{"id":468,"date":"2015-08-04T12:26:50","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T12:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sci-life.com\/?p=468"},"modified":"2015-08-04T12:28:29","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T12:28:29","slug":"my-first-day-in-the-laboratory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/2015\/08\/04\/my-first-day-in-the-laboratory\/","title":{"rendered":"My first day in the laboratory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So far, I have mainly been walking around slightly confused, taking the wrong metro exit paths, and been getting lost\u2026 But today was my first day in the laboratory at Waseda University, the first day I asked for directions in Japanese, the first day I ate out on a Japanese restaurant, and today was also the day where I tried Onigiri for the first time\u2026 And I am completely exhausted!<\/p>\n<div class=\"flexslider ewic-slider-lite is_on_\" id=\"ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b\"><style>#ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b .flex-direction-nav .flex-next, #ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b .flex-direction-nav .flex-prev {opacity: 1;} #ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b .flex-direction-nav .flex-next {right: 10px !important; text-align: right !important;} #ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b .flex-direction-nav .flex-prev {left: 10px !important;}<\/style><div id=\"preloader-4706a06053ac006b\" class=\"sliderpreloader\"><\/div><ul style=\"display:none;\" class=\"slides flexslider-4706a06053ac006b\"><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/DSC_0049.jpg\" title=\"Tuna mayo onigiri and a surprise onigiri (not sure what it is yet)\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4706a06053ac006b]\"><img title=\"Tuna mayo onigiri and a surprise onigiri (not sure what it is yet)\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/DSC_0049.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">Tuna mayo onigiri and a surprise onigiri (not sure what it is yet)<\/p><\/a><\/li><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/DSC_0055.jpg\" title=\"Onigiri unpacked!\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4706a06053ac006b]\"><img title=\"Onigiri unpacked!\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/DSC_0055.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">Onigiri unpacked!<\/p><\/a><\/li><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_160224.jpg\" title=\"Sushi in the supermarket\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4706a06053ac006b]\"><img title=\"Sushi in the supermarket\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_160224.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">Sushi in the supermarket<\/p><\/a><\/li><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_162958.jpg\" title=\"Stuff I returned with from the supermarket (I didn't know what everything was)\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4706a06053ac006b]\"><img title=\"Stuff I returned with from the supermarket (I didn't know what everything was)\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_162958.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">Stuff I returned with from the supermarket (I didn't know what everything was)<\/p><\/a><\/li><\/ul><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n\tjQuery(document).ready(function($) {\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t$(\"#preloader-4706a06053ac006b\").fadeOut(500, function () {\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b\").addClass(\"ready_to_show\");\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\"a[rel^='ewicprettyPhoto[4706a06053ac006b]']\").ewcPhoto({\r\n\t\t\t\ttheme: \"ewc_default\",\r\n\t\t\t\tallow_expand: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tdeeplinking: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tslideshow:5000,\r\n\t\t\t\tautoplay_slideshow:true,\r\n\t\t\t\tsocial_tools:false\r\n\t\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\".flexslider-4706a06053ac006b\").fadeIn(300);\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b\").flexslider({\r\n\t\t\t\tanimation: \"slide\",\r\n\t\t\t\tanimationSpeed: 0,\r\n\t\t\t\tuseCSS: false,\r\n\t\t\t\teasing: \"easeInQuad\",\r\n\t\t\t\tdirection: \"horizontal\",\r\n\t\t\t\tslideshow: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tsmoothHeight: true,\r\n\t\t\t\tpauseOnHover: true, \r\n\t\t\t\tcontrolNav: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tprevText: \"\",\r\n\t\t\t\tnextText: \"\",\r\n\t\t\t\trtl: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tslideshowSpeed: 8000,\r\n\t\t\t\tstart: function(slider){\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b\").find(\".flex-caption\").hide();\r\n\t\t\t\t\tvar curSlide = slider.find(\"li.flex-active-slide\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(curSlide).find(\".flex-caption\").slideDown();\r\n\t\t\t\t},\r\n\t\t\t\tbefore: function(slider) {\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4706a06053ac006b\").find(\".flex-caption\").slideUp();\r\n\t\t\t\t},\r\n\t\t\t\tafter: function(slider) {\r\n\t\t\t\t\tvar curSlide = slider.find(\"li.flex-active-slide\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(curSlide).find(\".flex-caption\").slideDown();\r\n\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t});\r\n<\/script><\/div>\r\n\n<p>The past few days I feel like I have acted like a foreigner with absolutely no clue about anything, not even the language &#8211; and I am not entirely clueless! I know I could actually deal with most normal situations if I just started out trying in Japanese. But every time I ask someone about something, I go like \u201cDo you speak English\u201d, and they tend to look frightened and start searching for someone who knows a bit of English. I could at least ask in Japanese if they understand English. I even know what to say if they answer no, for example:<\/p>\n<table class=\" aligncenter\" style=\"height: 230px;\" width=\"772\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"47\">A:<\/td>\n<td width=\"454\">\u82f1\u8a9e\u3067\u3044\u3044\u3067\u3059\u304b\uff1f(Eigo de ii desu ka?)<\/td>\n<td width=\"251\">Is English OK?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"47\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"251\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"47\">B:<\/td>\n<td width=\"454\">\u3044\u3044\u3048\u3001\u82f1\u8a9e\u306f\u3061\u3087\u3063\u3068\u3002\u3002\u00a0(Iie, eigo wa chotto\u2026)<\/td>\n<td width=\"251\">No, English is a bit\u2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"47\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"251\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"47\">A:<\/td>\n<td width=\"454\">\u3058\u3083\u3001\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u3067\u8a66\u3057\u3066\u307f\u307e\u3057\u3087\u3046\u304b\u3002\u3057\u304b\u3057\u3001\u79c1\u306e\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u306f\u5b8c\u74a7\u3058\u3083\u306a\u3044\u306e\u3067\u3001\u3086\u3063\u304f\u308a\u8a71\u3057\u3066\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044\u306d\u3002(Jya, Nihongo de tameshite mimashou ka. Shikashi, watashi no Nihongo wa kanpeki jya nai no de, yukkuri hanashite kudasai ne.)<\/td>\n<td width=\"251\">Well, then let&#8217;s try in Japanese.\u00a0However, my Japanese is not perfect, so please speak slowly.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">However! This morning, I had to find my way on foot (without GPS or internet) to the Nishi-Waseda campus, which is around 20 minutes\u2019 walk from my place. I had examined it on google maps and even checked street views so that I could recognize the places, however I still ended up doubting myself half way. I had left a little later than I probably should have, so I was panicking a bit. This is what made me force myself into asking for directions in Japanese from a random guy on the street, and it went surprisingly well (I made the decent assumption that he didn\u2019t know any English). He didn\u2019t really know the place I was looking for, but we could understand each other. Luckily, a young guy passing us stopped and told me that I was walking in the right direction (of course in Japanese). Success &#8211; I used my Japanese (and walked in the right direction)!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">After I arrived in the lab, the Associate professor showed me around the campus, and that included walking outside in 35 degrees C and 90% humidity for quite some time. The past few days I think I have managed the heat pretty well, but today\u2019s walks were really something else\u2026 ^^ He took me and some of the students along for lunch at some Japanese restaurant where we sat on the floor and everything (actually my leg started cramping). I think I managed pretty well with chopsticks, and the tempura I got was really good! The students couldn\u2019t really speak English, and the few who knew a little bit were quite shy about trying. Well, I can\u2019t really blame them, I feel the same way in Japanese. If I speak English, I am not a particularly quiet person, however if I am to speak Japanese I am pretty good at not speaking! \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The place where I will sit in the lab, is in an\u00a0office with the associate professor \u2013 and no one else. The room is quite large, so I have plenty of space. I think it would have been nice, however, to share office with some more guys, since it will be difficult for me to interact with any of the other students when sitting in a different room. Well, the other rooms did seem really crowded already. Let\u2019s see how it plays out \u2013 and the associate professor is a really nice guy. In addition, a student will join me tomorrow afternoon to the Shinjuku City Office, where I need to have my address stamped on the back of my residence card, and then he will help me getting\u00a0a sim-card afterwards. On\u00a0Shinjuku City Office&#8217;s\u00a0website they suggest that you bring a Japanese speaking person, as they don\u2019t necessarily have anyone who speaks English (even though it\u2019s central Tokyo!). I tried to get a sim-card by my-self yesterday, spent almost all day, and in the end I didn\u2019t get it. The guys at the shop barely spoke English, and I didn\u2019t know that I had to go to the city office and get an official stamp proving where I live in order to get a sim-card. Therefore it\u2019s really nice that a guy from the lab joins me tomorrow, as I really need a phone with internet and GPS.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">That\u2019s it from me for now, I will end today\u2019s post with a few pictures from Shinjuku (I didn\u2019t really get to take that many yet, and there are other smaller streets that looks sooo nice! I need to go there with my new camera!!).<img class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><div class=\"flexslider ewic-slider-lite is_on_\" id=\"ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a\"><style>#ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a .flex-direction-nav .flex-next, #ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a .flex-direction-nav .flex-prev {opacity: 1;} #ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a .flex-direction-nav .flex-next {right: 10px !important; text-align: right !important;} #ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a .flex-direction-nav .flex-prev {left: 10px !important;}<\/style><div id=\"preloader-4816a06053ac414a\" class=\"sliderpreloader\"><\/div><ul style=\"display:none;\" class=\"slides flexslider-4816a06053ac414a\"><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150803_151635.jpg\" title=\"20150803_151635\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4816a06053ac414a]\"><img title=\"20150803_151635\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150803_151635.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">20150803_151635<\/p><\/a><\/li><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150803_151632.jpg\" title=\"20150803_151632\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4816a06053ac414a]\"><img title=\"20150803_151632\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150803_151632.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">20150803_151632<\/p><\/a><\/li><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150803_151625.jpg\" title=\"20150803_151625\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4816a06053ac414a]\"><img title=\"20150803_151625\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150803_151625.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">20150803_151625<\/p><\/a><\/li><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_152138.jpg\" title=\"20150802_152138\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4816a06053ac414a]\"><img title=\"20150802_152138\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_152138.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">20150802_152138<\/p><\/a><\/li><li class=\"ewic-slider\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_152137.jpg\" title=\"20150802_152137\" rel=\"ewicprettyPhoto[4816a06053ac414a]\"><img title=\"20150802_152137\" class=\"ewic-wid-imgs\" src=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150802_152137.jpg\" \/><p class=\"flex-caption\">20150802_152137<\/p><\/a><\/li><\/ul><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n\tjQuery(document).ready(function($) {\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t$(\"#preloader-4816a06053ac414a\").fadeOut(500, function () {\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a\").addClass(\"ready_to_show\");\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\"a[rel^='ewicprettyPhoto[4816a06053ac414a]']\").ewcPhoto({\r\n\t\t\t\ttheme: \"ewc_default\",\r\n\t\t\t\tallow_expand: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tdeeplinking: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tslideshow:5000,\r\n\t\t\t\tautoplay_slideshow:true,\r\n\t\t\t\tsocial_tools:false\r\n\t\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\".flexslider-4816a06053ac414a\").fadeIn(300);\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a\").flexslider({\r\n\t\t\t\tanimation: \"slide\",\r\n\t\t\t\tanimationSpeed: 0,\r\n\t\t\t\tuseCSS: false,\r\n\t\t\t\teasing: \"easeInQuad\",\r\n\t\t\t\tdirection: \"horizontal\",\r\n\t\t\t\tslideshow: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tsmoothHeight: true,\r\n\t\t\t\tpauseOnHover: true, \r\n\t\t\t\tcontrolNav: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tprevText: \"\",\r\n\t\t\t\tnextText: \"\",\r\n\t\t\t\trtl: false,\r\n\t\t\t\tslideshowSpeed: 8000,\r\n\t\t\t\tstart: function(slider){\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a\").find(\".flex-caption\").hide();\r\n\t\t\t\t\tvar curSlide = slider.find(\"li.flex-active-slide\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(curSlide).find(\".flex-caption\").slideDown();\r\n\t\t\t\t},\r\n\t\t\t\tbefore: function(slider) {\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(\"#ewic-con-4816a06053ac414a\").find(\".flex-caption\").slideUp();\r\n\t\t\t\t},\r\n\t\t\t\tafter: function(slider) {\r\n\t\t\t\t\tvar curSlide = slider.find(\"li.flex-active-slide\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\t$(curSlide).find(\".flex-caption\").slideDown();\r\n\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t});\r\n<\/script><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So far, I have mainly been walking around slightly confused, taking the wrong metro exit paths, and been getting lost\u2026 But today was my first day in the laboratory at Waseda University, the first day I asked for directions in&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/easyimagesldr\/random-images-in-shinjuku\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5,20,3],"tags":[50,49,47,51],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.1","language":"ja","enabled_languages":["en","ja"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ja":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150803_151625.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cIZZ-7y","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488,"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sci-life.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}