Little differences

Dear friends,
After 5 days in Japan, Jeroen, Isabella and I have settled down!

We have the cutest little apartment in an old part of the city where we stumble into temples and narrow paths while following the google maps route on our way to the right bus stops, supermarket, post office... From home we have already enjoyed a couple of amazing dawns while having very early breakfasts - but we are now over our jet lag.

My colleague Enrico, and Sae and Haruka (2 History of Art Phd students) helped us enormously, together with other colleagues, our landlady Ikuko, Isabella's Head of School and many shop assistants and clerks everywhere.

As Isabella immediately noticed, there are no doors or walls but sliding doors between our 3 rooms, which make our 45m2 apartment --with little closets everywhere-- extremely versatile.
I am seriously telling you that we can accommodate one or perhaps two guests, since we have 2 extra futons!

Do you remember John Travolta in Pulp Fiction talking about the "little differences" between the States and Europe?

Every now and then I will tell you about the little differences I stumble upon, between Japan and Europe(or the West?).

Having found the house extremely empty, we borrowed bedding from my dear colleague Enrico and lovely Sae. After two days, our three rented sets of bedding arrived... wrapped in a bright blue wrapping tissue tied up with a bow. They looked like three enormous presents!




Two more little differences and then I stop for today.

Have you have tried to find out the smell of a soap in a supermarket, hoping nobody would see you? Well, no need for furtive actions here. Every sort of shampoo or laundry detergent on supermarket racks is accompanied by a tiny box full of little balls or some other substance smelling like your soap!

Sae has escorted us to a number of offices and -since we are close to illiterate here- she has filled in our names, address, day of birth etc. on countless forms, so that we can have health insurance, a bank account, address registration, etc.

Japanese clerks were always very helpful and polite, and the moment I could fill in something they handed me... the best

pens I have ever written with. At the post office and town hall I also noticed that the cover of the desk on which I had to put my form on was made of a special kind of rubber which provides the perfect surface - soft enough but offering enough resistance. On the table there were these amazing pens and a set of reading glasses - and they were not on a chain.

If you want to find us on google maps, this is our address, from now until June 30, 2019.

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Tohoku University International House Sanjo 2, room 507
10-15 Sanjomachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 981-0935
Japan
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p.s. no sight seeing or any work done so far -- just busy settling. Actually this feels like the first time I sit down :-)

Have a lovely weekend!!