After a lot of traveling around and living out of a suitcase, it's been refreshing to be able to stay in one place for more than a couple of days! Along with getting settled in to my Okazaki apartment, this week and weekend were spent getting situated in the lab as well. On Friday Ogino-san and I talked for most of the morning about the experiments we are going to do while I'm here. I've currently got a 10-day androgen exposure set up for the fry and will get an experiment started with some adult females tomorrow. Working in a different lab is always hard at first, since you don't know where a lot of materials are and things are unfamiliar. This week I'll be taking care of fish and doing some cloning, which are pretty straightforward (well, if the fish don't die, that is!). I'm hoping this week will build up my confidence and prepare me to learn some new techniques next week (which is mostly what I came here to do).
The major difference that myself and the other EAPSI students noticed is that the Japanese work ethic and work hours are very different from American standards. People tend to get here by 9 or a little after and most will stay until 7:30 or later. In addition, the majority of the lab is currently here right now on a Sunday afternoon. I came in to check the fish and use the internet and I was surprised to see almost all of the lab here working. At first I thought this just might be common since most people are grad students/Ph.Ds and work extra hours normally, but from what I've seen this seems to be pretty standard for most workplaces in Japan. Most Japanese people, however, don't expect others to have the same work standard (my sensei included) and I was told several times that Saturday and Sunday were "holiday" and that I didn't need to come in and should do some sightseeing.
So apart from coming in to check on my fish, I've spent most of the weekend exploring Okazaki. Saturday morning I went to the mall and got some tennis balls and then stopped at Starbucks for an American coffee (400 yen for a brewed coffee, nearly $5 USD!) and to read/chill. In the afternoon the other EAPSI guys (The "Okazaki Four") and I went to the castle park just north of the river near the train station. The park is so beautiful and it has a medieval castle (re-built but still cool), a samurai museum, a tea house, and lots of nice flowers and places to sit and enjoy the scenery. After walking around in the heat we got some dinner at a soba and udon restaurant. It was super good and we will be back there again multiple times over the next two months...
This morning I went for a jog, studied Japanese using Rosetta stone, then did some more exploring by bike north of the castle park. I found a few temples and the area where they have a fresh market on dates with a two or seven in them. I decided not to eat out for lunch since I had sushi and soba yesterday, so I ate one of my many instant ramen meals. It was pretty good for only being 100 yen and the only thing I had to do was add hot water. I should get a bit more adventurous sometime while I'm here and cook a real meal, though...
I've also discovered this great coffee from the beverage vending machines (which, by the way, are everywhere and will cost me more many this summer than anything else!). I've never been a fan of iced coffee but this stuff is amazing! It's perfect because I get huge cravings for coffee but the hot and humid weather and the 400 yen price at starbucks make hot coffee the non-ideal situation. Oddly enough, the primary reason that I decided to try this coffee at all was because of this commercial, the most ridiculous one from a series involving Tommy Lee Jones as an alien exploring what human lifestyles are like. Yet another reason to love living in Japan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ9dURSzzJk&feature=player_embedded
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