So I really suck at keeping this blog updated. But I'm good about keeping up with pictures, so you should be able to check out pictures at my facebook page (for those that have accounts since I have it set to friends only) or the below public album.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajreft/JellyfishAndHanabi
The public album doesn't have pictures of my homestay family (other than one of the mother) because I feel weird about putting up pictures of kids where everyone can see them. The facebook page has them though (and the girls are super cute!).
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Sokendai (i.e. orientation)
I had written most of what is below before I started this blog (I was going to keep track of my travels on my livejournal page, but decided against it for several reasons. In any case here's some information concerning my first week in Japan.
So after a very long flight (about 13 hours, I know that there are longer flights but this was by far the longest I have been on) I arrived in Japan. It was about 5 by the time we got to the hotel and checked in, so I just got a shower and then went to dinner. I completely died at 8 pm because I was so tired and then woke up at 4 am. Today we moved out to Sokendai for the week-long orientation, and I have to say, this is the nicest non-hotel that I have ever stayed at. They don't call it a hotel, it seems to be part of a research insitution, but seriously, it has elevator music in the halls, there are bathrobes on the beds, and a fridge and tv in each room, and someone makes the bed everyday! It's totally a hotel even if they don't want to admit it. My roommate here is Lee, someone I met and liked in DC and have talked to a bit. Oddly enough, we both flew from Chicago and hung out together at the airport before we flew here. I really like her alot, so I'm happy that all of that has worked out. This place is really secluded (which I get the strong impression was on purpose to keep us out of trouble) but is quite lovely (something that I'm sure will not get across from the pictures I've included below).
There is a residential area around Sokendai as well, and I realized that Japanese roads are small – one lane either way with no real room for parking on the street. Actually, everything here seems smaller so that more can fit into the little available space that there is.
And it is the rainy season which means that we get lots of fog here at Sokendai (see below) and tons of rain. I did not really understand what rainy season meant until experiencing it myself. The sheer volume of rain is really impressive.
The orientation went well and I meet a couple of really nice people that I hope to do some traveling with. It would be particularly nice if I could find someone to travel with at the end, but we’ll see how it goes.
So after a very long flight (about 13 hours, I know that there are longer flights but this was by far the longest I have been on) I arrived in Japan. It was about 5 by the time we got to the hotel and checked in, so I just got a shower and then went to dinner. I completely died at 8 pm because I was so tired and then woke up at 4 am. Today we moved out to Sokendai for the week-long orientation, and I have to say, this is the nicest non-hotel that I have ever stayed at. They don't call it a hotel, it seems to be part of a research insitution, but seriously, it has elevator music in the halls, there are bathrobes on the beds, and a fridge and tv in each room, and someone makes the bed everyday! It's totally a hotel even if they don't want to admit it. My roommate here is Lee, someone I met and liked in DC and have talked to a bit. Oddly enough, we both flew from Chicago and hung out together at the airport before we flew here. I really like her alot, so I'm happy that all of that has worked out. This place is really secluded (which I get the strong impression was on purpose to keep us out of trouble) but is quite lovely (something that I'm sure will not get across from the pictures I've included below).
There is a residential area around Sokendai as well, and I realized that Japanese roads are small – one lane either way with no real room for parking on the street. Actually, everything here seems smaller so that more can fit into the little available space that there is.
And it is the rainy season which means that we get lots of fog here at Sokendai (see below) and tons of rain. I did not really understand what rainy season meant until experiencing it myself. The sheer volume of rain is really impressive.
The orientation went well and I meet a couple of really nice people that I hope to do some traveling with. It would be particularly nice if I could find someone to travel with at the end, but we’ll see how it goes.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Mission statement
In creating this blog, I am trying to motivate myself to be organized and maintain a record of my summer trip to Japan. As readers that know me already know, I am currently in Japan finishing up week one of a 10 week trip to Japan. The trip is not just for fun, I have recieved a fellowship from NSF and JSPS (Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science) to spend 8 weeks doing research at the Seto marine lab (which belongs to Kyoto University) with a Japanese scientest with a week of orientation at the begining. I am very bad about keeping up with things so I am trying with this blog to make sure that I keep track of everything I do and experience in Japan. This way I can keep everyone posted about what is going on in my life and I get a record of my whole trip. So hopefully I can keep up with it. I'm already a week behind, but I will try to fix that in the next 2 days. I'll do the best I can, anyway.
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