国立情報学研究所〔一〕

> On to the … oh wait. :(
NEXT MONTH!

I’m back to Japan. First month passed. Assembling the bits and pieces of a functioning everyday life. :)
Register as a resident, set up a bank account, get a bicycle, find a supermarket to frequent, get a feeling for monthly costs and how much you can spend on what, connect with new people, … I have the feeling I’m almost set up. One of the few things I have yet to manage is get into a stable Anki routine. I’ve been powering through over 300 cards today to finally get back to 0 after a meager 14/30 days studied since I arrived.

A collection of noteworthy and/or random things:

• general
  • here’s where I spent my time*, and because that’s not saying much here’s a closer look at Tokyo*
    (*it’s actually the places where I had a wifi connection or was using Goole maps)
  • at times I felt like a student that just moved out of mom’s and has to figure out how the world works again (googling where to buy stuff, how to cook stuff, etc.)
  • Halloween at 渋谷 was cazy
  • I visited the 印刷博物館 and got to print sirtetris with movable type (also see image above)
  • folks at the share house are nice :)
• at the institute
  • the day after my arrival I got my scholarship for several months in cash. Having the equivalent of about 4.5k € in cash lying around made me kind of paranoid and sped up the process of me getting a bank account.
  • Mac and Windows users are required to install Sophos Anti Virus. Linux users are left in peace :3
  • overhearing other grad students talk about and plan their “first time in Japan” adventures is entertaining
  • the elevators say 「本日はご苦労様でした」 when you get out on the first floor after 5 p.m.
  • cafeteria lunch is tasty

All in all, I’m quite satisfied. The only thing that kind of bothers me is the lack of any easily quantifiable progress with my Japanese. I pick up and write down new words and phrases, but constantly being behind with my Anki studies prevented me from integrating them into my deck. Oh and also … my Kindle app won’t let me log into my German account so I can’t access the Japanese book I was reading back in Germany. -.-

Anyway, the few things to complain about are mostly harmless, soo …

On to the next month!