Settled in at work

Since this journal is publicly accessible, I will be referring to people by pseudonyms. If you'd like to know the real name of anyone that I mention, you can email me and ask :P I'm also going to avoid mentioning my employer by name. I spent all of Tuesday lugging around my (heavy) duffel bag. That bag has now been from Sokendai to Tokyo Station (where I met M—, my host scientist) to the JSPS office (where I got my money at met A—, who is a sort of secretary and helps interns) to a real estate office (where A— and I exchanged my money for a key) to my apartment at Sobudaimae (where I was finally able to set the bag down). My back hurts a little bit from the lifting, still. A— came in to my apartment to help explain how to use some of the appliances, which was really helpful. Sometimes my Chinese knowledge helps me figure things out; sometimes it doesn't. After she left, I felt pretty lonely. I was in a foreign country with no English-speaking friends in the area, nobody to call (my JSPS friends do not yet have phone numbers), and no internet access. Because I am on a tourist visa, I will be unable to hook up a landline or get internet in my apartment. That's really a shame, because the skype prices to call a Japanese landline are very cheap. I am very glad that I have the cell phone though, because it will be my only link in the world when I am not in the office. (You can skype to a Japanese cell phone for about 20 cents a minute, by the way). I'm getting along well with M—, my host scientist. She's an American born and raised nissei who attended undergrad and grad in the states. She's definitely an American; she can't read Japanese fluently, for instance. This makes things easy for me, because there is no language or cultural barrier when talking to you. The rest of the staff is very Japanese though, and I have to be careful about annunciation and speed when I speak English with them. My project is open-ended— very open-ended. Right now I'm trying to find a data set and to think of something interesting to do with it :-) I'm a little worried that it will be hard to have a tangible result in 2 months with such an abstract project, but I'll work hard and hopefully something will come of it. There are two other Americans (well, one is actually Canadian) in the lab right now, both of whom are from MIT. C— seems to be a real nippophile; she lived here for a whole 4 years ago and has very strong Japanese language skills. She said that she should get the chance to show me around town soon, but that her boyfriend is in town this week so it won't happen until next week. Right now my commute is taking about 40 minutes, when you include the 10-minute walks on both ends, waiting for the train, and the train transfer. 40 minutes for 3 kilometers seems like a bad deal to me, so I am planning to buy a bicycle. A— found a bike shop for me that has used bikes starting at 5000 yen. In order to help me find it, she printed out a map for me and then translated several landmarks into English! She's very helpful :-) I think that having a bike will make me feel a lot more mobile. Trains are great and everything, but it's nice to be able to go somewhere without spending 4 bucks and waiting for several minutes. Bicycles are very convenient in Japan because you do not need to lock them up; apparently there is no bicycle theft. I have an address now. If you'd like to mail me anything, just send me an email asking for it.