First day in Tokyo

First full-day in Tokyo, completely free for walking around and trying to realize where I am. :)

Before coming, I collected some useful information about Japan from some friends. I remember Inda told me that in Tokyo all life is focused around the train stations, and when you are far from them, they are normally peaceful residential areas... and he was completely right. :)

I live in that part of the neighbourhood, the peaceful residential area (apart from the big avenue behind my building)... and then when you start walking to the station, you start finding more and more people, as well as shops... until you get to the station. (see pictures as follows, all taken in the same street)







Close to the station, I found our friend Mc (my first visitors will love it :D), and Café Sands. Maybe they are my relatives and I had no clue about that. :)



But finally I decided to try some real stuff. :)


Today I liked what I saw quite more than yesterday. But I still think it's quite chaotic, without any order... But that mess looks nice... apart from the cables. I see cables all around the place. Is it just me?


Tomorrow it's time to start working again... I am even eager to that. O_o

Daily Japanese

I promised you some daily life japanese... Ok, here it goes.

Imagine you arrive to your new apartment, and you start moving around checking everything. You go to the kitchen and you find this:



Then, you take a look to the washing machine...


... you find this in the door of the bathroom ...


... and this next to the bath.



And last, but not least, this is the controller of the WC!!!


I am on my way to study the different user guides I found under the TV. That is something I could ask to be removed. I have 12 channels, and all of them are in perfect Japanese. =) I hope the Olympics can be watched using the original infography. :)

Konichi wa!

I am in Tokyo!! :) I only had time to arrive to my apartment, unpack everything, buying some stuff for the apartment and going to have dinner in my same street, and now back "home" to write a few lines and early to bed to profit tomorrow's day. :)

* The trip went pretty well. I flew through Frankfurt so I could practice some German in the first flight. The flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo has been really long. Fortunately, I could sleep a little bit, not as much as I would have desired, as I did not have the chance to take an aisle seat, so I was pressed between the window and my seat neighbour. But three films, the dinner and the breakfast entertained sufficiently.

* I flew in a 747 today (yes, today this kind of aircraft is on the news), and I am really surprised that someone even imagined to make that enormity could ever fly (and I am looking forward to be able to "try" the A380.

* I wrote in a company blog some time ago, that I think border control as we understand it today should have future. We need a visa (which you apply with a lot of papers, later on, in the plane, you need to fill in a couple of forms justifying why you are going to Japan, and so on, then you go and explain what you have written to an immigration officer, and later on to a customs officer. At the end, almost 30 minutes of queuing.

* In total, it took me about 4 hours since the aircraft landed until I got to my apartment. It's true it's quite far from the city, and that I took a bus instead of trains, but it is still a lot. Oh, sorry, it was not a bus, it was a limousine. :)


* What's your impression about Tokyo? Two things come to my mind: first, the humidity. It's really tough to be outside (or inside with open windows). The image I have seen from the bus, and after a short walk in my neighbourhood, it is a bit chaotic. Old and new, small and big, colourful and grey houses together, small streets that look like the entrance to a house, lots of cable everywhere, streets and railways cross at different heights, etc.


* I like globalization. I like being able to find olive oil in the closest supermarket to my place. I just did not like the price. (1000 yen = 6 euros)


* Language is a real problem. I still don't know how I managed to know the time the supermarket closes (23.00), because no one spoke English there. The same happened with the taxi driver, or in the restaurant. The worst thing is that I say some times to them "tack" or "hej"... Hehe.

* By the way... Tomorrow, I will show you some Japanese in the daily life...

* Ohhh! And Carlos Sastre just won Tour de France!! Perfect timing. :)

Breaking News

One day to take a flight to the capital of Japan...

Powerful quake hits north Japan

... using a well-known and reliable airline as Lufthansa...

Lufthansa cancels more than 500 flights as pilot strike at subsidiaries continues

And I was not checking news at all! My brother told me about the first one, and a friend commented me the other one in a casual e-mail...

Semántica

Ayer me encontré esta viñeta en El Mundo.


No sé si será porque, desde que he vuelto de Suecia, soy público fácil para los publicistas, humoristas, etc., pero me ha hecho gracia esta situación llevada al extremo.

Eso sí, a veces es muy útil eso de centrarse sólo en lo positivo, y olvidarse de las cosas negativas... Centrarse en ellas para arreglarlas, vale. Pero, si no, ¿para qué fijarnos en las cosas malas?

Y, obviamente, no estoy hablando de Zapatero ni del doping del Tour. :P

July

The weather is not being as good as it should be for July. But it's still nice to be close to the sea, and enjoy the time with the family...

Holidays

Two weeks without writing a single line here... But it's been two long weeks.

First, it was time to say goodbye to Stockholm. Time to pack (I hate this part), time to say "see you" to the different people I met... Some of them will be there when I come back next year to wrap-up my programme, but some others will not be there, and who knows where and when we will meet again. Of course, I was already used to the city, and some sort of laziness appears when you realize you are moving again...



But before moving to any new place, I have already been in Spain for roughly a week, and I have enjoyed my family again, Spain's victory in the European Cup, the beach in Alicante, the swimming pool, the hot weather everywhere, Madrid with its people, driving, Valencia in the weekend, friends who are moving to new cities, companies or countries, a whole day in the beach, a walk in Valencia, drinking the best horchata in the world, talking and chatting with friends... Everything. :)

Now, it's time to start preparing for Tokyo... Less than 3 weeks...