First Day in Japan

After a long period of nearly unbearable wait, this day has finally arrived and here I am in Japan! The plane arrived in Narita earlier than planned and that allowed me to take an earlier bus to Tsukuba, though you might not be too interested about that. What might interest you, if you're planning to go to Narita, is that there is free Wi-Fi available and it is quite usable. You simply need to connect and enter your email address and the free Wi-Fi is yours to use!

Now, back to the bus from Nairta to Tsukuba. One thing about it is that it is frighteningly on time! The schedule says that it departs from Narita Terminal 1 at 09:10 and arrives at Tsukuba Center at 10:45. Guess when the bus arrived at both places? It followed the schedule up to the very minute! Now, the "very minute" part might have just been a coincidence, but compared to the traffic in Bangkok, this is a pleasant change. Another good thing is that if you use the bag compartment, they will provide you with a tag, and the driver will check the tag before giving you the bag. (As opposed to the baggage system at the airport where there's no check at all.)

After my trainer picked me up from the bus station to AIST, we ate lunch together at the cafeteria. The payment system here is based on a contact-less IC card where you will have to charge it up beforehand using the automatic machine. After that, you go to one of the three queues depending on what kind of food you want and just pick what you want into your tray, and before you exit the queue, the cafetaria lady will charge your IC card based what food you picked.

In the afternoon, we went through several formalities such as learning the securities rules, getting the access card or signing the NDA (which means I cannot tell you much about my project, unfortunately). My mentor then introduced me and my senior to other people in the office, and also introduced the various facilities to us. The office here is a large room split into many parts and cubicles. Some people also have very interesting multiple-screen setups!

My working space

After afternoon work is finished, my mentor took me and my seniors to point out where things are around the neighborhood using Sakura-kan's (my dorm's) free bike rental service. Bicycles are actually a pretty interesting thing here and I'll probably write another post elaborating on it later.

By the way, the weather here is actually quite good. Outside during day time approximately gives the feeling of a moderately air-conditioned room in Thailand. Inside is a little bit hotter but still comfortable. The server room, however, is another story. If I walk in and out of it too much, I might actually get sick!