Arrival and survival!

Whew!! I am in Sapporo, and I just finished my first not-actually-full week of work!

I left Canada early on Monday morning, and because of the time difference arrived in Sapporo at about 8 pm on Tuesday, Sapporo time. My trip went really smoothly! I just missed meeting up with a friend in the Toronto airport completely by chance; she's a prof in Manitoba and was travelling to a conference, and we were actually in the airport at the same time but only realized it right before I stepped onto my plane. On the way to Japan I actually received vegan meals that were really vegan (instead of a cheese omelet, like I got on United airlines once) and the worst thing that happened was that I ended up speaking French on the plane, which pushed my minuscule Japanese knowledge right out of my head. My prof met me at the airport in Sapporo when I arrived, and he drove me to the research station where I'll be working / living. 

My. room. is. amazing. It is a billion times better than I was expecting!! I have a little kitchen area with a microwave / toaster oven (something that I thought was only a legend), a pretty-big fridge, and a gas cooktop. Holy cow is a gas stove ever amazing. I can boil a full pot of water in like 5 minutes!!! I also have a rice cooker and a kettle, and the kitchen was stocked with a few pots and pans. I have a full bathroom of my own (no shared showers!!) and there is FREEE laundry right across the hall from me!! There are only ten rooms in this place and just three are occupied, including my own. One of my labmates actually lives here with her husband and daughter. It's super quiet and it looks out at some woods. It's super nice!

 

Sadly I don't have a space toilet.

I spent my first full day in Sapporo (Wednesday) running around with my prof doing administrative stuff, like mailing off forms to my funding agencies and getting registered at the municipal office (so that when the next crime spree starts, they'll know who to blame). Then we began a 4-hour adventure to try to get me a bank account. Apparently you really need to be in the country for 6 months before you can get a bank account in Japan, which seems a bit weird to me.. although to be honest, maybe there are similar rules in Canada (my prof mentioned that he was only able to get a weirdo student account when he was a visiting prof in Canada a few months ago). Anyhoo, we went from bank A (who straight up said no and cited this rule), to bank B (who said yes but had some archaic rules about minimum balances and junk), to bank C (who had some REALLY strict rules about minimum balances and a million fees and junk). Then we went back to bank B, who were suddenly very concerned about the 6-month rule, and then FINALLY back to bank A where we begged them and they hemmed and hawed and finally said yes. So now I have a bank account!! This whole ordeal made me realize how much I love my PC bank account. I never have to interact with humans and there are no fees for anything. It's win-win!! 

By that time it was so late that my prof had to go and pick up his kids from school, so he dropped me off at my apartment and assigned a student from the lab to take me grocery shopping. It was actually pretty helpful to have a ride because we went to a larger grocery store that was a bit far from my apartment and was at the bottom of a long hill, and since I had a ride I was able to buy rice and other heavy stuff. So now I have food!!

On Thursday and Friday I started doing a bit of actual work in the lab. I had a sit-down with my prof to hash out the project, then I got my bench space and I started preparing some samples and growing up plants and stuff today. My labmates are all super nice and very helpful but there is definitely a language barrier. My prof has mostly been encouraging them to speak English with me (because it's good practice for them for conferences and stuff), so I haven't practised my Japanese very much. The one exception is when I was left alone with a girl who told me that she really didn't speak any English, so I said in Japanese "I understand a little Japanese but I can't speak it very well." I heard her telling a few people that I speak pretty ok Japanese but I think they think she's making it up haha. Other than cruelly bewildering my labmates, the main thing I have used my Japanese skillz for are reading signs while waiting in banks and offices. My amazing kanji skills mean that I can read almost everything on a toilet (big flush / little flush)!! And fire extinguishers (fire pour vessel)!! Sadly I can't read the laundry machines. Or the kettle. Or the rice cooker. Or any of the documents I signed >_> But I do know that the post office will let you send someone an aspara-gift (of asparagus). I did not make that up. 

I want to mail everyone an aspara-gift but sadly I don't think they ship well.

So far the worst thing that has happened is that I saw the biggest non-tarantula spider that I have ever seen in my life. It was no joke bigger than anything I saw in Costa Rica. Luckily it was outside and I was inside but still ;________; I was talking to my prof when I saw it and I was like "UH is that really a spider??" And he was like "Oh yeah, those things are everywhere!" and my neighbour labmate told me that her daughter catches spiders in their apartment ;;;;;;____;;;;; so I guess I'll either have to a) get a really big cat to eat these enormous spiders or b) recruit my labmate's daughter because I am certainly not doing c) grow up and either smash it or catch it and bring it outside. It was bigger than a black widow. I would have taken a picture but I couldn't fit it in the frame. 

This weekend I'm going to go shopping because I have no running shoes and I need some basic things like dishes (although my prof did lend me an amazing Hamtaro bowl), and on Sunday I'm supposed to go to the lilac festival downtown with my labmate and her family! 

Sooo so far so good. I miss everyone (especially the cats) but things have been going well, and I've been so busy that I haven't really been lonely. Hooray for amazing adventures!

Little hamsters, big adventures, HAM-HAM-HAM-TARO!