Japan : My first (part 1)

En français
So since I'm in Japan and that everything is pretty new for me I have a lot of first time. That's why I'm calling this post "My first" and you are going to see a lot of my first.

My first Japanese party

On the first week-end of I was pretty tired and so even if I really meant to go out on Saturday I stay sleeping all day due to jetlag.
But the evening was much more exciting.
The lend lady of the residence (I'm staying in student accommodation called the "international house" with lots of international students) told me to come to the party and introduced me to the others. I was really dead and didn't know much what to say but everybody was nice to me and there was delicious food.
Since I had two more parties. In three weeks that's a pretty cool number of party I guess. And they are also becoming better and better, probably because I know more people now and can get more involved.

My first time in a Japanese train

So my supervisor wanted me to have a good week-end and told me about places to go. I didn't go on Saturday but I went on Sunday. I walked to the train station and took the train to Shinjuku.
I didn't know how the machine for the tickets work, they just have number that you have to choose. But he already told me that it was 230 for Shinjuku, so I had no problem.
The train are really clean compared to what I have seen in the subway in Europe. It was really cool to go that far, Tokyo is a pretty big city, Chofu is not that far from Shinjuku and there is a lot more to discover.

Later the next week-end I when out with the people from the residence and I learned that the map above the machine actually show you the price of each destination. So now I can go everywhere.

My first Japanese restaurant

The Monday following I went to the restaurant with my supervisor and the other postdoc I'm sharing my office with.
That was a traditional Japanese restaurant. We had to remove our shoes at the entrance and to lock them in a little box we then went to a room just for us and we sat on the floor with our legs in a hole bellow the table. That was really cool. In Japanese restaurant they first give you some tea and a glass of water. That is really cool.
I love to go to restaurant here, I went to several, all different for the moment, in the style and in the food. I can't really tell you what I eat in detail. The first time was Sashimi after I had soba noodles, tempura, ramen and organic food.
All I know is that there is always side dishes and that I love all of it.

My first たこ焼き

When I get back to the dormitory that day, there were people looking for me. They had decided to make たこ焼き and wanted me to participate. That was really cool, we were talking and cooking the たこ焼き. Someone was making the paste and someone cutting the たこ and I was helping with turning it in the machine with chopsticks.
I really like たこ焼き, probably more than I normally would because they had organized this little party just for me.
 
Travel table of content