Orientation week, homestay, moving to Osaka...

Hi all,

So sorry that it took me like a zillion years to update my blog! Trust me, I have been so so busy with so many activities (including lab work lol, but well no surprise to us i guess..). It is now 7:40pm in Osaka and I am trying to remember all the FUN things I have been doing this past week!!!

So after the last blog, we moved to Shonan Village Centre (SVC) to attend the orientation week with Sokendai Graduate School. First of all, the view from the hotel we stayed in was breathtaking and I could not ask for a better place for this Orientation week!! It looked right across Mt. Fuji and so GREEN!!! We had the orientation where everyone officially met for the first time. I was able to meet all the students from Canada, including some I have become closed friends. It was fascinating to see so many talented and cool friends from different fields (Math, Engineering, Biology.... all the way to Social Sciences..) and different countries. We picked up our room keys and then headed down for the dinner ceremony. The food was awesome and I think the amount of fish I had at that dinner was way more than what I had in the last few years in Canada. People were just mingling and getting to know each other. It was a great atmosphere. Most of the activities that we were scheduled ended around 7pm after dinner so I usually took a walk down the hill with a few fellows to breath some fresh air and get some DRINKS :).

The next day was a very long day, including Japanese lessons, lectures and then Japanese cultural activities. So, Japanese lessons... I was able to say hi and tell everyone where I'm from. Here are a little bit of Japanese for you guys at home :

Patrick desu (I am Patrick), Canada kara kimatshita (from Canada), Yoroshiku onegaishimasu (very nice to meet you). Oh!! And my Japanese name is Patorikku!!! (That is such a cool name).

After classes and lectures, we were able to learn a bit on Japanese culture such as origami, calligraphy, and tea ceremony. Here are a few pictures at the event. This was definitely a fun kick-off event for our 2-month trip in Japan.









The next day was filled with more Japanese classes (this is when it gets harder and less fun.. lol I know, only the second class) and poster presentation. So just to show everyone that we are not here just to have fun, we had to stand for almost 4hours during the poster presentation. It was actually nice to see what everyone would be working on this summer, a lot of cool projects. I stood right across from a guy from France that had the similar electron transport chain figure on my poster. That was interesting!!

HOMESTAY!!! I was so nervous about this coming in... Here is the story!!! First of all, I totally forgot to buy gifts for my host, so I was looking all day for a "Canadian" gift in Japan. So technically, I have to get something from Canada without the Japanese translation on the back... not so easy to find in JAPAN. Finally, I found a Canadian wine bottle at the supermarket near where we stayed and kindly asked the owner to strip the back label... so embarrassing... (Yoshiko, if you are reading this, I am so sorry :) I think the wine still tasted great though right? :)) Second of all, I was used to living all by myself, so this was definitely different for me!! But I was nervous for nothing since we had tons of FUN for the whole 2 days! Here is a quick recap:

Eating sushi the first night, visiting china town in Yokohama, temple in Ofuna the second day, and playing at the Japanese Arcade the last day!! It was so much FUN!













The homestay and orientation week passed by so quickly. It was time for us to say goodbye to SVC and headed to our research institute. I was kinda sad but excited at the same time!! The experience was fun but now it is the time for me to explore a different aspect of Japan, RESEARCH! I always admire and respect the research mentality of Japanese people and cannot wait to be a part of it. So I moved to Osaka on Tuesday from Tokyo by bullet train (Shinkansen). The train was awesomely fast and NO security-check!! I arrived Osaka University at around 4pm and got introduced to the lab. Probably knowing that I must be hungry, they took me out for Yakiniku (Korean BBQ). Food was good but the price was not!! It was 3,000 Yen for each person!! (about 40CAD). But I will get to that "expensive" topic in the next post! For now, I will leave us with a few good moments in my first 10 days in Japan

(Mount Fuji appears on the last day :) Doreamon's CAKES












AND my Lab family in OSAKA