something right out of Blade Runner.
Tomomi and Ichikawa-san met us at the bus stop, and took us to our apartments and then to dinner. I'll comment more about the apartment a bit later: it's a topic worthty of several posts by itself.
Dinner was very good, we ended up at a noodle shop. I had 天ぷら弁当 (tempura bento) - tempura shrimp and thick udon noodles in broth, something pickled (radish?), fried brown rice, and a sweet diced carrot and tofu mixture. Not a bad first meal.
We were all exhausted by the trip, so we didn't do a lot of conversing, which made things a tad awkward, but Tomomi and Ichikawa-san seem very friendly. In the next few days I'll be able to say a lot more about the people I'll be working with here in Osaka and what they're like.
We stopped into a supermarket in the same shopping center (not a strip-mall, more of a proper outdoor mall) and picked up food and drink to last us a few days until we could do some more serious shopping. Let me tell you, as difficult as it is for me to shop for food at home, not being able to recognize most of the food or read the labels doesn't exactly help matters. I picked up some sweet squishy rice balls, different sodas and juice drinks (Calpis included), and something called わらび餅 （warabi mochi), which are clear gooey spheres (some rice product , I'm told) that you cover with powder. I've been assured by Tomomi that they're delicious...
So now I'm back in my humid mini-apartment, and I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed. Then it's shower, unpack, and meet with Date-san and the rest of the lab.
My plane flight was uneventful, except for copious amounts of turbulence. So much, in fact, that we ended up missing our second meal because the flight attendants didn't want their food carts flying across the cabin. I flew with Marshall, Cathy, and Robert, but sat alone, and mostly read and slept for 11 hours.
Marshall and Robert met a Japanese girl from Osaka on the plane, who drew them a cute card and helped us get out of immigration and onto the bus that would take us north from the Kansai airport to the center of the city. It was very foggy and pouring rain when we landed, and yet it was at least 85 degrees outside. I likened the feeling to the line up to the top of Splash Mountain at Disneyland. But probably hotter. Not exactly pleasant, but bearable. It didn't help that I had forgotten to bring an umbrella, either.
It was a long bus ride, and the fog obscured most of the scenery. When we got into Osaka proper, however, it was amazing. We drove through narrow highways with gigantic space-agey buildings on all sides, covered in flashing neon signs. It was like something right out of Blade Runner.
Tomomi and Ichikawa-san met us at the bus stop, and took us to our apartments and then to dinner. I'll comment more about the apartment a bit later: it's a topic worthty of several posts by itself.
Dinner was very good, we ended up at a noodle shop. I had 天ぷら弁当 (tempura bento) - tempura shrimp and thick udon noodles in broth, something pickled (radish?), fried brown rice, and a sweet diced carrot and tofu mixture. Not a bad first meal.
We were all exhausted by the trip, so we didn't do a lot of conversing, which made things a tad awkward, but Tomomi and Ichikawa-san seem very friendly. In the next few days I'll be able to say a lot more about the people I'll be working with here in Osaka and what they're like.
We stopped into a supermarket in the same shopping center (not a strip-mall, more of a proper outdoor mall) and picked up food and drink to last us a few days until we could do some more serious shopping. Let me tell you, as difficult as it is for me to shop for food at home, not being able to recognize most of the food or read the labels doesn't exactly help matters. I picked up some sweet squishy rice balls, different sodas and juice drinks (Calpis included), and something called わらび餅 （warabi mochi), which are clear gooey spheres (some rice product , I'm told) that you cover with powder. I've been assured by Tomomi that they're delicious...
So now I'm back in my humid mini-apartment, and I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed. Then it's shower, unpack, and meet with Date-san and the rest of the lab.
Yep, I think it was takoan. Very good. Honestly though, it seems that no matter what the vegetable, fruit, or whatever, the Japanese will pickle it. I had a pickled plum on top of my rice one evening - think of a firm blob of very sour mustard, with a pit in the center. Not exactly pleasnt. I guess I was supposed to mix it with something...?