東京大学〔一〕

The yen is cheap, the ‘rona is tamed, and the Japan is vast and full of opportunities!

In terms of daily life, work, and free time activities I’m faced with a constant stream of novelty as well as opportunities demanding to be prioritized, as there isn’t enough time to take them all. Below’s a list of what made the priority cut.

• Daily life
  • I transitioned from watching 鎌倉殿の13人 online (back in Germany) to watching it on TV. Following a TV show in Japan is a first for me (won’t miss the set airing time and lack of a pause function once I’m back in Germany though ^^).
  • I’m trying out different mask types, as there’s more variety than in Europe (where it’s basically a choice between medical and FFP2).
  • Got one of the new 500 Yen coins that’s around since the end of 2021.
• Events and activities
  • Did part of the JR East Lego stamp rally where you’d collect Lego themed stamps at different train stations in and around Tokyo and then get a minifigure and some stickers.
  • Participated in a language exchange event that was lead by a Lego serious play instructor.
  • Went to a 藤原 麻里菜 exhibition and experienced futile work.
  • Walked by a ポプテピピック thingy.
  • Rode an N700S bullet train, which is in operation since July 2020 (shortly after I left Japan last time). Also, saw the Bullet Train movie (after some technical difficulties). There even was plenty of advertisement on the bullet train platforms.
  • Did some hiking with people from the lab (金時山).
  • Met up with one of the other exchange students from back in Matsuyama 2015 who’s now doing a PhD in Kōbe.
• Purchases
  • In 2019 I discovered browsing BOOKOFFs as a fun past time. A section I always take a look at is dictionaries, and on one of my visits this time I found a 新明解国語辞典 (English Wikipedia article) in it’s forth edition (1989), which, especially in this and the fifth edition, is infamous for it’s unique definitions of words. So much so that there’s a book about it, people discuss it on podcasts, etc..
  • Bought a Thinkpad Trackpoint Keybard II for a more comfortable standing setup. (… and because the damn thing doesn’t give an option to swap Fn and Ctrl I now have Ctrl mapped to CapsLock. … and since I already have Esc mapped to CapLock I now rely on XCAPE for the double assignment)
  • Got a good deal on a pair of used Sony WH-1000XM4s because (1) cheap Yen, and (2) it was a model someone had originally purchased outside of Japan (i.e. the “power on”, “Bluetooth connected”, etc. sound clips it plays are in English instead of Japanese).
  • Had a pair of glasses made at Zoff in like 15 min for 5,500 Yen *cries in Germany glasses prices*.

On to the next month!